the Sugar Conspiracy

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

It's just like an ATM, but without the reciept!

As alarm mounts over the integrity of the ATM-like voting machines 50 million Americans will use in the November election, a new U.S. federal agency has begun scrutinizing how to safeguard electronic polling from fraud, hackers and faulty software.

But the tiny U.S. Election Assistance Commission says it is so woefully underfunded that it can't be expected to forestall widespread voting machine problems, which would cast doubt on the election's integrity.

The commission — which on Wednesday conducts the first federal hearing on the security and reliability of electronic voting — laments its predicament in a new report.

It's first federal hearing?!?? Shouldn't the commission have started this a bit earlier, like say, four years ago??

With only $1.2-million of its $10-million budget appropriated, the commission has so far been able to hire seven full-time staffers, borrowing some part-timers from other federal agencies.

The lack of funding has forced the EAC to abandon or delay much of its intended mission. For example, it won't be able to develop a national system for testing voting machines, according to the report.

So like every other Bush initiative, this one's just a joke. Just something the sounds good to appease the people, but, then when it's not funded by the administration, does nothing to actually change things for the better. Or, I guess in Bush's eyes, a broken electoral process is for the better. It worked in his favor last time.

posted by chris at 12:25 PM
------------------

Blog - Info - Archive - Contact - Links
2005 © Designed by Chris. Take what you want.