NoName6272
10-28-2008, 11:17 AM
Ello,
I've been doing a research paper on "Electronic Voting" for my EN101 class, it isn't due for another week or so, but I figured I'd get it out of the way. I'm more of a left brain so my writing is sometimes (most of the time) sloppy so any help is appreciated. I wrote it out in a 5-paragraph essay format as that's what I'm most comfortable with research papers. My main problem is sentence structures were it is sometimes confusing or sloppy (I blame being shot in the head by a team mate during paintball)
1: www.thefreedictionary.com
2: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111300b.htm
3: http://www.activoteamerica.com/Home2/History_of_Voting/history_of_voting.html
4: http://www.fjkluth.com/gjobs.html
* Confusing sentence structure.
? Missing URL will find.
Title: Electronic Voting
E-Voting (Electronic Voting) “the application of electronic technology to cast and count votes in an election”.<1> By this definition, E-Voting has been around since the punch card in the 1960s and has only developed further into what exists today.<2> Yet as we developed an user friendly software the hazards, in both security and privacy, have increased allowing fraud and threat possibilities to be increased. Electronic voting could and should be used, but only if a system is put in place to protect voters rights and prevent fraud.
Voting has been implemented in society since Ancient Greece time and has evolved to include women and non-land owners increasing the eligible voter count. <3> In Ancient Greece, citizens would vote on politicians they would want removed, if said politician received six thousand votes he would be banished. The votes were written on broken pots in a community with about thirty thousand eligible voters in most cities, which hardly compares to our hundred million plus eligible voters and might explain why voting is so complicated these days.<4> With so many voters, the use of broken pots or even paper doesn't seem efficient. Yet we continue to use this method over others, perhaps because we feel secure with paper ballots even though faults such as miscount and ballot tampering exists.
Security has been need for as long as man has had something to fear; *if a group could tell which party a citizen voted for they could bully or buy his/her vote thus corrupting the system*. Yet at the same time some sort of trail to verify citizen x voted for candidate y has to exist. Creating a system that does this is hard, creating one on-line is even harder. If you could vote from the comfort of your very own home, some one could stand behind you and verify you voted the way they wanted you to, at a polling booth it would only be you. **need more**
E-Voting hasn't been a total failure, in Brazil for the last 10 years an electronic voting system has been implemented.<?> In Brazil voting is actually required, so they needed a way to get the votes of the different tribes as well as the general public at low costs. So a little box shaped computer with only a numpad, a screen and a small printer, to make receipts, was made. These devices ran off of batteries and used the open source Linux operating system (meaning free); they were taken through the jungle and brought to the different tribes, and they were put in the schools and at different polling stations. The way their system works is each device has a flash card, votes are stored and encrypted, they are then put into a database at the end of the day where it is then tallied up. They have a separate group that makes sure the data is correct and attempts to prevent any sort of hacking. What is great about this system is that it allows people far and wide of any education level to vote, they have pictures for people who can't read even. The problem is that the boxes are easy to hack, change the way it works, if the right person gets hold of one for a few minutes while no one is looking; the boxes have also had several defects recently which caused literally hundreds of votes to be voided. But even through all of this it is a better system for them, for before paper fraud was as simple as going to the market.
A great feature about E-Voting is the fact that an armless, one legged blind man could still vote. The machines can be set up with many controllers, including but not limited to head phones and mic, foot pedals, joy sticks and big buttons; allowing almost any one the ability to vote. E-Voting also could save trees since in America extra ballots that are printed are wasted in the thousands. Especially when, by law, ballots for other languages like Chinese have to be made available for citizens, with E-Voting multiple languages could be a button touch away. It is true that it's possible for some one to hack into the voting boxes and rig it so all votes go to a certain candidate, but its also possible that the person counting your vote could change it.
Thanks again for any suggestions you can give me.
~
NoName.
I've been doing a research paper on "Electronic Voting" for my EN101 class, it isn't due for another week or so, but I figured I'd get it out of the way. I'm more of a left brain so my writing is sometimes (most of the time) sloppy so any help is appreciated. I wrote it out in a 5-paragraph essay format as that's what I'm most comfortable with research papers. My main problem is sentence structures were it is sometimes confusing or sloppy (I blame being shot in the head by a team mate during paintball)
1: www.thefreedictionary.com
2: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111300b.htm
3: http://www.activoteamerica.com/Home2/History_of_Voting/history_of_voting.html
4: http://www.fjkluth.com/gjobs.html
* Confusing sentence structure.
? Missing URL will find.
Title: Electronic Voting
E-Voting (Electronic Voting) “the application of electronic technology to cast and count votes in an election”.<1> By this definition, E-Voting has been around since the punch card in the 1960s and has only developed further into what exists today.<2> Yet as we developed an user friendly software the hazards, in both security and privacy, have increased allowing fraud and threat possibilities to be increased. Electronic voting could and should be used, but only if a system is put in place to protect voters rights and prevent fraud.
Voting has been implemented in society since Ancient Greece time and has evolved to include women and non-land owners increasing the eligible voter count. <3> In Ancient Greece, citizens would vote on politicians they would want removed, if said politician received six thousand votes he would be banished. The votes were written on broken pots in a community with about thirty thousand eligible voters in most cities, which hardly compares to our hundred million plus eligible voters and might explain why voting is so complicated these days.<4> With so many voters, the use of broken pots or even paper doesn't seem efficient. Yet we continue to use this method over others, perhaps because we feel secure with paper ballots even though faults such as miscount and ballot tampering exists.
Security has been need for as long as man has had something to fear; *if a group could tell which party a citizen voted for they could bully or buy his/her vote thus corrupting the system*. Yet at the same time some sort of trail to verify citizen x voted for candidate y has to exist. Creating a system that does this is hard, creating one on-line is even harder. If you could vote from the comfort of your very own home, some one could stand behind you and verify you voted the way they wanted you to, at a polling booth it would only be you. **need more**
E-Voting hasn't been a total failure, in Brazil for the last 10 years an electronic voting system has been implemented.<?> In Brazil voting is actually required, so they needed a way to get the votes of the different tribes as well as the general public at low costs. So a little box shaped computer with only a numpad, a screen and a small printer, to make receipts, was made. These devices ran off of batteries and used the open source Linux operating system (meaning free); they were taken through the jungle and brought to the different tribes, and they were put in the schools and at different polling stations. The way their system works is each device has a flash card, votes are stored and encrypted, they are then put into a database at the end of the day where it is then tallied up. They have a separate group that makes sure the data is correct and attempts to prevent any sort of hacking. What is great about this system is that it allows people far and wide of any education level to vote, they have pictures for people who can't read even. The problem is that the boxes are easy to hack, change the way it works, if the right person gets hold of one for a few minutes while no one is looking; the boxes have also had several defects recently which caused literally hundreds of votes to be voided. But even through all of this it is a better system for them, for before paper fraud was as simple as going to the market.
A great feature about E-Voting is the fact that an armless, one legged blind man could still vote. The machines can be set up with many controllers, including but not limited to head phones and mic, foot pedals, joy sticks and big buttons; allowing almost any one the ability to vote. E-Voting also could save trees since in America extra ballots that are printed are wasted in the thousands. Especially when, by law, ballots for other languages like Chinese have to be made available for citizens, with E-Voting multiple languages could be a button touch away. It is true that it's possible for some one to hack into the voting boxes and rig it so all votes go to a certain candidate, but its also possible that the person counting your vote could change it.
Thanks again for any suggestions you can give me.
~
NoName.