About half of all voters will use machines unlike the ones they used in the last presidential election.
Ian Urbina, “Influx of Voters Expected to Test New Technology,” NYT July 21, 2008 (emphasis added)
Picture it: Election Day November 4, thousands of polling stations nationwide with their brand new machines, millions of people lined up to cast their vote for... the wrong guy. Or should I say the candidate preferred by (a) the company that installed the “private, trade secret” software; (b) the secretary of state in your previously Red but possibly swing state; (c) the ABB (Anybody But Barack) crowd? Even if the precinct volunteers include computer whizzes, I challenge them to work out the kinks in the untested (in the real world) machines so that everyone who’s lined up will be able to vote before closing time.
If you doubt that the nation that made “American” and “democracy” almost synonymous is capable of muffing yet another election, then perhaps you should watch David Earnhardt’s film “Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections.” I am way overdue writing about a showing of the film in June by Democrats Abroad Belgium, when the euphoria (for the Obama crowd) and the disappointment (of the Clinton camp) of the then just-ended primary race was tempered by the realities shown in Earnhardt’s film. Check out the film’s official site, along with its regularly updated blog. There are plenty of links and issue papers, along with clips from the film.
I hesitate before damning new technology, especially since the Democrats Abroad Global Primary – where we voted online – was such a success. I started voting (in Pennsylvania) when the state still used booths with levers (I’m glad to see that New York State still does), and voted as an absentee Florida voter for years, carefully ensuring that my chads were not hanging. But even before watching Uncounted, any sentient voter with a smidgen of sincerity would admit to not really entrusting the machines which record choices on who gets to run the United States (or represent them in Congress, or run their school board) to the same kind of geeks who imbed porn in kids’ computer games.
Computers can do the damnedest things... Or, I should say, the people who program them. How about this one: somebody I only know vaguely “invites” me to a McCain gathering in Pennsylvania. I guess he didn’t know that I am a lifelong Democrat, and have openly blogged for Obama. Anyway, the McCain invitation had the usual “accept,” and “decline” boxes, and I chose the latter, given my political leanings and geographic location (wrong continent). Lo and behold, the next screen showed me as accepting, confirmed some days later with directions to the event in Lancaster PA. I can just see it now in November – clicking Obama and getting confirmation of my vote for... McCain. It’s called “vote flipping” when it happens on election day, and it’s in Uncounted.
So, as Bela Lugosi said, “Bevare!” Bevare! of the people who want to make voting so painless that they say paper trails are a pain. Bevare! of county commissioners so in thrall to Diebold that they oust a Republican conservative whistle blower who shines a bright light on voting machine “security flaws.” Good thing the OSCE – the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the people who advise countries like Moldova on democratization – is again sending observers to the US in November.
Things should be fine, as long as the foreigners stick to pre-selected “designated sites.” So if your precinct isn’t one that lucks out and gets an OSCE delegation, you’ll just have to keep your eyes peeled for hanky-panky. Hard to do when it all happens inside the hard drive.
