I found this interesting...
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Alan Olsen | to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys.
"In the future, everything will have its 15 minutes of blame."
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Subject: Arizona voting shutout info
From Southern Arizona Online:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/news/archive/Story093138.html
Some voters shut out from
online election
A software glitch sidelines Mac users from the
Democrats' historic primary.
Like a left-handed person in a world dominated by
right-handers, Dave Wing is a loyal Macintosh computer user
who long ago came to terms with the dominance of Microsoft
and IBM.
They are the big boys of the computer industry. Macs aren't.
But Wing still feels slighted that when he tried to cast his
electronic ballot in this week's historic Arizona Democratic
Party's Internet presidential primary, he was denied.
It seems because of some computer software glitch, Macs
can't vote.
"I was excited to vote online," said Wing, an instructor of
media studies at Pima Community College. "I wanted to be part
of history. But because of my computer, it was like I was
disenfranchised."
Betty Harris had a similar experience.
The PCC art instructor also is a Mac owner who was unable
to cast a cyber-ballot.
"I'm an avid Mac user and I'm a lifelong Democrat. I'm not
pleased," she said.
Frustrated after repeated attempts to participate in the
nation's first binding Internet election, Wing and Harris each
made separate calls to party headquarters in Phoenix.
They were told that Mac-using Democrats from around the
state experienced similar difficulties.
"Given the attention this election is getting, I would have
thought they would have people like me in mind when they
were doing the planning for it," Wing said.
They did, according to officials with the party and
Election.com, the privately held New York-based company that
provided the voting software.
But for some technological reason that computer technicians
are now attempting to trouble shoot, Internet-linked Macs were
unable to access either of the two voting Web sites.
"It's unfortunate," said state party chairman Mark Fleisher.
"We would have liked everyone to participate in this. We
certainly had no intention to exclude Mac users."
By yesterday afternoon, more than 30,000 Arizona
Democrats had voted online. In-person voting at polling sites
was set for today.
Four years ago, 12,800 Arizonans participated in the
Democratic primary.
Bill Taylor, a vice president of Election.com, which provided
the software, said it was written for all computers.
The high level of security required for the election, however,
led to problems for Mac computers outfitted with old browsers.
That's the software program that allows a computer to access
the World Wide Web.
"I think that's a bunch of bunk," said a skeptical Wing.
He said his browser is "just weeks old" and he has had no
problems using it for online banking, which also requires a high
level of security.
"It would have been nice to say I voted in the first online
election," Wing said.
Instead, he was unsure whether he will vote at all if he is
unable to vote online.
