Because it's pretty easy.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060629-7169.html
All the more reason why our painfully technology illiterate legislators, coupled with unethical corporate interests, are always a bad match.
And, yet, we're all in a huff about flag burning! It would be quite amazing to someday get in a huff over something that actually matters. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Melon
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060629-7169.html
On Tuesday, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's law school released the most comprehensive study to date on the state of electronic voting. The extensive report is a painful read for anyone concerned about the future of democracy, because it shows just how brain-dead easy it is to rig an election with three popular electronic voting systems: direct recording electronic (DRE), DRE with voter verified paper trail, and precinct count optical scan.
Among the more startling findings are the fact that voting machines with wireless components are very easily compromised by anyone with a little know-how and nearby wireless device—you don't even need a laptop; a PDA will do nicely.
The report also found that voter verified paper trails that aren't backed up by routine, random audits are good only for instilling a false sense of security in the voting process. You'd think it would be obvious to election officials that even if you get a paper receipt documenting the vote that you cast, any later meddling with that machine's vote count can go completely undetected if a sample of those receipts are never compared to the final output. But apparently a lot of things that are obvious to tech people go over the heads of election officials (e.g. the idea that you would never want to give wireless access to voting machines.)
All the more reason why our painfully technology illiterate legislators, coupled with unethical corporate interests, are always a bad match.
And, yet, we're all in a huff about flag burning! It would be quite amazing to someday get in a huff over something that actually matters. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Melon