Sure, it's 2009, well into the 21st Century, but gues what? We Americans still want clunky old democracy, as we always have. Thank goodness the purchase of new software-driven systems, which conceal the vote counting process from the public.

Unlike the lever machines, which are readily understandable by the lay person, software-driven vote counting systems conceal the counting process from the public, thereby turning a public election into a non-public election, a violation of inalienable rights.

There can be only one lens through which we can evaluate whether an election system is a good one -- that of inalienable rights. The nation's historic distrust of secret tribunals and their inherent dangers to freedom is no less when applied to our public elections.

As pointed out by Andi Novick, an attorney with the Election Transparency Coalition, New York is a state that has a proud history mandating transparency at every stage of the electoral process. This helps election officials fulfill their duty to certify accuracy of the results based on their ability to see each step. These computerized voting systems preclude election officials from being able to fulfill their constitutional oath of office.

Let's not be so impatient to help New York dismantle its democratic elections.

Bev Harris
Director - Black Box Voting
A national, nonpartisan, nonprofit elections watchdog organization

Hmm, had trouble posting and managed to garble the first paragraph, which should read:

Sure, it's 2009, well into the 21st Century, but guess what? We Americans still want clunky old democracy, as we always have. Thank goodness FOR THE DELAY in the purchase of new software-driven systems, which conceal the vote counting process from the public.

A vote-counting computer can be programmed to appear to be in working order when in fact it has been compromised, and though the writer of the above piece refers to this as being "susceptible to hackers" the far bigger risk is inside tampering. There is simply no way to secure a computer against its own administrator. The biggest risk is from the person with the keys.

An election is a public event and what transpires during the election is public property. It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner.

With computerized vote counting, the public is precluded from being able to control or observe its own public elections, a violation of the right to liberty, by subjugating public right to know and public controls to those insiders with custody of the vote-counting software and hardware.

Bev Harris
Director - Black Box Voting

I guess I'm gonna need to read up some more, but this is a pretty good strting point.