“What I want is to get done what the People would have me do. The problem for me is how to find out what that is exactly.” - Abraham Lincoln
President Lincoln expressed the problem very well. But there is another problem as well. Most elected officials don’t care what the people would have them do.
Nevada Vote Direct has solved BOTH problems. We have created an online constituent voting system so that our will may be scientifically measured and recorded. And, our candidate for congress, Mr. Daniel Rosen, has pledged to cast his vote in congress on pending legislation strictly according to the vote of the majority of registered NVD members, “no ifs ands or buts.”
Nevada Vote Direct invites your questions about our voting system and software. Some of these may be answered in the points below:
- All of the software code embedded in the pages of Nevada Vote Direct are open-source, and available for examination at your request.
- Our voting system is secured for registered members of Nevada Vote Direct exclusively. Membership in Nevada Vote Direct is open, without charge or obligation, to all registered voters in Nevada’s Second Congressional District. (The voting box on our home page is an exception. It is for unregistered guests and is not secured.)
- Registered members of Nevada Vote Direct are assigned a unique and confidential Identification Number (ID). Their votes on pending NVD Motions, and on pending congressional legislation, are recorded under the registered ID. Registered members may verify that their vote is recorded correctly at any time by clicking on the link provided for this purpose on the voting page. Total vote tallies, constantly updated, on any Motion or specific pending legislation, are also available at any time.
- NVD anticipates that our voting system will be expanded to provide for telephone and postal mail voting, after the election in November of our candidate, Mr. Daniel Rosen, to Congress.
Electronic voting has already been implemented in a variety of forms in official government systems, including telephone voting in Oregon. These systems have been celebrated for their success, with the exception of Diebold and EMS computer voting systems that do not provide open access to the software or paper back-up for subsequent verification.
The computer system at Nevada Vote Direct, for the reasons stated above, is therefore more secure and trustworthy than the systems already being used in many states. Yet, it is true that no system is fool-proof, including the traditional system that requires in person marking of ballots (witness the fiasco in the Florida presidential election of 2004).
Nevada Vote Direct invites scrutiny and criticism of our system precisely so that we can improve it, if necessary, over time and make it as close to fool-proof as conceivably possible. We understand that practical problems may develop. As such, they will have practical solutions. In the meantime, we will not permit the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
For a summary of various security issues pertaining to this issue, please read “Trustworthy Electronic Voting without Paper” by a noted authority on electronic voting (and supporter of Nevada Vote Direct), Dr. Vincent Campbell.