Thinking that the WI election was "rigged" sets the stage for losing.

[proverbialwisdom]

43. Excellent points, all.

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/

Freedom to Tinker is hosted by Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, a research center that studies digital technologies in public life. Here you'll find comment and analysis from the digital frontier, written by the Center's faculty, students, and friends.

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/appel/broken-ballots/
Broken Ballots
April 23, 2012 By Andrew Appel

A important new book has just been published on the technology and policy of elections. Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count by Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons, covers voting systems from the 19th century to the present, with particular focus on the last two decades. The authors describe the strengths and weaknesses of the machinery itself–lever machines, optical-scan vote counters, touchscreen voting computers–with technical sophistication, yet in a way that will be accessible to a wide audience. Then they describe the strengths and weaknesses of the policy processes–at the level of election administration, congressional legislation, and Federal administrative-branch agencies–with particular emphasis on the last 10 years. The authors are experts in the field of voting technology and policy, and it shows. The book is well researched with extensive citations, but it’s also a good read (with photos and illustrations) that has an interesting story to tell.

http://brokenballots.com/

Americans want to believe their votes are counted reliably, fairly, and fully, yet they have a nagging suspicion that all is not well in our country's voting systems. Broken Ballots chronicles in the greatest detail how these suspicions have been examined and how improvements have been pursued, rejected, implemented, or defeated. Jones and Simons detail the intricacies involved in maintaining the integrity of voting procedures and technologies and in protecting the outcome of elections from error or manipulation.

Presenting evidence that ballot box access and security are under serious threat by the push for unauditable voting machines and untested and unsecured internet-based voting, Broken Ballots forces us to examine closely our electoral process. As a nation, we must take a serious look at the suggestions provided by Jones and Simons and enact the legislation needed to make strides toward secure, accessible, and verifiable elections. What can be more important?

— Rush Holt, U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 12th congressional district.

Broken Ballots provides clear and definitive answers to the questions: “How did our voting systems get to be the way they are?”, “Are our voting systems secure?” and “What can be done to improve the way we vote?” Using examples from the earliest mechanical voting machines to today's proposals for voting over the Internet, it provides numerous vivid illustrations of the risks of using complex technology to collect and count our votes. It covers not only technology, but also election law, government policy and regulation, accessibility of voting systems, and the history of voting machine companies in the United States.

This book is extremely well researched and exceptionally well-written. The breadth and depth of coverage bear witness to the authors' long involvement with these issues.

This wonderful book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the security of our election systems: vendors, election officials, technologists, election integrity activists, and voters.

— Ronald L. Rivest, Viterbi Professor of Computer Science in MIT's EECS Department, an ACM Turing Award winner, and a co-founder of RSA Data Security and of Verisign. He has served on the Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC), advisory to the Election Assistance Commission with respect to the establishment of voting system certification guidelines, and is a member of the CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Appel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Felten

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/personnel-notes/127705-princeton-prof-edward-felten-named-ftcs-first-chief-technologist

Princeton prof. Edward Felten named FTC's first chief technologist
By Gautham Nagesh - 11/04/10 12:07 PM ET

Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz announced Thursday that Princeton computer science professor Edward Felten will serve as the agency's first chief technologist.

A prominent researcher, Felten is founding director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and serves as a part-time consultant for the FTC. In his new role — starting in January — he will advise the commission on consumer-related technology policy issues such as cybersecurity, online privacy and antitrust matters. Felten will take a one-year leave of absence from Princeton to work at the FTC.

"The trade commission is heavily involved with issues that touch on technology," Felten said. "Much of my research and the work of CITP focuses on issues of consumer protection and competitiveness. This is a chance for me to apply what I've been studying and see the policymaking process from the inside."

<...>

I found this appointment reassuring.