Go back to paper

EDITOR:

After voting at the Johnson Lane Fire Station on Tuesday, I engaged in an interesting and generally positive conversation with the attendant election staff ... the folks in the red shirts. I asked how I could trust that my vote was truly counted, tallied and transmitted for aggregation as I had instructed the machine to do. I received the standard reply which probably came from the consultants who taught the classes which certain of the staff had attended. That response reflecting a trust in the programming, programmers and all concerned with creating the machines and their internal processes.

I have been involved in technology and it's implementation since the early 1990s. I know many programmers and computer engineers and have yet to have the following question answered to my satisfaction.

"It is a known fact that the U.S. military, every banking institution, corporations large and small and government entities local, county, state and federal have been spending a combined tens of billions of dollars a year on network security ... for 30 or more years ... so how can I trust this obviously fallible system with my most precious right, that of the right to vote?"

I call upon all citizens to question the need for electronics being involved. There are a number of elections in the Northeast, encompassing tens of thousands of votes each election that are done with pencil, paper and hand counted ballots.

The true questions here are why the need for speed, when those elected and the issues decided upon do not engage the system for months? If the system is as secure as everyone states, why does computer system security world wide continue to require tens of billions of dollars a year attempting to stay ahead of hackers and other miscreants?

If you are paying attention, you must have noted how suddenly, with electronics involved, elections are decided fifty one, forty nine or some very close number that can be nudged if desired. I am not convinced that my fellow Americans opinions and views and preferences can be divided so nicely in half. We must return to paper ballots and hand counts for trust is the very key to the nature of we the people believing in the concept of democracy.

Christopher Lunn

Minden