Diebold election insecurity systems

Posted May 25, 2006 9:05 UTC (Thu) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341) [Link]

It's done the same way in Germany - and one interesting thing about the elections is that when votes are counted, everyone can walk in and watch the whole thing. So if you believe that there's going to be tampering and that you're not going to be accurately represented... just go and watch.

Not many people actually do, of course, but when I helped out with elections, it was not at all uncommon to have at least one interested bystander.

As for results... the first projections that are made available 5 minutes or so after voting closes are usually pretty accurate already (so you'll get an idea of who won and who lost), and final results will be available the next day. And personally, I think a delay of one day is a trade-off that's more than acceptable when the alternative is a state of constant worry (at best!) that the elections might not be all that meaningful after all.