Why is so hard to make a working voting machine?

It is not clear whether the manufacturers of the machines have their own agendas and that the machines are not created to be vulnerable to manipulation and fraud.

I’m with Marina. It’s not that hard to make a secure verifiable voting machine but the right wing leader of Diebold was quoted as saying, “I would do anything to make Bush win the presidency.” (Of course this was a few years ago but it’s not that hard to figure out who he’d want to win this year)

I looked for a link but couldn’t find it. It was a huge news story when it happened.

Government contracts aren’t usually awarded based on competence. They are awarded based on who you know and what you can do for them.

Come to America to see democracy in action where we can have faithless electors which means that in some states you should probably just stay home because your representative can vote however the hell he chooses no matter what your rigged vote says.

from the wiki
A faithless elector is one who casts an electoral vote for someone other than whom they have pledged to elect, or who refuses to vote for any candidate. There are laws to punish faithless electors in 24 states.

I heard a speech once given by some Diebold exec. where he was saying “We’re going to do everything in our power to get GW Bush elected!” Pretty scary since it seemed to have worked.

Slightly off-thread: Michael Moore told Bill Maher last night that in Canada everyone
uses the same paper ballots; you mark your choices with an “X” and a #2 pencil; and they get them all counted before bedtime. They also vote on weekends so people can get to the polls.
He pointed out that this is Canada, where some of the completed ballots have to be carried by dog sled and canoe (I think not).

As for us here in the Capitalist Republic, you know the old saying: “But there’s no money in (substitute name of foolproof low-tech methodology for high-tech easily-corrupted someone-makes-a-mint-off-it technology) THAT!”

Right judi. I think that’s the quote I was referring to. I just couldn’t find any quick google information off of it so I’m working off my flawed memory.

The short answer is that it isn’t hard to do.

@susanc I’m actually in Canada but I’m a little confused about the “they get them all counted before bedtime” comment – is there some sort of mandatory recount or embargo that delays announcing American voting results?

American ballot design completely baffles me though and if you take a look at the Canadian one you would understand why. I just don’t understand why the American one looks so obtuse and complicated.

It depends on what you mean by “work.” I’m sure the Diebold machines work just the way they’re intended to work.

The way elections are handled in this country is just ridiculous. It seems to be designed to be confusing and difficult. I don’t understand why it is not standardized, why we vote on Tuesdays, why there is any state that does not allow an extended period of time to vote (Maryland, for one, does not allow early voting), why the ballots look so damn confusing, and why on Earth we don’t have voting machines that work!

@artificial: it’s just something Michael Moore said. I was amazed too. Because here
in the U.S. our voting machines are so complex and various that we often don’t know what happened for days or, if there are lawsuits, weeks.

@susanc I guess I just assumed the Canadian way was the norm (we pretty much got our election results around 11PM-midnight on the day of voting) because the counting process is pretty straightforward: once the ballot station closes, the votes are publically counted by each station (beyond the appointed monitoring staff whomever wants to witness the count can just by present) and then the results are sent to Elections. Each station does their own count and the process is pubically viewable so it’s transparent, secure, and timely.

I don’t understand how the counting can be made to be more complicated. But I guess I’m starting to learn that Canada and the US isn’t as similar as I thought with regards to our voting process…