LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Voting System: Voters
built 254 days ago
In the Diebold system, a voter begins the voting process by inserting a smartcard into the voting terminal. Upon checking that the card is “active,” the voting terminal collects the user’s vote and then deactivates the user’s card (the deactivation actually occurs by changing the card’s type, which is stored as an 8-bit byte on the card, from VOTER_CARD (0x01) to CANCELED_CARD (0x08)). Since an adversary can make perfectly valid smartcards, the adversary could bring a stack of active cards to the voting booth. Doing so gives the adversary the ability to vote multiple times. More simply, instead of bringing multiple cards to the voting booth, the adversary could program a smartcard to ignore the voting terminal’s deactivation command. Such an adversary could use one card to vote multiple times.
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In other words, a successful voting system will prevent legal challenges or armed takeover of the state in which it was used by the losers. However, this too seems oversimplified. Just because the losers know they lost does not exempt their supporters from being convinced otherwise, or not caring, and causing problems anyway. There are many examples of democratically elected governments being overthrown, and election fraud is a common accusation of the overthrowers, even if it is completely unfounded. The best thing a voting system could do is convince everyone of the results, wether they are voters, candidates, or people wholly unaffiliated with the election. This may not prevent a coup, but it will not give it legitimacy it would otherwise enjoy.
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In June, the Election Assistance Commission published new guidelines for voting systems that are available for public comment for 90 days. These guidelines, once finalized, will be available for states to use on a voluntary basis in complying with the Help America Vote Act of 2002. This law was enacted to prevent the types of ballot controversies that arose in the presidential election of 2000 and calls for methods to improve the usability and reliability of voting systems used in Federal elections. The law ensures that voting systems and polling places are accessible to people with disabilities and ... covers ballot verification by voters, language barriers, and provisional voting.
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Secretary of State Mike Coffman has decertified some electronic voting systems at the same time a new voter registration system appears to be lagging. The combination has placed Colorado county clerks in the unsavory position of having to pull off two large elections without clear direction, adequate equipment and perhaps not enough funding.
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The five states could soon be joined by Maryland --- which was among the first in the country to purchase a statewide DRE voting system -- Virginia and New Jersey. Lawmakers there have announced plans to phase out DREs without voter-verified paper trails, though the timelines for compliance vary.
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A voting system allows voters to choose between options, often in an election where candidates are selected for public office. Voting can be ... used to award prizes, to select between different plans of action, or by a computer program to find a solution to a problem. Voting can be contrasted with consensus decision making.
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