(no subject)

[olivermoss]

Don't mind me I am just sitting here explaining to my coffee cup how much more prep and QA testing I've done for registration systems at fandom conventions than Iowa officials did for their caucusing software.

Software and elections is a bad mix to begin with, for about a million reasons.

But like I've taken people getting to My Little Pony watch-a-longs more seriously than Iowa officials took getting their primaries right.

I try to not post much politics here, but this was just so, so, so dumb. If I wind up posting much more politics, I'll make an opt-in filter for it.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

…

I knew we have more laws ensuring the security of electronic slot machines than electronic voting machines, and I am the last person you'll ever find saying media fandom is or should be insignificant and irrelevant, but AUGH

[olivermoss]

I honestly can't figure out what I am more mad about: the complete lack of training/testing or being so freaking dumb to use an ap in the first place.

argghghhhh!

[oldtoadwoman]

I kept hitting refresh on election result websites last night and there was one point where it showed "34 of 1765 Precincts Reporting" and I refreshed the page and it went down to 33.

I can't even wrap my head around why it's taking this long to do a manual tabulation. How do we only have 62% of the precincts a full day later?

The good news is that Nevada, which was going to use the same app, has announced they won't be using the app after watching the mess in Iowa. (Though I fear they may just use different software.)

Still, I'm feeling slightly doomed at the moment.

Re: argghghhhh!

[olivermoss]

This is such basic stuff that they are screwing up. Anyone with a drop of understanding about any of this should know better. From any standpoint: UX, database management, basic dealing with large groups of people skills and basic project management.

You'd have thought that hanging chads would have made us take voting systems seriously from then on.

Also, caucuses need to be retired forever.

Re: argghghhhh!

[oldtoadwoman]

More than a full day and the count is up to 71%. What happens if the computer system crashes in a primary without paper backups? (The fact that we still have states holding elections that way is beyond sad.)

There was one Iowa county that tweeted out that they had submitted all of their records to the state party and no one had followed up with any questions to indicate there was any kind of problem and yet that county still isn't listed in the vote tallies.

And the delegate thing is so confusing...

Sanders has 1,314 more votes than Buttigieg but Buttigieg was awarded 25 more delegates. Biden only has 947 more votes than Klobuchar but he has 44 more delegates. I guess the delegates are awarded at the precinct level so the total votes statewide don't matter, but on a gut level, it feels wrong.

I don't even really feel angry. I feel like I should feel angry. But I just feel kind of hopeless and tired.

Re: argghghhhh!

[olivermoss]

I hear you on feeling hopeless and tired. There is absolutely no excuse for this. Even putting aside that caucuses are bullshit, anyone with a drop of experience with anything to do with software or events could see that this was an incredibly dumb way to do things. Being the primary primary state is a chunk of Iowa's economy.

Between elections people stop caring about all the problems in the system. At DefCon one of the events is seeing how easily and quickly they can defeat electronic voting machines. They do this both for fun and awareness raising. People whose job is security are doing all they can to raise alarms about all of this.

Re: argghghhhh!

[oldtoadwoman]

Back in 2004, The Dead Zone had a story arc where the evil politician was involved in a plot to hack voting machines. More than fifteen years ago, this danger was so obvious that people who had nothing to do with either politics or tech were writing stories about what a terrible idea electronic voting was. The fact that it is continuing (and we have states that won't even keep a paper backup for recounts) makes me slide into conspiracy theories that some of those "red" states might not be red after all and they've literally been stealing our elections for years. So many Republicans bad-mouthed Trump at first and then had private meetings and came out licking his boots. It has always been blatantly clear that they are either being bribed or threatened. Maybe it's as simple as them finding out that the Republicans literally control the elections.

Although apparently even the Iowa Republicans are freaking out about all the anti-Iowa chatter following this mess because they don't want to lose their status as the first caucus. I was thinking about prestige and didn't stop to think about how much of Iowa's economy hinges on out-of-state canvassers and press staying in hotels and spending money. (Heck, I was even in Iowa last year for an event where four of the candidates spoke.)

But it's like we have cyclical amnesia. Every election we get upset about how things are handled. Ties settled with coin flips. Rules not being followed in various precincts. Et cetera. We swear we have to do better next time. But within a week, we're all focused on the next state (6 days until New Hampshire) and nothing changes for the better.

Re: argghghhhh!

[olivermoss]

I want Iowa to lose it's status as first primary. It has too big of an impact and they milk it economically.

I follow John Rogers on twitter. At one point he talked about wanting to do election hacking as a Leverage plot point, but how easy the hack would be would be unbelievable, especially at the time.

Re: argghghhhh!

[oldtoadwoman]

There's no getting through to anyone who actually has power because they got in power through the same flawed system that needs changing.

[sperrywink]

OMG, right??!!!?! What is wrong with people thinking tech (and untested tech) is the answer to life's problems.

[olivermoss]

Tech and elections are a bad combination. I spent years dealing with registration systems and this mess has be baffled. I don't get how they could be so dumb.