We got a reprieve this year in NY state. We were supposed to have those dern e-lectronic voting mosheens this year, but the state got an extension since they weren’t ready to make up their minds on which new system to implement. Thank god for that– given all the problems with e-voting across the country this year, for example the 18,000 missing votes in FL-13, those trusty ol’ lever voting machines seem pretty rock-solid.

NY is actually set to make a decision soon, although I just got off the phone with the Monroe County Board Of Elections, and their understanding is the decision-making process will really get going after the first of the year, with well-publicized public hearings and input.

Which is good, since the National Institute of Standards and Technology is, startlingly, planning on de-certifying the e-voting machines!

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending that the 2007 version of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG) decertify direct record electronic (DRE) machines.

(snip)

According to an NIST paper to be discussed at a meeting of election regulators at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., on Dec. 4 and 5, DRE vote totals cannot be audited because the machines are not software independent.

In other words, there is no means of verifying vote tallies other than by relying on the software that tabulated the results to begin with.

The machines currently in use are “more vulnerable to undetected programming errors or malicious code,” according to the paper.

The NIST paper also noted that, “potentially, a single programmer could ‘rig’ a major election.”

As a recovering software geek, I have seen first hand how when you do any kind of reporting via computers, you can oh, so easily manipulate the way data is recorded and tabulated to match the “new requirements” of “the customer” who doesn’t like the way the data looks.

It’s one thing to do that when reporting on how teams are performing inside a company. Quite another when it’s, you know, what the voters intended vs. what Diebold (or Sequoia) and their allies in DC want. As the great prophet, George Clinton, once said, “I wants my funk un-cut.”

That should be something every patriotic American can agree on, Dem, GOP, or other.