E-Voting Companies Answer Critics With ... Spin

Whammy666 writes "Wired has a follow-up article which tells of how Diebold and other E-Voting machine manufacturers have enlisted the Information Technology Association of America (a trade public relations and lobbying group) to 'generate positive public perception' of the companies and to 'reduce substantially the level and amount of criticism from computer scientists and other security experts about the fallibility of electronic voting systems.' It seems the concerns about the lack of an audit trail are finally being heard as the industry is reconsidering its opposition to giving the voter a paper receipt of his vote. Of course, a paper receipt given to the voter still doesn't allow for a manual recount should an election dispute arise unless the receipts are collected and secured by election officials." Reassuring PR is Stage Two; remember that Stage One is silence your critics.

Comments

Sigh...

[Black Parrot]

> remember that Stage One is silence your critics.

Look at the guy who made fools of the DoHS by waltzing through airport security and hiding box cutters on several airplanes... where they remained for five months, despite "daily" inspections, and were only finally found because someone finally read his e-mail a month after he sent it.

Now he's being described as a dangerous criminal...

Then there's the "free speech zones" where people carrying protest signs are marched away to when the presidential motorcade comes to town...

"The Silence of the Critics" seems to be the vision of the politicians/companies running the USA these days. See the emperor's new clothes, or go to jail. Orwell would be proud.