Florida Literally Scraps Touch-Screen Voting

Kaseijin writes "Florida Governor Charlie Crist is getting his wish. The New York Times reports the state will replace touch-screen voting machines with optical-scan models by July 1, 2008 — the most aggressive timetable of any jurisdiciton rethinking this approach to voting. The touch-screen machines most likely will be sold to other jurisdictions or stripped for parts."

great idea

[ILuvRamen]

I think we should buy one for each Slashdot 10th anniversary party and smash them.

Parts?

[Klaidas]

Stripped for parts? Am I the only one thinking there won't be much of a demand for those? :/

ah my eyes!

[quaketripp]

At first I was equating optical to retinal scan voting -- "Sorry, the correct choice was --" "AHHH! MY EYES!" In more rational terms, this is good, there should be a paper trail which is key to our voting process. You fill the circle in with a marker, slide the ballot in the dealy, it counts, and you can do a manual recount if needed. That's what is truly required.

Re:Parts?

[larry bagina]

My interest waned after looking at the Specs [sequoiavote.com]:

• 38-40 pounds
• (possibly related) lead acid battery

Literally?

[Anonymous Coward]

As opposed to figuratively?

Re:It wont matter

[WPIDalamar]

Also won't matter since Florida voters can't seem to figure out the whole voting thing anyways...

Do they blend?

[WindowlessView]

Aggh,someone had to ask it.

Another benefit of optical scan counting

[Colin Smith]

Is that you can design the voting form in such a way to fix one of the fundamental problems with democracy. You can make it confusing enough that those with insufficient I.Q. [bbc.co.uk] are able only to spoil their ballots, thereby improving the overall level of decision making by the then elected government.

 

Re:Parts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of voting machine parts!

Re:Parts?

[nilbud]

Performance measured in chads per second.

I LIKE eVOTING because...

[JackMeyhoff]

.. I take along my PERMENANT marker and place a HUGE BLACK [X] on the SCREEN :)

Re:Literally?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"As opposed to figuratively?"

Gah, don't be so literal.

Re:Will the new system be any more reliable?

[courseofhumanevents]

I just drew penises all over the ballet sheet. Accomplishes the same thing, takes less effort.

Re:Parts?

[thegnu]

"Proprietary firmware on closed system prevents hacker access"

The proof is in the pudding. The elections were NOT hacked, because it's not hacking if you have a password. :-)

Re:Paper?

[noidentity]

"As a Canadian, I've never voted with anything other than a paper ballot, and I have never had a reason to question the voting process as a result."

America is the land of opportunity, like the opportunity to question the integrity of the voting process! I hope I've answered your question.