Voting Reforms Proposed
Monday September 19, 2005
A
federal voting commission headed by Jimmy Carter and James Baker, warns that "Americans are losing confidence in the fairness of elections." It recommends that voters be required to show photo IDs, electronic voting machines be required to have a paper (audit) trail, and media change their election coverage.
A major recommendation is for a centralized (universal) database that cross-references voter registration information by state. Why? From the Washington Post: "The commission cited news reports asserting that almost 46,000 voters from New York City were also registered in Florida." Brings to mind recent news that Presidential right-hand Karl Rove is registered to vote in Texas, although he sold his property there and owns homes in two other states. News reports credit Rove with triggering the dismissal of a Texas secretary of state attorney:
Report Details
The Commission says that the photo ID should be based on the new Congressional REAL ID card, and states should be responsible for the accuracy of voter registration lists, not local governments. The US Election Assistance Commission would then be charged with merging the state lists. The commission also calls for state election officials and agencies to become non-partisan: "We cannot build confidence in elections if secretaries of state responsible for certifying votes are simultaneously chairing political campaigns..."
Regarding media coverage, the Commission reports that a 1998 White House advisory panel recommended that television stations air at least five minutes of candidate "discourse" in the 30 minute news hole every night throughout the month before elections. The goal of this "5/30 standard" was to provide something more substantive than 30 second TV spots.
In 2000, about 100 local stations committed to the standard. On average, they devoted 2 minutes 17 seconds to candidate discourse -- not even half of the goal -- but an improvement over the sound bite. In 2004, almost half of the TV news reports about the election focused on campaign strategy; less than one-third addressed issues.
The Commission also cites the serious of journalistic blunders in Florida -- projections made before the polls closed in Florida (much less the rest of the country!). The Commission is critical of the practice of calling an election before polls close in the contiguous 48 states (but they don't mind if Alaska and Hawaii remain open).
The 87 recommendations would reportedly cost $1.35 billion.
Technorati Tags:
Carter-Baker Commission, Help America Vote Act, Politics, Voting
A major recommendation is for a centralized (universal) database that cross-references voter registration information by state. Why? From the Washington Post: "The commission cited news reports asserting that almost 46,000 voters from New York City were also registered in Florida." Brings to mind recent news that Presidential right-hand Karl Rove is registered to vote in Texas, although he sold his property there and owns homes in two other states. News reports credit Rove with triggering the dismissal of a Texas secretary of state attorney:
Elizabeth Reyes, 30, was terminated Sept. 6 after being quoted in The Washington Post three days earlier saying it was potential vote fraud to register in a place where you don't actually live.The Rove situation highlights the question of professional politico "legal residence." Elected representatives (and their spouses) legally (and practically) retain their home state residence during their time in Washington. Should this practice be "legal" for full-time non-elected politicos? What if you're a business person who moves every two-three years? Where do you vote, if you keep your old home? What about unscrupulous vacation home owners? Do you have a "right" to vote on issues that might affect your property, even if it's not your primary residence?
Report Details
The Commission says that the photo ID should be based on the new Congressional REAL ID card, and states should be responsible for the accuracy of voter registration lists, not local governments. The US Election Assistance Commission would then be charged with merging the state lists. The commission also calls for state election officials and agencies to become non-partisan: "We cannot build confidence in elections if secretaries of state responsible for certifying votes are simultaneously chairing political campaigns..."
Regarding media coverage, the Commission reports that a 1998 White House advisory panel recommended that television stations air at least five minutes of candidate "discourse" in the 30 minute news hole every night throughout the month before elections. The goal of this "5/30 standard" was to provide something more substantive than 30 second TV spots.
In 2000, about 100 local stations committed to the standard. On average, they devoted 2 minutes 17 seconds to candidate discourse -- not even half of the goal -- but an improvement over the sound bite. In 2004, almost half of the TV news reports about the election focused on campaign strategy; less than one-third addressed issues.
The Commission also cites the serious of journalistic blunders in Florida -- projections made before the polls closed in Florida (much less the rest of the country!). The Commission is critical of the practice of calling an election before polls close in the contiguous 48 states (but they don't mind if Alaska and Hawaii remain open).
The 87 recommendations would reportedly cost $1.35 billion.
Technorati Tags:
Carter-Baker Commission, Help America Vote Act, Politics, Voting
Comments
HI
Thanks for the blog, getting more accurate vote counts seems to be the right thing to do, President Bush was correct in one of his African speeches when he said the only acceptable form of government is democracy. He also defined democracy, in that speech, as one vote one-person CONTROL of government. This requires every vote be counted and every vote BE counted correctly AND Verifiable IF QUESTIONED. In the Republic of Ireland, they seem to have a very reliable paper ballot system without using machines. They refuse to use the e-voting machines they bought a few years ago and have in storage. The same kind that were shown to be unreliable in Holland’s elections where the wrong results were given by the machines.
It takes more time to count in Ireland because each ballot box is opened and votes counted in front of both partisan and neutral vote observers using hand counting.
It, also, takes additional time because they count twice. They start with an overall total count with out regard to whom the votes are for because of proportional representation. This lets them know how many votes are needed to win a particular race. By this method, votes for a person are counted until he has enough votes to get a seat. If 5 seats are being contested a candidate wins when he gets20 pecent of votes cast.
They do this to overcome a legislative districting maps that, like in Pennsylvania, packs many voters of one party into one district where the majority wins the seat by a wide margin, but allows minority parties to win other districts by small majorities. Minorities in these cases can win majorities in the national and local legislatures and executive elections, ie bush in 2000 In this case control of public laws and policies goes to minorities. This is defiantly not one vote one-person democracy, because a minority of voters can control the legislature, executive and policy. The extra cost in time in getting the results in one-person one vote democratic majority government is a requirement for democracy to result from election procedures. Optical scan paper trail voting could speed up the counting if necessary.
If anyone ever had faith in paperless electronic voting machines, just look at the mess in Sarasota (Nov. 7, 2006): The GOP congressional candidate “won” by under 400 votes in a strongly-Democratic country in which 18,000+ votes went missing.
I come from Chicago where the ruling party is Democratic and vote fraud was as common as dandilions in sping. So it has nothing to do with the political party–whoever has access to the machines (including a hacker) can manipulate the vote.
We have layers of protection on home and business computers to protect against hacking, but no one seems to be seriously concerned about using computers to gain or maintain the seats of power in this country at the expense of the voters’ will. Please, folks, smell the coffee–we need to protect democracy here, not just in Iraq!