by Asim Jalis
One of the interesting but incorrect assumptions I have noticed
in evoting discussions has been that if a computer was going to change
your vote it would have to show this to you.
People assume that if they pushed the button to vote for
candidate B and the computer registered that as a vote for
candidate A, that in this case the computer would be forced to
report this to you on a confirmation screen.
So several people have argued that since only a small number of
people complained about confirmation screen errors, it follows
that the computers recorded most of the votes correctly.
Somehow people have a hard time believing that the computer could
lie on the confirmation screen. Or that it could even record your
vote correctly and then change it several hours or days after you
voted. Or that it could delete your vote. Or that it could create
fictitious votes.
They don't realize that the computer can do anything it wants.
There is nothing that forces it to be honest on the confirmation
screen.
