Take your right to vote seriously. Take your vote seriously.

We watched Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election this evening, a documentary about election irregularities and how the 2000 election progressed. I hate watching these things, in that they depress me about the state of this country so severely, but they are some defense against complacency if nothing else.

It is amazing to me that even for someone who is, I think, fairly cognizant of the crap that’s gone on for the past 5 years, it is still easy to forget what really went on. What can still go on. What probably will continue to go on. And I seriously cannot fathom why more people – Democrats, Republicans, whoever (this is a citizens’ issue, not a partisan one) – are not screaming bloody murder about the conversion to unverifiable, basically unsecured, easily-hacked voting machines. Sure, having no paper trail (and no reason to look at one) keeps things less messy – nothing to recount if irregularities occur, so we just have to accept the result – but it’s a disaster for our democracy. My point about there being no reason to look at a paper trail is, I guess, a reflection of my feeling that if the politics are played just right, more often than not, people won’t even look at the paper trail if there is one. But it’s better than nothing, and a physical record that the voter can verify – and deposit himself somewhere – is vital.

Getting it right with electronic voting systems isn’t easy; designing such a system – and only a thumbnail sketch of one at that – was the PhD qual question for my information security final back in my CS days, and I remember that every time I was ready to add another component to the system, the nagging questions of accountability, verifiability, authentication, and integrity would pop up in some ugly way or another and I’d have to consider another path. I’m not a systems expert by any means, but it’s not easy, and as far as I can tell, all Diebold and company have gotten right is “easy to tamper with” and “easy to screw up.” Go Diebold! Hell, I can do that much, and I’m much cheaper.

By the way, if you think “all the kinks have been worked out” by now, and that folks like me are just getting all worked up over nothing, I urge you to have a look at Avi Rubin’s post about his day as an election judge in Maryland last month. For those who don’t know, Avi Rubin is not just some guy off the street – he’s a professor at JHU who does work in (among other things) electronic voting security, and he’s a smart guy. Particularly confidence-inspiring is the account of the well-trained and competent Diebold technician <insert sarcasm here> and how the machines malfunctioned pretty spectacularly.

Last month, folks. You can bet that not a whole lot will change by November.

You know the push for folks to vote absentee if their precinct allows them to cast a no-excuse absentee paper ballot? I’m thinking hard about it. In fact, the Denver Election Commission webpage actually encourages it:

Absentee Ballot Application

Please consider applying for an Absentee Ballot to vote by mail. This is the most convenient way for you to vote. The ballot comes to your home, you take your time reviewing the issues (but observe deadlines, see Elections Calendar), you send in the ballot, and your vote is cast. Simple and easy. Vote Centers indeed take voting in person to a new level of convenience, but the Absentee Ballot surpasses even that.

It won’t change the election if I do it, but if enough people do, who knows? On the other hand, absentee ballots by mail are certainly no panacea – it’s easy to just “lose” paper ballots that come in by mail; what you need, in some sense, is a chain of custody for the physical votes, and I’m not sure dropping something off at the post office does that. But it may be as close as most people can get for the moment. Denver does use machines that apparently produce a paper trail – I still don’t like the fact that even though you get to see the paper record, you do not get to physically deposit it somewhere yourself, however; I think it would be too easy for someone to go in and, in the guise of repairing the machine or switching the tape, replace it with another one, or for the machine to produce a second, different record. I don’t know anything about this machine in particular, but I honestly don’t understand why people were so hot to go to machine voting in the first place, except that the crooks in office saw an opportunity for more dirty tricks and knew the American public reveres technology without understanding it.

Guys, just because something is done using a computer, there’s no reason to believe it’s going to be better or correct. Trust me. Programmers are a tricky lot (we have two living in this two-person household, and we’re not to be trusted ), and in this case, it wouldn’t take much to falsify data.

In the meantime, if there are any more interesting “election surprises” this year in rampantly Democratic districts, I’ll be in the bathroom. Retching.

Do what you can to make your vote count this year, whoever you’re voting for. Do what you can do ensure everyone else’s does too, whether you agree with them or not. And whatever you do, vote.

Edit: I’m slow (and busy)… The Rocky Mountain News reported in mid-September that a lawsuit had been filed to ban the use of electronic voting machines in Colorado after Ed Felten’s group’s demonstation showing the easy compromise of such machines; according to a follow-up article, Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares said it was too late to ban them, but agreed with the plaintiffs that the Secretary of State’s office had not tested the machines adequately (including having a total non-expert – in fact as well as according to Colorado law – as the person charged by the Secretary of State with testing them, according to the Denver Post) and ordered chain-of-custody rules for the machines and other measures designed to prevent hacking or tampering.

The Colorado Democratic Party is calling on voters to cast absentee ballots by mail for the fall 2006 election. The last day to apply by mail for an absentee ballot is October 31, 2006; the last day to apply in person for an absentee ballot is November 3, 2006. Ballots must be received by 7 pm on November 7th (Election Day). More information (and a form to apply for an absentee ballot) can be found here – note that the address is for Denver voters, and that if you live elsewhere in CO, you’ll need to find the correct address for your area to submit the form to.