washingtonpost.com — Sometimes, paranoids are right. And sometimes even when paranoids are wrong, it's worth considering what they're worried about. I speak here of all who are worried sick that those new, fancy high-tech voting systems can be hacked, fiddled with and otherwise made to record votes that aren't cast or fail to record votes that are.
Oct 10, 2006 View in Crawl 4
ftljohnsonOct 10, 2006
@skafloc"the liberals"Do you really think people would be screaming if the Democrats got into office? Or were you just using another name for the Green party?
daedalus1982Oct 10, 2006
flat tax is the answer. you pay a flat % of what you make even 5% would be less than some people pay. we do it for sales tax in the states that have them (U.S.). Some major religions do this already and call it tithing. Arguably, religion is one of the best and most long standing businesses around. Perhaps we could learn something
joybranOct 11, 2006
Of course this is true, but elections have always been rigged one way or another. By "fixing" the problem of hackable voting machines, the government is assuring us that the next election will be fair and we really will have a say in who our rulers will be. As if.
martalliOct 11, 2006
The original statement was over the top, but so is your response. Did Kennedy steal the vote by rigging the ballot? I don't know about Daley, but I suspect there were problems there.Currently, gerrymandering is the main problem in politics. It allows parties to ensonce representatives in relatively unassailable districts, and minimize true public influence on the outcome of votes. Districts should be compact and simple, not political Rorschach Test ink blots.
omaryakOct 11, 2006
I think by starting out with the concept of paranoia, the author was trying to provide a conceptual bridge for those who would dismiss criticism of voting machines outright.
infoproOct 11, 2006
An intriguing piece of info that most people aren't aware of -- in 2000 not only FL but also TX (& WHILE Bush was governor before that), the state constitutions read that the "gold standard" in cases of vote disputes & challenges was [drum roll]a manual recount. That's right. A count by hand, with actual human eyes doing the certifying. After Bush was shoehorned into office that was changed (at least in FL; I believe TX still requires manual recounts in case of challenge, although I'm not 100% certain of that). Remember also that Jeb Bush & a rock-solid GOP FL legislature apparently didn't see any crying need to change FL's voting laws until after Dubya almost got derailed by the *real* final legal authority for constitutionality, the FL Supreme Court.Imagine that -- no problem with FL voting law until Bush almost win. How co-inky-dinkul; just one of those little jests God is so fond of giving us once every hundred years or so, right?
michaelb1Oct 11, 2006
I vote by absentee ballott.I get a paper form in the mail, I color in the block of who I want to vote for, then I mail it in 2 sealed envelopes to my voting rep.there are no computers involved in the process, however there are several humans involved. That may be worse.
jgardnerOct 11, 2006
Folks, voting is a human problem, not a machine problem. We can come up with fantastic systems that do miracles but the system will still be at risk of being hacked or manipulated.Of all of you who complain about the integrity of the voting process, how many hours have you spent manning your local polling station? What do you know about policy and procedures in your state and county concerning voting? Do you even know the name of the election director in your area? Speaking for myself, I did work in the polls once, and I plan on doing it again some day. I know how the system works, I have learned for myself.There are real people running these elections, and real people need real people overseeing and helping them with their work. Get off your butt, go find out what is really happening in your local election office, and volunteer as appropriate. If you are smart and able to do so, why don't you apply for a job as well? They are usually in desperate need of smart, honest, and interested people.I am a conservative who lives in King County, Washington. I watched as our elections department bungled an election. Do I trust they counted the ballots right? No, but I can't complain because I wasn't a part of that process and I didn't do my part as a citizen to keep our government working. I don't care what other conservatives say, I don't believe that Ron Sims and Dean Logan were dishonest. Rather, they were understaffed and unable to cope with the sheer volume of votes and people. I am going to make sure to be a positive part of the system and I am not going to try and solve people problems with technology.