NYT Calls For Open-Source Election Machines

anti-drew writes "The New York Times Magazine has an interesting editorial (free reg. req.) calling for open-source voting machines. From the article: 'Electronic voting has much to offer, but will we ever be able to trust these buggy machines? Yes, we will -- but only if we adopt the techniques of the 'open source' geeks.' That's quite an endorsement coming from the Times. Of course, one of the justifications was that open-source enthusiasts are 'libertarian freaks, nuttily suspicious of centralized power', who would 'scream to the high heavens if they found anything wrong'."

Comments

Consider the source

[MillionthMonkey]

If the New York Times were to print an article saying the sky was blue, it would be proof positive that the sky was some other color.

Re:Yeah, right

[jaavaaguru]

If he found an open proxy and told them about it (as the first post suggests), he's no worse than your neighbor pointing out that you left a window open in your house when you're heading out shopping or whatever.

Trust an open-source voting machine?

[mbottrell]

Not as long as Linus is a republican! Gawd, I would just settle for a GPL program that gave me next weeks lotto numbers... hmmm. maybe they ar the same?

In BRAZIL

[obdulio]

The last presidential elections were completly done in Electonic Machines and the results were damm right. Jose Serra, the candidate of the ruling party (the one that the ones in power woudl have favored )lost by a 70 to 30 margin and Lula Da Silva, the opposition candidate (whose people had no way to turn the results in favor of him) won.

The code is open to everybody to audit, everyone one can open up the machines to verify that the code they are using is the same that was audited. And a printed ballot is generated for every vote, just in case someons complains, so the results from the electronic machine can be verified against the printed ballots.

In the last US Presidential Elections, in Florida (a state whose governor is the BROTHER of one of the candiates, and the one who won in that state), the voting was manual. And the results were contested.

Being from a South American country, I was completly pissed off. If what happened in Florida, had happened in an underdeveloped country, everyboby would have cried "FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS".
What does make you, FUCKING AMERICANS, better than the rest of the world? Why do you believe that your country is an example of democracy, what makes you believe that you are a superior people?

Americans are the same as everyone else in the world, simple humans beings, without any superiority due to the fact that you were born whitin certain boundaries and I was born outside that boundaries.
http://yro.slashdot.org/users.pl
Wit h what reason do you invade other countries, support dictatorships and dictators like Pinochet and SADDAM? If you are not aware of the facts, SADDAM HUSSEIN was a creature of the US, and the WMA that he used against Iran and the Iraqui Kurds were provided by the U.S. in the REAGAN era.

Why do everybody hates THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (not AMERICA, which is a continent)? I'm Brazilian, I have traveled all over the world and I never, EVER, meet someone who hated Brazil. But I meet hundreds of people that hated U.S. of AMERICA. Can anyone of you, yankies, explain it?