Reader comments
Jay Evensen: Casting a vote of confidence in Utah elections

I don't trust them. Or the process.

My experience with early voting revealed how flawed the current system is. After filling out the white registration paper, my ID was checked (the only positive since that is not routinely done at the precinct level) and my ballot card programmed. The only problem was that of the 5 issues I should have had, I only had one (vouchers) to vote on. Apparantly even after giving the poll workers my address and precinct, my ballot card was programmed for someone else who did not even live in my city. Since my city had an important, contentious issue on the ballot this naturally was a concern to me. Only after several minutes of discussion did the poll workers allow my ballot to 'cancel out' and I was given a correct ballot. Imagine if this had happened with a long line of residents waiting to vote. It is likely my vote would never have been corrected or counted.

Long story short, electronic voting introduces more and significantly greater variables to the process. I encourage everyone to review the issues which should be on their individual ballot.

And, of course, to get out and vote!

I think that Mr.evensteven (of the previous post) is justified in his concern. If, in fact, those poll workers incorrectly programmed his voter card, he is justified in his annoyance.

However, without our new touch-screen technology, I doubt that Mr. evensteven's problems would have ever been addressed or recognized. The fact that he recognized the problem, took issue with the poll workers is UNPRECIDENTED behavior.

It should be lauded upon our Lt. Gov. and the local County Clerks for implementing a system that affords Mr. evensteven the chance to even recognize such errors.

Try calling your congressman if you have a problem with the new voting system. Afterall, it was your elected members of congress (not just the House but also the Senate) who voted for HAVA.

Got a problem? Call those guys. They forced this.

IME -

Many of us nerds know how to hack into voting machines and manipulate the outcome. You will see the ballot printed correctly on the paper roll, but the barcodes on the paper trail roll will still read to reflect the manipulated results.

In less than 5 min at a station, without displaying any overtly strange behavior, one could change the results of any election on the given machine.

I suggest:
Paper ballots, folded and placed by hand into clear, locked voting boxes. Observers from any candidate can watch the entire voting/counting process to verify accuracy. Hand counting/verification would take just a few hours extra at each precinct, but the results would be verifiable and more trustworthy!

HackSauce-

Are you admitting to committing a felony by "hacking" into a voting machine?

If not:

Do you insist that a voting machine is "hackable" within a few minutes time? Do you recommend that people try this?

If not:

Your argument is baseless.

Thanks.

-Truth.