Trustworthy Voting
August 4, 2003

We believe in the power of software and its ability to execute daunting tasks. However, we are also aware that all software has flaws and that, sooner or later, these flaws will appear. Because of this, there are some tasks for which software alone should not be trusted. The process of voting in electoral contests is one of them.

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We believe that software should be only part of the election process. We agree with security researchers at verifiedvoting.org who argue that there must be a paper audit trail in any election. While software and touch-screens can help avoid selection problems such as hanging chads, they should create a paper document that a voter can verify and that can be stored like any paper ballot. The voting machine should stop at creating the ballot, and standard ballot counting procedures should remain in place.

If these software-based voting systems stay in place, it is likely that a flaw will be exploited to change the results of an election—making Florida in 2000 look like a minor occurrence. As technology professionals, we must make sure our congressional representatives understand the serious problems presented by these software-based voting systems.

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