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Indecision 2002

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the if-voting-could-change-anything-it-would-be-illegal dept.

The most common story submission about the U.S. elections held today seems to be that the consortium which typically conducts and reports exit polls has encountered technical difficulties. If only they'd had an open beta program... There have also been a number of stories highlighting problems with new electronic voting machines, a topic Slashdot has hit several times in the past. CNN, the NY Times, and essentially every other U.S. news outfit are following the election results as best they can.

6 of 571 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MARIJUANA IN NEVADA!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would've passed, but a lot of the supporters forgot to vote.

  2. Voter News Service Finally Admits . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    . . . Dewey really didn't defeat Truman.

  3. Prediction by saddino · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) Ballotscape creates the most innovative and foolproof voting software.
    2) Ballotscape's software becomes installed on voting machines nationwide.
    3) Microsoft releases "innovative" MS-Vote for free.
    4) Microsoft embeds MS-Vote into Windows.
    5) Microsoft gives away Dell voting machines to the States as a condition for overcharging for licenses.
    6) Gates/Dell presidential ticket mysteriously captures 90% of the popular vote (Jobs/Feiss ticket only receives 5%).

    1. Re:Prediction by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      7) Despite Gates/Dell being the popular winners, 1337 Hax0r sweeps in the electoral college.
      8) The next session of Congress opens with a proposal from an 11 year old girl in South Korea, who "sent this bill to have your advice".

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  4. Re:Electronic voting ... where's the code? by the_other_one · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should use secure open source code

    They can borrow the code for the /. poll

    Cowboy Neal for President!

    --
    134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
  5. New voting method being tested in Europe by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most countries in Europe (and, I assume, the World), have been successfully experimenting with a revolutionary voting method:

    1. Voters are given a piece of "paper". On this "paper" are the names of the candidates or parties, followed the respective picture or symbol, followed by an empty square.

    2. Using a device known as "pen", the voters proceed to make a "cross" (a highly optimised mark, consisting of two straight lines) inside the "square" that corresponds to the person or party they wish to vote for.

    3. The voters then fold this paper two or three times and insert it in a large "box" (a device for storing pieces of paper).

    4. Once voting is over, advanced counting machines known as "people" (usually groups of volunteers, with one or two official representatives) take the pieces of paper out of the box and look at the marks made with the pens. They write down how many "votes" there were for each candidate. This process typically takes less than six hours, including one recount.

    5. (This part will sound obvious to most people familiar with democracy, but americans may find it surprising) The candidate with the most votes wins.

    It's a relatively inexpensive and ecological process, since the paper can be recycled. But, most of all, it works.

    RMN
    ~~~