The NY Times(motto: all the news that's fit to invent), has an article about the potential wildcard in the whole California recall process--the voting system. Nine counties still use punch cards, which is going to be a huge mess with all the candidates on the ballot. Even with the claim that after Florida, people check to make sure that there aren't any hanging chads, using punch cards is still going to open the door to lawsuits no matter what the outcome of the election is, because someone is going to argue that punch cards disenfranchised voters.
Some counties have recently switched over to the new electronic vote systems, but that may be just as bad. Ann Reed, Shasta County voter registrar is quoted as saying that their machines are so new "We don't even know how to turn them on yet." Also, on top of the problems with the electronic systems that come just from their newness and unfamiliarity is that the electronic voting systems on the market do not have any audit system to ensure that the vote cast is the one recorded. As it now stands, the only way that electronic systems can be trusted is by blind faith. I for one, do not want to put my trust that democracy is working in a system that I have to trust by blind faith.
Posted by kathryn at Agosto 9, 2003 01:11 PM | TrackBack