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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: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @09:53PM (5 children)
The company that had promised to give... Bush? the election a decade or so ago.
The surprising part here is there is still an apparently honest Republican out there, unless they realized this was such a sham win that it would result in bloodshed or a larger investigation they would rather avoid... Pardon my cynicism, but neither party has been showing their best colors in the recent past.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday December 16 2019, @10:22PM (3 children)
Don't count on it. Most likely, the guy had no choice but to do the right thing, because had he done nothing, he'd have been exposed trying to cheat by ignoring a problem he couldn't possibly ignore.
Pardon my cynicism, but when in the history of politics have you seen any party or party member show their best colors?
Rich Hall once said something like this: "Always remember that a candidate to an election is someone who wakes up one morning, looks at himself in the mirror and says 'I know what the people needs, and that's me.'" He jested, but this joke is actually a profound insight on the mindset of the men who pretend to represent us, and why they can hardly be counted upon to be trustworthy or behave properly.
(Score: 4, Touché) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 17 2019, @01:00AM
Unless that person says, "Geez, I can do a better job than *these* guys."
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday December 17 2019, @04:43AM
Thank for reminding me that I shouldn't toss my hat in the ring for a local office, even though some people have have been pushing me me to step up.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dry on Tuesday December 17 2019, @08:55PM
America does seem to have a chronic problem with election shenanigans. Unluckily the Republicans have been teaching their methods to other countries right wing parties.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Monday December 16 2019, @10:44PM
Almost correct. [wikipedia.org]
This is to show that the competition is not who delivers proper e-voting machines, but only who takes the money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford