Thought experiment

[unixronin]

cipherpunk posted yesterday about a paper on the weaknesses of DRE voting machines.  And it got me thinking.

Suppose that every state, when requesting bids for voting machines, were to include a clause like the following in the request for proposals:

"n.  By submitting a bid in response to this request, you grant permission for an independent security audit of the submitted voting equipment prior to completion of the bid process, said audit to be performed by agents including but not limited to an agent or multiple agents appointed by $state, and agree to cooperate fully and in a timely manner with any and all such audits."

I think the results might be interesting.  Discuss.

Comments

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

(What amazes me is that things have happened as blatant as some Ohio districts in the last election returning more votes for one candidate than the total number of people who voted in that district, and still very few people stood up and said "Hey, we have a real problem here.")

Most of us who did were accused of being racist, corrupt, Republicans trying to keep people down.

And were outshouted by many such who insist - DEMAND - that since almost no prosecutions have taken place, that it's proven that voter fraud doesn't exist.

....

"If it was done successfully (in many cases), how could you even prosecute it? It's a secret ballot, after all?"

"See! No problems!"

It's a particular kind of blindness that really tends to affect those who thinks that they can skew the results their way. I don't think it's easily an "evenhanded" accusation, it affect the Leftish much more than the Rightwards. Most of the right leaners at least pay lip service to the concept of playing by a set, defined set of rules, and not changing them in mid-course.

The leftish sorts don't. In their policy preferences, rules, and guidelines. Leading to all sorts of problems. (In case anybody wants to quibble: Policy Preferences - the vitrol thrown at the FBI when it was discovered that they were "wiretapping" the kidnappers of the American soldiers (still in enemy hands) in Iraq, and upon finding that they'd crossed into the US in terms of wiretapping laws, and they stopped listening and recording. Several prominent Democrats savaged the FBI, demanded names of those agents who dared to obey the law. Rather than deal with exceptions up front, most of the left tend to want to make exceptions on a case by case basis, most notably based upon the "right-thinkingness" of the suspect in question.)

Thus the problem with voting. I've seen many cases of people registered in 2, or even 3 states, and voting. But since they're almost all Democrat, and the illegals voting are voting D, then the left side of the country is going to fight tooth and nail to prevent anything to close those gaps and set up a standard set of rules and checks.

Until, of course, it becomes noticed that all the capitalist corporations that are providing the machinery are all Republican "shills" [sic]...

If you set the system up correctly, it won't matter.

Back to your main point, there's no reason the contract couldn't have that. I've seen several financial system bids with something very similar. Outside audit, results publicly accessible.

In my opinion, it shouldn't be just for voting machines, but any equipment purchased with tax dollars. DUI machines. Blood testers. Red light cameras (aha! they're leased! (just for that very reason)).


But right now, illegal voting definitely benefits one partisan side, and until that's addressed, it's not going to be seen as a partisan attack against them to "deny" them their "advantage".

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And were outshouted by many such who insist - DEMAND - that since almost no prosecutions have taken place, that it's proven that voter fraud doesn't exist.

By that logic, none of Ted Bundy's victims were a problem until he was actually caught and put on trial. Ditto the Green River Killer or any other serial killer in history.

In my opinion, it shouldn't be just for voting machines, but any equipment purchased with tax dollars. DUI machines. Blood testers. Red light cameras (aha! they're leased! (just for that very reason)).

I'd go along with that.