# Paper trail, schmaper trail... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 17, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625 "2004-10-17T03:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/1 "2004-10-17T03:54:38Z")
I yield to no one when it comes to envisioning election day mischief. (ed note:"quiet as it is kept…) including but not limited to “the touch screen machine ate my vote” Since the cost of attaching a printer (shit-they practically give them away at office depot to hook you on the ink) is apparently, (ahem) prohibitive (especially if you are a republican), herewith a modest proposal. Let there be a video preserved of each touch screen, running from 7 am till closing. This would constitute as concrete a record of the transactions as a printed form, albeit somewhat difficult to access in the particular but certainly no more difficult in a recount than the epistomological study of hanging chads. I suppose there might be issues re:secret ballot,but no one’s identity would be tied to the screenshots. By installing a 6 dollar webcam in the booth; shooting the screen would constitute an independent record of the transactions in realtime, as opposed to an internal screenshot program linked to the (potentially) larcenous voting machine company. Does the brief inclusion of the voter’s hands as they touch the screen constitute a sufficient trespass on the secrecy of the ballot to rule out this relatively cheap (if rube golberg-y) stopgap solution to the dark schemes of the evil empire in Crawford? ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/2 "2004-10-17T04:09:30Z")
I yield to no one when it comes to not finding a debate here. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/3 "2004-10-17T05:19:28Z")
I think the debate was ‘who the hell’s going to watch all the video tape?’ ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/4 "2004-10-17T05:49:08Z")
Why videotape the touch screen with a webcam or otherwise externally? Splice the video cable to the monitor, and take the feed and record what it displays on the screen. I’d think the voters would notice something was amiss if they tap Candiate X and the booth starts displaying that it’s recording a vote for Candidate Y. You’re not actually recording who is in the booth, merely how they interacted with the booth and what the booth showed them. ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/5 "2004-10-17T05:54:34Z")
Sorry for the double post, didn’t see **Avenger**. The footage would be very generic and repetitive. It would not be difficult (and would be exceedingly easy if you just captured the screen, no hands getting in the way, people hunched over the monitor, etc) to watch it at high speed… or to send for computer processing to independent recount. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/6 "2004-10-17T07:14:29Z")
Nice ideas, except there’s probably not enough time to implement them everywhere by Nov 2. However. 10100101010 (and others) may want to consider signing up with [TechWatch](http://verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/), a group of techies who test and monitor poll equipment through election day. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/7 "2004-10-19T01:06:34Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > I yield to no one when it comes to not finding a debate here. I yield to no one when it comes to obscuring the issue. to reiterate:is the preservation of the voter’s hands precluded by the privacy demands of a secret ballot. ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/8 "2004-10-19T01:08:33Z")
> [@Measure for Measure](#): > > Nice ideas, except there’s probably not enough time to implement them everywhere by Nov 2. > > However. 10100101010 (and others) may want to consider signing up with [TechWatch](http://verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/), a group of techies who test and monitor poll equipment through election day. hell, an army of donated (loaned) camcorders would do the trick. I suppose the election supes might cavil, altho there’s pending Wexler’s lawsuit in Fla. Where there is litigation there is hope… ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/9 "2004-10-19T01:12:05Z")
> [@Avenger](#): > > I think the debate was ‘who the hell’s going to watch all the video tape?’ the same tedious motherfuckers who examine hanging chads. Whoever gets paid to recount the count. anent which, I understand that 50,000 lawyers (no less!) are fanning out, even now, to take up the cudgels. It gives me a warm glow to think of all those motions, all those late night calls to judges… (All those billable hours) ---
**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-trail-schmaper-trail/269625/10 "2004-10-19T01:15:59Z")
> [@1010011010](#): > > Why videotape the touch screen with a webcam or otherwise externally? > > Splice the video cable to the monitor, and take the feed and record what it displays on the screen. I’d think the voters would notice something was amiss if they tap Candiate X and the booth starts displaying that it’s recording a vote for Candidate Y. You’re not actually recording who is in the booth, merely how they interacted with the booth and what the booth showed them. the desirability of the entirely external feed is to keep it out of Mr. Diebold’s hands. It’s also immune to the crash of the emachine post facto.