Geodog

Voting Technology as Magic (or not)

I posted earlier about the open source auditable touchscreen voting system developed by Open Voting Consortium. I don't know whether the system does everything they claim it can, however, unlike proprietary systems like Diebold's voting machines, anyone will be free to examine the inner workings of their system to see for themselves how it works, and will be free critique it or improve upon it themselves.

The whole voting machine issue reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The voting machine vendors want people to think that their technology is magic -- you touch the screen and your vote is instantly recorded and counted at the central office and sent to the TV networks so they can declare a winner as soon as the polls close. Computer professionals and academics, who have been at the forefront of the opposition to the adoption of audit-less blackbox voting technology, work with technology every day and know that it is as subject to Murphy's Law as any other human endeavour.