From Deseret News archives:
The rush to electronic voting
Welcome to the potential nightmare of the ballot box, 21st century style.
We hope this little anecdote reported by the New York Times isn't an omen of what is to come on Nov. 2. But after the debacle of 2000, it's not all that hard to imagine.
Utahns are lucky. They will get to vote the old-fashioned way this year as a state committee continues to decide between two bidders vying to handle electronic voting the next time around. But an estimated one-third of the nation's 150 million registered voters live in precincts that will require them to use computers, and that could, under the worst circumstances, make Florida in 2000 look like the good old days.
The only thing that seems to be completely clear is that too many states are rushing into electronic voting.
Thank goodness Utah isn't one of them. A group of computer scientists sent a letter recently to state elections officials urging them to be careful. Above all, they want the state to choose a system that would create a paper receipt verifying how a voter voted. Without this, they say, the computer's word would be final, and there would be no way to double-check results in a tight race.
That sounds like good advice. Unfortunately, neither bidder in Utah has machines that make paper receipts. They ought to rectify that before the state decides to award a bid.
After the hype of 2000, it's easy to lose focus. The most important thing is not to move toward electronic voting. The most important thing is to provide the most accurate and safe voting system possible, making sure within reasonable limits that every legitimately cast ballot counts.
No system is fool-proof. Even under ideal conditions, push-pin punch cards and paper ballots have slight margins of error. And no system is tamper-proof, particularly if some of the people involved turn out to be dishonest.
But in the interest of representative government, and the public's trust in the electoral process, the states that have gone electronic need to hope Mikulski was just unusually careless.
Comments
- Secret Service puts 3 on leave 10:53 a.m.
- Provo robbery report was a hoax 10:52 a.m.
- Senate casts 1st health care votes 10:51 a.m.
- Report: social science effort flawed 10:44 a.m.
- University to probe climate data 10:40 a.m.
- Bernanke: tools to reel in stimulus 10:36 a.m.
- Secret Pentagon e-mails 10:29 a.m.
- India to slow carbon emissions 10:26 a.m.
- Continental sees delays 10:23 a.m.
- AP: Karzai willing to talk to Taliban 10:15 a.m.
- Why is Y. ignoring spew of hatred?
- Mitchell said to share LeBaron traits
- Unbeaten BYU takes trip to Logan
- Miles is back, but others still out
- Teen girl killed in Kaysville crash
- BCS just keeps dirty laundry on spin
- MWC awaits bowl destinations
- 2 citations issued at Y.-U. game
- Hate not limited to 1 in-state rivalry
- Simple candies for the holidays
- Hall mouths off about hate of Utah
916 - Cougars beat Utes in overtime
483 - Hall reprimanded by MWC
406 - Max Hall issues apology
393 - Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal
359 - Utes won't respond to Hall
278 - Why is Y. ignoring spew of hatred?
255 - BYU says Hall incident resolved
244 - 2 citations issued at Y.-U. game
184 - Religion in politics is tiresome
154
First, a big thank you to all who posted questions here for me to ask...
In response to the 9:41 post: No where is it taught that an individual is...
Not enough quick ball movement on offense. That is BYU's problem. They were...
re -- true conservative | 9:07 a.m ["Abortion should not be legalized,...
"The Utes can stop with their "holier than thou" attitude. It gets annoying."...
The reason why YBU's home streak was so good is because everytime someone...
My Grandmother was born and raised in Orderville, UT, where she practiced...
Thank you Jerry. We are lucky to have such a great coach. It will be sad to...
"I sincerely hope that we can learn to live with a situation in which gays...
Who in their right mind would take Byron Scott over Jerry Sloan - what has...
Luke 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest...


You can be the first to comment on this story.