[EL] Volkswagen Voting: QR Party Lever

[David A. Holtzman]

As someone interested in both air quality and quality elections, I was 
pleased to see this op-ed 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/opinion/volkswagen-and-the-era-of-cheating-software.html> 
about Volkswagen and voting in The New York Times a while back.I’m not 
sure if it was mentioned on the EL blog/list.

It reminds me of a bug in L.A. County’s idea for a new voting system -- 
a bug they’re calling a feature.No VW (bug) pun intended.

The bug/idea is to let people bring their selections to the polling 
place in a printed encoded form like a barcode or a QR code.The County’s 
sole-source design contractor has come up with “an interactive sample 
ballot voters can fill out on a computer or using a mobile app. When 
they go to vote, they can scan their code, like an airline boarding 
pass, from a paper printout or phone to automatically select their 
votes.” (Bloomberg 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-11/in-los-angeles-voting-is-getting-the-silicon-valley-treatment>.)

Or voters might just bring in codes they get in the mail.

After reading the piece in The Times, some potential mischief with such 
a system may come to mind.Counterfeit endorsement slates with QR codes 
that don’t match the printed selections?People being induced to post 
their codes on social media, not realizing that the codes may contain 
personal information? /(I heard a story on KNX radio today about how 
posting your airplane boarding pass on social media may be a mistake for 
that reason.)/

But think also about how much less time it would take for someone with a 
QR code to vote at a machine.And about how little voting with intention, 
or voter intent, would be involved with that.And how that would indicate 
to someone watching that the person did vote the QR code the person 
carried in.And how it would be obvious when someone makes their own 
selections.And therefore how much of a boon it would be to parties.

It would be like a return to the party lever (which I remember seeing 
when I was a child).

Which brings me back to a longtime complaint: the lack of curtains 
enclosing voting booths (unlike where and when I grew up).

And makes me think electronic voting machines should have programmed-in 
a minimum voting booth residence time that must elapse before they will 
print a ballot or record a vote.The time would be worth it to help 
ensure that voters are voting with knowledge and intent.And would be 
most effective if the voting booths are enclosed.

A minimum voting booth residence time would of course defeat the reason 
these machines are an election administrator’s dream: shorter lines from 
quicker voting.

Here, that end doesn’t justify the means.

- dah


-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

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/
P.S.When discussing voting machines, please don’t use the word 
“choices,” because it can have two different meanings.Please use 
“options” or “selections” (or something equivalent) instead.
/

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