Electronic Voting - Not Ready For Prime Time by Howard Dean

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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    Electronic Voting - Not Ready For Prime Time 
    By Howard Dean 
    Cagle Cartoons 

    Monday 31 May 2004 

    In December 2000, five Supreme Court justices concluded that a recount
in the state of Florida's presidential election was unwarranted. This,
despite the desire of the Florida Supreme Court to order a statewide recount
in an election that was decided by only 537 votes. In the face of
well-documented voting irregularities throughout the state, the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision created enormous cynicism about whether the votes of every
American would actually be counted. Although we cannot change what happened
in Florida, we have a responsibility to our democracy to prevent a similar
situation from happening again. 

    Some politicians believe a solution to this problem can be found in
electronic voting. Recently, the federal government passed legislation
encouraging the use of "touch screen" voting machines even though they fail
to provide a verifiable record that can be used in a recount. Furthermore,
this equipment cannot even verify as to whether a voter did indeed cast a
ballot for their intended candidate. Unfortunately, this November, as many
as 28% of Americans - 50 million people - will cast ballots using machines
that could produce such unreliable and unverifiable results. 

    Only since 2000 have touch screen voting machines become widely used and
yet they have already caused widespread controversy due to their
unreliability. For instance, in Wake County, N.C. in 2002, 436 votes were
lost as a result of bad software. Hinds County, Miss. had to re-run an
election because the machines had so many problems that the will of the
voters could not be determined. According to local election officials in
Fairfax County, Va., a recent election resulted in one in 100 votes being
lost. Many states, such as New Hampshire and most recently Maine, have
banned paperless touch screen voting and many more are considering doing so.


    Without any accountability or transparency, even if these machines work,
we cannot check whether they are in fact working reliably. The American
public should not tolerate the use of paperless e-voting machines until at
least the 2006 election, allowing time to prevent ongoing errors and
failures with the technology. One way or another, every voter should be able
to check that an accurate paper record has been made of their vote before it
is recorded. 

    Both Democrats and Republicans have a serious interest in fixing this
potentially enormous blow to democracy. A bipartisan bill, sponsored by Rep.
Rush Holt (D-N.J.), is one of several paper trail bills in the House and
Senate and it should be passed as soon as possible. A grassroots movement
for verified voting, led by organizations like VerifiedVoting.org, is
gaining momentum nationwide. 

    There is nothing partisan about the survival of our democracy or its
legitimacy. We cannot and must not put the success of one party or another
above the good of our entire country and all our people. To the governments
of the fifty states, Republican or Democrat, I ask you to put paperless
e-voting machines on the shelf until 2006 or until they are reliable and
will allow recounts. In a democracy you always count the votes no matter who
wins. To abandon that principle is to abandon America. 

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    Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, is the founder of Democracy for
America, a grassroots organization that supports socially progressive and
fiscally responsible political candidates. Email Howard Dean at
howarddean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx