Electronic voting machines are stupid, but I don't believe that's an inherent quality. Seemingly whenever electronic voting machines make the news the underlyin

Electronic voting machines are stupid, but I don't believe that's an inherent quality. Seemingly whenever electronic voting machines make the news the underlying problem is one of gross laziness or incompetence on the part of the manufacturer. It took me hours to clean my brain off the walls when I heard about the Diebold / McAfee mashup. [1] Las Vegas slot machines seem like a perfect archetype (to me, anyway). In trying to look up the security measures I remember from an episode of Modern Marvels I instead ended up with an NY Times opinion piece from 2004 [2] drawing the same conclusion as I. Probably (based on admittedly nothing) the measures cited have become more sophisticated and rigorous in the past 8 years. Here are some highlights on slot machine security (as of June 2004): * All machine software past and present are kept on file by the state * Spot checks, spot checks, spot checks. Random and often. * State gaming commissions are constantly looking for new ways to manipulate their machines; the article mentions firing a stun gun at a slot machine (best job ever?) * Six month vetting process for companies and employees wanting produce gambling hardware/software * User disputing the machine's actions has the right to an immediate investigation Note: I am absolutely in favor of maintaining a paper trail for decades regardless of the state of digital solutions. [1]http://xkcd.com/463/ http://xkcd.com/463/ [2]http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/gambling-on-voting.html http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/opinion/gambling-on-voting...