VOTING FRAUD….We all know about the dangers of voting fraud inherent in electronic voting machines with no paper trail. But former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling, blogging at Showdown ’06, reminds us that in the real world there are actually much bigger things to be worried about:
The most worrisome laws, for 2006, involve requirements in many states to show photo ID, not just to register, but actually vote. While 15 or 30 seconds to check an ID isn?t all that much, multiply it by thousands of voters and it?s not trivial. Not to mention the myriad of judgment calls and (attempted) uniform applications of standards, especially in states that literally say 1 photo ID = two non-photo IDs. (?Uh, will my expired Costco card AND an August cell phone bill work??)
Keisling runs through four different types of voting fraud (including e-voting dangers) for those who want to get some perspective from a guy who’s actually had to run elections. His concluding advice is: stay calm. America is a big country and it may take a few days to sort out every race.
Keisling also has a very informative review in our current issue of Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, a book by a Johns Hopkins computer-science professor named Aviel Rubin. It’s all about his adventures discovering software glitches in e-voting machines and his (mostly futile) efforts to get anyone to care about it. Check it out.
