The Security Mentor

All over the US, the public servants who run elections are eager to install computerized voting machines. Sometimes it seems like only a small minority of computer geeks and professors is worried.

Are computerized elections like water fluoridation, a good idea that only crackpots oppose?

Let's take a look at why election officials like e-voting machines. You can apply common sense to their reasons without needing to be a certified security consultant.

One reason to like e-voting machines is that they can make elections easier. You can redo a ballot at the last minute if one candidate dies in a plane crash. You can accommodate the handicapped better. You can eliminate the whole hanging chad debacle.

The other reason you might like e-voting machines is if you get paid to like them. The New York Times today has an editorial which points out that California's secretary of state and his assistant both went to work for an e-voting vendor. Florida and Georgia both had secretaries of state get jobs as lobbyists for e-voting companies. While still in office, election officials benefit from vendor donations to their professional organizations and there are even reports of individual officials being offered dinners and limo rides.