iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 18/04/2026

After Bush v Gore, I got involved in a bunch of ugly tech policy fights over voting machines. The hanging chad debacle prompted Congress to appropriate funds for states to purchase new touchscreen voting machines based on a robust, open standard. Problem was, those machines didn't exist. 1/

A hand dropping a ballot in a box; the box is a complicated, many-geared machine. On its faceplate is an 'I voted' sticker that has been modified to read 'I voted?'

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 18/04/2026

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: pluralistic.net/2026/04/18/d... 2/

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don't collect or retain any data at all ever period.

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 18/04/2026

The voting machine industry in those days was already very consolidated (it's far more consolidated today). They went shopping for a standards body that would publish a spec for a "standard" voting machine that could soak up those federal dollars in time for the 2004 election. 3/

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