Machinist – I’m sorry, but if you’re secretary of state in, let’s say, West Virginia, and you have to state publicly (as was the case yesterday) that there are no problems with your electronic voting machines, that makes me all the more suspicious. And that’s aside from the fact that I’m suspicious of electronic voting in general, at least in this country. (That said, I’ve been extremely impressed by the online voting system used in Estonia — but that system couldn’t work in the U.S. for reasons I won’t get into here.)
One of the basic problems of voting technology, whether electronic or not, is that there’s no real way for anyone to verify that their vote was counted properly. Regardless of whether I push a button on a screen, or I drop my paper in a ballot box, I’m essentially taking it on faith that my vote was recorded and tallied accurately. Even if voter monitoring groups had people in every precinct, it still wouldn’t be possible.
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