It's Time For Fair, Reliable Elections

By TChris, Section Elections
Posted on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 10:04:57 AM EST
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The complaints about suspect voting machines have become bipartisan:

In New Jersey, Republicans complained that the machines were rigged in favor of incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Menendez; in Virginia, where Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb's name was truncated on the interface of voting machines in several counties, Democrats complained that the machines were rigged in favor of the Republicans.

It's time for a bipartisan solution: machines that are easy to use and that produce a verifiable paper trail.

Reforming the mechanics of elections will help restore voter confidence, but better voting procedures won't stop the dirty tricks:

In several heavily African American districts around the country, Republican operatives took a page right out of the Jim Crow-Jesse Helms playbook, calling voters to tell them their precinct location had changed when it hadn't, or warning them they risked arrest if they showed up to vote, or trying to talk them into believing the election was on Wednesday, not Tuesday. In heavily African-American Buckingham County, Virginia, a widely circulated flyer announced in bold letters: "SKIP THIS ELECTION".

The enforcement of laws that protect the right to vote needs to become one of the Justice Department's highest priorities.

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It's Time For Fair, Reliable Elections | 8 comments (8 topical)

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All aspects of the electoral process need to be (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by hellskitchen on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 11:03:29 AM EST

looked at.

Whatever system is chosen, it has to be verifiable by the voter prior to leaving the voting booth. And adquate voting access must be available at each polling place. Enough working machines, enough paper ballots, whatever. And the poll should remain open as long as there are people waiting to vote who arrived at the polling place within a specified time. Also, allowances have to be made for individuals who find that their voter registration has somehow been mishandled, whether by accident or intention.

As a retired programmer, I have both a healthy respect and a healthy disrespect for the use of computerized processes. As we have seen, computers can be rigged, can be badly programmed. Even if there's no intent to defraud, there are glitches. My experience is that, no matter how brilliant some programmers are, human beings do not think like computers and the most surprising errors in programming come from that fact. Needless to say, I am really not that sanguine about touch screen voting systems.

But the big problem is focusing on electronic problems, when human behavior problems are a bigger source of fraud and voter suppression. Some of the tactics used to intimidate voters should not only be illegal, not only should the penalties be severe, but the remedy should not have to wait until after the election. I'm not sure how to accomplish that - it would take a discussion by lawyers and criminal justice professionals to come up with a system that would bring justice quickly while maintaining a high standard of human rights protections.

For instance, it seems to me that Conquest Communications should have been shut down, but what process would have to have been in place for that to happen, I'm not sure.

As to the murkier calls telling people that they would be arrested if they voted, or telling people that the election had been cancelled - I'd like to see a discussion by knowledgeable people on how that situation could be handled in a timely manner.

A secure election process benefits both parties.

A national holiday is in order (none / 0) (#1)
by Dadler on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 10:10:50 AM EST

Where every street, neighborhood, community is responsible for counting their votes. This should be a village thing. Not a machine thing. Even with a paper trail, you still have no way of knowing if that paper actually reflects what was entered. A hanging chad is far superior. Let actual human beings decide. A reboot is not a recount.

: Agree (none / 0) (#2)
by hellskitchen on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 10:35:54 AM EST

that a national holiday is in order, but I don't know that a counting by citizens - if I'm reading you correctly - is practical.

Counting street by street (none / 0) (#3)
by Dadler on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 10:53:58 AM EST

The more people that count, the less opportunity for massive fraud -- to many overseers. Little frauds, as well, are mitigated by neighborhoods being responsible for their own ballots. A lot harder to steal a vote here and there when you and your neighbors are cooperating to ensure each other's vote is tabulated accurately. Citizens vote, citizens count the vote. Labor intensive. Decmocracy intensive. If we can all celebrate certain holidays, we can participate in this one. To me, we must. Politics, as it is, is SO disconected from the people, this would go a long way toward reconnecting ii in a new and progressive way.

Of course, new problems would arise, more personal and local, but they would not be the wizard behind the curtain variety we are faced with now in dealing with computer voting technology in particular. No amount of oversight can compensate for the massive fraud opportunities this technology affords just one motivated individual. The people, engaged in the entire process to a much greater degree and on a much more direct level, is the only real solution.

voting and paper (none / 0) (#5)
by oldtree on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 12:11:16 PM EST

dear folks; start an initiative in your state for paper ballots. we did so in Oregon long ago, and it has reduced the costs and the fabrications to nearly nothing.
it is your corrupt state officials that will try to stop you. It will be the ones with most to lose with fair ballot counting that will be singing the loudest

why would you let someone have this power? take it back

voting, and machines? (none / 0) (#6)
by oldtree on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 12:15:09 PM EST

didn't read the posts; trying to justify that the computer could be okay? this is delusional, but some believe that windows is a functional operating system.
get something where a vote actually counts, why be so foolish as to allow technology to be hacked by someone, take it out of the hands of criminals, period.
Paper, league of women voters, bipartisan committees to count votes. What in the hell is so hard about this? The only people telling you it wouldn't work are lying criminals that have it to lose

we can't continue to be this stupid, can we?

I voted on the solution yesterday.... (none / 0) (#7)
by kdog on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 12:16:57 PM EST

I voted on one yesterday...good old fashioned mechanical voting machines.

They work in a power outage, leave a trail, easy to use...everything electronic machines are not.

The mechanical renaissance!

Two Tracks for Voting Reform (none / 0) (#8)
by noblebill on Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 01:08:49 PM EST

First, let's push for Vote-by-Mail. The Oregon experience is determinative.

Second, where that doesn't happen (and it will take time), the Johns Hopkins folks have a simple, elegant answer. A touchscreen allows accommodation for the visually impaired, other languages than English, etc. After you vote, it prints your marked ballot, which you check and insert in an optical scanner. Problem solved: paper trail, no scan errors.

How about someone like Gore assembling a consortium of tech companies to manufacture a uniform, inexpensive touchsreen/printer device?