Venezuela Goes With Untested E-Voting Machines
from the that-doesn't-seem-so-smart... dept
If you thought there were problems with the US using electronic voting touch screen machines, take a look down in Venezuela, where they’re getting ready for an election where they will use new e-voting machines that haven’t been tested yet. The machines, from a small Florida-based company do have a printed receipt, which is better than most US machines. However, the software for the machines has not been tested or certified yet, though the government claims they’ll get around to it before the elections. Of course, this is the same government that had to postpone the entire election four years ago, after it was determined just days before the election that the electronic voting machines they were to use then weren’t ready.
Comments on “Venezuela Goes With Untested E-Voting Machines”
Bad idea
This in my opinion is just asking to be abused! Anyone see ‘Candidate A- 99% of votes…others 1%’ ?
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ITIL Consultant
No Subject Given
Yeah, if they had real people taking printed ballots, there wouldn’t be any fraud in South American elections.
Isn’t Mike always harping about how technology isn’t in itself bad, it’s how people abuse it? (see numerous postings on camera phones) Why is this any different? Voter fraud has been around since voting has been around. Machines aren’t going to change it, and it probably makes it harder, if anything, due to the level of knowledge required vs. stuffing extra ballots into a box.
Re: No Subject Given
Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not saying the technology itself is bad, but how it’s being implemented in this case… And that’s badly. Of course, there’s a likelihood of fraud the other way, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to do a terrible implementation of e-voting machines.
No Subject Given
Candidate A in this case is Ceasar “Castro wannabe” Chavez, who would be happy either with 99% of the vote or an indefinite postponement of the elections (which would give him time to pack the Vzla Supreme Court and appoint new members of the National Electoral Council – which would be in charge of certifying any electronic voting machines).
OTOH, they have imported advisors from Brazil, which has successfully used electronic voting – without major problems.
Re: No Subject Given
Correction: that’s Hugo Frias “Castro wannabe” Chavez. (Never post w/o coffee.)
post with coffee
I always post with coffee;)
Please know about venezuela
Mike, I really like the website, but sometimes you need to research a bit more. I won’t get into the Castro -> Chavez thing because I feel its something that no one will agree on (although I will say I believe that were I live is a democracy and Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias is a democratic president, even if CNN and all those networks say otherwise.. hey I live here). But I would like to point out the following:
-The voting machine’s software has been checked many times. It is true that it is not certified, but all political parties have had a look, we even had an incident last year when it seemed that the security could be compromised.
-Second, there were no election planned or executed neither in 2001, or 2002, or 2003 so I cant see how your four year number holds, besides no venezuelan election has been postponed in recent years (since 1998 at the very least). The only thing that got postponed was the opposition’s request for a recall referendum because they didn’t collected the signatures correctly (you can find more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_recall_referendum%2C_2004 )
-Third, the software has been used in at least 2 elections now, the recall referendum whose results were certified as legitimate by an OAE’s observation group and the Carter Center and also on the Parlamentarian elections, that were also certified by an EU mission.
-Fourth, the link of evidence doesn’t even link to an actual article, but I am sure thats a mistake of some sort. You don’t do those kind of things
So I would really like if you could correct this article because I find it misleading. And if we criticize lies, we cannot say them.
Thanks