"This technique removed the possibility of a single point failure in teh voting logic "

You can say that again. Engineers working on mission critical applications are cray and almost fanatic about this aspect of "Single point failure ". Ask him to connect a power supply - he will in all probability use 4 cables in place of two !

I suppose they stop this with the workplace and not extend it to the home front ( wife , lover etc ) where the consequences could be unpalatable to say the least.

Raghu