The voting system devised by the Pentagon for overseas citizens — you know, the one that the experts said was easily hackable (and not usable by computer running any other OS than Windows XP) — has been dropped.
The $22 million pilot project was intended to be used by about 100,000 voters from 50 counties in seven states. State election officials said they were told late Wednesday that it would not be used to count votes included in election results.
Computer-security specialists released a report last week saying the Internet and personal computers are so inherently vulnerable that the entire election could be undermined. That report was followed by requests from the overseas wings of both the Republican and Democratic parties not to be used as “guinea pigs” in a system where their votes might not be secure.
Whew.
I’m worried about all of these calls for electronic voting since Florida 2000. I don’t think electronic voting is in any way secure. And since the leader in the industry, Diebold, is owned by a conservative crony and fundraiser, I’m even more uneasy. Just print up paper ballots and let people make an X.
