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from the confusing-cost-with-effectiveness dept.
Picked via Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram, the story of a massive electronic vote miscount, luckily paper ballots were available
Vote totals in a Northampton County judge's race showed one candidate, Abe Kassis, a Democrat, had just 164 votes out of 55,000 ballots across more than 100 precincts. Some machines reported zero votes for him. In a county with the ability to vote for a straight-party ticket, one candidate's zero votes was a near statistical impossibility. Something had gone quite wrong.
The worse news:
The machines that broke in Northampton County are called the ExpressVoteXL and are made by Election Systems & Software, a major manufacturer of election machines used across the country. The ExpressVoteXL is among their newest and most high-end machines, a luxury "one-stop" voting system that combines a 32-inch touch screen and a paper ballot printer.
The good news was that the chairwoman of the county Republicans realized the numbers made no sense and promptly initiated an investigation. When officials counted the paper backup ballots generated by the same machines, they realized Kassis had narrowly won.
How many trees still need to die until humans learn how to do voting properly?
Note: the original story ran on nytimes, but I respect their choice to not let me read their stories with 'Do not track' activated
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Monday December 16 2019, @09:57PM (11 children)
*I* almost had a heart attack when I heard this part.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @10:16PM
Well, there's at least one *honest* Republican in Pennsylvania, perhaps the only one in the US.
Maybe it'll start a trend. I won't hold my breath.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday December 16 2019, @10:21PM
It's important to them that the elections don't appear to be a sham, even if they are shams. That's the difference between being able to dismiss anyone questioning the election results as a conspiracy nutter, and the evidence being so clear that it's impossible to do that and thus the legitimacy of the government is called into question.
That's why the goal of election riggers in non-packed districts is to have the victory for $MY_TEAM to be over the threshhold for triggering hand recounts and other close scrutiny, but no more than about a 5-10% margin of victory so it's believable. The packed districts are effectively conceded to $THEIR_TEAM, which means they can operate as a controlled opposition in legislatures and such even as they're barred from making any kind of actual decisions.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday December 16 2019, @10:30PM
In Dungeons & Dragons, the Drow are a Chaotic Evil race of Dark Elves. The race, their religion (the Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders) and everything about them is evil. Yet one of the most famous heroes of the Forgotten Realms is a Dark Elf named Drizzt Do'Urden - an outcast who has turned his back on the evil nature of his race and is trying to make his way in a world that will automatically assume the worst of him because of his lineage.
May I suggest that the Republican County Chairwoman, Lee Snover, be hereby known as Lee "Drizzt" Snover?
(Score: 4, Informative) by progo on Monday December 16 2019, @10:37PM
Elections only get audited when 1) there IS a paper output and 2) someone NOTICES that the result is statistically impossible.
Do you really think that no one with an opportunity and motive to skew election results isn't doing it? It's probably happening everywhere, not necessarily in a grand conspiracy with central leaders.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday December 16 2019, @10:46PM
Apologies for that.
I'll do my best to give you the real thing next time (large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17 2019, @04:51AM (3 children)
Just imagine if next fall that the orange alien got 90% of the vote like Putin. Maybe the pitchforks and guns would come out.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 17 2019, @08:13AM (2 children)
Just imagine if next fall that the orange alien got 90% of the vote like Putin.
Trump/Clinton got 94.3% of the vote, and nobody says a thing
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday December 17 2019, @12:25PM (1 child)
Now that would truly be the ticket from hell itself....
Seeing this caused me to call my shrink for an emergency appointment.
My god man, are you trying to give us nightmares?!?!?!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 17 2019, @04:01PM
On the radio they play the battling Bickersons. In real life they are swingers.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17 2019, @10:19AM (1 child)
Had it been the other way around, nothing would have been said or done.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 17 2019, @09:12PM
Why so hopeless and final, your heath insurance doesn't cover ambulance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford