The Hazards of E-voting Essay -- Democracy Voting Internet Essays

The Hazards of E-voting A democracy screw only be effective when it runs effectively, when the will ofthe people is transmitted through the corridors of power. It washbasin only fall its zenith if the most important function of democracy, voting, is carried outflawlessly. Although flawlessness has never been achieved, men have certainlytried to keep the voting system as efficient as possible, with the leastpossible amounts of ballots being lost or mis- reckoninged. Human error is ofcourse, uncontrollable. This error combined with the partiality of allhumans, prompted the development of machines that would register, storeand count the ballots which were cast. Electronic voting, or e-voting,soon found advocates and lots of opposition. Many in the opposition thoughtof this idea as ephemeral, how could one entrust democracy to an continuous tense machine?A Diebold E-vote MachineAs the last election showed, e-voting has gained a strong foothold in the US.Twenty-eight out of the fifty states1 in the US used e-voting machines in somecounties. This accounts for just about 30 percent of U.S. voters on November 232.Nevada and Maryland3 used the machines in all counties. Do the advantages ofusing a machine, outweigh the potential difference hazards of using a device which canbe manipulated or hacked into?Grant Gross, from IDG News Services discusses the shortcomings.Voting security advocates have raised dozens of concerns about direct electronicrecording machines. Among the complaints about DREs Some of the back-end vote-counting tabulators can easily be hacked some smart cards that provide accessto the machines can be faked and votes can be lost when machines crash, as computers sometimes do.4 The security issues wi... ...ean Union has funded a 3.2 million euro, three-year pilot programto use e-voting in three local elections, one in France and the other two in Germanyand in Sweden. More than 1 million Estonians will be ready to vote via the Internet in 2006 local elections.Yet it appears that the people managing these systems do not understand the greatrisks involved with e-voting. It seems that the motives behind this exodus towards e-voting in Europe, is more policy-making then technological. They are politicians wanting to look tech savvy.9Whether e-voting is the way in which Americans will choose their leaders in thecoming years, is an issue that can only be decided by their increasing amount ofusage in coming years. References 1 and 2 The Industry Standard 3,4, PC terra firma5, 6 Washington Post 8 Computer Weekly.com9 MSNBC- The age of E-voting