OTz and American Politics
- Thread starter retro
- Start date
"Look, I'm Woody. 'Howdy, howdy, howdy!'"
In a local election here, one of the machines screwed up and voters had to go to the polls a second time to get things right.
On the NY machines, a ticker on the back keeps count of how many votes are cast for each candidate. On this particular election, the ticker reached its maximum and stopped tallying.
Everyone had to go to the polls a few days later.
I guess we are talking about two different things.
Voter fraud = individuals who abuse the system via, false ID's, dead voters, double voting, etc.
Electoral fraud is what you are describing and that's what we are being distracted from by stories of voter fraud. Case in point, the bogus voter registration cards filled out by ACORN employees. There was no there, there. It was all a coordinated effort to distract us from real problems we face with our elections like the one you pointed out.
see, i think we are saying the same thing, just confusing our terminology.
I agree. I don't give a flip about ACORN & stuff. When I say vote fraud I am only referring to the manipulation of the vote count by electronic voting machines. It's a real thing.
When a 'virus' can be injected into the system that can 'eat' votes and then 'eat' itself leaving no trace it was there we've got real problems. That's only one of the 'bugs'. Hacking Democracy covered a wide range of stuff...
So a traditional, almost ceremonial, casting of the handwritten ballot is better? I can live with that. :thumbup
Electronic is the way of the world. You just need a system that is 1) not wireless and 2) locked down tight.
and subject to rigorous reviews and 3rd party certifications to ensure there's no fraud going on. Unfortunately, I don't know if you can really do that... chances are the 3rd party auditors could be bought by the company being audited, as happens in the business world on a regular basis.
If the intention is to commit fraud, that happened in the good ole pre-electronic days. It was called ballot box stuffing. If the local overseers are in on it, it works. Electronic voting is just an updated challenge to keep honest.
Last edited by a moderator: