Is Your Vote Being Counted? (Seattle TImes)

[kpete]

Published on Monday, October 2, 2006 by the Seattle Times (Washington)
Is Your Vote Being Counted?
by Neal Peirce

..................

The Florida 2000 debacle and the "Bush v. Gore" court case decided by a partisanly divided Supreme Court have unleashed a wave of court suits in close elections — "election law as political strategy," Hasen suggests.

Adding to the perils: More than 80 percent of voters will be using electronic voting machines, a third of precincts for the first time, this autumn. The replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based equipment, pushed along by federal assistance under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, is good news. But suspicions of manipulation run high and there has been little time for careful ironing out of computer bugs. In Maryland's September primary, technological glitches played a role in long lines and delayed vote counts.

So extreme are the levels of distrust and suspicions of outright vote tampering that some observers are suggesting delays and court actions might cause a serious backup in deciding what party will control Congress after next month's elections.

And already, secretaries of state from Arkansas to California, Connecticut to Georgia, have come under fire on suspicions ranging from discriminatory purging of voter rolls to using federal money from the Help America Vote Act for partisan political purposes.

The Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, endorses a proposal to remove election responsibilities from elected secretaries of state. The logical substitute would be a chief elections officer and board appointed by each governor, the officials' high professional standing and impartiality assured by requiring a super-majority (perhaps 75 percent) vote of confirmation by legislatures.

Vast majorities of us would likely approve: Polling shows less than 1 percent support the current system of elections governed by a single elected official...

......................

more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1002-21.htm

[kster]

1. KNR.nt

[freeplessinseattle]

2. Nice. thank you! n/t

[Stevepol]

3. Good article. K&R! n/t

[texpatriot2004]

4. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm