Diebold paranoia continues

Kevin Drum blogs the standard left wing line on Diebold. How can we be sure the machines are secure when there are known serious flaws and the manufacturer's CEO has expressed strong partisan sympathies? Drum does not mention the last bit but in the leftiesphere Diebold is synonymous with 'known GOP hacks'.

Concern over voting machines in the US is largely confined to the left. In other countries, particularly Venezuela it is the right that is concerned. At some point there will be an election where the right feels that it has been unfairly treated (ie they lose an election narrowly). At that point expect concern over voting to become bipartisan.

What the concern over Diebold demonstrates is that the traditional academic treatment of voting scheme security is flawed at best. The primary concern is not the secrecy of the ballot, its the integrity of the count. No system is going to be acceptable in the long term without the ability to perform an independent audit of the count.