Why "Black Box" Voting?

When I hear the term, "black box", the first thing that comes to mind is "an accurate record".

I assume this term came from flight data recorders that are retrieved after a plane crash. Valuable flight data is recorded on the black box which usually survives the plane crash. The data can then be analyzed to help determine the cause of the crash. It is widely considered reliable and accurate by the public.

This is exactly the opposite of our current state of elections. We can not be sure that voting machines and the Companies providing them and the counting service are keeping accurate data on votes cast. There is anything but "an accurate record" of votes cast in the US.

If we choose a term that brings to mind "accuracy" then most of the public will write off the election reform effort as Dems being a bunch of whiny sore losers.

"Unverifiable Voting" is a bit better, but still could be confusing to people and has a whiny quality by using the prefix "un".

IMO, we should be for "Verifiable Voting", and against, "Privatized Voting".

"Privatized Voting" really gets to the point. The US elections have been turned over to Corporations, most of whom publicly supported the Republican party. That is a message that would clearly resonate with the American people. The Republicans are even afraid to use the term "Privatized" and instead use "Personal" when talking about Social Security reform.

Where you see some inputs into the box, some outputs, presumably determined by the inputs, but the mechanism inside the box is not visible.

when most Americans hear the term black box, they immediately think of flight data recorders. It sounds like "black box" in the way you are using the term comes from the high-tech field. Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans have no clue about this alternative use of the term "black box".

flight recorders. My visualization was one of those magician's boxes where he pours in a gallon of water and pulls out a live rabbit.

Aren't you thinking of a rabbit out of a hat?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/usatoday/20050225/ts_usatoday/faaproposesnewairlinerblackboxrules

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/07apr_blackbox.htm

http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/corporate/history/jubilee/blackbox.html

Had a collapsible black box. Put it together on stage in front of the audience. Poured tha water into the box. Pulled out a support pin which collapsed the box, and there was a big ol white rabbit where there should have been a puddle.

Neat trick.

Kinda like how on 11/2, we poured in loads of Dem vote, collapsed the box and there sat a repug president.

and the distinction between black box and clear box

with a black box, you see what goes in and what comes out, but you don't see (and don't care!) what happens inside

conversely, with the clear box approach you see what goes in and out, as well as all the processing that happens

"Privatized Elections" is an even better term than "Privatized Voting" to describe what is going on.

what's going on inside the box.

It is originally a generic term used to refer to (electronic) devices that perform some function without the user having to worry about how the box does what it does. Such as "black boxes" as used in aviation.

Of course with elections we should know what's going on inside the box. It used to be that several observers from all sides where present to observe the actual counting. You know, accountability and all that. But with e-voting the counting process is no longer observable by anyone except the owner of the system.
Elections used to be public, now it is privitized in spite of the fact that elections are of public interest. We no longer know what's going on inside the box, there's no more accountability wrt elections. Bye bye democracy.

most of the general public does not know this. When they hear the term "black box" they think of HIGHLY ACCURATE in-flight data recorders.

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but is the idea of correctly framing our message completely lost on Democrats?

I mean, what the heck is black box voting supposed to mean? It is not a very descriptive term. It sounds like a shadowy and dark reference that a conspiracy theorist would make. I don't think use of that term is helpful. It makes people who talk about the accuracy of elections sound like kooks.