The Lottery and Voting

I don't write about technology in my blog because in general I don't understand it. I am a concpetual pereson who understands how software and hardware are supposed to work but not how they actually do. But it is with reluctance that I weigh in on the issue of electronic voting machines. I do this precisely because my job (which has been keeping me from blogging) is for the Lottery. And the Lottery and voting are very similar.

Ways in which the Lottery and Voting are similar:
1. Both have anonymous transactions. There should be no way to track who voted for what in the same way the Lottery system doesn't know who purchased what ticket.
2. Both systems should be secure. Hacking into a Lottery system would be the end of the Lottery; voting is the same.
3. Both require synching many small subsidiary systems to a master host. Voting results in minutes instead of hours.

My lottery (Wisconsin) is installing 3,600 touch screen terminals in as many locations. Every day these terminals are required to transmit tons of data to a host center in Madison via a dedicated redundant satellite telecommunications system. These transactions are logged (including failed attempts and anything that happens on every machine) and reports are run either via GTECH, the vendor, or by the lottery. In addition to being fully redundant, a back-up system at the Lottery (called ICS) maintained by a third-party vendor also tracks the same transactions and MUST balance with the main system before the Lottery will pay dollar one in prizes to anyone.

Ostensibly, GTECH has built a multi-million dollar satellite-networked counting machine. Sounds like what we could use for voting.

Diebold has run into some problems in California. They have also had issue with hacking (Act One in this episode of TAL, Real) and they couldn't produce a paper record of the vote. So Lottery systems, running the most base and profane (at least according to some that I worship with) form of government, gambling, is more secure than voting! Voting! And think of how many pieces of paper that those machines generate! Voting!

Why is this?

1. As the O'Jays said, "Money, Money, Money... MONEY!" Just in the US, lotteries make over $45 billion. And while that's peanuts compared to the trillions of dollars that our President or the billions that over Governors throw around, voting is not high budget priority (at least not compared to jailing pot smokers, building better ways to kill our enemies or providing health care to the old while forcing the young to pay for it AND their own.)
2. Democrats don't want to fix the system. Where are the worst cases of voter fraud? Cities. Where are the largest stronghold of Democratic voters? Cities. Why is this? In close races (Nixon/Kennedy and Bush/Gore to name two) democrats want to go into a big city (Chicago, Miami) and claim that there were disenfranchised voters and that every vote should be counted. And suddenly, new Democrat votes appear. Huh?
3. Who wants a race that's over when the poles close? When a Lottery closes sales on a game. It knows immediately, how much sales there were. When the balls are drawn, the numbers are entered into the system at two separate locations. The system checks the numbers against the wagers played and -- BING! -- you know if you've had a winner. There is no recount. The computer will simply run the same program again. No recount = no recourse for close races. This is what We, the People want but Them, the Politicians don't. And who runs this country anyway?
4. A lot of people on BOTH sides of the aisle don't want to say "Hey look! Gambling technology could make a big difference in voting." Because gambling is seen as dirty. There are still many organizations (like the NFL) that don't want anything to do with gambling because there worried about the impression it will give. HEY PEOPLE! People gamble ALL THE TIME! Because it's fun! Who are you to tell other people what they can do with their fun money? [And do not say "tax on the poor". If you think the poor pick lottery tickets over food for their families, you've obviously never been hungry.] And at least the lottery (as opposed to other types of gambling) is transparent in its operations and tells you what your odds are before you buy.

So, a dual-redundant vote counting system already exists. And it's available at a retailer near you (unless you live in OK, AK, HI, NV, UT, AL, AR, MS, NC or WY). Will the government truly ever give people the option to use a secure method of selecting candidates via a redundant communications system with bipartisan auditors? Probably not. But its not a technology problem as I'm sure Diebold knows. The real problem keeps showing up on the ballot.

OK, I'll get back to writing about 50's music as soon as I can.

Comments

[Sean]

Yeah, that was just about long enough to make up for the absence, at least in terms of word count.

[nichole]

Hey, watch a /.er make a "funny" along these lines. Nobody took it seriously, though.