> Without a paper trail, a completely fake vote tally would look just like the real thing.
Not necessarily. There exist cryptographic voting protocols that ensure that any change to recorded votes would be detectable, and that permit voters to securely verify that their vote was properly tallied, without revealing that vote. Read the chapter on secure voting protocols in Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" for more details.
However, even were the electronic voting manufacturers using those techniques (they're not), it's still the case that validating the implementation of such protocols, and ensuring that the validated implementation is actually in use at all the polling places, could be a significant problem. Still, a competent audit would reveal that sort of problem. The current crop of electronic vote machines is a joke, since there is basically no way to audit their results.
>> One does not look at the various cars on the market today and postulate that they share a common ancestor.
> Some of us have noticed that cars don't reproduce themselves, and thus don't have any ancestors at all - common or otherwise.
Sure they do! They merely require a symbiote (h. sapiens) in order to complete the life cycle and produce offspring. Likewise, the back seats of automobiles can provide sheltered environments in which homo sap can initiate the breeding process, safe from predators. Thus the link is true symbiosis, not mere parasitism.
>> One concludes, rather, that they have a common creator.
> Actually, they don't. Cars are and have been created by many different people or groups of people. (Are you arguing for polytheistic creation?)
I've been telecommuting full-time for four years. I'm in El Paso, TX; my "office" is in Atlanta. Recently, my employer sent me a cool toy: a phone built by Intertel (if the case artwork is to be believed), that knows about both IPSec and my employer's internal office phone system. I plugged the phone into my LAN; within two minutes it established a secure connection to my employer's VPN via my cable IP connection, and hooked itself into the PTX. I now appear on the office phone network at extension 1003, and I can also use the office net to make long-distance calls charged to my employer, rather than to my POTS line or cellphone. It seems to be very reliable, and costs me nothing; it might be an option for the OP.
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> Without a paper trail, a completely fake vote tally would look just like the real thing.
Not necessarily. There exist cryptographic voting protocols that ensure that any change to recorded votes would be detectable, and that permit voters to securely verify that their vote was properly tallied, without revealing that vote. Read the chapter on secure voting protocols in Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" for more details.
However, even were the electronic voting manufacturers using those techniques (they're not), it's still the case that validating the implementation of such protocols, and ensuring that the validated implementation is actually in use at all the polling places, could be a significant problem. Still, a competent audit would reveal that sort of problem. The current crop of electronic vote machines is a joke, since there is basically no way to audit their results.
"Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss..."
>> One does not look at the various cars on the market today and postulate that they share a common ancestor.
:-)
> Some of us have noticed that cars don't reproduce themselves, and thus don't have any ancestors at all - common or otherwise.
Sure they do! They merely require a symbiote (h. sapiens) in order to complete the life cycle and produce offspring. Likewise, the back seats of automobiles can provide sheltered environments in which homo sap can initiate the breeding process, safe from predators. Thus the link is true symbiosis, not mere parasitism.
>> One concludes, rather, that they have a common creator.
> Actually, they don't. Cars are and have been created by many different people or groups of people. (Are you arguing for polytheistic creation?)
Apparently automobiles are polyphyletic
I've been telecommuting full-time for four years. I'm in El Paso, TX; my "office" is in Atlanta. Recently, my employer sent me a cool toy: a phone built by Intertel (if the case artwork is to be believed), that knows about both IPSec and my employer's internal office phone system. I plugged the phone into my LAN; within two minutes it established a secure connection to my employer's VPN via my cable IP connection, and hooked itself into the PTX. I now appear on the office phone network at extension 1003, and I can also use the office net to make long-distance calls charged to my employer, rather than to my POTS line or cellphone. It seems to be very reliable, and costs me nothing; it might be an option for the OP.