Re: Re: (redmist) Re: Change the world with Perl

[MadraghRua]

I like your idea - it's well thought out and simple. I was thinking it would be a good idea to have data going into two servers not one - double redundancy in case one goes down. This way you have one set of data for analysis, one for backup and one untouched that could be used to resolve issues of vote discrepencies.
For the analysis end, you would do it in duplicate again. If there's a dispcrepency between the two totals, you go back to your other untouched server and look at that data.
How do you deal with the process of making sure that the machines have not been tampered with, the scripts used to count the votes are not altered, etc? Perl would work well here - you can examine the script at any time, unlike compiled programs.

MadraghRua
yet another biologist hacking perl....

[coreolyn]

As for redundancy I was thinking that the system that scans in the ballots at the polling place would also contain a local db, it also occurred to me that the counties might demand holding a db as well.

As for altered data. I confess I haven't taken it to that level yet, while I started to flesh out the exzact way the encryption keys were exchanged between the review board and the library (so no audit trail/db existed) it became overwhelmingly clear that this thing absolutely had to be Open Source down to the OS. I suddenly had a vision of a Florida situation only the lawyers were all huddled around a pile of source code arguing the constitutionality of how X came to equal Y.

Since that point I've backed off and stayed at pretty much a project level with this thing. I've only showed it to 2 people so far you and Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation. I know this thing is allot bigger than I, and will require more politics than expertise in getting anywhere, and I've got so little time as it is.

My little 'meditation' here was a sort of feeler for what kind of attention the monks might have in this type of project. I'm hoping that in the end the idea is passed to Universities that collectively start and Open Source project toward achieving making peacetrain a reality

And if my favorite lang --perl and open source get help and respect along the way then yeee hawww! :)

coreolyn Duct tape devotee.
-- That's OO perl, NOT uh-oh perl !-)

[MadraghRua]

let me know if you need a hand - this might be fun to join in on!
Good luck in your endevours.

MadraghRua
yet another biologist hacking perl....

[coreolyn]

Excellent!

For the moment everythings somewhat on hold till I can be sure there's not 'intellectual property' problems. (I did make this thing on company time on a company workstation). I'm also waiting to hear from the other person I sent the design to for thier opinion of it's feasibility.

coreolyn Duct tape devotee.
-- That's OO perl, NOT uh-oh perl !-)