Tuesday, November 07, 2006

USA: hacking democracy

They have them there elections in the US today. For many outsiders, the US voting system appears a ramshackle, third-world affair.

Unlike other countries where the voting system is uniform across a nation, in the US each state is responsible for deciding the method of voting as well as organising and running elections, be they state or federal.

Since there are fifty states, throughout the US there are a variety of voting methods: hand counted paper ballots; mechanical lever machines; punchcards; optical scan systems; and the leave-no-paper-trail electronic voting machines.

The latter are wide open for manipulation for those with nefarious intent.

Scary stuff. . . an HBO Special -- Hacking Democracy (72 min): googlevideo

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