Securing the Vote
Tucked in amongst the reports of the damage done to John Edwards' campaign by his hiring of two bloggers who have been known to use intemperate language and the outrage over House Speaker Pelosi's request for an airplane that can actually fly her non-stop to her district in California are articles, columns, and editorials on what actually matters. Today I was cheered by an editorial in the NY Times dealing with Sen. Dianne Feinstein's push to investigate voting machines.
With a proper sense of urgency, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who leads the Senate committee in charge of elections, is asking all of the right questions about voting technology. This week, she ordered an investigation of the case of as many as 18,000 electronic votes that turned up missing in a tight Congressional race in Florida last November.
Senator Feinstein called on the Government Accountability Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct “top to bottom” federal investigations of the machines used in Sarasota County, where the 18,000 votes may have disappeared. Florida is now moving to toss out electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail. But this is no comfort to Christine Jennings, the Democrat in the 13th Congressional District race, which includes Sarasota County. She lost by 369 votes and is now in court trying to find out what went wrong in the election.
While Christine Jennings' heartbreaking loss in the November elections is an excellent example of why Florida is wise to now insist on voting machines with a paper trail, more is at stake here than one race. 18,000 votes were somehow "lost" in that district. How many have been "lost" throughout the country? Just as importantly, how many eligible voters have stayed home on election day because they see no reason to assume that their votes will actually be counted?
Once confidence in the election system is lost, it is difficult to build it back up, but one way to ensure that votes cast and votes counted match is to insist on such measures as the auditable back-up a paper trail provides.
Sen. Feinstein (who happens to be one of my senators) has disappointed me in the past with her 'centrist' positions, but this time she is on the right track. So is the NY Times with its conclusion in this editorial:
As long as there are no paper records, and voting machine manufacturers continue to insist that the software that runs the machines is a “trade secret,” voters cannot be expected to trust that votes are being counted correctly. The leadership in Congress needs to focus on making sure that Ms. Feinstein’s paper-trail bill becomes law, along with a companion House measure from Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey.
With a proper sense of urgency, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who leads the Senate committee in charge of elections, is asking all of the right questions about voting technology. This week, she ordered an investigation of the case of as many as 18,000 electronic votes that turned up missing in a tight Congressional race in Florida last November.
Senator Feinstein called on the Government Accountability Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct “top to bottom” federal investigations of the machines used in Sarasota County, where the 18,000 votes may have disappeared. Florida is now moving to toss out electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail. But this is no comfort to Christine Jennings, the Democrat in the 13th Congressional District race, which includes Sarasota County. She lost by 369 votes and is now in court trying to find out what went wrong in the election.
While Christine Jennings' heartbreaking loss in the November elections is an excellent example of why Florida is wise to now insist on voting machines with a paper trail, more is at stake here than one race. 18,000 votes were somehow "lost" in that district. How many have been "lost" throughout the country? Just as importantly, how many eligible voters have stayed home on election day because they see no reason to assume that their votes will actually be counted?
Once confidence in the election system is lost, it is difficult to build it back up, but one way to ensure that votes cast and votes counted match is to insist on such measures as the auditable back-up a paper trail provides.
Sen. Feinstein (who happens to be one of my senators) has disappointed me in the past with her 'centrist' positions, but this time she is on the right track. So is the NY Times with its conclusion in this editorial:
As long as there are no paper records, and voting machine manufacturers continue to insist that the software that runs the machines is a “trade secret,” voters cannot be expected to trust that votes are being counted correctly. The leadership in Congress needs to focus on making sure that Ms. Feinstein’s paper-trail bill becomes law, along with a companion House measure from Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey.
Labels: Voting Machines
posted by Diane at 10:41 AM
1 Comments:
It's about time.
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