Building the People’s Voting System

Author: John Sebes

Transparency, Voting Machines, Choices

Today I provide the next step in clarifying TTV goals in relation to discussions with election transparency advocates. Regarding the previous posting, I want to emphasize that voting  machines — in this case we focus on paper ballot scanning machines — are a transparency problem, if there is no human involvement in counting paper ballots, … Continued

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Transparency: Machines as Part of the Problem?

I need to correct two mis-impressions about the TrustTheVote Project that were presented to me by couple of election reform advocates. One advocate is in favor of an election method using paper ballots that are all counted by hand, and all counted by machine — the combination being one where each of the two counts … Continued

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Congress MOVEs to Help Overseas Voters

The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act is probably not high on your radar screen of activities in the U.S. Congress — but it is important to me, for two reasons, aside from the most basic one that it enables broader access for overseas voters. The bill avoided partisan politics that usually sidelines any … Continued

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Virus in NY Voting Machine? Not Really

The reports of computer viruses in NY voting machines — though spurious — cause me to return to a basic mantra of TrustTheVote: we do technology development so that election tech helps inspire public confidence in elections, rather than erode it. The NY case is a great example of erosion, but also a cautionary tale … Continued

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Pennsylvania Paperless Recount

I wrote before that this month’s re-count activity in Pennsylvania was notable because of the variety of voting methods used there, and hence the variety of recounting methods needed. In contrast to the Lackawanna county that I mentioned specifically, there are many counties in PA that use completely paperless DRE voting machines. In these cases, … Continued

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Votes Lost & Found in Myrtle Beach

Election officials in Myrtle Beach, SC, noted the absence of about 260 votes in the recent election there. Fortunately, the votes were found, and the reason for the error discovered — and both before the election was certified. It’s a good thing that Myrtle Beach election officials were making their lists and checking them twice, … Continued

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Recounts in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has ordered a statewide recount of the race for Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge – a recount that is similar in scope and significance as the Minnesota Franken/Coleman recount (though one hopes less acrimonious), as the result will decide who will be making durable rulings in law for the whole state. It’s an interesting story, … Continued

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Two Ballots, New Ballots

Following a previous post with before-and-after pictures of an ideal “re-modeling”of  a ballot, I have a couple notes about how such remodeling is harder in practice; another ballot image to illustrate; and some good news about on-going TTV work on ballot image processing. That ideal remodeling showed how to both fix one of class of … Continued

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A Tale of Two Ballots

To give an idea of a some of the many aspects of ballot design that we’re working on, I have a couple ballot images for you, from Larry Norden‘s keynote presentation at the EVT conference recently. The problem illustrated is that the first contest is spread across two columns, which looks like it might be … Continued

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Tales From Real Life: Judging Absentee Ballots

In another of our Tales From Real Life series, I direct you to Luther Weeks’ account of a day as an absentee ballot moderator, which involves making judgements about whether absentee ballots should be counted, and when (and when not) to rely on the results of counting machines. Perhaps you didn’t know that this volunteer … Continued

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