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Saturday, January 05, 2008

Go Read This. Right Now.
Posted by Jill | 7:16 PM
Tomorrow's New York Times Magazine cover story:



It's only eight years too late, and probably too late to make a difference this fall. But at least it isn't only "those crazy bloggers" and the banished-from-American-media Greg Palast talking about the voting machines anymore.

After you read this article, think about Florida 2000. Think about Ohio 2004. Think about how the world would be different if the strange goings-on in Volusia County in 2000 had been made public before the Supreme Court handed the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Imagine how the world would be different without the Ohio voting shenanigans of 2004. We have been presided over by a lunatic for the last eight years because of a voting apparatus that doesn't work, that's run by partisan hacks, using technology that precinct workers don't understand, that doesn't work properly, that is not secured, and that is built by companies led by open partisans. And only now has it gotten into the mainstream press.

And this is the country that has been spouting "democracy" at the rest of the world.

Pathetic.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Oh, I love the line -- on the first page of the article, no less -- about how "The earliest critiques of digital voting booths came from the fringe — disgruntled citizens and scared-senseless computer geeks". Way to discount everyone up to Bruce Schneier as some sort of "fringe" loony.
1/5/08, 11:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I guess you have to put me into the class of "fringe loonies". I've only been designing computer systems for 30 years. I could -- and did -- easily forsee the current set of problems. [Something about "lowest bidder" and "getting what you pay for" comes to mind!]

I resent greatly the comment that "computers are capricious and not well understood". Bulls**t!!
"Computers" -- unless we go back to the earlier meaning pre 1950 where "people" were the only "computers" -- are nothing but technological artifacts. They absolutely do nothing but what they are told to do. They are neither good nor bad! They are about as benign as toasters!

Well designed computer systems are in use daily in airplanes, automobiles, CAT scanners, EKG monitors, nuclear power plants. The Martian rovers have operated trouble free for 4 years.

People whose computer experience consists of email and mp3's don't have -- and probably don't know where to look for -- a clue. Windows is not my example of a reliable computer system.

We KNOW how to design and build reliable, manageable, auditable, repairable computer systems. People do it every day! I've done dozens!

The people who improperly designed -- and obviously didn't test -- these voting systems should be drummed out of the IT profession. I would certainly not want them working on any system that could endanger human life. And the fact that many work for companies building equipment for the banking and financial industries [Diebold] make me wonder about the adequacy of those systems. [But then, we know Identity Theft is rampant!] In my view they were deliberately deceitful -- at least about the adequacy of their system design. But since our government officials probably wouldn't know a decent computer system if it fell on their head......

We should have let real computer engineers who build real systems for a living, and not the Indian high-school dropouts, build the things. Maybe Boeing or McDonald Douglas could have used the same expertise they use for aviation systems... They might have been a $1,000,000 per unit, but they would have worked!!

I compliment my State [Connecticut] which refused to accept any computerized system that didn't have a supportable paper audit trail. We use mark sense ballots and computerized scanners. There is a backup scanner available in the event the primary fails.
1/6/08, 9:39 AM  
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