Today, the Amis (yes, I'm one of them) are voting in the mid term elections. What does that mean? All of the members of the House of Representatives and one third of the Senators have to stand for reelection.
I'm proud to hail from the State of Washington. Washington has both a right of Initiative and of Referendum — there were no less than 4 issues on the ballot — even after 20 years in Switzerland, I felt right at home.
The big news of course is that no one wants a repeat of Florida in the 2000 election. So now we have computerized closed-source e-voting machines that leave no paper trail. No audit of the code. No audit of the votes. Sounds like a tremendous improvement.
The issues around voting machines have been discussed for a long time and open source solution with a paper trail seems to be the best alternative, just not one that has been deployed. (The aussies seem to have done better). The whole issue only started to get real attention when allegations surfaced that long time nuisance and Bush foe President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela might have a significant interest in Smartmatic, a leading manufacturer of voting machines.
In my humble opinion, Open Source is the only way to address this issue completely.
Of course, no one cares about technology, only about winners. Can the Democrats steal defeat from the jaws of victory? I wouldn't put it past them. Does it make a difference? Much Harder Question. Every time an election comes around, I am reminded of song by Tom Paxton, which was already an old folk song when I learned it in high school:
What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?
I learned that our government must be strong
It's always right and never wrong
Our leaders are the finest men
So we elect them again and again
And that's what I learned in school today
That's what I learned in school
