Reply #2: Thanks for posting this. I like the information in the [View All]

Cal Tech article, I just wish the reporters had refrained from editorializing. This is one of the most easy to understand articles I've read on this so far. But what is "a rather high residual vote"?

I love the suggestion about using students as polling place workers. Bev was hitting on this in the thread yesterday, using kids with purple hair to scare the pants off the public and make them think twice about the security of machines. (I know this isn't what the Caltech people meant, but it would be fun to round up a bunch of manic-panicked hackers and send them down there to volunteer.)

Same day voter registration is a horrible idea. It makes me think of Choicepoint and all the people that were turned away at the polls, and all the people who got letters saying that they were felons when they weren't. One snafu Palast talked about was people who had committed felonies in states where they were not required to have their voting rights reinstated. Florida removed them from the rolls and then told them they couldn't have their rights reinstated there (in FL, because FL law requires it) because they didn't commit the felony there, but their home state did not require this so people were left with no recourse, but in these cases the people had a few months to try to get it straightened out. Same day registration just sounds like a good way to screw some people out of voting.

This is what I call the Dr. God syndrome, people trusting people just because they are taught or told to, especially if that person or org. is supposed to have knowledge they don't. But with the fact that so many people have or use p.c.'s, if the comparison is made strongly enough, (and repeated at least 12 times on t.v., ha) that the machines are no more secure than p.c.s, then I think it will sink in.