'It Could Have Been Worse' Hardly Seems Like A Defense Of E-Voting Technology
from the just-imagine-how-bad-it-could-have-been dept
With a new report coming out that highlights many of the problems that voters using e-voting machines faced in the last election, it's more interesting to look at the response from supporters of those machines. An article in the Houston Chronicle mentions the report and then quotes someone defending the machines by giving the "it could have been worse" defense: "Failure will happen.... Critical failures are ones in which voters are turned away. By and large, looking at the last general election, we consider it a success." Given just how many problems there were, and how widespread they were, it seems pretty ridiculous to consider "success" to be a lack of catastrophic errors (which some people might disagree with). Certainly, it could have been much worse, but with something as important as democratic voting, you would think that a higher standard would be used.
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thank Got New York Uses the Lever
Gerald Ford's Head: Frankly, I've never felt voting to be all that essential to the process.
Richard Nixon's Head: No kidding, Ford!
Too Soon? Should I have waited 22.3 years.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
second best
I can see the breakup of the United States in the not too distant future unless this is addressed post haste.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thank Got....
no i wouldn't. nevermind.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dont worry
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
I find the whole thing hilarious personally. It makes no difference whether the system is electronic or manual, it's still a flawed system. The States is rapidly becoming the most non-democratic country on the planet and most of the tagged-and-bagged consumer-citizens don't even see it!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
syntax error
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: syntax error
Not according to your Commander-in-chief..... He's been sailing round the world bombing people for the last 5 years under the guise of spreading democracy. (And to tie in to the thread...) maybe i you hadn't voted him in (or did you?) you wouldn't have this problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: syntax error
It isn't funny anymore. Everytime there is a discourse on voting on techDirt someone brings out the old "well it's actually a republic and not a democracy!"
OK, we get it, you paid attention in high school social studies. Just remember, most people in the US and the world will refer to it as a democracy and the term loosely has come to mean a system of government in which people vote for their leadership (as opposed to the other generic term dictatorship, which has come to include monarchies, true dictatorship, and any flavor of government not considered a democracy).
Again, the above definitions are not precise, but that is how they are being used by most people (even those smarty pants political commentators on TV) so deal!
As per the voting machines, I'm just gonna sit back and wait until we get the reports of politicians paying off hackers to swing elections and the throngs of people saying "how can this be, how could this happen"
"Freedom isn't free. Freedom demands the diligence and discipline to monitor our leaders and sometimes freedom requires the blood of heroes to protect it"
- JFK
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Of course voting is insecure.
[ link to this | view in thread ]