Attempts to utilize modern technology for elections have sometimes been mistakes that sacrificed election integrity in the name of efficiency and automation. Any loss of election integrity is unacceptable! Does that mean that modern technology cannot be used? NO! But it does mean we have to be very careful when any machine is used in a way that it can affect the results of elections. The following rule must apply for any such use of machines:
Every output of any machine that could affect the election outcome must be checked and verified as a normal step in the election procedures.
This rule guarantees that any mistake in the output of a machine, whether accidental or an intentional attempt to manipulate the election, will be caught and can be corrected. It also means that voters do not have to understand anything about how the machine works in order to trust that election results are correct. This is important because voters (indeed, all citizens) must be able to implicitly trust elections, and they cannot trust something they can’t understand. Currently, we have millions of people who do not trust elections and it is endlessly disruptive!
Many will complain the the rule is onerous, is impractical to implement, or that it will slow voting down. That is not so. A system named Election Manager has been available since 2021. It automates and speeds up elections, yet does strictly adhere to the rule. Election Manager is comprehensive and automates the entire election process. Country, State, County, Municipality, Precinct and District jurisdictions can be set up for anywhere on Earth. Elections, Parties, Races, Candidates, Aliases, etc. can then be defined.
Election Manager also manages voting at each precinct on election day. Voters vote by touch screen and voter-verifiable paper ballots are printed and deposited into a traditional ballot box so as to have a durable and human-readable audit trail. At the end of the day, the ballots at each precinct are printed and electronically exported to be posted on the Internet. Election Manager can total precinct results and also the results for the entire election, including all write-in votes.
A very important Election Manager feature is the option to select the voting method when setting up an election. The choice is between the standard (and known to be awful) plurality voting method or the radically better AADV (Approve/Approve/Disapprove Voting) voting method. (See the Voting Methods page for complete information on AADV.)
Below are a flock of screen shots. and for a more complete description of Election Manager, see: The Election Manager System
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