Vote for Whats-his-Name

Thinking about the science of how computers work makes my head hurt. It seems that the folks who program some of Virginia's electronic machines feel the same way- they must have had some truly profound headaches, because they couldn't manage to fix a simple text-formatting issue:

A computer glitch that alters the names of some candidates on electronic ballots in three Virginia cities helps prove the need to create a paper record of each vote cast, two state lawmakers said yesterday.

Alexandria officials said earlier this week that a change to a larger type size on the summary page of the electronic ballot distorts candidates' names. U.S. Senate candidate James Webb (D), for example, appears as "James H. 'Jim' " on the summary page.

To me, this looks suspicious, but it's probably just pure stupidity that caused the problem. The article seems to indicate the error is caused by a change to a larger text, presumably leaving room for fewer characters, i.e., there wasn't enough space for Mr. Webb's last name. Why the programmer's decided that it was more important to include the diminutive 'Jim' instead of the surname 'Webb' is anyone's guess... I wonder if "George F. Allen" is truncated by one space- "George F. Alle" ...perhaps these two quick-thinkers can solve the mystery:

Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax) and Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R-Fairfax) said at a news conference in Fairfax County that the computer errors in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville show that legislation is necessary to ensure the accuracy of electronic voting throughout Virginia.

Hmmm...they said that yesterday- Oct. 27th, 2006- hell, that's almost a full two weeks before the election! Let me applaud Mr. Hugo and Ms. Davis for their foresight and awareness- who could have thought that there might be problems with electronic voting machines?
(There's nothing on the Interweb news tubes about electronic voting mishaps, so it's easy to see how it was overlooked until now)

I thought everything computers did was magically perfect and free from human error and interference- thank Godzilla that we have legislators who astutely point out the possibility of skewed vote counts, data transmission failures, total tally erasures and other trivial annoyances.
Way to go, you two. Real timely.
Do you buy all your X-mas gifts on Dec 24th?

VOTE NOTE: Some localities offer paper ballots upon request- ask your registrar. Use paper if they provide the option.