How the Transparent voting system works from remote locations

What follows is a sample scenario of a voter using Transparent voting from a remote location.

Transparent voting supports absentee voting and remote voting in a similar fashion to normal voting described on the 'Show me how it works' page.

The use of a personal computer to make selections and to save those selections would optimally be made on paper so that the voter can see that their ballot is filled out properly. Since some voters will be unable to visually verify their selections on a secure machine at a polling place, a form similar to current absentee ballots will be required for at least some of the voters.

The process of counting Absentee ballots that are written on paper is to convert the paper ballot into a file on a diskette (also known as hand-keying) will be used to produce a ballot identical to the ballots most voters will be using.

For servicemen not in the United States during an election, a secure personal computer may be available. Using a secure personal computer to prepare ballots in the same manner that most voters will be using on Election Day is the preferred option for all absentee ballots, servicemen included. Secure personal computers with limited functionality so as to be resistant to tampering should be provided at publicly available locations, such as libraries, prior to elections for this purpose.

The main difference for absentee ballots is that some absentee voters will not be available to pick up their receipt. Such an Absentee voter will not be able to later verify their vote. This may not be the case for all servicemen, but will be the case for non-servicemen who choose to vote absentee.

A secure link to the central computer which stores the votes may be available for a significant portion of servicemen, particularly those who have access to Navy ships and those stationed at large installations. These servicemen would be able to receive a receipt and to review their votes later. In addition, since the communication from the servicemen will be to a single location across a secure line, the need to review and censor a serviceman's vote is far more limited than the need to review and censor general communications. This allows for significantly more privacy in voting than our servicemen currently enjoy.

Back to main page