Just more kneejerking instead of using the positive to bargain to get rid of the negative. There is alot of good in this report, we should build on it, not tear it apart and make ourselves look like idiots when we have to come back and point to it to get some of the voting reforms it recommends. The left applies no more objective thinking than the fundies. Read the damned report, or at least read MORE than what Conyers had to say:
The commission on Federal Election Reform, headed by Jimmy Carter and Jim Baker, released their recommendations today, entitled Building Confidence in U.S. Elections. The full report can be found at the Commission’s web site, which also has a section on press coverage of the report. While I would have preferred the report be more specific on some issues, such as requiring paper ballots, if Democrats focus on the important recommendations of the report, we can make a lot of progress. The report recommends:
To enhance ballot integrity, states should require voters to present a REAL ID card at the polls and provide non-drivers with a free photo ID card for voting, but during a transition, citizens without a card should be permitted to vote with a provisional ballot.
States should make voter registration and IDs accessible to all eligible citizens by using mobile offices and other means to register more voters and issue photo ID cards. States should oversee voter registration lists and verify the accuracy of the information produced by the counties. They also recommended numbered voter registration forms with receipts, so that voter registration can be easily tracked.
Congress should pass a law to require voter-verifiable paper audit trails on all electronic voting machines, and the EAC needs to take additional steps to ensure those machines are secure and accessible for people with disabilities. The states should also rectify whether the machine vote or the paper is the official ballot. In addition, voting machines manufacturers should be required to place the source code in escrow to be made available to testing authorities and independent experts. Local jurisdictions should also document every change to computer hardware or software.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and state election management institutions should be strengthened and reconstituted on a nonpartisan basis and no member of an election commission should serve on any campaign other than their own.
The report reminds us that the public owns the air waves and some members of the commission recommended legislation to require free air time. They also recommended that projected winners not be announced into polls have closed across the entire country. Sadly, they have taken the position that exit polls are not reliable, without fully investigating how this phenomenon suddenly began to occur in 2000 and just in the US, not other countries where polls are used to verify election integrity.
Overall, this is a good foundation to build on, if we’re united in supporting the important aspects of the report.
LINKS to report and more:
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=1376
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