Assume 8 SCOTUS justices. How to avoid Bush vs. Gore and secure voting machines?

Assume

1. A US Supreme Court Justice dies and a replacement is not confirmed before November.

2. A few US states like Florida have a sizable number of elderly registered voters die before November.

3. A state actor is motivated to tamper with voting machine software in a way that is:

- Obvious to Democrats who are biased to believe that Russia wants to help Trump win.

- Invisible to Republicans who are biased to believe this "hacking" is a hoax by Democrats.

In a world of "filter-bubbles" and with current vulnerabilities of vote-counting software[1], can we design a system which can prevent a division in belief in the legitimacy of the 2020 election?

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/voting-village-results-hacking-decade-old-bugs/

4 comments

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ComputerGuru 6y ago ↗

Can we keep this kind of poisonous mind game off of HN?

afarrell 6y ago ↗

What do you mean by poisonous mind game?

blacksqr 6y ago ↗

If the Supreme Court doesn't reach a majority decision on anything, then the decision of the relevant appeals court stands, in this case probably the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

That is a good point. So at least there is a default decision. I am still concerned about it being seen as authoritative enough, but it does also increase the likelihood that SCOTUS would align around an existing decision.