Ringing the alarm over voting-machine troubles

[AlbertCat]

From Rachel Maddow's blog....written by Steve Bennen.

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For those involved in voting rights, concerns about voting machines are hardly new. But a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice rings the alarm in new and noteworthy ways. MSNBC’s Zack Roth reported yesterday:
America’s voting machines are reaching the end of their lifespans, and many states appear unwilling to spend the money to replace them, a detailed new report warns. The impasse raises the threat of a catastrophic meltdown in next year’s presidential election.

The report, released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice, paints an alarming picture. Experts say today’s machines have an expected lifespan of 10 to 20 years – closer to 10. But in most states, a majority of jurisdictions have at least some machines that were bought in 2006 or earlier, while in 11 states – including presidential battlegrounds like Nevada and New Hampshire – every jurisdiction uses such machines. Fourteen states will use some machines that were bought over 15 years ago.

When the subject of voting machines comes up, we generally hear concerns about hacking and the possibility of rigging the technology deliberately to dictate the outcome of elections.

Whether you take those threats seriously or not, the Brennan Center’s research points to a different kind of systemic problem: a 21st-century democracy using outdated and unreliable election technology in ways that may lead to a disaster.

Consider this excerpt from the report:
As systems age, the commercially produced parts that support them, like memory storage devices, printer ribbons, and modems for transmitting election results, go out of production. Several election officials told us they have used eBay to find these parts. Mark Earley, voting systems manager in Leon County, Florida, told us his old voting system used an analog modem that he could only find on eBay. “The biggest problem was finding modems for our old machines. I had to buy a modem model called the Zoom Pocket Modem on eBay because they weren’t available elsewhere.” Earley told us that the Zoom Pocket Modem can transmit data at just kilobytes per second, making it utterly obsolete by today’s standards.

Ken Terry, from Allen County, Ohio, told us that he feels like he is living in a technological time warp. When he ordered “Zip Disks” for his central tabulator, the package included literature that was more than a decade old. “When we purchased new Zip Disks in 2012, they had a coupon in the package that expired in 1999.”

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the whole thing:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ringing-the-alarm-over-voting-machine-troubles?cid=sm_fb_maddow

[randys1]

1. And if the Rove of 2016 can capitalize on this problem , watch out...cuz one thing is certain

GOP always cheats, ALWAYS

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. I want paper ballots back!

To be hand counted and not fed into a scanner to be counted. No more hackable voting machines! Maybe we can get Bernie to support paper ballots. That would be nice.

[99th_Monkey]

3. Absolutely! We have REAL PAPER ballots, and vote-by-mail in Oregon

and we love it, probably one big reason Oregon's so consistently Blue.

[RoccoR5955]

4. Come on already.

Many of us told them about this when they first went to computerized voting.
One of the reasons why NY was the LAST state to go with them is because I got out my email list and sent word to everyone that I know about it. I have been doing computer work for more than 25 years now. I know just how obsolete they can get, from personal experience.