Hacking the Vote

Dear Editor,
    Michael King opines that the Chronicle is frankly an advocacy publication, generally “left-liberal” or “progressive” in perspective [“Point Austin: Look If You Like …,” News, Oct. 17]. I had to choke that statement down after reading the gushing election endorsement for the 28-year county clerk; simultaneously insulting the alternative Green and Libertarian party’s candidates as “token.”
    The integrity of our elections is a non-partisan issue: Every citizen must be able to verify their vote was counted as cast; must have the right to view their vote counted at the polling station on election night. I propose a voter-marked, hand-counted paper ballot system: a time tested, verifiable, and transparent method completely open and observable by the public.
    County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, after touting for years the security of the current electronic voting system, is now proposing a hybrid system of electronic and paper, utilizing open source software – it won’t be ready until after the 2016 presidential elections.
    Unfortunately, it makes no difference if the software is open source because votes would be counted out of public view; the average voter would have to rely on computer experts to assess the security of the system. We can save millions by scrapping the secret vote counting electronics for the integrity of a hand-counted paper ballot.
    Elections are not about trust, a perception that everything is fine: Our government was established with checks and balances; elections must rely implicitly on distrust. Electronic voting systems have the documented capability of hacking thousands of votes, invisibly and non-detected. A paper ballot fraud scheme would be revealed easily at the precinct vote count. All citizens must know that each politician we vote for is, in fact, duly elected. The issues of our times are too important to rely on convenience instead of confidence.