Is it really that hard?

[snoboy]

Is it really that hard to hold a legitimate election in a supposedly free and technologically advanced country?

 

Electronic voting problems, not enough to change the outcome, but still, c'mon.

[Gary_Yngve]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Software is rife with bugs, and there's no incentive for programmers to clean up their act -- all liability is signed away with the EULA (yeah, those boxes of legalese that you instinctually click through).

 

In very few fields (aerospace control, medical apps, etc.) bugs can kill, and in those fields, development and subsequent testing and fixing comes at an exporbitant price.

 

Computing has been around for nearly fifty years. In that time, things such as speed and storage have increased exponentially (e.g. Moore's Law). Displays have gotten better. Networks faster. Hardware cheaper. All sorts of fancy algorithms have been discovered, and fancy programming languages have been invented. But still, software engineering is slow and klunky, and we're no better at producing less bugs.

[scott_harpell]

Is it really that hard to hold a legitimate election in a supposedly free and technologically advanced country?

 

Electronic voting problems, not enough to change the outcome, but still, c'mon.

 

I suppose elections are a bit easier in a country with a similar population to new york.

[Gary_Yngve]

What about elections in India?