I used to think that electronic voting was a needed killer app for modern democracy. I felt it would empower the masses and bring democracy back into the people's hands, away from the representative system we have here. My idealism yet again fell victim to the reality of computer systems, as the security mandates involved in massive online voting fall short in so many ways.
But now it turns out that the dangers from the outside are being usurped by the dangers from the inside. Get this: the people who are making the electronic voting machines are ardent Republican supports and the head of Diebold has been quoted as saying that he is commited to delivering electoral votes to the incumbent President next year.
Not only that, but the machines themselves are black boxes. We, the public, don't have any access to how they work and what they do when votes are tallied, processed, and sent. Apparenlty, the machines are also being used to count the votes as they come in, a legal no-no. Votes are only countable after voting has closed (but polling of voters after they've cast their ballot is okay).
This is a bad thing brewing here. We've got courts upholding the use of hokey punch-card machines in California, Supreme Courts denying recounts of ballots to determine Presidents, and now big money contributors to particular parties are put in charge of voting mechanisms with no public oversight? C'mon people!
Posted by Nutrimentia at September 24, 2003 11:52 AM | TrackBack