Monday, November 15, 2004

A Call for Transparent Elections



Lest you think that I have forgotten already! This opinion piece in yesterday's New York Times is quite good. Among other things it says:

These problems were all detected and fixed, but there is no way of knowing how many other machine malfunctions did not come to light, since most machines do not have a reliable way of double-checking for errors. When a precinct mistakenly adds nearly 4,000 votes to a candidate's total, it is likely to be noticed, but smaller inaccuracies may not be. There is also no way to be sure that the nightmare scenario of electronic voting critics did not occur: votes surreptitiously shifted from one candidate to another inside the machines, by secret software.
It's important to make it clear that there is no evidence such a thing happened, but there will be concern and conspiracy theories until all software used in elections is made public. Voters who use electronic machines are entitled to a voter-verified paper trail, which Nevadans got this year, so they can be sure their votes were accurately recorded.


Without transparent elections there is no democracy. Even the Republicans would be called banana Republicans. It's in everyone's interest to guarantee that elections are fair. Ok. Now I'll shut up on this topic for a while.