flynn23 wrote:
] Moon Pie wrote:
] ] Not only is the American voting code secretly held by
] private
] ] companies (naturally for copyright reasons; the Dollar
] trumps
] ] Democracy every time), but private companies manufacture the
]
] ] voting machines. And those companies are owned,
] predominantly,
] ] by Republican interests. Including Senator Chuck Hagel of
] ] Nebraska, who won by a landslide on machines made by
] Election
] ] Systems and Software (ES&S), a company he owned a
] considerable
] ] interest in. And he wasn't the only one.
]
] That's pretty 'conspiracy theory' if you ask me. That's like
] saying that the slots and video poker machines in vegas are
] rigged. Everyone knows that gambling is basically just giving
] your money to someone else for the privilege of them wasting
] your time. In the case of digital voting machines, it's hard
] to say that they would be 'biased'.
]
] but then again, I might file this under my three rules:
]
] 1) everything you hear is untrue
] 2) everything you hear has some truth to it
] 3) everything in life is rigged

It's amazing what people think is conspiracy theory. History is full of this kind of stuff, but somehow we don't think it can happen to us. Really though, it's just natural that people pursue their own interest. Cheat on tests. Fix prices. Rig elections. Happens all over.
A lot of people are decent too, but that kind of thing doesn't get you promoted into power so well. Politicians really do have to sell themselves, after all. Nobody seems to think that's a conspiracy, and that's just one easy example. There's no argument, it's just understood: politicians are bought. What's for dinner?
That said, I don't know if computer voting machines are rigged. But I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be. The system being replaced is already corrupt, why would adding computers help?

RE: Open Source Code Meets Democracy - in Australia anyway