altered, deleted, lost and miscounted

The most cherished and admired privilege afforded to all who are lucky enough to live in a Democratic society. A simple act that millions have died to preserve... now jeopardized... all in favor of these ridiculous fucking voting machines.

[GAO report (.pdf)] studies found (1) some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected; (2) it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate; and (3) vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level. It is important to note that many of the reported concerns were drawn from specific system makes and models or from a specific jurisdiction’s election, and that there is a lack of consensus among election officials and other experts on the pervasiveness of the concerns. Nevertheless, some of these concerns were reported to have caused local problems in federal elections— resulting in the loss or miscount of votes and therefore merit attention.

And this excerpt is just the tip of the iceberg... check out the rest of the report. It's bureaucratically- written, so much of it reads like highly-technical mumbo jumbo... and it definitely takes 'no position' on the merits of the inherently-bad idea that is digital voting. But for those of you who think that digital voting machines somehow improve the accuracy of election results, or have managed to convince yourselves that we should let digital voting machines do vote-counting for us because you happen to be too frickin lazy... consider: 1) You deserve, and should require, that your government provide a paper trail... an accountable historical record of how you voted in any particular election. In several States this is already a statutory requirement... written directly into election law to ensure the sanctity of your vote. Many of these laws are under assault by the digital voting machine lobby (no, I'm not kidding). 2) Canada hand-counts every single vote in their nationwide Parliamentary elections, and rarely do they encounter vote fraud or other problems that routinely plague America's elections, and that the use of digital voting machines encourage. 3) On a recent trip to visit my in-laws in Switzerland, my wife and I attended a concert in Winterthur, a small town about 30 minutes outside of Zurich. Smack in the middle of the main corridor of their Town Hall was a large oak box with a slit on top and a lock on the back. I turned to the man next to me, a stately man who obviously lived in town, and asked "what is that box for?". He replied, almost shocked that I was so naive to even ask; "that's our ballot box. When we vote we write the name of the person we're voting for on a piece of paper and we put it in there". He went on to say that at the end of the night they simply open the box, count the ballots, and it doesn't take long before they (honestly) know who won. It takes a few days to compile nationwide results, but SO WHAT? Their elections are pristine. Is 48 hours too long to wait for the certainty that your election is true? Are Americans SO IMPATIENT that they'll trade the sanctity of their democracy for a few extra hours?!? Of course, by no means is Winterthur considered a 'huge' city, but it's population does exceed 100,000... and I'm certain that wasn't the only ballot box in town... but the point remains: Most election precincts in the United States support far fewer registered voters than Winterthur does with their beautifully-simple little oak box. It left me with 1 distinct and unavoidable impression, one that was validated later in our trip when the Swiss actually used these boxes to hold a nationwide election: They take their Democracy much more seriously than Americans do. They vote several times per year for one office or another, or a ballot initiative, or... well, for pretty much anything. And they treat this process with the utmost respect. But more than anything else what struck me was the Swiss both know and protect the profound strength of every single solitary vote. We really should take a step back and learn from our European counterparts. They do this much better than we do, and they rarely experience problems with national elections. If anyone issues a formal complaint based on the results of any of Switzerland's elections, then they recount every single vote. Period. End of story. They let their ballots speak for themselves, and it shows.