True Voting Reform
The State of the Voting System
Presently, in many precincts, we don't know, nobody knows, and nobody can know who wins. The simple and inarguable truth is that the voting system in most of the United States is flawed in such a manner that we cannot honestly tell who actually won an election.
Over the last few years, elections in the United States have produced uncertain outcomes far too often, and a large segment of the population now questions the legitimacy of our state and national governments. This alarming fact reflects a multitude of flaws in our electoral system, which fails to meet international standards for fair voting. Fortunately, many of these flaws can be fixed quickly and inexpensively, using existing voting infrastructure and hardware. As an additional benefit, many of the solutions simplify and streamline the voting process, making the system less expensive to administer over the long run.
The Problem With Paper Ballots
Without a paper ballot there is no way that it can be proven who wins any election. There are dozens of ways to easily commit untraceable fraud and most electronic voting systems do not have any way to fully audit the vote. However, merely requiring a paper record of each individual vote does essentially nothing to fix the major flaws with our voting system. A paper ballot is useful only if there is a recount or audit of the vote.
The much greater problem is, how do you know if the vote has been counted accurately to begin with and where might the errors be? Anyone who has participated in auditing and recounts knows that it is virtually impossible to tell where the errors might be and, that fraud and errors can be very subtle. Additionally, the system, including the laws and major time constraints, is stacked against doing recounts and timely audits.
A Simple and Proven Solution
SAVV (pronounced savvy) is the solution to the recount problem as it finds errors in vote counting up front. This solution is easy and well proven in the business and personal financial world. All bookkeeping systems have built in auditing. Why not do the same with voting? By making the system self-auditing up front, essentially all of the problems associated with recounts, restrictive laws, costs and time are eliminated.
SAVV is simple and works essentially like double entry bookkeeping, in that the vote is simply counted twice by two separate and different methods and the totals compared. It can be fully manual or electronic and can work with many existing systems.
A SAVV Example
Inexpensive Double Tally Voting System
SAVV is based on the same principal as double-entry bookkeeping. This self-auditing system will point out errors as there are two independent paths of vote counting that must be matched. It will improve accuracy, eliminate the need for most recounts and audits, is electronic fraud resistant, and can be implement quickly using existing hardware.
Even before open-source software is available, SAVV reduces or eliminates most of the myriad of fraud scenarios that are so easy with electronic voting systems. It allows leeway for different types of ballots scanners and vote casting machines as long as they fulfill security and accuracy requirements. The two tally streams must be kept separate from each other and the central tallying points must be handled by different people. Preferrably, the two tally streams should be done on hardware from two different manufacturers.
SAVV can be put in place using many existing systems by simply adding a printer that prints a paper ballot that can be scanned. Many municipalities already have the electronic machines and paper ballot counting machines for absentee and provisional ballots. This can be used with almost any new or existing systems.
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Downloads
For much more detailed explanations of proposed voting reforms, please review our PDFs on SAVV and other issues.