I was listening to a story about yet another stolen election in some faraway country on NPR and I wondered if political corruption in nominal democracies is having an effect on voting in the United States.
All markets are international. Including the market for voting equipment. If you were selling voting equipment to a typical third world government, would absolute security and reliable audit trails be considered a feature or a bug? Could you justify selling an unhackable version in your home market and a hackable version overseas? Would you want to maintain twice as many SKU’s, one set hackable and one not?
I’ve looked around a little bit and I can’t find any information on the size or potential size of the global market for voting equipment. But I’m beginning to wonder if the potential of selling voting equipment in undemocratic countries is affecting the quality of the equipment manufacturers are willing to sell us here.
I don’t know of anyone who has written about this. Perhaps someone should.