[Robotgroup] e-voting, knowledge and responsibility

[Shane Geiger]

To the Austin Technical Community:

Certainly all of you should be aware by now of the ludicrous state of 
voting in our democracy.  Anyone who is computer literate enough to know 
even the slightest thing about computer security should be outraged by 
the stuff that has been going on. 

I happened upon a local group called VoteRescue ( 
http://www.voterescue.org ) that is affiliated with BlackBoxVoting ( 
http://www.blackboxvoting.org ).  The people from these groups I met 
are, MUCH TO MY SURPRISE, mostly "non-technical" people.  I couldn't 
believe it; I was actually a little embarrassed for the technical 
community that we seem to be sorely under-represented (at least at the 
local level) is this discussion.

With knowledge comes power and responsibility.  Please realize that 
there is hacking going on these days that you need to help stop.  This 
is not a computer network, it is a political one.  It doesn't mean 
source code or data integrity is at stake, it means lives, billions of 
dollars, and the very integrity of our nation is at stake.  This 
political network can be used to make armies march, create unjust laws, 
invade your privacy, and kill people.  The stakes are much higher than 
what you are used to dealing with as IT professionals, yet what you know 
should help you more readily understand the problem.  Please realize 
your responsibility and act upon it.

Please visit the Web sites I mentioned.  Also check out the HBO 
documentary which is airing this month "Hacking Democracy," which 
actually features members of the two groups I mentioned above.  (It made 
me proud to see a familiar face in the HBO documentary.  Great job, 
Kathleen!)

-- 
Shane Geiger
IT Director
National Council on Economic Education
sgeiger at ncee.net  |  402-438-8958  |  http://www.ncee.net

Leading the Campaign for Economic and Financial Literacy