Voting Machines
An election is the primary means by which the voters give their mandate towards the formation of a government as a whole. In this sense elections are the means of communication between the government and the people who are governed. An election allows the citizens of a nation to be represented inside the political institutions. In democratic societies the citizens have their constitutional right to vote. In democratic systems the voting is a fundamental right of the citizens, and the right to vote symbolizes the expression of sovereignty of the people in the management of the public affairs. An overall participation of the people in the vote, with fairness and accuracy in voting system can ensure the free choice of representatives by the people. So, the higher voter turnout carries a special political significance that strengthens the democracy, and signifies the engagement of majority of the people in building the democratic process, which is pivotal to the long-term success of a democratic system, because the elections are the pillars of democracy.
On the other hand, low voter turnout signifies a lower civic participation, especially in terms of voting in choosing the representatives in a democratic system, because the power of democracy is derived from the people. So, when the voter turnout is low, it implies that the power is not properly derived from the people, which is not a good sign for democracy.
In an election day, the effect of slow or malfunctioning of a voting machine reduces the turnout of voter, because no one wants to wait in the queue for hours in order to cast their votes. As a result, the impact of low rate of voting does not indicate a clear mandate of the citizens for good governance. So, in order to ensure a clear mandate of the people for good governance, it is important to address the issue of voting machines.
What problems currently exist with voting machines?
The current system of voting machinery is suffering from significant flaws. Sometimes the voting machines in use are out of date, and sometimes the entrusted poll personnel are not adequately acquainted with the operational functions of the voting machines. According to a recent report by the Presidential Commission of Election administration, the state of U.S. voting machines is an impending crisis, and large share of the voting machines are old and starting to break down. Reports from individual states confirm that the outdated voting equipment is a growing and widespread problem across the country. Although 58.2% eligible citizens voted in the November 2012 general election, the figure dropped to 36.3% in the November 2014 midterm elections, which was the worst turnout rate in 72 years. On the Election Day in Texas and Georgia, some machines did not function, other unexpectedly shut down, and faulty touch screen voting systems registered a vote for the wrong candidate, while others were just blank. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is asked to investigate series of issues including the challenges that state and local jurisdictions face due to the aging voting systems. It is very difficult to assess how often the votes have genuinely lost due to the malfunction of voting machines. According to Michael Shamos, who has been examining the voting machine systems for more than 25 years, has estimated that about 10% of the touch screen machines fail in each elections. In 2005, the state of California complained that the machines were crashing. On Election Day, in May 2006 election, the polling personnel complained that 143 machines were broken, dozens of the machines had printer jams or powered down. On an audit of election it was discovered that in 72.5% machines, the paper trail did not match with the digital tally of memory cards.
Lever voting machines were first introduced in 1892 in New York, and were slowly introduced across the country. Since 1982 the machines are out of production, although they are still widespread in use. The machines completely eliminate most of the approaches to vote manipulation, and offer voting privacy. But, the immense machines are expensive to move and store, difficult to test, complex to maintain, and not secured against the vote fraud. In an effort to rig an election, the political parties can buy the service of the maintenance staffs or the technicians, to influence the result of an election.
In the next technological development to replace the lever voting machines, votomatic punched card voting systems were introduced in elections. The problems with votomatic voting machines were severe enough that by the early 1970`s IBM abandoned the technology, but, by that time the punched card voting was most widely used technology in the United States.
Optical-mark sense voting systems were developed by the American Information Systems of Omaha in the early 1970`s. The advantage of the optical-mark sense voting systems over the punched card technology is that it uses the marks on a printed paper ballot. But, the optical mark-sense voting machines were extremely sensitive to the particular types of pen and the pencils used for marking the ballot.
Newly developed electronic voting machines are incorporating the microcomputers into a voting machine. There are hundreds of documented cases in the United States of the electronic voting machines are detrimentally distorting the votes of both the political party candidates. It is seen that a voting machine is losing votes, machines are swapping the votes for the contesting candidates, machines are registering more votes for a candidate than there were voters, and the machines are not registering votes at all. It is due to the fact that the poorly designed operating software of voting machines can easily get infected by viruses, and even a group of people or single hacker can affect an entire area`s voting machines.
