Charlie Rose

RegularViewer  10/09/2012 12:54 AM Report

As a person working in IT for most of my life, I can only commend Barbara Simon's comments and mission. I am sorry, however, being a Canadian, that she brought up Canada as having a good voting system. Charlie's feelings on Canada are generally quite clear. And it is also clear that anything Canadians do can only be disparaged in the u.s. ... when they are not ignored completely.

Steverock  10/08/2012 04:08 PM Report

The problems Mrs. Simons speaks of will be solved using DNA as security.

Gelles  10/07/2012 08:57 PM Report

I am sure neither candidate for president will promise to fix the way we count votes as soon as takes he office. If we ever have an election that no one trusts, the fix we need will be made at once. The whole idea that we can't count votes but did land that rover on Mars makes me want to turn voting over to the Jet Propulson Labs in California. It is just possible that America has come apart at the seems.

tabs  10/07/2012 10:24 AM Report

The damage to the American Electoral system was done in 2000, when one Political faction chose to contest the election results on the grounds of a FLAWED election process. Of which that particular faction had control of the districts in which they sued over? Never before had any faction sued over "process" as each side recognized that there never has been nor will there ever be a perfect election in which every vote is accurately counted. This was in affect a nail in the coffin of the Republic as it set in motion outright distrust of the motives each political faction had of the other.

Coming to 2012 the question becomes what happens if the election results from one or more of the Battle Ground states becomes too close to call or there are anomalies in the election process? With the Polls coming in virtually too close to call as the margin of error in the polling data nullifies a distinct front runner; the idea of a major confrontation between the Parties with Constitutional ramifications is a distinct possibility. This then would set the stage for a major loss of confidence in the United States which would create an economic and political tsunami that would sweep an already fragile world. Thus both political factions in the United States had better think through the ramifications of their actions. For one will quote Lincoln one more time, "We had better do right, or God will let us go our own way to our ruin."

C

AntonGrambihler  10/06/2012 04:36 AM Report

There are more problems with our voting system than the lack of Paper Ballots.

For voters like me, I have been disenfranchised for over 20 years because the State not only nullified my vote, it replaced my vote with a vote for another Candidate. This is not a democracy! This is worse than a violation of the "One Person, One Vote" principle, they are giving my our District vote to someone else! The vote should be "One Congressional District, One Un-Modified Presidential Vote". Because of State Disenfranchisement, there is no excuse for people in Districts whose vote will be nullified, to not vote your true choice for President. My "Write In" vote will be President: Ron Paul of Texas, Vice-President: Buddy Roemer of Louisiana, Party: C4L (CampaignForLiberty.org). Remember that the President and Vice-President cannot be from the same State. This vote will likely be thrown out by the Auditors and ignored by the Media, but it will be recorded and viewable at the Court House. There are only six states that do not allow “Write-In” votes.

Since the Senators are no longer representatives of the States like the Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution, there should be NO Electoral votes cast for Senators.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/06/2012 03:29 AM Report

She told us to stay away from Diebold.

"In early 2003, activists found a version of Diebold's secret software on the Internet. The code had so many security flaws that one group would later post a video of a chimpanzee changing votes."

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/11/13/8393084/index.htm

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/06/2012 03:22 AM Report

Indeed, the Zeus virus:

used it to steal $70 million

credit cards from 15 unnamed banks were compromised

you can buy the virus for $700

some 3.6 million United States PCs are infected

So then, how hard would it be to hijack a few critical voting machines?

LJL  10/05/2012 09:28 PM Report

As an IT consultant and having to deal with the privacy and security laws of international agencies, this guest represents a fail in the arena of voting systems.

To have a PhD apparently means little when you are not at all thorough in your examination of voting systems and methods. I resent so called "experts" who are so narrow minded in their approaches.

Switzerland has had e-voting for years now and has not to date had security issues in doing so. A few studies, one by Harvard, have confirmed this fact. This guest only knew of paper voting in Canada without giving specifics on its "working so well".

To be so adamant that online banking is insecure is naive and reflects poorly on her "expertise". It is far more secure than methods available. Banks lose so much more through other banking avenues.

shelgr3  10/05/2012 08:25 PM Report

Does anyone else get the impression that Charlie Rose is opposed to a verifiable voting system? Why else would he argue so vociferously with a computer expert who insists that a computer-based system alone is not verifiable? Maybe he's just so committed to the notion of "progress" & advanced technology that the necessity to use paper simply rubs him the wrong way. What's his problem?

SharkswithfrikingLazers  10/05/2012 01:12 PM Report

Seems like my credit card works but I do have a paper trail.

Yes, the paper trail is critical for voting because technology is wonderful when it works but can be really, really destructive when it doesn't.

Since our voting system is terrible in close races why don't we just say the respective candidate has to win by a safe margin of error or we have a do-over.

With the cost of a couple of do-overs someone will finally figure out it is best to do it right in the first place.

REMant  10/05/2012 11:31 AM Report

I imagine a paper trail is a good idea, but the tabulating machinery at any stage can fail us, and I'm not sure I'd trust anyone who keeps calling this our democracy. The old punch cards were actually a pretty good solution, being both mechanical and hard copy, but obviously not foolproof. I am not sure optically scanned forms are any better. AFAIK the objectionable Va machines have already been replaced, at least in northern Va. I noticed the change when I voted in the primary. We could probably use some sort of national IDs which can be checked off during voting, but this raises privacy concerns, and so we rely on state-issued IDs and precinct rosters. But there's a lot of problems with that in areas - mostly Democratic - with a large turnover in population, such as college towns. Some have made the case, however, that plain old-fashioned vote buying is more of a menace than any of this.