2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumPoll: Mathematics coding / programming experience vs election machine skepticism
Have you spent 100s of hours in your life doing mathematically-based programming on computers (whether computer languages or in spreadsheets) I.e., using formulas and computer programs together?
And how skeptical are you about the transparency of our election vote tabulation process?
12 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited | |
Lots of math based computer work, very or "quite" concerned about vote tabulation integrity | |
8 (67%) |
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Lots of math based computer work, not concerned about vote tabulation integrity | |
3 (25%) |
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Little or no math based computer work, very or "quite" concerned about vote tabulation integrity | |
1 (8%) |
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Little or no math based computer work, not concerned about vote tabulation integrity | |
0 (0%) |
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Other | |
0 (0%) |
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0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
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Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll |
lostnfound
(16,198 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)I'm not an expert in statistics or programming, but have a fair amount of experience in both.
Some systems appear solid, while some others don't seem so sound. But, aside from basics like paper and audit trails, I have no idea what the perils and pitfalls of the hundreds of systems out there may be. Or the problems auditing them.
Election fraud has always been a problem, whether it be uncounted paper ballots in Alabama or disappearing voting machines in Chicago. Blaming it largely on current vote tabulators would be a mistake.
triron
(22,030 posts)rickford66
(5,532 posts)if we don't have access to the code, well you can't trust it. I have worked on many government military programs and besides all the testing that has to be done, they still have access to the code because they own it. We the people should buy and own our own computer programs for elections.
anamandujano
(7,004 posts)lostnfound
(16,198 posts)Exilednight
(9,359 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Difficult to imagine a loner doing it.
MineralMan
(146,350 posts)software to do things other than people expect it to do. Without a line-by-line analysis, it's pretty hard to spot.
I remember a particularly noxious trojan horse program from the pre-Windows days. It made the rounds of bulletin board systems prior to the Internet. What it did was display some graphic pornography in a slide show format. While people watched that, it quietly deleted the root directory of C:. A lot of people got a surprise after watching the porn. It was relatively easy to recover from, of course, but as a ironic practical joke, it was very effective.
lostnfound
(16,198 posts)And why would two of them be slowing down "the machines"?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512628208
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)They are electronic poll books. Instead of having to give your name for them to look up and then show your ID, you could just insert your driver's license, and your photo popped up on the screen. You give your address for verification, then get a ballot card, which is traded in for a ballot.
If it were running slowly, rebooting it could clear out the memory and speed it up once turned back on. If it's slow, it could significantly slow down the line.