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Monday, June 14, 2004

Gambling on the upcoming elections

Sounds fair enough to me:

Gambling on Voting

If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. To appreciate how poor the oversight on voting systems is, it’s useful to look at the way Nevada systematically ensures that electronic gambling machines in Las Vegas operate honestly and accurately. Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.

More specifically, the editorial goes on to enumerate half a dozen things that are done to make gambling safe that notably are not being done with electronic voting:


  1. The state has access to all gambling software.
  2. The software on gambling machines is constantly being spot-checked.
  3. There are meticulous, constantly updated standards for gambling machines.
  4. Manufacturers are intensively scrutinized before they are licensed to sell gambling software or hardware.
  5. The lab that certifies gambling equipment has an arms-length relationship with the manufacturers it polices, and is open to inquiries from the public.
  6. When there is a dispute about a machine, a gambler has a right to an immediate investigation.

Go read the rest of the article, and then call your congressperson.

Posted by Sako in • Politics
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