Voting required Windows

[oubipaws]

Voters using SERVE can register to vote and cast their ballots from any computer using Microsoft Windows with Internet access. Local election officials will use the system to process voter registration applications, send ballots to voters and accept voted ballots instantly. Long delays in counting absentee ballots, a factor in the disputed 2000 presidential election, would be relegated to the past.

It's interesting how Bill Gates can get whatever the hell he wants in this country. The next thing you know he'll be president. :p

RUNNING & SCREAMING... WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE :rolleyes:

<edit>
forgot the link to the story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/12/politics/main562983.shtml </edit>

[roamingnomad]

GEEZ! wtc, then if Bill want's Mr. Anti-opensource for president, guess what happens?

AARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

[oubipaws]

I vote Linus Torvalds for pres :D

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by oubipaws
The next thing you know he'll be president.

So who would you rather have as your pres, G.W. Bush or Bill Gates?

[oubipaws]

hmm... thats a tough one :confused:

[joelc]

Linus can never be President. The position isn't just open to any citizen who can come up with the dollars and support required to run. Among other things, you must be born in the United States. Immagration, naturalization, and what not don't count.

[oubipaws]

I know he can't, he's from finland right?

[El_Cu_Guy]

Requirements:

Natural born US citizen (yes an embassy counts)
35 years of age (though government or business experience is a plus)
live in the US for no less than 4 years

[andycrofts]

..Took me awhile to realise this was an American voting system...
OOPS! Thought Tarja Halonen was being challenged.
At least Linus could go for that one!!!

-Andy

[roamingnomad]

The future is bleak....

Until all servers are running Linux with Apache, and Mafiasoft's voting system only works with Windows Server and Internet Exploiter!!!

[oubipaws]

I'm going to laugh so hard if some like 10 year old cracks the voting system and has barney (the big purple dinosaur for those who don't know) win the election...

[Parcival]

In Switzerland, we're still far away from e-voting, it minimally takes a decade until we have it.

Right now they have an experimental project with e-voting in a community near Geneva; but to cast your vote you still have to go to the community center where you find a computer instead of a ballot. Don't know yet what system they're running on that box, though.

[mage492]

You know, I have a tendency to think that this would INCREASE the amount of voting disputes. What if a "bug" sends your votes to the wrong place? I HOPE there's a multi-party committee checking the code! (Wait, that isn't possible w/o M$ giving away their code... Makes you wonder, doesn't it?)

Of course, this opens up a whole new can of worms. How do you prevent some foreign guy with a pirated copy from voting? ESPECIALLY with spoofed IP addresses, that's going to be next to impossible! lol I can just see the Al Quida votes pouring in!

Plus, you're going to get a lot more ignorant voters. We're going to get a bunch of people who DON'T know the issues, the candidates, or anything else, who will now be voting. We'll have people voting who, quite frankly, I'd rather didn't bother.

Of course, if they find a bug AFTER the election, it's going to be fun watching M$ trying to weasel out of it!

[Parcival]

Plus, you're going to get a lot more ignorant voters.

I don't agree with that. My experience shows that politically ignorant people stay away from the votes. If e-voting could make more people vote, that would be a good thing, because more people would be part of the democratic process.

A serious problem our western democratic nations have is the fact a minority of people casts votes - on a voting Sunday in Switzerland it's normally between 25 to 50% of the number of people allowed to vote, depending on how heated the issue has been discussed.

If you look at it this way, OpenSource could become a crucial partner in rising political awareness of the people. We'd benefit all from such a process - because a democracy with a minority voting may sooner or later turn into an oligarchy.

[Jo.Mo.]

i guess i just don't see what's so hard about having to drive a few miles to vote. if we as a country are getting so lazy that we can't get off our computers every 4 years to go decide the fate of the nation, then we don't deserve to vote anyway.

[DerekKraan]

As if no ignorant people vote anyhow. How do you think a guy like Bush got into power? People are ignorant about politics, and until they implement runoff voting, you'll(yeah, I'm canadian) have a republican or democrat in power.

[redhat81]

I know Microsoft has given the UK's government the Windows source code, odds are the Yankees have it too.

I was actually wondering when this would happen, it's been a topic of mine sometimes over a drink.

[plattypus1]

OOOOOO no... they've given the Windows source to just about everyone EXCEPT the US government.

And how can they restrict the operating system required for e-voting? That goes against free expression, and I bet it'd go against some of the civil rights laws passed because they're denying the right to vote based on operating system.

Somebody'll sue, and they'll come out with MacOS, Linux, and BSD versions.

[redhat81]

Originally posted by plattypus1
OOOOOO no... they've given the Windows source to just about everyone EXCEPT the US government.

And how can they restrict the operating system required for e-voting? That goes against free expression, and I bet it'd go against some of the civil rights laws passed because they're denying the right to vote based on operating system.

Somebody'll sue, and they'll come out with MacOS, Linux, and BSD versions.

How does that go against free expression?

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Originally posted by redhat81
How does that go against free expression?

It probably doesn't.

But, knowing how our US court system works, suing over not having a multi OS solution probably could occur on the grounds of either lack of free expression or some discrimination. :rolleyes:

Somebody could do it...

[redhat81]

Originally posted by Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379
It probably doesn't.

But, knowing how our US court system works, suing over not having a multi OS solution probably could occur on the grounds of either lack of free expression or some discrimination. :rolleyes:

Somebody could do it...


The US is home to some pretty weird people.

[Parcival]

The US is home to some pretty weird people.

Of course it is - as the whole world actually is. Take me as the representative from Switzerland. :D

I would greatly appreciate e-voting based on open source, because unlike in the US, the Swiss vote about three to four times a year on debated issues (elections are every four years, like in the US). Unlike in the US, we don't register to vote where we live, we're registered to vote in the community where our documents of citizenship are being held. It's kinda like a HS grad from IA is going to the UMN and logically spends most time in MN, but still has to go back to IA everytime there's a vote because he/she can't register to vote in MN - unless the full citizenship's being transfered to MN. (if I lost you on this one - yes, that's Swiss bureaucracy)

Fact is that a more and more increasing number of Swiss vote through the mail (the old traditional mail system). No doubt an open source e-voting system would be much more secure and user friendly for many Swiss...

[l01yuk]

Originally posted by Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379
It probably doesn't.

But, knowing how our US court system works, suing over not having a multi OS solution probably could occur on the grounds of either lack of free expression or some discrimination. :rolleyes:

Somebody could do it...

Sonebody should do it. :D
Apple, IBM and HP could do it.