Secure vote

To the editor:

Ron Thornburgh (“Voting machine concerns persist,” Journal-World, June 1) would have us believe it is impossible for Kansas electronic voting machines to be in error. He goes so far as to label doubters “uninformed” and claim that they are “leaping to illogical conclusions.” In fact, many computer scientists (see www.notablesoftware.com and www.avirubin. com, for example) have been loudly pointing out for some time that electronic voting machines are subject to failures and exploits that are not possible with traditional voting machines.

That the machines are not connected to the Internet or a telephone line is good, but insufficient. The machines can be misprogrammed, accidentally or maliciously so that, for example, every third vote for candidate A is recorded as a vote for candidate B. The machines produce final results in some form, whether it is electronic or physical, which can be forged. Precincts around the country have reported machine malfunctions of various kinds, some resulting in incorrect results.

Without a voter-audited paper trail to make a recount possible, election results can be completely fraudulent with no way to ascertain the truth. Connie Schmidt, of Johnson County, is concerned that creating such a paper trail would be an “administrative nightmare” and lead to long voting lines. Which is worse, I wonder, an administrative nightmare or an undetectably fraudulent election?

Jerry James,

Lawrence