I obviously have no idea what has been proposed for the US elections. However, at the last ACT (Australian Capital Territory) election in 2001, a trial of electronic voting was held, and was generally considered to be a success. More information, including a technical description of how it works, is at http://www.elections.act.gov.au/Elecvote.html
It even includes a link to the source code, although I have not had a look at that. Seems to be a slightly different approach to that used in Palm Beach. The executive summary is quite a good (non-technical) overview. Note that the ACT is a geographically small area, which means that physically transporting equipment from polling places to the tally room is feasible - at least for a trial (there are some comments in the executive summary about the logistics of expanding electronic voting). Still not a Cisco-focused thread, but at least it's back on technology ;-) JMcL Priscilla Oppenheimer wrote: > > Yes, indeed, VOTE. But, shall we take odds on the number of > problems that will occur? :-) Many states are using new > computerized systems. If these actually work in most cases, it > will be a huge triumph for Information Technology. Back in 2000 > I tried to get a discussion going about what an awful job IT > did in letting states linger with 1970s punch-card technology. > There were some general lessons to be learned there about the > need to get rid of legacy technologies, etc.. But people > thought I wanted to start a political discussion and refused to > have a "best practices" discussion. I was bummed. ;-) But > that's OK. It wasn't really Cisco-focused. > > But what do we know about these new computerized touch-screen > systems? I heard that they were paperless. So is the data going > to be transmited to a server somewhere? Are the devices > connected via wireless or wired? Is there a Cisco switch? A > router? How does the data get to the state authorities? How was > the new system tested? What are the security issues, not to > mention the reliability issues? Does it scare anyone else that > we don't know anything about these systems? Shouldn't something > about them be published? Did they go through a code reivew by > experts in programming and security? > > Accoring to this article, Theresa LePore, the Queen of Chad, > Supervisor of Elections in Palm Beach County, Florida, signed > an agreement with Sequoia Voting Systems, the makers of > Florida's new system, to protect their "trade secrets," which > effectively prohibits any party contesting an election from > examining the machine or its programming. Scary. > > http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0805-07.htm > > Then again, maybe everything will go smoothly. If it does, it's > a great credit to the programmers and network administrators > who made it work and troubleshooted problems that happened in > real-time. > > _______________________________ > > Priscilla Oppenheimer > www.troubleshootingnetworks.com > www.priscilla.com > > The Long and Winding Road wrote: > > > > For those United States residents, Tuesday is election day. No > > politics > > here. No flames here. You have a right and a privilege that is > > rare in > > today's world. Please take the appropriate amount of time to > > get to your > > polling place and exercise the right that many have fought and > > died for. > > Your vote DOES count. > > > > -- > > > > www.chuckslongroad.info > > > > > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=56875&t=56758 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
