An Open Letter to J. Kenneth Blackwell

Secretary Blackwell, a very practical and common sense proposal can spare the nation of another four years of doubt and perhaps avert irreparable distrust of the election process in America for generations to come. First, ensure that the provisional ballots that should be counted are in fact counted as you assured the nation last night. Every effort should be made to determine why each of some 250,000 Ohio citizens believed they were registered to vote but their right to vote could not be confirmed by election officials on Election Day. Avoid the partisan instinct of your own Party to use highly technical and largely immaterial mistakes in completing voter registration forms, if they were completed, to invalidate otherwise legitimate votes.

Second, invite Republicans and Democrats to appoint equal numbers of qualified experts to inspect the programming of the voting machines to verify that the integrity of the vote count produced. The bipartisan committee should operate under your direct supervision with adequate safe guards to protect the votes in the electronic voting machines yet ensure the vote count was honestly produced. You should demand that Diebold produce the programming codes for inspection by this bipartisan committee with assurances that the proprietary rights of Diebold to the non-disclosure of the codes are protected.

In return, President Bush and Sen. Kerry should agree to forgo potentially protracted and divisive litigation and abide by the provisional vote count and findings of the bipartisan committee.

If the Republicans and Democrats can, at this moment, rise above the partisan political interests of both their Parties and with absolute transparency in the completion of the election results, the nation may win much more than a President who gained the right to hold office but a President who gains the far more fundamental and necessary ability to lead a divided nation with the legitimacy of public confidence in the election that gave that President the right to office.

Secretary Blackwell, you have the opportunity to bestow the next President of the United States with moral authority and restore public confidence in its own election process. It is an opportunity that a divided and anxious nation deserves.