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Because not so long ago, all the tech luminaries were asking "why are you still using paper ballots that take hours to count and are prone to error (both on the part of the voter and the counter)?"

Might have even been as recently as the "hanging chad" debacle in the Bush/Gore recount.




All the tech luminaries?

That was never my experience. For example see http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/risks.html for a warning about the insecurity of voting machines before the Bush/Gore recount happened. And even then it was old hat among the knowledgeable. For example there was the Nebraska senatorial election that Chuck Hagel stole in 1996. (He resigned as CEO of ES&S in 1995, and won by a wide margin in 1996 in an election counted by ES&S machines despite being behind by an even wider margin in the polls. The machines did not allow a recount. What do YOU think happened?)

Were lots of people singing about the future? Of course. But lots knew that "put it on a computer" isn't a recipe for accuracy when the people who make the computers have a vested interest in the outcome!


> The machines did not allow a recount.

This is insane on so many levels. How would you even technically implement that? You'd have to make an effort to design the system like that.

Why would anyone, anywhere, EVER, put in place a voting system that doesn't allow a recount?

Paper ballots don't magically, invisibly, change over time or suddenly become uncountable or un-inspectable.


Oh, I'm sure that you can think of lots of reasons if your possible motivations include corruption.

Every kind of voting system that has been created has also been corrupted somehow, somewhere.


No, that was politicians. Nearly all technical people were opposed to electronic voting from the beginning.


The various Pirate parties that are around are, as far as I know, universally against electronic voting.

So some politicians are against it. And if the most digitally clued-in politicians say it's a shit idea, but the incumbent digitally challenged politicians think it's great, I know who you should trust in the matter.


Pirate parties are closer to tech enthusiasts than they are to regular politicians




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