Written by: Beck
OK, first, read this:
Despite an electronic voting fiasco in 2000 and the furor over e-voting in the United States, Venezuela is using untested touchscreen computers for its recall referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency.
Now tell me, does that not look like the lead sentence to an article from
The Onion? It reads almost like a tag line from Fark. I kept expecting to see "hilarity ensues" while reading it. But no, it's a
real headline. Let me go over that just one last time in case anyone didn't catch it all.
1. Voting fiasco in 2000
2. Furor over e-voting
3. Untested touchscreen computers
4. Presidential recall referendum
5. This is Venezuela we're talking about
Honey, I think we'd better cancel that trip we had planned to Caracas. And how's this for some nicely reassuring news:
The touchscreen machines on which a third of the U.S. electorate will vote in November are dangerously vulnerable to hackers, rigging and mechanical failure, computer scientists generally agree.
Oh goody. Naturally, the company that makes these voting machines is from, you guessed it, Florida.