Voter smashes Diebold machine as e-voting problems crop up nationwide – Engadget
The highlight of the day, though, has nothing to do with shoddy equipment and everything to do with a crazy voter who attacked a Diebold-brand machine in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Forty-three-year-old Robert Young, a registered independent, apparently believed that the e-voting machines had been deployed in a wild conspiracy by Republicans, and decided to make a statement by smashing the $5,000 device with a metal cat paperweight. A remorseful Young was quickly arrested by local police, and although the votes on the destroyed machine can still be saved, the feline paperweight did not fare nearly as well: officials have said that it will likely be impounded before being forcibly euthanized.
(Via Engadget.)
Does this surprise anyone, really?
Well, I guess the voter smashing the machine surprises me a little, but the problems with the Diebold machines across the country does not surprise me at all.
It seems much of the problem is human error this time, which is an improvement, I guess. How can we run such an important election in this country, however, without properly training election officials and having the actual people running the election know for sure how to well… run the election?
Sure, it would cost a lot to do the training. Not as much as it costs for us to wage a way to give another nation democracy, though, I’m sure of that.
I just hope when it’s all said and done that this time, unlike the last election, the irregularities will be fairly even instead of lopsided to one candidate or party.
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