Problem (was: Re: need help with tool requirement)

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004, at 8:13am, travis at scootz.net wrote:
> I always wondered about this sudden desire to audit the voting system.

  The issue with the close electoral vote for the US President in Dade
County in Florida during 2000 woke up the unthinking masses to the fact that
the the mechanics of the voting process are (like all human endeavors)
imperfect.

  A statistician will tell you that the vote in question was so close as to
be within the margin for error of *any* polling system.  That effectively
makes it a tie.  Of course, many people were not willing to accept the
facts, and played arbitrary legal games instead.  Denial is a common theme
in human history.

  Alas, many still have such an unthinking faith in technology that they
believe throwing more of it at the problem will make it go away.

  As you say, I am in favor of electronic voting systems, but only because I
feel such a system is likely to be more efficient.  It's purely an
engineering decision.  I hold no illusions that an electronic voting system
would have changed the situation in the 2000 election one bit.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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