We here in America are real slow learners.  We are quick to act yet slow to think.  And we, apparently, just don't really give a damn how many times we are taken to the cleaners.  Case in point, Computer voting machines.  Time and time again, the reliability of Computer voting machines has come into question.  There were problems with them in the 2000 election, so all these different companies (and the same old companies with different names)  have been redesigning and promoting their separate systems.  Some of these prohibit anyone - even election officials - from knowing how they count the votes. There is no way at all to check whether the machines are reporting correct results. It is a matter of trusting these companies and not of proving to the average voter that the results can be trusted.  I say FUCK that.  These systems can be hacked, and by default we must assume that they will be hacked.
  Why do we not just use paper ballets marked by pen, put into a box and counted by hand under the watchful eye of independent poll observers?  Don't buy any of these glitzy computer machines from these slim ball voteing machine companies...We don't need them.  we just need a good old fashioned accurate count.

We trust ATMs and electronic transfers with billions of dollars daily....why not votes?

If the system used by banking is vulnerable, why isn't it exploited?

Well....Mr Fastlane......is it possible to institute the same type of "real" security into voting?

If we start from scratch on a system like this, I would like to add a one time "proof of citizenship/qualification" prior to being issued your voting ATM card.

Very poor comparison.
 ATMs are used by millions of people with millions of transactions everyday and there is a very strong monetary incentive to those who run them to make sure they are secure. A problem can be discovered and corrected in no time and still there is some electronic ATM bank fraud.
 Voting machines are used every two years or once a year at best. By the time a problem or a breach in security is discovered ,the election is over, time goes by and everyone forgets. Computer voting errors and hacking WILL bring the end to representational government in America. If the polling place can't be trusted the entire system falls apart.
  Where I vote we still use paper ballots with one computer voting station . At the last election the poll worker asked why no one would use the computer station and chose to wait in line for the paper ballot booths instead. I answered "because I want mine to count" every one in line laughed in agreement and some applauded. No one moved from line. If there were no choice and only computer voting I believe many would stay at home...I may well myself.

  With computer voting machines you just need to get to the programmer.  A paper system you'd have to get thousands of people.


  Reganite, I live in the real World.  Where we have real problems that no one but a buffoon could find "funny".  So you can take your smiley faced, cowboy hat wearing, rosy cheeked "conspiracy freaks" comment, pack it into the shape of Bonzo's banana and cram it directly up your ass. 
     Computer voting machines were hackable in 2000, 2004, 2006 and they are still hackable today.  Just keep going through life with that cavalier clown attitude.  It goes with your outfit. 
       And FYI, I'm a Republican, ass wipe.  So your partisan smears are just about as mis-directed as the majority of your opinions.

I think it would take quite a bit more than one person. It would be a huge conspiracy to pull it off.

I'm 100% for trying to improve the system at every turn but today, I just don't see a freight train heading for us down the tracks.

Thanks for the link. I watched it in its entirety. If I understand correctly, the machine is vulnerable if one is a computer programmer who can write the malicious software, has a Diebold memory card, a key to the machine (or sufficient lock picking ability) and the proper amount of time with the machine to pull off the switch-a-roo.

If all of these conditions are met, they will manage to skew the votes of that one machine.

If the virus spread to EVERY Diebold machine, which, of course it wouldn't, 5% of the vote would be in danger.

I just don't see a huge problem here.

The majority of the machines are already in the polling places. If they are to be tampered, it will have to be done manually like the scientists from Princeton.


I guess you're right...I see little to no problem.