Comments on: Democracy Shouldn’t Require a Ph.D. http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/ Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology Fri, 25 May 2012 18:27:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: dave byrd http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-46150 dave byrd Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:29:33 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-46150 <p>1st - i am not the diebold guy - though stunned to see my name in lights and associated with this outfit.<br><br>2nd - the powers that be simply dont want a tamper-proof system - otherwise how could they sell it to foreign 'democracies' for the goal of predetermining their election outcomes. go empire?<br><br>3rd - i would prefer to vote with my cell phone - over 220M cell phones in US today and rising, 72% penetration. Only 122M voted in '04 presidential election or 40% of the population. May disciminate against the poor and uneducated, but they could still go to polling stations. If SSN is linked to account and business phones are excluded, it could ensure "one person - one vote". Although privacy is out the window - but i dont mind.</p> 1st – i am not the diebold guy – though stunned to see my name in lights and associated with this outfit.

2nd – the powers that be simply dont want a tamper-proof system – otherwise how could they sell it to foreign ‘democracies’ for the goal of predetermining their election outcomes. go empire?

3rd – i would prefer to vote with my cell phone – over 220M cell phones in US today and rising, 72% penetration. Only 122M voted in ’04 presidential election or 40% of the population. May disciminate against the poor and uneducated, but they could still go to polling stations. If SSN is linked to account and business phones are excluded, it could ensure “one person – one vote”. Although privacy is out the window – but i dont mind.

]]> By: dave byrd http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-35034 dave byrd Fri, 15 Sep 2006 04:29:33 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-35034 <p>1st - i am not the diebold guy - though stunned to see my name in lights and associated with this outfit.</p> <p>2nd - the powers that be simply dont want a tamper-proof system - otherwise how could they sell it to foreign 'democracies' for the goal of predetermining their election outcomes. go empire?</p> <p>3rd - i would prefer to vote with my cell phone - over 220M cell phones in US today and rising, 72% penetration. Only 122M voted in '04 presidential election or 40% of the population. May disciminate against the poor and uneducated, but they could still go to polling stations. If SSN is linked to account and business phones are excluded, it could ensure "one person - one vote". Although privacy is out the window - but i dont mind.</p> 1st – i am not the diebold guy – though stunned to see my name in lights and associated with this outfit.

2nd – the powers that be simply dont want a tamper-proof system – otherwise how could they sell it to foreign ‘democracies’ for the goal of predetermining their election outcomes. go empire?

3rd – i would prefer to vote with my cell phone – over 220M cell phones in US today and rising, 72% penetration. Only 122M voted in ’04 presidential election or 40% of the population. May disciminate against the poor and uneducated, but they could still go to polling stations. If SSN is linked to account and business phones are excluded, it could ensure “one person – one vote”. Although privacy is out the window – but i dont mind.

]]> By: Luis Villa http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-46149 Luis Villa Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:48:21 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-46149 <p>Brian: banks and Vegas. Hire a bunch of slot machine guys and they could do this in their spare time :)</p> Brian: banks and Vegas. Hire a bunch of slot machine guys and they could do this in their spare time :)

]]> By: Luis Villa http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-35033 Luis Villa Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:48:21 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-35033 <p>Brian: banks and Vegas. Hire a bunch of slot machine guys and they could do this in their spare time :)</p> Brian: banks and Vegas. Hire a bunch of slot machine guys and they could do this in their spare time :)

]]> By: Luis Villa http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-46148 Luis Villa Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:40:39 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-46148 <p>The push for electronic voting isn't going away, unfortunately- perceived efficiencies and the (very real) problem of paper ballot stuffing will make it inevitable. Might as well push for it to be open source- I think <a href="http://tieguy.org/blog/2006/09/14/red-hats-next-outside-the-box-program-electronic-voting/" rel="nofollow">Red Hat ought to take the project on.</a></p> The push for electronic voting isn’t going away, unfortunately- perceived efficiencies and the (very real) problem of paper ballot stuffing will make it inevitable. Might as well push for it to be open source- I think Red Hat ought to take the project on.

]]> By: Brian Moore http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-46147 Brian Moore Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:32:42 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-46147 <p>What boggles my mind is: I'm a programmer -- this isn't hard stuff. The design of a secure, option selecting system is trivial stuff -- banks do far more complex things with billions of dollars every day. Why is it hard to do this? Why are there bugs? You present a hardcoded list of options and count the number of times each button is pressed. Then, allow ZERO physical data access to the machine until the election is over. That's it. Monkeys could program that. What's the problem here?</p> What boggles my mind is: I’m a programmer — this isn’t hard stuff. The design of a secure, option selecting system is trivial stuff — banks do far more complex things with billions of dollars every day. Why is it hard to do this? Why are there bugs? You present a hardcoded list of options and count the number of times each button is pressed. Then, allow ZERO physical data access to the machine until the election is over. That’s it. Monkeys could program that. What’s the problem here?

]]> By: Luis Villa http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-35032 Luis Villa Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:40:39 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-35032 <p>The push for electronic voting isn't going away, unfortunately- perceived efficiencies and the (very real) problem of paper ballot stuffing will make it inevitable. Might as well push for it to be open source- I think <a href="http://tieguy.org/blog/2006/09/14/red-hats-next-outside-the-box-program-electronic-voting/" rel="nofollow">Red Hat ought to take the project on.</a></p> The push for electronic voting isn’t going away, unfortunately- perceived efficiencies and the (very real) problem of paper ballot stuffing will make it inevitable. Might as well push for it to be open source- I think Red Hat ought to take the project on.

]]> By: Brian Moore http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-35031 Brian Moore Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:32:42 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-35031 <p>What boggles my mind is: I'm a programmer -- this isn't hard stuff. The design of a secure, option selecting system is trivial stuff -- banks do far more complex things with billions of dollars every day. Why is it hard to do this? Why are there bugs? You present a hardcoded list of options and count the number of times each button is pressed. Then, allow ZERO physical data access to the machine until the election is over. That's it. Monkeys could program that. What's the problem here?</p> What boggles my mind is: I’m a programmer — this isn’t hard stuff. The design of a secure, option selecting system is trivial stuff — banks do far more complex things with billions of dollars every day. Why is it hard to do this? Why are there bugs? You present a hardcoded list of options and count the number of times each button is pressed. Then, allow ZERO physical data access to the machine until the election is over. That’s it. Monkeys could program that. What’s the problem here?

]]> By: Walter E. Wallis http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-46146 Walter E. Wallis Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:06:30 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-46146 <p>I suspect an old IBMer could play tricks on the patch board of one of the ballot readers, and tossing ballot boxes into the bay isn't high tech.</p> I suspect an old IBMer could play tricks on the patch board of one of the ballot readers, and tossing ballot boxes into the bay isn’t high tech.

]]> By: Walter E. Wallis http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/comment-page-1/#comment-35030 Walter E. Wallis Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:06:30 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2006/09/14/democracy-shouldnt-require-a-phd/#comment-35030 <p>I suspect an old IBMer could play tricks on the patch board of one of the ballot readers, and tossing ballot boxes into the bay isn't high tech.</p> I suspect an old IBMer could play tricks on the patch board of one of the ballot readers, and tossing ballot boxes into the bay isn’t high tech.

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