NY Times Editorial: Fixing Democracy

The NY Times ^ | 1/17/04

[shotput]

The morning after the 2000 election, Americans woke up to a disturbing realization: our electoral system was too flawed to say with certainty who had won. Three years later, things may actually be worse. If this year's presidential election is at all close, there is every reason to believe that there will be another national trauma over who the rightful winner is, this time compounded by troubling new questions about the reliability of electronic voting machines.

This is no way to run a democracy.

Americans are rightly proud of their system of government, and eager to share it with the rest of the world. But the key principle behind it, that our leaders govern with the consent of the governed, requires a process that accurately translates the people's votes into political power. Too often, the system falls short. Throughout this presidential election year, we will be taking a close look at the mechanics of our democracy and highlighting aspects that cry out for reform. Among the key issues:

Voting Technology An accurate count of the votes cast is the sine qua non of a democracy, but one that continues to elude us. As now-discredited punch-card machines are being abandoned, there has been a shift to electronic voting machines with serious reliability problems of their own. Many critics, including computer scientists, have been sounding the alarm: through the efforts of a hacker on the outside or a malicious programmer on the inside, or through purely technical errors, these machines could misreport the votes cast.

[shotput]

The lead editorial in the New York Times tomorrow covers electronic voting. It's nice to see this starting to get this kind of coverage in the mainstream press. I mean, can you imagine if the use of electronic voting machines really became widespread? With the chance (likelihood?) of fraud, how could we be sure that the votes of the clear Republican majority in this country would be properly counted? And what would happen if the current administration turned their backs on our ideals of pre-emptive war, environmental degradation, and tax cuts for the rich (i.e., us)? I mean, we wouldn't be able to vote the clowns out of office even if we wanted to!!

[Dog Gone]

And what would happen if the current administration turned their backs on our ideals of pre-emptive war, environmental degradation, and tax cuts for the rich (i.e., us)? I mean, we wouldn't be able to vote the clowns out of office even if we wanted to!!

Hi troll.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Sounds to me the libs are already making excuses for why their candidate is going to lose.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Hey... and don't worry.

Rove will 'take care' of everything.

hehehe

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Of course they leave out, That the United States of
America is a constitutional republic, and not a
democracy.

[cmsgop]

Well Said!

[JusPasenThru]

None of this matters. The judiciary calls all the shots, anyway.

[TankerKC]

...the rich (i.e., us)...

I can't wait to tell the wife that we are indeed rich. She'll be pleased.

[Dog Gone]

Oh dang, you've been banned or suspended.

[Semi Civil Servant]

Zotted within 6 minutes of posting? Admin Mod is quick tonight.

[cmsgop]

Why does the Left always use this word so wrong....." Democracy"....We live in a Representative Republic, A Form of democracy.

[spectre]

And the New York Times has pronounced that after 200 years of voting we have, as a nation, become so stupid we can no longer figure out paper ballots.

[gitmo]

More broadly, we need a national commitment to increasing registration and turnout. Seven states allow some form of election-day registration, which appears to raise turnout voter fraud. Voting by mail, making Election Day a holiday, and similar reforms can also help. And there is a movement to roll back laws denying the vote to nearly five million people with felony convictions, 36 percent of them black males.

I agree this is a real issue. We all know which party accounts for 90% of the election fraud in this country. We have made it simple to steal elections on a scale never before possible.

[Free State Four]

I only read the excerpt. (Laz: Proudly posting without reading the article since 1993!) That's all I need to see. It's the NYT setting up a plausible redeux of Florida 2000. They are just building an argument against Bush's legitimate reelection.

[eddie willers]

The Democrats have been pounding this Electronic Voter thing to death.
All I can say to them is... Be careful what you wish

Or as Bush said...."Bring it on".

I'd, by God, welcome a fair election where no 'Vote-A-Matics' wind up in the trunks of cars of Democrats.

[Dog Gone]

It's interesting to read this in the New York Times. It sounds as if liberals are really feeling persecuted. Gosh, they threw the kitchen sink into that list of complaints.

They must think we're winning.

[Mo1]

Throughout this presidential election year, we will be taking a close look at the mechanics of our democracy and highlighting aspects that cry out for reform. Among the key issues:

Would that include all the dead people that vote for Democrats???

[eddie willers]

Pennsylvania is a classic case. After the 2000 census, Republicans, who controlled the state legislature, used powerful computers to draw bizarrely shaped districts — which were given names like "upside-down Chinese dragon" — that maximized Republican voting strength. They paired Democratic incumbents in a single district, so they would have to run against each other, and fashioned new districts where Republicans would have an easy ride.

Hmmmmmm....I wonder how the Times missed Georgia, where the Democratic state legislature did the same thing?

[Morgan's Raider]

In four states that are almost precisely evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats — Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan — Republican legislators drew district lines so that 51 of the 77 seats are Republican, a nearly two-to-one edge.

Sob, sob, boo-hoo! I'm sure the Slimes expressed this righteous indignation all those years democrats were doing their own gerrymandering.

What's that? They didn't? You sure? I'm shocked, shocked I say!