'We Have Become ... Dismayed'

6E Sunday, September 3, 2006 M www.star-telegram.com COMMENTARY | FROM 1E CONGRESS DICK LOCHER VOTING | TECHNOLOGY ‘We have Error — reboot? I The combination of electron- are first turned on. An unexpect- ic voting technology and vital ed sequence of voting inputs on become ... races should have elections touch screens might cause ma- officials on their toes. chines to lock up. Or the cards that voters use to activate voting By DICK THORNBURGH machines to accept their votes and RICHARD CELESTE might not work properly. Or dismayed’ SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST voting machines might be inad- I We need an infusion of men and For many years, election offi- vertently loaded with the ballot women committed to Congress as cials have kept the machinery of for a neighboring precinct. an institution — to engaging with American democracy running in Jurisdictions need to come up one another seriously. the face of sometimes over- with contingency plans for such whelming difficulties. But this November problems. One pos- WASHINGTON — Congress re- November’s elections will pose sible example: Make preparations turns for a final pre-election push unprecedented challenges to to fall back to paper ballots if this week, with few of its members them. necessary. feeling much hope of salvaging some For many jurisdictions, the Other problems might include real accomplishments from this dis- 2006 elections will see the first machines that appear to work but mal session. large-scale use of electronic vot- then yield an erroneous electron- In an interview ing systems. Many organizations ic vote count. Systems could lose last week, one of the Dick Locher is an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. have learned the hard way that votes because they continue to Republican leaders [email protected] deployment and use of new tech- accept them after their memories of the House told nologies on a large scale virtually are full, or because they have me that in the 21 This is but one example of the The result, they write, has been guarantee big surprises and unin- incorrectly reset themselves in districts he visited failures that led Thomas E. Mann of the increasing enfeeblement of the tended consequences: system the middle of the day as voters during the August the Brookings Institution and Nor- legislative branch and its abandon- crashes, corrupted data or pain- are attempting to vote. recess, including man J. Ornstein of the American En- ment of its proper constitutional role fully slow systems. The usual In such cases, applicable back- David those in his own terprise Institute to title their recent- as the first branch of government — remedies are to develop, test and up technologies such as paper Broder Midwestern state, ly published volume The Broken and the loss of both pride and a sense evaluate small-scale prototypes trails, which provide an indepen- immigration vies Branch: How Congress Is Failing of institutional responsibility. before committing to organiza- dent, permanent record of activ- with Iraq as a mat- America and How to Get It Back on How else do you explain impo- tion-wide upgrades in technolo- ity on a voting machine, might ter of major concern to the voters. Track. tence and inaction, not just on im- gy, and to keep both old and new already be in place. But paper Does that mean, I asked, that you’re In the Oxford University Press migration but on energy, healthcare systems running for a while so trails themselves have potential likely to try to complete a final ver- volume, the two eminent scholars and the war in Iraq? that failures in the new system problems (such as jammed print- sion of the immigration reform bill, cite many other instances of institu- What Mann and Ornstein fear is do not paralyze operations. ers) and voters might be con- endorsed by President Bush and tional damage — from runaway bud- that if Democrats regain a majority in Unfortunately, faced with the fused by the introduction of an passed, in different forms, by the gets to the lobbying scandals to the the House this fall, they may be deadlines for deploying en- unfamiliar element into the elec- House and Senate? near-abandonment of effective over- tempted to use the same kind of bul- hanced voting systems that were tion whose purpose and role will “No,” said the GOP leader, who sight of executive agencies. lying tactics on Republicans that set by the Help America Vote Act not be clear to many voters. spoke without attribution in the in- They write as two men who love Republicans have employed these of 2002, most electoral juris- For any given jurisdiction, the terest of candor. “The voters would Congress and admire many who work past 12 years. That would in turn dictions have been unable to likelihood of a specific problem rather we get it done right than done there. But they say that “over the past prolong the policy gridlock and fur- follow this prudent path. is low. But with 9,500 jurisdic- fast. I don’t look for any action in two decades, we have become more ther weaken the already shabby rep- That’s why we believe it will tions in the United States it’s September.” and more dismayed at the course of utation of Congress. be essential this year that juris- likely that problems will occur in Fast is not exactly the adjective Congress. Our unease began with the But a new election means new dictions have backup and con- some of them. Indeed, many of that comes to mind to describe a Democrats in charge of both houses, faces — and possibly a new spirit on tingency plans that anticipate a the problems described above legislative package that cleared the when a combination of their arro- Capitol Hill. Mann and Ornstein have wide range of possible failures in have happened in one jurisdic- House about nine months ago and gance after thirty-plus years in the a number of specific changes to sug- their electronic voting systems, tion or another. came out of the Senate, in different majority and the increasingly shrill gest in congressional rules and proce- including those that occur in the We don’t mean to suggest form, back in May. frustration of Republicans who dures — and in lobbying regulations. middle of the voting process on there will be widespread failures In a normal legislative process, the chafed under their seemingly perma- But their main point is simple. We Election Day (or days). of electronic voting systems. But differing bills would be sent to a con- nent minority status was creating need an infusion of men and women The outcome of the November in this election year, the chal- ference committee of representatives strains different and more ominous committed to Congress as an institu- elections seems likely to be very lenges facing election officials and senators who would work out the than any we had seen before.” tion — to engaging with one another close. Depending on the results and the nation are formidable. differences and send their product on When the Republicans took over seriously enough to search out and of a few races, control of the Prudence and reasonable con- for final votes and a presidential sig- in 1994, they promised needed re- find areas of agreement, and to join House or Senate — or both — tingency planning should rule at nature. But there is so little agree- forms, “but it did not take long before hands with one another to insist on may be at stake, which is likely to this moment of truth for elec- ment between the two Republican- those promises went by the boards, the rights and prerogatives of the lead to close scrutiny of how tronic voting, as election officials controlled chambers — and so little and practices that were more un- nation’s legislature, not make it sim- those elections are carried out. If across the land work to retain trust among the members — that settling than those of the Democrats ply an echo chamber of presidential major problems arise with un- public confidence in the face of they would rather disagree and delay became the norms.” Rules were bent, politics. proven technology and new elec- new challenges. than compromise. votes held open, committees side- That ought to be the criterion by tion procedures, the political And politically, they find it safer. stepped, and communications be- which candidates are judged in this heat will be high indeed. Dick Thornburgh is a former Republican As the Republican leader told me, tween the parties cut off — all in the election season. What problems might crop up governor of Pennsylvania. Richard Celeste is a “House Republicans can go home and interests of “moving” the GOP agen- on Election Day? Software or former Democratic governor of Ohio. They headed a recent study by the National campaign on the bill the House da and the president’s program, once David S. Broder writes hardware problems could render Academies’ National Research Council on passed,” even though the problem of George W. Bush arrived in the White for The Washington Post. a significant number of voting electronic voting. This essay appeared illegal immigration remains unsolved. House. [email protected] machines inoperable when they previously in The Washington Post. Texas: 1892 election has lessons for 21st-century voters CONTINUED FROM 1E facing independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman and Democrat Chris Bell, well, you get the consolation prize. In fact, the election in question took place more than a century ago, in 1892, and it was arguably the most famous race in Texas history.

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