ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES AND THE STANDARDS-SETTING PROCESS

As the 2004 presidential election approaches, revelations of security and accuracy flaws in the electronic voting machines that were intended to correct the failures of the discredited voting technology threaten to further undermine the public's trust in voting. New legislation in 2002 changed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Internet Law Vol. 8; no. 2; p. 3
Main Authors Katz, Eddan, Bolin, Rebecca
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Aspen Publishers, Inc 01.08.2004
Subjects
Accuracy
Election results
Electoral reform
Federal government
Federal legislation
Presidential elections
State elections
Supreme Court decisions
Technology standards
Voters
Voting machines
United States > US
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Summary:As the 2004 presidential election approaches, revelations of security and accuracy flaws in the electronic voting machines that were intended to correct the failures of the discredited voting technology threaten to further undermine the public's trust in voting. New legislation in 2002 changed the framework of technical standards, creating a new election oversight body and promising new standards for voluntary and mandatory requirements. Unfortunately, these standards have not been released yet. This article will outline three major areas of debate among voters about election mechanics: voter verification, testing, and independent review. There is no clear answer in any of these cases, which is why guidance from the standards is so vital. This article argues that our country is in a critical and difficult transition to novel voting technology as large-scale federally funded technology updates are piloted. Federal technical standards are needed to quiet raging debates about the most important values in American voting. Standards have the opportunity to provide guidance or to only further cloud the debate over voting standards.
ISSN:1094-2904