My friend R over at Ambiguous.org has for a while been talking about the dangers inherent in new electronic voting systems, which could potentially be hacked. Well, R, you are now joined by this New York Times article:
For more than a year, [leading electronic-ballot manufacturer] Diebold … has been fighting conspiracy theories popularized on the Internet that say its Jetsons-at-the-polling-place wares serve as cover for an ongoing effort to stuff electronic ballot boxes on behalf of the Republican Party.
Diebold executives, along with outside computer security experts who are seeking to fix the voting machines, say the conspiracy theories are bunk. The company’s chief executive, Walden W. O’Dell, did not help matters, though, when he sent out a fund-raising letter for the Bush campaign last summer saying he was committed to “helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president next year.”
Sure, it’s an administration with a fuzzy record on fair balloting. And sure, it’s an impossible-to-audit new voting system developed by a company committed to this administration’s reelection. But surely democracy is too precious to everyone involved for them to tweak it. So let’s all just trust the powers that be to guarantee our freedom, safety and democracy. Because the price of freedom is eternally trusting our leaders. Isn’t that how it works?
Also published on Medium.