Orange County: More E-Ballots Cast Than Voters

Nofsck Ingcloo writes "Orange County, California has discovered the joys of electronic voting. The story originated in the LA Times, which requires registration to view it. Yahoo News has a copy here. Problems occurred in races throughout the county. Among the symptoms of the problem were turnouts exceeding 100%." Read on for more.

"David Hart, chairman of Texas-based Hart InterCivic, which manufactured Orange County's voting system, said it would be impossible to identify which voters cast ballots in the wrong precincts because of steps the company had taken to ensure voter secrecy. For this reason, an exact account of miscast ballots is impossible. The good news, if the folks there can be believed, is that there is no evidence yet that any result is in jeopardy. In a masterpiece of understatement, elections system analyst Kim Alexander is quoted as saying, "Certainly this kind of problem that's occurred in Orange County doesn't do anything to contribute to greater confidence in electronic voting systems." Steve Rodermund, Orange County's registrar of voters, is quoted as saying that despite the problems, he is satisfied with the performance of Orange County's new electronic voting system."

Comments

The Law of Conservation of Mass, my eye!!

[BenSpinSpace]

Maybe every comment was modded down so heavily that they simply ceased to exist...

Re:God, I hope so.

[pod]

The fact that Canada has so many conservative parties only liberals get elected to your government.

No, we have the same problem that the US has. There are 2 major parties, and everyone else. In places such as most of Europe, there are 4-6 strong parties all over the spectrum, and they split the vote; the winning party must form a coalition, because rarely is there a majority, so they can pass laws and function. It is in the US (and Canada to some extent) where a vote for Party C is also a vote for Party A, encouraging the consolidation of votes (and consequently power) in the hands of 2 parties. Americans can't imagine any other system, because they're right; it simply can't exist in the US.

Unless the political landscape changes DRAMATICALLY, you will be stuck with 2 parties, all pretty much middle of the road (can't get too many votes being on an extreme). So while YOU see substantial differences between Republicans and Democrats, to the rest of the world they are vastly more alike than different. They have to be. Look at Greens, look at Libertarians. THEY'RE different, and where are they?