Why the article is helpful
- Ideal voting technology attributes: anonymity, scalability, speed, audit and accuracy (in the rush to improving the first four, accuracy is being sacrificed)
- DRE machines have no way of being able to perform a recount and thus no way of proving that ballots were accurately recorded
- There still is a need for paper ballot systems until adequate reliability and security is achieved in DRE systems
The ideal voting technology would have five attributes: anonymity, scalability, speed, audit and accuracy. However, in the rush to improving the first four attributes, accuracy is being sacrificed. The authors discussed the disadvantages of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems, including issues of security and accuracy. Due to the anonymity of DRE ballots, DRE machines have no way of being able to perform a recount, and thus no way of proving that ballots were accurately recorded. This created an important security issue as it makes tampering and system errors much harder to detect in DREs then in paper ballots. Despite the increased accessibility of DRE systems, the author argues that there may still be a need for paper ballot systems until adequate reliability and security is achieved in DRE systems.
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