Apparently, Vote Tampering Is Only Acceptable If It's Done By Americans
from the Hugo-Chavez-To-Win-2008-election dept
Typically, when we write about voting machines, the stories have a predictable, though depressing, plot. A machine will be shown to have some sort of vulnerability that allows it to be hacked, while the company that produced it (usually Diebold, though not always) will try to prevent them from being made safer. Yet while politicians ignore these very real threats, they won't pass on an opportunity to scaremonger about a foreign conspiracy to subvert American democracy. So politicians are up in arms about voting machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems, whose major shareholders are Venezuelan. They fear that there may be built-in vulnerabilities that would allow Hugo Chavez to throw an American election should he please. One alderman from Chicago claims it's more than just a theoretical possibility, claiming that, "We've stumbled on what we think could be an international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States." This all sounds like an incredible stretch, and very similar to the fears about Lenovo products being used by the federal government. What's strange is that the uproar is an implicit admission that voting machines possibly could be tampered with in some way, so as to give inaccurate results. If they're willing to believe in a far-fetched conspiracy such as this one, why aren't they concerned about the actual cases demonstrating problems with voting machines?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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How about...
Or - how about a receipt that's printed. When you submit your vote, there's a window (protected) that confirms your vote. Then you hit "yes" or "confirm" or something like that - then you have a paper trail.
Sometimes the solution is so simple that it's hard to see it.
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but I digress...I live in Tallahassee (yes we screwed up a few times) and our election supervisor said screw you Diebold, I'm testing your machines. Thank god for him.
If we're going to rely on these machines with no records, we C A N N O T ascertain after a vote if the election supervisor or ANYONE on his staff tampered with them. And we can't be sure the machine wasn't faulty in recording votes.
For some of the same reasons we have issues with others knowing how we vote, we cannot allow only certain people(election workers) to be the only ones able to alter votes. Thats confusing, basically if its possible to alter elections we need a record trail to prove it didn't happen afterwards. And we need continuous testing and improvement in our election machines. Diebold makes healthly profits off their machines and they have unwavering support from many government officials. They need to allow as transparent a testing process as possible so the voting public can have faith in their machines.
I understand it will cost them money to do that, fine, we can find the money. Whats the point of supporting a process with state and federal money(buying diebold or anyone elses' machines) without verifying they work properly and are impossible to falsify results from.
Or if results are falsified, at least the machines should show evidence of tampering.
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Re: How about...
Luci. Dude. Before you (literally) cast a paper voting ballot into the locked box, the number on the ballot card is torn off. Something tells me you didn't hang around long enough to see that part of the voting process.
I think we should stick with paper ballots. But, I'm Luddite who doesn't want a cell phone.
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Re: How about...
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Umm...
Anyone else find this strange?
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Re: Umm...
Oh, and oil.
Your 2011 battlefield.
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Perhaps physical card retention...
What we must keep in mind is that voters in the U.S. must be kept secret - it is important that "how someone voted" not be tied to an identifiable individual.
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Having been frauded against
For shame - wasting so much of our time with your propaganda blatently biased. Why don't you just report the news like we all want, without your bias.
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I'm sorry, but i still fail to see how it is possible that, even if you had proven that someone fraudulently voted for you, anyone could possibly have known who that person voted for. No records are kept of who votes for whom - just of who votes. It's called a "secret ballot."
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Re: Having been frauded against
How much you bitch and complain about some company you think is evil actually - Heaven Forbid - making a profit off a product they produce
Electronic voting machines are a little different than "Those guys that made the paper." Or, those old ladies that actually looked you up old school style to make sure you were in the book as a registered voter.
Yes, heaven Forbid anyone make profit from it, because that's ridiculous to profit from voting. Where's there's profit, there's just another chance to link money into politics again. I voted the same way, but I still don't like the idea of any company being in complete control of machines that decide a narrow election. It's just another chance for corrupton to enter "the system."
Of Course, we could always Reurrect Jimmy Hoffa and the ballot wouldn't matter...
I Like the "Documented Receipt of Vote" idea. So simple! if it comes to question, here's a non-forgable (as good as our money) document of the vote. How much would that really cost when it comes to people that didn't unch the right "chads"?
Wanna Recount? Here's my reciept. It's as good as a $20 bill.
--Prof HiB
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Voting
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Voting
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Paranoid
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Soul-less for office.
Our system is broken, we're losing freedoms as time passes. So I just can't bring myself to care about these fools in suits. They care about nothing concerning me unless it involves incarceration or taxes.
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Just make me king of the world
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Somehow that sounds like modern day serfdom. Hierarchy disgusts me.
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spell your headlines correctly.
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Re: spell your headlines correctly.
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It's not democracy, it's government that's broken.
Switzerland has a direct democracy, they vote on initiatives individually. In 120 years they've voted on 240 initiatives and 10% passed.
I don't like how we vote in clowns that don't listen to us and pass laws that hurt us without reading them. It's gotten worse over the past 4 years, but I don't see our congress conceding power, ever. It's far too easy for them to not go to jail when their buddies can change the law without asking the people.
I don't like how we split the power into branches but one branch has a solitary individual at the top. Personally I think vice presidents should never be on the ticket. Rather, the second runner up (in this case kerry) should be vice to truely balance out the people. It makes no sense that about half of the people in this country are currently under-represented, now democrats know what it's like to be black.
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Re: It's not democracy, it's government that's bro
???
I don't recall being asked what color pigmentation I would like to have in my skin. You still have choice on which flavor of poison you would like with your election day breakfast... At least you do here in the good old USA.
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Scaremongering
International plots to overthrow elections via rigged voting machines? That conspiracy theory is somewhat tame by comparison. The sad truth remains that certain segments of the American population are always ready to believe the worst about foreigners -- or, really, anyone who looks or talks differently than they do. The same folks also tend to think that complaints against Dieboldt are just Democratic sour grapes about the most recent presidential election. Stupid is as stupid does.
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American Idol
We all call in after each show to support our favorite candidate.
It is more reasonable than what we have now.
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Diebold also makes...
Do you think the banks would put up with the security system (or lack thereof) in these machines?
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Re: Diebold also makes...
Do you think the banks would put up with the security system (or lack thereof) in these machines?*
A company can produce perfectly both a cleansing soap meant for humans, and an acidic lye that would burn through human flesh.
So your point would be ... ?
The subject is voting machines, not automated teller machines.
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