|

 
|
| | Name : | Timothy Willhard | Organization : | N/A | Post Date : | 9/9/2005 |
| Comment : | It is an embarrassment to the citizens of this country that here in the
home of democracy we cannot demonstrate to international observers that
we
have a free and fair election system, with checks and balances assuring
the legitimacy of our own political system, which we tout as the best in
all the world. Many other democratic nations allow their elections to be
verified.
At a bare minimum, to repair the current system, the voters of this nation
deserve to be able to verify that their vote actually counted in an
election. There is no reason each and every voter in any election cannot
be given a code number after voting to check back later and verify that
all their votes for given candidates were recorded. Software can easily
be
designed to show individual ballots. There are no big technical hurdles
there.
Elections do have to be finalized- they cannot be challenged indefinitely.
But there is no reason that voters should not be allowed to see the
acuracy of the tabulation of their votes in an election, even if it takes
till a following election to repair the cause of an election problem. If
5,000 people in a county report their votes were not counted, then the
election system there could be examined to determine the cause of the
problem, and repair and test it before the next election. A practice
election with secured, sealed machines could be used to test the
corrective actions. | |
|
|