Marc Schuette wrote: > not to argue the point but there are a number of steps in the process > that make it MORE difficult to tamper with a mail-in election than we > think: > > if you notice on the ballot envelope (the outside one not the secrecy) > there is a barcode that is specific to your ballot - all ballots are > scanned as they come into the elections office. > > signatures on the outside envelope are matched on all ballots and if > there is a non-matching sig the elections office will notify that > person of the error . > > the secrecy envelopes are opened under observation and there is no way > to identify a ballot (dem/repub/other) at this point - after they are > opened they are fed through the counting machines and tabulated. > > you can call the elections office and they can tell you if you were > sent a ballot and if they received a ballot back from you - they > cannot tell you how you voted only if they got a ballot from you > (there is an assumption that it was counted correctly if you did NOT > hear from teh elections office that your ballot was NOT counted). > > just some general broad strokes but it seems there are multiple > checkpoints where fraud MIGHT be discovered. you (anyone) can observe > this process during a ballot count. call the elections offices and ask > to go on a tour that night. U.S. Mail is typically considered pretty tamper-resistent. In fact, documents that are classified as less than TOP SECRET (SECRET and CONFIDENTIAL) can be sent via U.S. Mail using some specific safeguards like not using mailboxes (have to send it form a post office), using either Registered or Express mail, etc. with a return receipt. As long as the package doesn't go out of a USPS facility, the assumption is pretty much that items are secure. Can mail carriers be bribed? Sure, but at least they undergo background checks - the same can't really be said for the "election observers" who volunteer to watch you and I vote when we do it in person. Voters that want confirmation that their vote arrived can probably send the ballot by registered mail with a return receipt - this would make it more difficult and expensive to vote by mail and so you would almost certainly end up with a reduced voter turnout - the whole point of doing this. Certainly by adding the use of a return receipt and having observers oversee the collection of mail each day between the time the election starts and it is over, you could have a pretty darn secure voting system. You of course still can't do much about the controlling patriarch that insists on filling out his wife and adult children's ballot in vote by mail, but because of the signature, he couldn't send in the ballots without their participation. Anyway I have to figure that in 90% of such cases they have their family members so intimidated that if they load 'em up in their GMC and drag the family down to the polls they'll vote the way they are "supposed to" anyway. -- ====================================================================== Warren Harrison, EIC/IEEE Software Magazine warren@private Department of Computer Science http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~warren Portland State University PHONE: 503-725-3108 Portland, OR 97207-0751 FAX: 503-725-3211
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