electronic voting

Fallout Continues in Ohio Voting Scandal

Last week, two election workers in Ohio got sentenced to 18 months in prison for rigging a recount in the 2004 presidential election. Now our new Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner has asked the election board members to resign or be fired:

All four election board members for Cuyahoga County, troubled by recount rigging charges and voting machine problems, have been told to resign or face being fired, a state official said Monday.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she called the four board members of Ohio's most populous count late Sunday, asking them to leave by the close of business Wednesday.

The county, which includes all of Cleveland, has had difficulty adjusting to electronic voting. Last May's primary, the first attempt at electronic voting in the county, was marred by absent or poorly trained poll workers, lost vote-holding computer cards and a polling place that opened hours late

If these convictions would have come down 6 months ago, nothing would have happened on the state level. This is what happens when you got a proactive Secretary of State, as compared to Ken Blackwell, who did nothing.

While We Are "Spreading Democracy"

We get more proof that our own democracy is under attack:

Some U.S. states have placed laws to make it difficult to vote instead of reforming ballot problems. The study looked into 10 states with reported ballot difficulties.

The study cited proposed laws in Arizona and Georgia, that call for a government-issued photo identification card and proof of citizenship before voting.

Tova Wang of The Century Foundation think tank said that although both state laws were denied by judges, "the damage has already been done." The proposals confused voters and delayed voter registration drives.

The lack of definite electronic voting policies and machines were also mentioned saying that it could lead to longer voting lines in the upcoming midterm contest.

"There were long lines because there were inequitably distributed voting machines," Wang said.

Florida and Washington, for example, have no formula for determining the number of voting machines in each precinct, the study said.

After the 2004 incident in Ohio, a law was approved providing one machine for every 175 registered voters although it will not be enacted until 2013.

The study concluded that, "none have come close to addressing in full the major problems that plagued the system during the last federal election."

The states included in the survey were Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

Isn't it great to be in the "beacon of democracy"? If we continue down this road then we might as well rip up the Constitution and start over.

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