Hacking Voting Machines

In every area of life, but especially in the overlapping realms of technology, science, and health, misunderstanding how things work can be widespread, and that misunderstanding can lead to problems.

In the area of voting, the main problem seems to be the expenditure of great amounts of outrage and concern over things that are not real. At the same time this happens, things that are real matter a great deal.

I'll give you one example. Remember the special election for the Congressional Representative for Georgia's 6th district, earlier this year? Several media outlets reported "voting machines stolen," which, in turn, caused great outrage and concern on The Internet because, well, voting machines had been stolen.

Now, pause for a moment and think what this means.

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More like this

Now, pause for a moment and think what this means.
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Huh? Why can't we read it all right here? Since when is our precious attention hijacked here and taken elsewhere?.

By Mentifex (Arth… (not verified) on 10 Oct 2017 #permalink

Because the article is written on my main blog, pointed to by this link. I will no longer be writing articles on the Scienceblogs.com blog, just pointers for the next few weeks, then nothing .
So, really, "elsewhere" is not "elswhere" but here, just a slightly different URL. Virtually the same thing!

See you on the other side .....

@Greg Laden #2: Is there a public reason why for the move? If not, that's okay; just curious.

By Michael Kelsey (not verified) on 10 Oct 2017 #permalink

Firstly, you did something wrong with your formatting. Everything is italicised.
Secondly, and more to the point, why are you leaving Scienceblogs?

By Julian Frost (not verified) on 10 Oct 2017 #permalink

"That does not mean that the voting system has been hacked or that a single vote has been changed or falsely cast."

And just how would we know if they HAD been hacked? Hacked election results need only keep the margin of victory outside of suspicion limits. What percentage of elections held in the U.S. have been subjected to rigorous post-facto analysis? Virtually zero.

And none of this even addresses how elections ARE being stolen right now:

* with substandard resources for Democratic-leaning districts

* with inadequate ballot numbers

* with purging of Democratic voting rolls

* with non-counting of provisional ballots

* with tens of millions of Democratic-leaning voters losing their voting rights permanently because of racially-biased drug convictions

I really don't think the tenor of this posting is helpful.

By gingerbaker (not verified) on 10 Oct 2017 #permalink

You can take the scientist out of the the ScienceBlogs, but you can't take the ScienceBlogs out of the Scientist.
How does a wannabe scientist like me obtain an account here to post material about artificial intelligence?

By Mentifex (Arth… (not verified) on 10 Oct 2017 #permalink

It's a test.

"How does a wannabe scientist like me obtain an account here to post material about artificial intelligence?"

Please spare us your fact-free comments on a subject about which you are completely ignorant.

I didn't think it was a state secret that Scienceblogs is shutting down soon. Greg is just making sure all his past articles are preserved.

By metzomagic (not verified) on 30 Oct 2017 #permalink