24 Aug 2004
Vote count at mercy of clandestine testing

We are setting ourselves up for a repeat of the 'Fiasco of 2000', this time with dangling bits instead of hanging chads:

"I find it grotesque that an organization charged with such a heavy responsibility feels no obligation to explain to anyone what it is doing," Michael Shamos, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist and electronic voting expert, told lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
"Grotesque" is an understatement ... if this mess isn't resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned by November, we could easily enter a situation where every election is determined not by voters, but by lawyers, courts and judges.

The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and refuse to discuss flaws in the ATM-like machines to be used by nearly one in three voters in November.

(link) [CNN]

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