Reply #14: I don't think we know the answer to the question [View All]

[OnTheOtherHand]

What Clint Curtis did is trivial. Millions of people could have written that program. The real question is what is finding its way into the machines (and the central tabulators), and Curtis can't answer that question.

I haven't seen grand totals, but my impression is that Bush did better in 2004 than in 2000 on every type of voting equipment. It makes me think that DRE fatalism is misplaced. But that doesn't mean that I am a DRE optimist, either. AFAICT we have no idea what might be on those machines, and the senior executives probably don't really know, either.

I guess I do think that Katrina is a bigger issue, in the sense that having been in NYC on 9/11, I am crushed by the recognition that what happened in New Orleans is orders of magnitude worse. Obviously that isn't a strategic judgment. When I said that I would take my chances with Katrina, I wasn't arguing that we should drop election reform -- we don't have to choose.