Not-so, apparently:
[. . .]Even given little-Caligula, I can't quite get jelloware around the idea of any voting scheme ELIMINATING write-ins, to accommodate some bloody box of transistors.
Here's a little Voting machine hack I tried a week ago, using nothing but the normal user interface.
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Tuesday was voting day. I live in a small town and as the only thing on the
ballot was "School Board" and "City Council", the turnout was small. In my
voting precinct the total at the end of the day was in the low 200's. Several
people who know me were working the poll, so I got feedback within an hour of
closing.
Not too long ago, the town switched to "Touch Screen" electronic voting. As
many of you know, this is often referred to as "black box" voting and is an
ongoing political and technical debate.
When I went in to vote, one of the screens said "Select up to 3" and
displayed a list of candidates for "School Board", and a "write-in" section.
I voted for one of the school board candidates then on a lark, decided to try
the write-in function, I'd never used that before so I entered my own name.
Sure enough, it accepted it and I finished and left for work.
During the drive to work I got to wondering; does the software check for
duplicate write-ins from the same voter? Unfortunately I'd already voted so
couldn't test it, ... or could I?
I got home an hour before the polls closed and asked my newly registered
voter Son if he'd voted. He said he had not and didn't intend to do so.
Normally I'd then provide the standard lecture on voting and making your
voice heard, but this was too good an opportunity. I explained the hack I
wanted to try and my son rushed out with a grin to see if he could write my
name in all three times. Fifteen minutes later he was back to announce that
the machine took it.
Three hours later, I got the poll results:
I received 4 Votes!
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I'd tell the town about the problem, but I'm afraid they will simply acuse me of "evil".
Posted by: Oopsee at May 12, 2006 07:34 PM
(Though I can easily expect there be a large number of defectives who would think Nothing of it - if they could arrange it.)
A.