Talk:463: Voting Machines

What's incomplete? 199.27.130.180 04:13, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

It seems fine to me. Removing the incomplete tag. LogicalOxymoron (talk) 23:19, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

What's "the alternative"? 108.162.208.98 20:55, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

I believe when the alternate Cueball references "the alternative" he has already realized what the first Cueball meant. Cueball 2 I'll call him, is thus referencing the alternative is no protection or security. I don't believe Cueball 2 is directly referencing the 'teacher wearing a condom analogy'. Official.xian (talk) 19:59, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

A condom is designed to fit, & will only stay in place, on an erect penis. I would be concerned if I was a parent & I discovered that my child's teacher had an erection during class, especially given the inference that the erection isn't inadvertent if it can last throughout a school day. This does tie into the metaphor because, of course, a condom's main job is to catch ejaculation when orgasm is achieved, just as a voting machine does have to connect to another computer in order to receive OS updates & download voting tallies. 211.30.60.87 14:08, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

Well, there's always the possibility of untreated priapism. Though you probably should treat it, if you're being sensible about that kind of thing.

Also, depends upon the size of the condom and the size of the (unerect) penis. The latter varies considerably, and (for [various possible reasons]) there are different 'size ranges' available, though each range covers a large span of smallest-practical to largest-practical when it comes to coverage. Conceivably you might find one that only (or most comfortably?) snuggly fits when not erect, and is being worn for some totally good (medical) reason that doesn't involve erectness but does involve the penis. Or whatever body part you instead wear it on, there being plenty of alternate uses that might apply, in certain circumstances. 92.23.2.228 19:37, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

...sorry, got diverted there. I was originally going to restate the whole question if a voting machine ever does have to connect to another computer.

The concept of receiving OS updates during a vote would just be a Bad Idea™, no matter what the situation. If it isn't made to work properly before you start, you've not done enough testing and validation.

There are also far more problems with 'downloading' tallies (sic. ...I presume you mean uploading, or else I have additional worries I could mention) during a vote than are solved by allowing (let alone encouraging) it. Wait until afterwards, like you don't (in my experience) just take paper votes out of ballot boxes before the closing of the polls. (And those then need counting, from scratch, something that the voting machine has allegedly already been doing internally, give or take some post-validtion.)

And connecting directly to another computer (assuming you're not trying to go via public networks, which... no... just no) adds a number of critical points of failure that are probably better avoided, in favour of a properly implemented and keyed (physically and/or logically) dongle which implements fully logged transfer of validated, multi-stage handshaked and key-authorised information (inward for updates, outward for tallies; conversely, outwards from the 'build shop' and inwards to the collation centre) robustly and redundantly providing for both the winding up and winding down of the voting infrastructure. Don't try to mess with it part way through the process. Design it for various failover modes that you can recover things from afterwards (if any of the many other anticipatable issues should happen), with properly documentation and proof of what went wrong), but keep it locked down from any interference 'out in the field', which means accepting no interaction other than the designated 'vote IO' peripherals or (in the case of undergoing an emergency RTB/in-the-field intervention) the fully dorensice freezing of the 'used machine' image before any (if at all) further changes/reinstallation are attempted during voting session.

But aggressively test the system in advance, don't expect to rely on 'live fixes' or other ad-hoc connections. Perhaps the system should even be a proprietry system intensively low-level coded directly in firmware that is simple and precise enough to be penetration-tested to hades and back without worrying about problems in NVidia video drivers or whether there's some unfortunate interaction with the bluetooth libraries that can create a day-0 exploit giving completely backdoor access. 92.23.2.228 22:09, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

I think the alternative is the teacher being raped at school. That's right, Jacky720 just signed this (talk | contribs) 22:05, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

Other way around dude, other way around. Anonymous 00:05, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

It's not necessarily that the teacher is raping the students, but it does indicate the teacher might be having sex at school (for instance, with another colleague). --172.68.57.209 13:37, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

Ideally, there should be no voting machines. Here in Germany, we make a cross on a paper and put that paper in an urn. Counting is done manually under supervision. Voting machines are illegal for a reason. :) --141.101.104.4 15:05, 27 September 2015 (UTC)