Predictably Irrational
Concurring Opinions:
As our readers at CoOp know well, my posts have highlighted concerns about the accuracy and security of our e-voting machines. See here, here, here, and here. My rational self thus tells me that the e-voting technology sitting in my precinct is problematic, plain and simple. With this in mind, I should have put my memory card into the Premier (formerly Diebold) voting machine with dread. I should have felt despair. But, truth be told, once I had touched the screen eleven times to cast my choices for the Presidential ticket, a Congressional race, local judges and numerous ballot initiatives and pressed enter (or something like that), I was filled with joy. The final screen told me that my ballots had been cast–and, in that moment, I believed. Behavioral economists unquestionably know of which they speak–optimism bias is a powerful thing. But now, as Alvy Singer told Annie Hall’s brother, it is time for me to return to planet earth.
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