Analysis of New Voter Machines

Published on September 8, 2004 By Gideon MacLeish In Politics

They are the technological savior of the democratic process.

They will make elections quicker, easier, and more accurate.

Or...will they?

Nevada has implemented its new touch screen voter system, unique in that it actually has a paper trail that will help in the case of recounts or suspicions of tampering. The pundits lauded these systems as they would make election results available instantaneously.

A look at yesterday's primary shows otherwise.

The newspaper had a press deadline of 10:30 pm. As of that time, election results were unavailable.

Since we're in the Pacific time zone, I am imagining the national talking heads will be a bit frustrated by the delays if the system isn't "tweaked" by November 2.

signing off,

Gideon MacLeish

Comments

ShoZan

on Sep 08, 2004

Does it still take into account if the voter who is voting is alive or dead, or registered in multiple counties, or a dog, or a cat, not to mention are they hooked up to a network that is linked to the internet or a network computer that can be access by somebody to alter the votes?

I think there will still be problems with voting even with new machines, after all new machines can't account for voter fraud, they can only make it clearer for an ignorant person to vote for who he/she is told to. Not to mention you raise the point that the system looks to be slow at the moment but with the touch screen it should be instantaneous once everybody has voted to get the results.

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 08, 2004

That's what got me. This is a PRIMARY! And our county allows early voting the week before the election (I voted last Thursday, to conserve gas), so a good number of the votes should have been registered before yesterday. The fact that it's taking so long is suspicious at best.

sandy2

on Sep 08, 2004

Lol. As long as its just Nevada. I mean hell I want to know the results before I go to bed, and we all know who Cali's going to, so maybe I need only wait up for Oregon and Washington, though knowing those Oreganians (are they oreganians? Are you nevadideirs? Am I a Michigander? who knows) I might be waiting up till midnight hawaii time. Ok. Who had a problem with the old voting system in their home state? All who did please raise their hands

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