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Activist sues Summit County, state over 'secretive' election practices

I hope the state fights this. I, as a voter, would be very upset if this woman got her hands on my information. There is no need for her to know WHO voted, unless she wishes to harras the public who obviously didn't want her in office.I hope the state fights this and wins. I, as a voter, would be very upset if this woman got her hands on my and my fellow voters information. There is no need for her to know WHO voted, unless she wishes to harass the public who obviously didn't want her in office.

I�m not a fan of the electronic voting systems, but my fears were put to rest when I realized that hard copies of my ballot are printed while I vote and at the end. If she wants to contest the results we can have our own �hanging Chad� event, but I doubt it would change the results.

Thanks Ms. Dodd for waiting taxpayer money with a pointless lawsuit and proving what kind of fiscally responsible public servant you would have been. It would be cheaper if you just held your breath.

I have been a Touch Screen Technician for the past three elections, and I know how the ballots are tallied, both electronically and on hard copy. The voter can see the results of his/her voting on hard copy immediately following their voting and before the hard copy is rolled into the sealed cannister.
I suggest Ms Dopp learn how the system works before she proceeds with a lawsuit. Of course her attorney, like all attorneys, does not maximize his income by settling difficulties. The maximization of his income comes only by prolonging the problems and by interminable appeals.

What does it take to become a Touch Screen technician anyway?
Is that a real degree or some make believe skill used when you need to bashing lawyers on blogs?

I think one of Dopp's points is the conflict between federal law and standards and state election practices. The basis of democracy driven government on a state or national level is the transfer of power to the elected representive. Elections are the people's only link to governemt, yet the Constitution clearly declares the power of government in the hands of the people, while private corporations, political parties, and special interests control election equipment, software, canvases, and election results.

The most important responsibility a government has to it's people is to openly, transparently, publically, hold elections. If you don't have paper ballots, you are not recording the people's intent and you are NOT transfering power to a representative; there are corporate appointments, not elections with DRE's, closed source software, and publically unwitnessible procedures and results.

Elections are the people's business and not for profit corporate interests, as they have become today.

I thank Ms. Dopp for being so vigilant on this issue. If we're going to have voting machines, let's have the source code be in the public domain, open and transparent, verifiably fair by any computer scientist who cares to take the time. We could make election software an open source public project instead of hiring some private firm to make proprietary software. If the software is secret, how is the citizen to have any confidence in the system at all?

-not a duplicate entry, I'm adding my name-

I thank Ms. Dopp for being so vigilant on this issue. If we're going to have voting machines, let's have the source code be in the public domain, open and transparent, verifiably fair by any computer scientist who cares to take the time. We could make election software an open source public project instead of hiring some private firm to make proprietary software. If the software is secret, how is the citizen to have any confidence in the system at all?

Salt Lake Voter,

-Daniel McGuire

Salt Lake Voter,

No. The voting equipment and software is owned by a company - it was not created by the government. Even if the code was created by the government, it does not follow that it should be release to the public. For example, do we want the control software for an F-16 to be released?

That said, I do think the voting machines, software, and process should be analysed by a third party. As a software developer, I know it is possible to create software and hardware and processes that will be fair and correct. As a citizen, I don't trust our government to do it right :)

If this person had bothered to vote, she would have noticed that the election results are not dependent only on "invisible electronic ballots." There are paper backups of every ballot, which can be verified by the voter at the time they are printed. An audit was conducted in every county to verify that the results reported in the memory cards matched the individual ballots printed on the paper.

As far as counting in secret, so far as I know that has always been done everywhere, with paper or card ballots as well as the electronic ones. Outsiders are kept out to prevent interference.

It amazes me that people are so absolutely certain that people are cheating with the machines, but nobody worried about it before. It would have been far easier to cheat with paper ballots or card ballots than with the electronic machines. I think it is just a fear of computers bordering on paranoia.

Joe, I have also been serving as a Touch Screen Technician since the machines have been used. It is not a degree, nor has anyone ever said that it is. It is the name of a position, one of the people you saw at your voting location when (if) you went to vote. We were trained by a technical training company, not the same people who made the machines, under contract to the county. We learn how to set up the machines, take them down, and watch over them to help people use them, and watch for problems. We do not have access to the internals of the machine, nor the capability to alter anything they do. Everything Dave said about the process was absolutely accurate. If you like, you can ask for an explanation when you vote.