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Name :   Timothy Willhard
Organization :   N/A
Post Date :   9/9/2005

General Comments
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.