In honor of election day, today’s Technology Review email has published links to a handful of articles on electronic voting, some of which are available for free to non-subscribers:
From the editorial:
The real problem is how HAVA was implemented. Because of our American preference for free-market solutions, our respect for intellectual property, and our impatience with outmoded technologies, we encouraged multiple private companies to hurriedly develop proprietary systems whose software they owned and administered. The results were predictably messy; and the companies, protecting their investments, were predictably secretive.
By contrast, in other countries electronic voting is a public utility, where the machines are owned and maintained by the state. Not coincidentally, electronic voting has been used without incident in countries as various as Australia, Brazil, and India.
Elsewhere, but apparently not online, I was really pleased with the inside-the-back-cover piece from this month’s
Wired. This section, “Found” is subtitled “artifacts from the future,” and this month’s featured a full-page photograph of an electronic voting receipt. It was packed with implicit little details about how electronic voting might really work. Of course, it didn’t have to tussle with some of the tough issues. I’ll keep on the lookout for an online version, or maybe I’ll find a scanner and put up a copy myself. Otherwise, take a peek next time you’re at the newsstand.
I couldn’t let this one pass: a clip from a short video of the Great Leader preparing for a TV shoot. This may be from his days as a Governor; he looks and sounds kind of young.
