<story><title>Private equity controls the U.S. voting machine industry</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-03/private-equity-controls-the-gatekeepers-of-american-democracy?srnd=premium</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>darawk</author><text>The problem here isn&amp;#x27;t private equity control of the industry...it&amp;#x27;s state &amp;amp; local governments choosing to actually use these things. PE can call a lemonade stand a voting machine, that&amp;#x27;s what it means to live in a free country, but that doesn&amp;#x27;t mean we have to use the damn thing. It&amp;#x27;s a joke. It&amp;#x27;s not like we don&amp;#x27;t know how to design reasonably secure electronic voting mechanisms[1]...these companies just don&amp;#x27;t bother. There is no reason anyone should ever be using these things.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;crypto.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;pbc&amp;#x2F;notes&amp;#x2F;crypto&amp;#x2F;voting.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;crypto.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;pbc&amp;#x2F;notes&amp;#x2F;crypto&amp;#x2F;voting.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Private equity controls the U.S. voting machine industry</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-03/private-equity-controls-the-gatekeepers-of-american-democracy?srnd=premium</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hnmonkey</author><text>Is there a solid argument for not having more regulation on these organizations? We have so much regulation on slot machines and casinos for example because we know that a lot of money passes through there and there&amp;#x27;s high potential for money laundering. Why not have strong regulations around voting systems too? We know that if voting systems are compromised the impact could be devastating to the entire country - far more critical to America&amp;#x27;s security and continuity than regulation in many other industries.&lt;p&gt;I just don&amp;#x27;t get the opposition to that. It seems like it&amp;#x27;s in everyone&amp;#x27;s best interest (those that are honest and are looking for a fair foundation to build from that is).</text></comment>