Comments on: Open Source Can Fix Voting Woes

By: Pierce R. Butler

Pierce R. Butler — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:24:22 +0000

G. Laden: Thankew, thankew very much. Where would you like to be ambassador to?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:10:07 +0000

Nelson, you must be from Boston. .. . But seriously, Mayor Curly never faked a vote in his life. Really.(but really seriously, you are absolutely correct)P. Butler: I’m writing your name in today. Butler for President!

By: Pierce R. Butler

Pierce R. Butler — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:02:05 +0000

Corrupt(ible) voting software is only part of the structural crisis facing US democracy.Paper ballots, regular audits, competent and non-partisan voting management, instant run-off balloting, proportional representation, vigorous enforcement of improved campaign laws, independent redistricting commissions, campaign finance reform, restoration of the Fairness Doctrine, extreme media trustbusting, and abolition of the Electoral College might be enough to turn the present trends back towards something resembling democratic institutions.Just to be safe, we should also remove from the judiciary all Bush appointees & appointers, jail Karl Rove and deport Rupert Murdoch.

By: Nelson Muntz

Nelson Muntz — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:06:07 +0000

Something to never lose sight of: Voting machines, at best, reliably tally votes, but votes don’t decide elections, only totals do.If each of 100 machines tallies 200 votes for Moe and 300 votes for Larry, but the totals for that precinct give 10,000 for Moe, 15,000 for Larry, and 150,000 votes for Curly, then Curly wins by a landslide, even though no machine tallied any vote for him, and there were 125,000 more votes counted than votes cast.The machines not only have to work reliably, but their tallies have to be copied faithfully, and the totaling has to work correctly all the way up the line.There is no point wasting time on machines or their software if the entire system is wide open to wholesale fraud.