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It’s not that it’s impossible - it’s that the established players are already questionable. And any new entry would require more than any simple company could p
by alanwreath 9mo ago
It’s not that it’s impossible - it’s that the established players are already questionable. And any new entry would require more than any simple company could provide. Heavy investment and collateral is required.
Our livelihoods are increasingly (almost entirely) digital and endure great efforts to abuse. But banking and/or retail operate on a different spectrum. For one they make money. The costs associated allowing their business online may never make sense for a non-profit based activity like voting.
Do we have any examples of internet activity as tempting to infiltrate/pervert that is secure and doesn’t extract value?
Anyways it seems greater damage will be done before we even reach a provably secure system. So paper/pencil voting would be better.
But fear not - even if we abolish voting machines we aren’t out of the hole just yet. We have good company with concepts like Citizens United as well as activities like sweepstakes that try to sway the populace to throw away a vote for a chance at a million. Illegal - sure - but that won’t stop the ostensible infinitely wealthy from enduring a slap on the wrist - or more appropriately a verbal reprimand (which is all that happened last time) for their part in electioneering. And if that didn’t work we have an onslaught of reAlIty and bots that poison our conversations in order to form our world views.
I’m jaded. I’m overly pessimistic. I’ll go now.
- nerdponx 9mo agoPrediction: In 2026 the Trump administration will attempt to ban all other forms of voting and will claim that it is in the interests of election security, because the Democrats can't be trusted to count votes (remember the 2020 election was "stolen"?), so we need to mandate all votes be counted electronically using some sketchy electronic voting system, which a company that is very politically friendly to Trump just so happens to be ready to provide. It will get immediately shot down in several courts but it will take months to resolve all the lawsuits, and SCOTUS won't hear the case. This will cause the election to be held in some places but not others, and overall delay final vote tally by several months. Some kind of data breach will occur but details will not be reported. Neither party will trust the election results but won't go so far as to call fraud lest public trust in the system completely unravel.
- alanwreath 9mo agoYes - thank you for reminding me a voting machine system was also bought recently (too long a process to get in? Just pay more) https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/dominion-voting-systems-sold-company-run-former-republican/story?id=126378259 https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/dominion-voting-systems-sold-c...