So, let’s say you’re a county clerk trying to prove that touch-screen voting machines work just fine, that the problems are due to “voter error”. So you decide to give a demonstration. And you’re so sure of yourself that you let people videotape it. Maybe it is a mistake that you decide to first demonstrate a machine malfunctioning — switching votes from one candidate to another — but then you will “calibrate” it and then it will work just fine.
Yeah. Right.
It is ironic that in the case of voting machines, the usual tables have turned. Historically, it is the scientists and engineers who say that new technology is great, and it is the ignorant public who are afraid of it. You know, like Frankenstein (the scientist) and his monster. But in this case, all the computer scientists are saying that electronic voting without a paper receipt is a big mistake, and yet the government keeps using these stupid machines. It’s enough to make you think that maybe someone doesn’t want elections to work.
One Comment
I am a Canadian and we just had a federal election. My ballot was a small slip of paper with the names of the candidates and the parties they are running for printed on it. Beside each name is a circle where you mark an X. You put the paper in the ballot box in front of election officials and you are done. It does not matter which city or province you are voting in it is the same everywhere. It is so simple and you never really hear any rumblings of election fraud. It’s not even voting day in the US yet and there are already problems.
Americans are getting screwed.