Voting Machine Vulnerabilities - Let's Not Downplay Them

'Letter to the Editor' submitted to the Nanaimo Daily News on Nov. 7/08. We'll have to wait and see if they publish it.

Dear Editor,
Your recent piece, Civil liberties group takes up Nanaimo vote complaint (Nanaimo Daily News, Oct. 30/2008), clearly demonstrates how poor a job the local media does in covering issues critical to the well-being of both their readers and the public at large. Having reviewed the correspondence (links are on Ron Bolin's blog, http://www.bolin08.net) and having spoken to Ms. McAllister on several occasions about her complaint, I find your paper guilty of the same thing as the Ombudsman's office in this case, failure to grasp the whole picture. Although this attitude pervades your entire story, I will use just a single sentence to demonstrate my point. You write, "(t)he provincial department found nothing wrong with how voting machines were used in Nanaimo." Now, before we even begin, I can tell you that your use of the word "nothing" convinces me that such a high standard willl not be met.
However, the main problem I have with the statement is that it might lead a reasonable person to believe that you are saying that there are no problems with using electronic voting machines in local elections. Since I know that you have been afforded the opportunity to learn about the serious concerns that security experts have repeatedly expressed about the vulnerability of these machines, I am sure that you didn't mean to leave that impression.
Lastly, a practical question - just how does one measure someone's 'intent'? This is yet another example of a legislation loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through (just like the 'conflict of interest rules'), indicating to me that governments really aren't interested in holding anyone accountable.