Friday, October 24, 2008

Do We Need a Butlerian Jihad?

Lots of other folks have been all over the problems we've had around here with voting machines changing people's votes. I don't have much to add, except this depressing observation from Concurring Opinions:

Such 'vote switching' is a well-known problem and has occurred in prior elections. Indeed, a July 2007 investigative report revealed that 30 to 40 percent of ES&S's e-voting machines under review changed voters' selections. And Colorado's Secretary of State decertified e-voting systems manufactured by ES&S because tests demonstrated that the machines could not accurately count votes.
ES&S made the machines at issue in WV. *sigh*

As I said over at Rebecca's place the other day, the sad fact is that the real lesson of 2000 is that the infrastructure of our democracy is not really capable of handling a close election. Hopefully, Obama's margin will be big enough next month that it won't be an issue.

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