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EFF Sues NC Election Board
Kludge writes "The EFF is suing the NC elections board. The board certified several voting machine manufacturers although none of the manufacturers would comply with the state law (passed unanimously) that the machine code be kept in escrow."
From the article, it seems like the elections commission certified all voting machine manufacturers despite the fact that none of them were in compliance with the law. How was the elections commission allowed to do this? Wouldn't the logical solution have been to certify none of the voting machine manufacturers until they came into compliance with the law?
Am I missing something here (e.g. time limit)?
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
I'm no fan of democracy as all I see in democracy is the ability to manipulate the vote to further the interests of the elite.
That's election fraud, not democracy.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
think democracy, in this case, is open about to whom the favors are being given. The problem with vote rigging, especially electronic, is that it hides that favoritism.
Democracy is basically 51% of the citizens deciding together to give up certain personal rights and powers to an elected official. 49% of the people may decide they don't want to give up those rights and powers, but they're considered "wrong." The elected official in a democracy holds office for a certain period of time and has no reason to follow through with what the voters initially wanted, and the voters can not remember what they wanted so many years ago.
This is the flaw with voting and the power of the free market. In a free market you can change your mind constantly, and the market will provide for what you want. Democracy only lets you change your mind once every 4 years or so, and you can never fix past errors in judgement, as they are now law.
I don't think the issues is with who "won" the last two elections, but weather our choice in elected officials in the future will be determined by some unknown black box of voting. Think FICO credit scores and how that was made to be understood by the majority. Also, consider every application that you have ever updated. Did that update occur just because? NO, it did not. There was something not right and the update "fixed" the issue. DieBold, et all, need to make their money; but electing my leaders, their way, is not the way. If you want to do business with my elections, make it TRANSPARENT. If you cannot make you money that way, make it some where else.
"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried." - Winston Churchill
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
This is an interesting change of pace. Not too long ago, big interests would spend a lot of money buying voters and pressuring them to vote their way.
Now they just cut out the middleman! Why mess with voters when you can just mess with a couple of voting machines?
Genius!
What are you eating? isItVeg?.
Uh, you're comparing an economic system with a governmental system? Wha? What would a free-market government look like? Who would issue currency? How could you enforce rapidly-changing laws? How could you do all the wonderfully unprofitable things that governments do, like funding education? Competition isn't going to help students in any aspect other than their pocketbook, since it'll be a race down to the bottom to try to provide the most cheap, bare-bones system posible. And how would you regulate trade? The closest I can come up with is a greek system of city-states, but even those had civic governments. I just don't see how you can compare free-market capitalism and democracy as political systems.
Oh, and you can fix past errors in judgment. Laws can be repealed (even amendments!) and courts can find laws unconstitutional, even if they were found consitutional before, if "society's understanding of the facts have been fundamentally altered." To paraphrase Justice O'Connor.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
This has nothing to do with GW. I do agree that he did win as you say but that is not the point at all. The point is that as a citizen I have or should have a right to know how the ballot process works and it should be auditable. These things are not possible if the voteing machine is a black box and nobody but those who built it know what goes on inside. I don't know about but I am not sure I want to put my faith in some company who made a voteing box to conduct a fair election. These types of things are part of public life and their workings should be public domain. Its the same situation with the breathalizer and redlight camera trials going on around the country. If I am to be convicted of a crime based on some machine's results, I have a right to know how it works so that I could question the system's accuracy in court. Equipment that plays a roll in our democracy should be Open for all to see and understand if interested.
Government is supposed to be TRANSPARENT in a republic like ours. This is why you can watch congress on CSPAN, sit in on a trial, speak at your town meeting etc. The very fact that we allow all these things shows as a society we value this transparency. We should not allow it to be taken from us through the use of magic black boxes everywhere that nobody can talk about what they do or how they work because some company has a patent or won't release their soure or whatever. Any and ALL equipment used in our governing process should be Open Source pure and simple no exceptions this nation was built on transparency lets have some. In fact this really should be a Constitutional Amendment!
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Where does this board get the authority (or the stones) to "override" state law?
-Peter
The election commission does whatever it wants. Their only interest is to make sure only the big two parties stand a chance at any election. My state is the hardest state to get a party onto the ballot, and because of this there's only two choices on any state or federal level ballot in NC.
Duh. The same place every criminal gets the authority (and stones) to override laws. They just do it, and hope they don't get caught.
Oops. Busted!
blog
This whole voting machine issue is so lame.
We just had municipal elections here in British Columbia and I used a 'voting machine'. You mark off your votes on a letter size piece of paper by darkening the circles. Then you feed it face down into a scanner, which deposits the page in the ballot box after tallying it.
Election results are available quickly from the machine.
Hand recounts are perfectly possible because of the hard copy record.
What is so difficult about requiring hard copy records? Votes are worth one sheet of paper.
Chuck
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
No, they don't need to escrow Microsoft Windows
They bloody should do. Who knows what is in there and whether it is secure. On principle, any person in the country should be able to have a look at how the voting process works, if they care to. Or more likely, get opinions from those who are able to look at it closely.
Besides - these are machines to count how many times a candidate is selected and print out a paper receipt. Do they really need an OS as complicated and bulky as Windows to implement this. Depending on how you implemented this, you barely need a filesystem!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
As a Christian and a scientist I am of the opinion that "Intelligent Design" is bad science and bad theology.
As for the "poser intellectualts"...there are idiots and assholes at every point of the compass and everywhere on the spectrum from left to right.
I think what most people are frustrated with is the complete absence of dialog and debate. I personally think that the likes of Karl Rove and his Democratic counterparts have done this. It seems nobody has the time for a real debate any more. We see our President in front of a banner with the "on message" catch phrase of the week. We hear some hand wringing wimp from the democratic side whining...
So, getting back to the topic of the article, TRANSPARENCY is the key. I agree the President should ability to receive candid input from whoever he wants it from....but if Enron execs ghost wrote our energy policy (as is likely the case) the voting public deserves to know and make an informed decision. The news media is so busy reporting on each other that they can't be counted on for that....but there is still hope unless our voting machines can't be relied upon as unbiased (not to claim they were ever perfect), it is that much easier for the cynical and power hungry to ignore the frustrated voter...and in turn it is easier for the frustrated voter to tune out.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.