Slashdot Mirror
Verified Voting
Joe from the EFF writes "Verified Voting has just gone
live with a number of tools
for all you data-hungry election nerds out there. Amongst the goods:
an election
guide for geeks, a voter's
guide to
electronic voting, the Verifier database
of
county-by-county election information and the Election Incident
Reporting System (EIRS) which will be used on E-day by
attorneys and observers in the field to collect data about election
incidents called into the Election Protection
Coalition's
hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE. The geek community is playing a particularly
active role in this year's eleciton via VV's TechWatch
program. However, we could still use the help of the slashdot
community, and all you have to do is click: We need to test the
resiliency of the Verifier database
and the EIRS
before the election.
"Cannot connect to database"
/.
Guess that's what you get for asking to stress test a server from
nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
Comment removed based on user account deletion
In addition, during this fear driven propaganda-fest, free speech is confused with anti-Americanism. And everything else that has made the US a great place to live has ground to a halt. Even the ill-conceived 'freedom zones' are getting further and further away from this war-happy candidate as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while listening to mouth-breathers spouting Republican talking points, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Republican machine that has run faster from the truth, all the while tossing 'loyalty pledges' and cease and desist orders at anyone who may disagree, despite the millions of people who share the need to be rid of this administration. My Tandy 102 with 32k of RAM demonstrates more resolve and better judgment than Bush most times. From a leadership standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that Bush is a superior candidate for president.
Bush addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to vote for Bush over other more truthful, reasoned, smarter and stable candidates.
I think /. has become the new basis for benchmarking a website. They submitted the story here to see if it can withstand pressure -it can't. /. causes.
Maybe they will up their servers for e-day which should net as much traffic as
Well thats just wishful hoping.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
When will people learn to code correctly instead of just pointing to another program as a silver bullet?
All in favor of waiting until electronic voting is mature and trustworthy before deployment raise your hand...
In other words, the complete opposite of what the state just bought for us.
Don't you mean "the complete opposite of what you bought the state? Where do you think the state gets its money?
Suppose I dropped of my early ballot yesterday.
Today I learn the Canidate A for the State House is implicated in a scandal. Canidate G for corporation commission is getting "legal" contributions from the electric utility. It's discovered that Canidate Q for local school board is on the teacher's union board of directors. And, presidential Canidate ? actuall voted for something I don't support.
Now, how do I change my vote?
I have seen too many elections, especially local ones, where important negative or positive details did not come out until the last, high pressure days before the election. I'd rather wait to get all the information possible before I make my choice.
(From Arizona, where we have early voting.)
Hopefully you are also young enough to be drafted.
Almost every assumption you make is invalid:
Actually, it would be imposible because the voting machine makers do not load in the names of the candidates.
Is this a fact? Even if so, I'm fairly confident that, if I had to, I could take a guess at the names & affiliations of the top two or three candidates.
And this software will be on the machines permanently.
Why and why would that matter? Code can easily be added, removed or modified before, during or after the election. Alternatively, one shot code (in the data upload for example) could easily "correct" the results and immediately and permanently disable itself. Of course this all assumes that the adjustment routines are on the ballotting machine at all (they certainly wouldn't have to be).
So, in order to rig the elections not only would you have to re-program the software every time, you would have to get it past all the testing the counties would do everytime you re-program it.
It is a documented fact that this is done routinely.
And something tells me that the counties would get suspicious if you had to reprogram the machines every time.
It is a documented fact that this in not the case.
Besides the fact that you would also have to know the poll results at election time when you program the machines.
You would only need to know the DESIRED outcome. Using the actual ballots cast to make that outcome more realistic is just a luxury.
Between all that, you can't rig a machine and not get caught.
Speak for yourself. I certainly have the knowledge to rig a machine and not get caught. What I do not have is the desire to do so or the resources to make it trivial. Other people have all three.
Given the knowledge that I have, I personally would never use any voting machine without a auditable AND audited paper trail--even if I wrote it.
The more I hear about the wide range of US systems the worse they look. Voting is already happening and it is October? Polling booths didn't have paper copies of the electoral roll for the area - have to ring the state capital? You get a choice of paper or sometime punch cards or touchscreens or somthing that looks like a poker machine? Get your shit together guys, it looks like it did need the supreme court to sort things out. People will pretend to be dead people and vote, or will vote multiple times since you have such a long timespan - and you need to be organised to deal with things like that.
After 2000 you would think prototype voting machines and other weirdness would be banned from the process. I bet the stupid punch card system that became an international laughing stock is still in use. You don't replace pen and paper just for the sake of it - you should only do it if the system is an improvement. Labour costs are not an issue in elections, since it is easy to get an enormous workforce on the day for trivial amounts - and the consequences of failure (very expensive court cases) are such that a few extra people makes sense.
So why do I care? Australia is a client state, run by a man called by your presisdent "the man of steel (that he can sell to the USA in eighteen years time under the terms of the free trade agreement). We don't want Australia dictated to by another Nixon, so we want to see a clean election over there without a hint of criminal activity.
It is a fallacy to assume you have the right not to vote.
Voting should be mandatory for every single tax paying citizen. Refusing to vote ought to carry the same criminal penalties as refusing to pay your taxes.
Our current culture is such that we believe we have these 'rights' to do pretty much anything we wish. To a certain degree, that will always be true. However, the consequences of these actions must be taken into consideration.
There is a definite, measurable consequence to refusing to vote. Even if a voter despises both (or all three, five, ten, etc.) candidates, they are morally bound to say "I choose no one" and have that voice count as well.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Regardless of your belief that our country is a democracy or republic by definition, it is imperative that each citizen who pays taxes must also record their choices during each election.
Perhaps if we made it a game, to capture the attention of all voters. You get a point for each election you vote in. After you get, say, 10 points, you are entitled to a double vote at the next scheduled election.
Oh, and to the poster who commented that he cannot find his voting precinct in Texas: all county courthouses are participating in early voting. You do NOT need to find your Election Day voting location if you choose to go cast your ballot early. I live in Williamson County and voted yesterday. It took, including parking, all of 10 minutes.
--Disgruntled Citizen
Whenever Mrs. Fitch breaks wind, we beat the dog.