What a great quote! Ohio’s Secretary of State was interviewed for ComputerWorld and revealed the ridiculous level of error that was present throughout the certification and troubleshooting process. The results of the (deep breath) Evaluation & Validation of Election-Related Equipment, Standards & Testing (EVEREST) analysis were that every single system they looked at had “critical security failures” — these are the machines that may be tabulating your vote, paper or not, this coming November.
Indeed, the results were so bad that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner declared:
When I finally saw the results of our [EVEREST] tests, I thought I was going to throw up. I didn’t think it would be that bad. And it was — it was awful. I looked at it on a Saturday morning, and that night I went to bed and woke up [just before 4:00 on] Sunday morning going, “Oh my God.” I never wake up on the weekends — trust me.
Mother of God! These were the problems mocked on XKCD, but which later were found to be much deeper than a virus checker incompatibility. I’m finding it really easy to remain politically neutral here, because this isn’t a party-based problem; the idea that these machines could be running wild with our votes without being addressed for years is a failure of the entire system of oversight. Clearly incompetence is nonpartisan.
I don’t get it. Just what exactly is so hard about tabulating votes?
Nothing. Ohh.. you mean tabulating votes honestly! Well, where’s the fun (and profit) in that?
It’s a partisan issue since the majority of folks approving these machines are Republicans. And guess which voting precincts will get the broken machines? This will be a swing state issue, with districts made up of predominantly poor, minority voters being disenfranchised.
Think this doesn’t happen? How about the news story this week of low income, registered voters in Philly receiving letters warning that if they have outstanding tickets, warrants, etc, they’re subject to arrest if they show up to vote.
This isn’t an accident.
Exactly. The Repugs always cry about ‘voter fraud’ by Democrats, but the herclean task of ‘organizing’ enough felons and illegal immigrants to make a difference is about as easy and effective as herding cats. However, voter intimidation only takes a handful of no-neck Blackwater thugs and untracably stealing an election with electronic voting machines only requires a few lines of code or access to database tallies. Mission Accomplished.
Oh, I never said it was an accident, and privately I agree with you, but I also think it’s been a blunder of the entire system and bureaucracy that such a blatant problem could go untreated for so long.
Xkcd was mocking the fact that they know nothing of security at all if they are using “anti-virus” software on a voting machine.