http://www.wheresthepaper.org/RarelyPerfect.htm

Teresa Hommel, 12/12/04

Large computer systems are rarely, if ever, perfect.

All businesses try to hide their computer problems from the public. If you purchase shirts by mail order, you would stop doing business with a company that repeatedly sends you the wrong size, style, or color. You would stop doing business with a bank that repeatedly has errors on their statements.

What non-technical people do not see is that behind the scenes, teams of technical personnel monitor these computer systems, often 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, and correct the errors that occur. That way, customers don't see any problems with their service.

Even computer systems that are many years old, and have been repaired hundreds of times, still produce errors that are "fixed" by staff before the customer gets bad service.

72% of computer software projects are complete or partial failures -- which means that the system doesn't work! Computerized voting machines are no exception.

Why the Current Touch Screen Voting Fiasco Was Pretty Much Inevitable by Robert X. Cringely, December 4, 2003.