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15.1 The Commission on Federal Election Reform
(Carter-Baker, 9/23/05) Proposal Increases Voter Participation
A system to improve the voting process was announced Sept 23, 2005 by ex-President Jimmy Carter, and Secretary of State, James A. Baker III, in the George H. W. Bush administration. The system requires all persons be given photo IDs valid for both a driver's license and for voting and that the 50 states share lists of voters resident in each state to avoid duplication when people move. No state has a list of registered voters that tells the precinct location for voting which makes necessary distinctions depending on how residency is defined and provides a ballot that may be different for a single voter from all others allowed to vote in that precinct because gerrymandering state politicians carved out a boundary for a congressional district that cuts across a precinct that also changes the correct ballot to be given that voter for that one national office. Local and county office voting choices are even more complex. With a data base of over 100 million registered voters in the US, millions of whom annually move, or die, or change names or lose their IDs, with the quality (reliability and timeliness) of some of that data questionable, with different criteria for registering in different states, with possible disputes between federal and state authorities on the best ways to proceed, there are many problems with updating and maintaining those lists that could be discussed, disputed, and unresolved for years.
More important, the Carter/Baker Proposal made no mention of the potential corruption of vote counting where proprietary, closed-source electronic voting machines are used. Electronic voting machines can easily be reprogrammed to make the paper ballot holders happy, while helping to give those in a position to modify the program the election outcome they prefer. (See also 15.2)
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>>> 15.2 Alan's letter Congressman Rush Holt |