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The FEC should be in charge of the entire voting process. What is worse: a custom designed U.S. government voting machine for all federal elections made by the

The FEC should be in charge of the entire voting process. What is worse: a custom designed U.S. government voting machine for all federal elections made by the FEC, or tens of different companies, selling their closed source machines to state governments for profit. I see issues in both systems, and in fact I'll take the current set up because my proposal requires me trusting the government more than I do now.

eridius 10y ago
Part of the problem is voting is run at the local level. I'm not sure the federal government even has the authority to tell states and counties that they must use a particular voting machine.
- undersuit 10y ago
  So you make it so the states and counties and cities and voting districts that want to use a different process for their elections don't have to use the federal machines for anything but federal votes, but you still allow the federal machines to be used for down-ballot processes.
  - eridius 10y ago
    You're still assuming that the federal government has the authority to dictate the voting process used for federal elections. IANAL and I don't actually know what the legality here is, but my assumption is the federal government doesn't have that authority, given that if it did, it probably would have exercised it by now.
  - gohrt 10y ago
    Even simpler, just ask the President to decide who won each Federal race.
jerf 10y ago
"What is worse: a custom designed U.S. government voting machine for all federal elections made by the FEC, or tens of different companies, selling their closed source machines to state governments for profit." Um, I see what you're getting at, but the government would definitely create a monoculture and may create a single point of failure. The choice is less obvious than you may think is based on your phrasing. To which I'd say the solution is less about getting the FEC to do it, and more about the process. This needs to be an open and very public affair. It doesn't help us to have the FEC do it if they do it behind closed doors and create a closed-source computer-based system that requires all voting machines to be hooked over insecure networks to a central closed-source insecure server or something.
- undersuit 10y ago
  >It doesn't help us to have the FEC do it if they do it behind closed doors and create a closed-source computer-based system that requires all voting machines to be hooked over insecure networks to a central closed-source insecure server or something. I did say the FEC isn't a good option now and I didn't really want to enumerate all my reasons, but you are covering a good number of them.
gohrt 10y ago
The incumbent government should NOT control the vote-counting machines.
- undersuit 10y ago
  The incumbent government is somehow more of a threat of hacking the elections than the private corporations now? I can understand your opposition to the government as is, it's a closed off and opaque system with little interest in citizen affairs. How about you come up with some ways that we can make the government better and suggest those instead of just stopping the conversation with a big flat "no"?

eridius 10y ago

Part of the problem is voting is run at the local level. I'm not sure the federal government even has the authority to tell states and counties that they must use a particular voting machine.

undersuit 10y ago
So you make it so the states and counties and cities and voting districts that want to use a different process for their elections don't have to use the federal machines for anything but federal votes, but you still allow the federal machines to be used for down-ballot processes.
- eridius 10y ago
  You're still assuming that the federal government has the authority to dictate the voting process used for federal elections. IANAL and I don't actually know what the legality here is, but my assumption is the federal government doesn't have that authority, given that if it did, it probably would have exercised it by now.
- gohrt 10y ago
  Even simpler, just ask the President to decide who won each Federal race.

jerf 10y ago

"What is worse: a custom designed U.S. government voting machine for all federal elections made by the FEC, or tens of different companies, selling their closed source machines to state governments for profit." Um, I see what you're getting at, but the government would definitely create a monoculture and may create a single point of failure. The choice is less obvious than you may think is based on your phrasing. To which I'd say the solution is less about getting the FEC to do it, and more about the process. This needs to be an open and very public affair. It doesn't help us to have the FEC do it if they do it behind closed doors and create a closed-source computer-based system that requires all voting machines to be hooked over insecure networks to a central closed-source insecure server or something.

undersuit 10y ago
>It doesn't help us to have the FEC do it if they do it behind closed doors and create a closed-source computer-based system that requires all voting machines to be hooked over insecure networks to a central closed-source insecure server or something. I did say the FEC isn't a good option now and I didn't really want to enumerate all my reasons, but you are covering a good number of them.

gohrt 10y ago

The incumbent government should NOT control the vote-counting machines.

undersuit 10y ago
The incumbent government is somehow more of a threat of hacking the elections than the private corporations now? I can understand your opposition to the government as is, it's a closed off and opaque system with little interest in citizen affairs. How about you come up with some ways that we can make the government better and suggest those instead of just stopping the conversation with a big flat "no"?