Mississippi to get new voting machines

[Tully Mars]

According to this article, Mississippi should have new touch screen voting machines in place by the 2006 primaries:

http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=94810

[aaron]

These voting machines shouldn't be connected to any kind of network, so they should be about as easy to hack as an ATM, which from what I hear is very very hard. You have to be right in front of the machine, and then your on camera.

As far as voting. If they could set these machines up like ATM's, or even right beside ATM's around the city, and give everyone 30 days to turn in their vote, you'd probably see a 70-80% turnout.

[Buggy]

I don't trust these voting machines, and I won't until they provide more access to the inner workings. It's too hard (sometimes impossible) to verify the votes, and they still aren't much more realiable than old fashioned paper ballots.

[aaron]

Providing access to the inner workings is exactly what a hacker would need. I don't know how reliable paper ballots are, since they would be subject to human error (or corruption) all the time.

[jmack]

About 80% of the voters are going to walk up to those machines and not have a clue of what to do next.

[Tully Mars]

From reading the article it appears that the company manufacturing the machines is the same one that makes the majority of the ATM's used in the state.

[2002usmgrad]

What exactly is the need for these voting machines. If from what I understand is correct, they don't leave a paper trail, and there's still no voter ID, so why spend all the money on these machines? :smt102

[Tully Mars]

Here is all the information you could possibly want on the justification and logic behind the new voting machines, courtesy of Mr. Eric Clark:

http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/HAVA/HAVA.asp

[King Kong]

Haha! Sorry Hawkeye! I didn't thunk about that!!!:smt046 :lol: :p :an1:

[Monkey]

Hawkeye, sounds like Kong gave you away!!!! UH-OH!!!

[Monkey]

Sometimes things go over the big ape's head! ;) Oh well, Kong! Sounds like no problem!!

[2002usmgrad]

Just saw on WDAM that Eric Clark might be going to the IHL. Getting out before all the voting confusion begins?

[2002usmgrad]

hmmm... maybe, haha

[jmack]

A child can color in a little circle. If you are scratching your head on that one, then you're going to be pulling your hair out with an automated machine.

Voter ID would eliminate voter fraud and save the taxpayers over a million dollars which we don't have. Eric Clark is doing this for publicity and using this as a stepping stone to bigger and better things for himself.

[aaron]

While there are plenty of vulnerable machines out there, there are also just as many that are well-protected. You could make it so that it'd be easier to pay off the people counting the votes than break into these machines. Dirty politics is going to try to make a play in an arena though.