Thanks, Dan. I'll look for and grab the Science Friday podcast.

I'm glad the media are covering it.
I guess I haven't seen anything about it this year (besides the bogus "vote flipper" thing), though I've heard more than enough about pigs, lipstick, acorns, plumbers, expensive wardrobes, crazy preachers, counting your residences, wearing traditional costumes, how many countries are visible from which point, how much both candidates love Jesus and how much they'll both cut my taxes, not cut out a single one of their campaign promises, and still somehow magically fund this surprise trillion dollar extra outlay.

Yet somehow I'm supposed to care more about all of that silly nonsense than the fact that our vote tallying process is less robust than it was 20 years ago.

...anyway... It seems to me that voting-machine-related fraud is one of the biggest threats to the "sanctity" of our democracy.
(Yes, idiocy of the electorate is a bigger long-term problem, but in the meantime, let's make sure that every idiot's vote is properly counted,
and then try to convince people to make rational decisions and that they ought to demand more from the candidates than soundbites and detail-free "debates".)

I.e.,

• the government should make good on its end of the bargain to properly record what the people ask for, and
• the people should try to make good on their end of the bargain and vote on more than just color, party, "what's in it for me?", propaganda, emotion, or one single pet issue.
  This is especially true for senate and house elections.