US Voting Machines Standards Open To Public

Online Voting writes "The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has published new voting systems testing and certification standards for 190 days of public comment. For all the critics of electronic voting, this is your opportunity to improve the process. This will be the second version of the federal voting system standards (the first version is the VVSG 05). To learn more about these Voluntary Voting System Standards see this FAQ."

I for one....

[edwardpickman]

prefer our Diebold Overlords. It takes all the guesswork out of the voting process. There's something comforting knowing the outcome of an election months before the day.

Re:How about

[megaditto]

Receipt is a great idea.
For one, you could get a discount on your union dues with a Democrat on your voter receipt.
Or you could use it to secure your job (since your boss won't fire you if he can see you voted Republican).
Or you could sell it to the highest bidder: exchage your Billary/Osama receipt for a $20 gift card (for example). Buying votes otherwise is a real pain: people take your money but can still vote for the other guy if you don't watch them.

Vote counting research

[slashqwerty]

Dear grahamsz,

In response to your question, "Is there really a concern that some competing software vendor will copy their 'tally up the votes' routine", we here at Diebold take great pride in the quality of our product. Our "tally up the votes"TM routine is a prized trade secret developed through extensive research and experimentation. If our competitors could simply copy our unique technique for counting votes they could develop the same product without incurring the significant costs of researching how to count.

I'm sure you can appreciate the sensitive technical know-how at the core of our product. Only a few vendors have discovered the secret to counting votes. If this knowledge became public anyone could count see how we count votes which would take away our incentive to create a much valued product which serves to protect democracy.

God Bless America,
Tom Swidarski
CEO of Diebold, Inc.

Re:big problem

[YourExperiment]

Here in Canada, voting takes maybe half an hour at most

Here in the UK, it takes no more than a couple of minutes. You turn up to find a mostly empty hall, because no-one has bothered turning out to vote. You spend 30 seconds or so wondering why you've bothered, since all of the candidates are lying bastards anyway, and their policies are broadly the same as everyone else's. Then you put a cross in a box next to the name of some guy who has no chance of being elected anyway, and you piss off home again, with a nice warm glow inside from having participated in the democratic process.