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Stupidity

by Karl Bode

Thu, Jan 4th 2007 6:08pm





Newsflash: Electronic Voting Machines Not Tested Thoroughly

from the now-what dept

If you ever wondered how pathetic e-voting technology gets approved for use despite having fatal design flaws, wonder no longer. It appears that the laboratory tasked with testing most of the nation's electronic voting systems has, shockingly, done a miserable job at it -- resulting in Uncle Sam barring them from further machine approval until they clean up their act. Not only was Ciber Inc. not following proper quality-control procedures, the company couldn't actually document that it was conducting all the required tests. Worse, the company was banned from further testing last summer, but we're only finding out about their incompetence after the elections. The government seems to have deemed the lab dysfunctional and stopped there -- raising questions about what exactly the government plans to do about machines already approved and in circulation. There's a continuing theme of Uncle Sam realizing these systems suck years after we've begun using them to elect politicians, but then stalling in bureaucratic gridlock any time there's an effort to actually do something about it. But hey, don't worry -- take solace in the fact it could be worse.

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    Stu, Jan 4th, 2007 @ 7:09pm

    This was thoroughly explored on Nova (PBS) well before the election.

    Lets face it, the pols don't give a flying fark until they are personally, nationally and repeatedly embarrassed. And even that blows over unless it is close to an election, and bad enough.

     

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    ScytheNoire, Jan 5th, 2007 @ 5:35am

    i'm sure the families of all the soldiers who have died in Iraq don't mind that a president who started this war might be in office due to broken voting machines. nah, i'm sure those families are fine with their dead family members dying for no good reason in an oil war for an illegitimate president.

     

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      Chris, Jan 8th, 2007 @ 9:45am

      Re: ScytheNoire

      thing about joining the military is, YOU MIGHT DIE! those soldiers all chose to join the military, don't blame the government for killing them. there isn't a draft, they were not forced to join the military. if you don't want to die in Iraq don't join the military, it's that simple.

       

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    misanthropic humanist, Jan 5th, 2007 @ 2:32pm

    uses of electricity

    I think this done thoroughly on Slashdot yesterday, that's why it's not hot Karl. Turns out to be a bit of a non-story because the issue is over approving the machines, not testing them. The testing is about electrical isolation, flash tests, safety stuff for physical robustness etc, nothing to do with their utility as voting machines (which we all know is bent as a $9 note and full of backdoors).


    Don't worry about the shrub Scythe. He will go quietly with a whimper. 5 years later he'll be on vacation and either turn up in a swimming pool or be swooped by an arrest team, taken to the ICC for trial for warcrimes and dealt with properly. Irony is, if the climate is right and he goes back to Texas he might even get the death penalty.

     

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