Computer glitch voids green card lottery results

[alp227]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of would-be immigrants to America are sure to be disappointed after a computer glitch prompted the State Department to invalidate results of the most recent green card visa lottery.

Each year, the State Department issues 50,000 visas from a pool of applicants who are randomly selected but are required to undergo interviews, background checks and medical exams before they are given permanent status.

For the 2012 lottery, 19.6 million people entered during a 30-day online registration period, a senior State Department official told reporters. Of those, about 90,000 were to selected to make it to the next step. Many of them had already logged on and discovered their good fortune.

What they did not know is that a computer programming error caused more than 90 percent of selected applicants came from the first two days of the period -- October 5 and 6 -- and did not represent a fair and random choice, as mandated by federal law.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/14/diversity.lottery/index.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. Is this really the best way

to determine who gets the blessings of American liberty? Will we be doing the same thing for liver transplants some day, with single-payer?

How about tax audits? Maybe we should have something like that to figure out the best people for the IRS to harass. On the other hand, it wouldn't be unprecedented, we did have a draft lottery for Vietnam.