A recount showed the Republican winning by 34 votes, then a second recount had the Republican ahead by 418 votes. No Problem for Private Sector Compare this to how the private sector counts things, Stossel says. That's compared to just 100 million votes cast in this year's presidential election. Visa and MasterCard process approximately 3,000 transactions a second, instantly. In government, an inability to modernize is routine.
Many polling places use voting machines that are decades old.
But the voting machines are not the only problem. The FAA uses antiquated vacuum tubes in their computers, tubes that were taken out of television sets years ago. It's one reason for the horrible delays at the airports. This year in the West, forests and houses burned after government workers decided to burn brush on windy days. Public housing is such a disaster that the government is regularly blowing its own buildings up.