Re:Ask YC: How to Build the Perfect Voting Machine?
by robg on Tuesday November 04, 2008 @01:20PM
(#353682)
The optical scanner is the biggest cost. Here in New Hampshire we fill out our form in a booth then put it in the one scanner ourselves (one for the town - population of 1600). Then it drops into a a secure big. Fast, easy, reliable, and a paper trial. I don't
FYI: Of the 1600 residents, 720 had voted by 10am.
1) Paper, optical scan ballots (bubble filling)
2) A machine in the booth to do the reading and counting with a step that shows the voter how it read their ballot and a big "confirm" button they press to count the vote and drop the ballot into the secured bin.
3) Pick X percent of the machines and manually verify their results. Any machine that votes significantly outside the bell curve should also be manually verified.
This gives "instant" counting to support the unwritten requirement that our elections return results on the night of voting so we can treat them like big sporting events, but also leaves the canonical vote outside of the machines where it can be used to verify the machine vote.