The sky won't fall if voters don't get ballot receipts

The sky won't fall if voters don't get ballot receipts
EDITOR:
In a column written by Avi Rubin that appeared in the March 15 Vindicator, we see in large bold type that "Electronic voting systems make elections vulnerable." Once again voters in Mahoning County are subjected to the Chicken Little cry that the sky is falling. This column was filled with so many inaccuracies and distortions as to be almost laughable. The author raised three specific points that must be refuted.
1) Voter access cards could be created in a garage and a voter could cast multiple votes. In Mahoning County, our machines do not use voter controlled "smart cards" to activate the machine. Instead, it is the poll worker who controls the activation device. The voter can only vote one time after the machine is activated by the poll worker. Mahoning County machines are supplied by ES & amp;S. The machines referred to in the column were provided by Diebold and were subjected to a lengthy security audit in Ohio by Compuware Corporation. Even though they had unlimited access to the machines, special expertise and equipment, they were unable to create a counterfeit smart card that would allow extra ballots to be cast. In addition, any person attempting to cast multiple votes would be subject to a felony prosecution. Also, if some person were successful at casting multiple ballots, the crime would be quickly detected since we know exactly how many persons voted at the polling place and how many votes should have been cast.
2) "Someone might tap the phone lines and tamper with the tally and change votes" when they are transmitted back to the board of elections after the polls close, which is done to deliver rapid results to the media and public. Even if it were possible for a group of criminals to intercept and change the results from our five remote tally sites, voters need to be aware that the election night returns are "unofficial." At each polling place there is a printed tally for each precinct that shows election results for that precinct which any citizen can see and compare to the results released by the board. "Official" results are released only after a detailed audit of all poll books, and after retrieving results from the machines themselves.
3) Mr. Rubin also writes that the voting machine vendor could control the outcome of the election by programming the machines to give a certain result. The problem with this theory is that our vendor, ES & amp;S, no longer has access to our machines. The machines are controlled by the elections board and staff, which is half Republican and half Democrat, and each side watches the other side very closely. We do not have access to the "source code" which controls the machine logic and is "hard coded" in the internals of the machine. The machines do not have keyboards, floppy drives or hard disks, and do not connect to the Internet.
Voter verified receipts might add only marginal value while creating a whole new set of problems. The key to election security in Ohio will continue to be good technology, good procedures, good training, and Democrats who don't trust Republicans being watched by Republicans who don't trust Democrats.
MARK E. MONROE, chairman
Mahoning County Board of Elections
Three reasons to end the war
EDITOR:
I think that the war in Iraq should be stopped as soon as possible.
The war should be stopped because too many people are getting killed.
Another reason is because the soldiers do not get to visit their family members a lot.
My final reason is because people are very sad when their loved ones die or become injured.
JAYSON SZABO
Canfield
X The writer is a 4th grade student at C.H. Campbell Elementary School