Subject:
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Re: Two questions for the Conservatives and/or Republicans out there
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 9 Oct 2006 17:11:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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1995 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:
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Why not, Dave!? There can’t be cheating if the machines could be rigged so
that it doesn’t know which candidates are under which button (if that is your
concern).
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Of course you’re not guaranteed, but you could do some 50/50 chance stuff.
Imagine if one candidate is ahead in the polls with 75% of the vote (Sven),
compared to another candidate with 25% (Twiggy). It could be argued that Twiggy
has no chance in a fair election. But if Twiggy rigs it so that every vote goes
to *one* candidate *or* the other, suddenly Twiggy has a 50% shot at taking the
election.
Better yet, Twiggy could see who’s getting more votes, and flip it. Within the
program, if “Choice A” had 75% of the votes, and “Choice B” had 25% of of the
votes, then you’ve got a clue as to which way to flip.
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It would be like a double-blind study. Surely you aren’t implying
that the technology doesn’t exist to competently carry out the task when
we’ve already, on multiple occasions, put men on the moon (who don’t blow
their lines;-)
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Certainly it’s possible. Diebold just doesn’t seem up to the task. They needed
to do something along the lines of (say) offer a $50,000 prize to the first
person/group who can verifiably find a weakness in their systems. Then, fix
problems and re-run the contest, until nobody can hack it.
Better yet, publish the source code so people can find holes in it. You could
argue that this allows 3rd party hackers knowledge into how to hack the system,
but even WORSE is if you’ve got only a select group of *insiders* who know the
same vulnerabilities, because it’s much less likely to get noticed, and will
continue to persist.
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Or, how about this: I enter my SS#, I enter my vote. That way there is a
permanent record of how I voted.
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Honestly, I like the idea of this as an *option*. Sure, some people are paranoid
about people knowing how they voted, but others of us aren’t. If you put your
vote on record, bam. Verifiable.
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I guess the bottom line is whether one trusts our government.
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It’s definitely true. I have no *actual* assurances that there aren’t cameras in
voting machines I’ve used that have tabulated my vote and my identity, and have
switched my vote around. I just trust that everyone involved is honest, and that
the likelihood of a vast, competant conspiracy is small.
But the problem here is that it’s not the government we’re trusting. As tests
have shown, the problem is that individuals can hack the voting machines. And I
*don’t* trust every J. Random voter.
DaveE
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