Here’s how it works
Let’s say that Sally Smith and John Jones are running against one another in a state-
wide election for U.S. Representative. Your voting location? It's at the elementary
school in the city of Carlton.
When you arrive at the school, you sign in, as always. Then you proceed to the voting
booth - a voting booth that looks exactly like today's electronic voting booths. As
usual, you enter the privacy of the booth as a totally anonymous voter: the machine has
no idea who is pressing the buttons.
You cast your vote or votes – and the machine will say, "Thank you for voting! Your
Vote Word is: House".
The voting machine has just given you a "Vote Word" which is unique to you.
Remember that word - or scribble it down. And you’re done voting.
What just happened? Not an awful lot from your perspective, which is how it should
be. We can and should keep the voting process as close as possible to the way it
works now: no printers, no "smart cards", no scanners.
What the voting software did was to take your Vote Word – “house” – and record it
along with your vote. Only one vote at the elementary school has “house” associated
with it. And - unknown to you - your next-door neighbor was the only one who saw
the word “apple”, and her husband was the only one who saw the word “desk”.
The next day, or as soon as the election authorities get around to it, your vote will
appear on a web site, listed along with everyone else’s vote. The votes are arranged
alphabetically by Vote Word. Scanning down the list of results at the elementary
school, you find the word “house” and see that “house” voted for Sally Smith. And so
you know that your vote was recorded and counted correctly. It's that simple.
Take a look at how it might look to have everyone's Vote Words listed out on the
Web: Check out this Sample listing
wide election for U.S. Representative. Your voting location? It's at the elementary
school in the city of Carlton.
When you arrive at the school, you sign in, as always. Then you proceed to the voting
booth - a voting booth that looks exactly like today's electronic voting booths. As
usual, you enter the privacy of the booth as a totally anonymous voter: the machine has
no idea who is pressing the buttons.
You cast your vote or votes – and the machine will say, "Thank you for voting! Your
Vote Word is: House".
The voting machine has just given you a "Vote Word" which is unique to you.
Remember that word - or scribble it down. And you’re done voting.
What just happened? Not an awful lot from your perspective, which is how it should
be. We can and should keep the voting process as close as possible to the way it
works now: no printers, no "smart cards", no scanners.
What the voting software did was to take your Vote Word – “house” – and record it
along with your vote. Only one vote at the elementary school has “house” associated
with it. And - unknown to you - your next-door neighbor was the only one who saw
the word “apple”, and her husband was the only one who saw the word “desk”.
The next day, or as soon as the election authorities get around to it, your vote will
appear on a web site, listed along with everyone else’s vote. The votes are arranged
alphabetically by Vote Word. Scanning down the list of results at the elementary
school, you find the word “house” and see that “house” voted for Sally Smith. And so
you know that your vote was recorded and counted correctly. It's that simple.
Take a look at how it might look to have everyone's Vote Words listed out on the
Web: Check out this Sample listing
| The only change in the way we vote is seeing a Vote Word appear on the screen |