The secure voting machines are just the important component of a fair and honest election, because they are where an attacker can commit an election fraud. They can secretly commit the fraud before the machines are shipped to the polling stations.
Our Solution:
In a democratic country, the process of election conducted with with transparency and security is very important to ensure the right of voting for the citizen. Because, the elections in a democratic system, determine the winner with public mandate; at the same time adequately convince the loser. Present voting is as much an awareness issue, as it is a technological issue. Our solution is immediate modernization and replacement of the aging voting machines, because the existing voting machines are reaching at the end of their life span. To by-pass the problem with hi-tech computer hacking, viruses, the low-tech solution may be more effective to secure the votes in voting machines. In our solution we will introduce new machinery in voting system that consume low power, and designed with non-programmable components.
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 provides funding to encourage the states to replace the older equipment, with the newly designed voting devices that incorporate modern technology, and meet the Act`s requirement related to the voting system standards. We can use the electronic voting machines as an instantaneous ballot generating machines as the voter cast their vote, with strong battery back-up, and with restorable memory. The strong battery back-up will provide power to the voting machine to ensure uninterrupted poll, with detachable and easily recoverable memory. The voter will cast their vote by automatic touch-screen system voting machines, and the voting machine will register the vote and simultaneously generate the paper ballots. The voter will check their correctness, and process the paper ballot with an optical scan machine. The second machine will provide a quick initial tally, whereas the paper ballots will be kept under the polling official’s custody for future recounts if any discrepancy arises in election result. In this system, a voter will feel that their vote is secured because they can see the vote on paper, regardless of what goes into the computer, and the paper votes are harder to tamper. The system of voting will be completed within a short duration, and the result of the vote will be announced with unanimous public acceptance.
Apart from introducing the newly developed voting machines in poll, we will organize extensive training programs for the polling personnel to make them familiar with the functional details of new voting machines.
Sometimes, the polling personnel entrusted to conduct the elections in polling stations are not properly aware of the operational function of voting machines, which reduces the voting rate, and build up the queue in front of polling booths. So, inadequately trained polling personnel are also a responsible factor for low turnout of vote, because, inadequately trained polling officials often fail to guide the voter in polling processes. In addition to the problems with the malfunctioning of voting machines, the situations often worsen due to the deployment of insufficiently trained polling officials in polling booths. We will emphasize on the deployment of well-trained polling personnel in polling booths, in order to efficiently handle the voting machines, and conduct the elections smoothly.
Why our solution is best:
Our solution to replace the aging voting machine, with new machines in elections, along with the deployment of effectively trained polling personnel in polling booths is best because, the newly introduced voting machines will function smoothly, and effectively trained personnel will be able to guide the voter, who are not familiar with new system, as well as the polling personnel will be able to conduct the elections smoothly without building queue in front of the polling booth. This will attract more citizens to vote, and literally larger share of the population will join in the democratic system. Because, the right to vote, at any level of election symbolizes the peoples participation in public affairs, and all the democratic institutions require the active and wholehearted participation of their people.
Our solution is best because, in recent years the low voter turnout in elections is a growing concern, which is not at all a healthy sign for the success of a democracy. The news of efficient performance of overall voting machinery will make more reluctant voters interested to choose their representatives to bring them at the polling booths to cast their votes, and actively contribute towards the formation of the government they deserve.
Our solution is best because, the solution is meant for the answer to the pivotal problem of low voter turnout, which has spread like plagues in the democratic elections in recent years. As our main aim is to increase the rate of voter turnout in elections, we believe that by updating the voting machines, and by adequately training the polling personnel we will surely achieve our goal.
Reference:
"House Dems Call for Examination of Voting Equipment Technology." Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. 4 Mar. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-dems-call-for-examination-of-voting-equipment-technology.
Jones, Douglas W. "Problems with Voting Systems and the Applicable Standards." 22 May 2001. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/congress.html.
Schneier, Bruce. "Did Your Vote Get Counted?" Forbes, 13 Nov. 2006. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/10/voting-fraud-security-tech-security-cz_bs_1113security.html.
"The Importance of Citizens’ Participation in Elections." Young Voters. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. http://www.jeuneselecteurs.qc.ca/youngvoters/archives/33.html.
THOMPSON, CLIVE. "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" New York Times, 6 Jan. 208. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06Vote-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
