25 October 2005

Electronic Voting not Ready for Prime Time

That's what a GAO report concluded last Friday. The report considers issues of security and reliability, neither of which are satisfactory at this point. That's sure to surprise Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who has had no shame touting his partisan ignorance for the past 18 months on this issue. Ney believes e-voting technology is perfectly secure and anyone who disagrees is an America-hating liberal homosexual atheist.

The report makes several recommendations, most of which seem fairly obvious (ensure proper testing, ensure conformity to local election systems, e.g.). But then there's this: "draft changes to existing federal voluntary standards for voting systems, including provisions addressing security and reliability."

Voluntary? Compliance with federal voting standards is voluntary? Suddenly Britney Spears' motherhood doesn't look so ridiculous.

According to the report "there is a risk that many state and local jurisdictions will rely on voting systems that were not developed, acquired, tested, operated or managed in accordance with rigorous security and reliability standards -- potentially affecting the reliability of future elections and voter confidence in the accuracy of the vote count."

Happy voting!

No comments: