Wordcruncher

Voting: Fix The Glitches

One thing continues to sadden me in the aftermath of the election. Considering that there are three sides to every issue– Democratic, Republican and the media (if only by determining issues that merit coverage) – why does only one side clearly care about voting irregularities (potential, actual or otherwise)? I’ve heard many conspiracy theories, and even cooked up one or two myself.

It is a shame that caring about voting irregularities and fraud, voter rights and vote counting are shunted aside as the rantings of losers from the left’s lunatic fringe. Or they’re dismissed with shrugs of the “elections have always been unfair” variety.

But given that the Republican candidate won almost four million more votes than the Democratic challenger, one would think protecting their own successful Get-Out-The-Vote operations would cause the Republicans to at least give it lip service. The media still likes to occasionally consider itself a public watchdog (though sadly, less and less these days). This concerns justice and fairness, which are definitely American values but which do not merit national consideration.

Only the Democrats – those with the least amount of power in our democracy – seem even a little concerned about the integrity of our democracy. And it is no less than our democracy's integrity at risk.

Why is it that no one appears able to hold e-voting machine vendors to security audits or to some other kind of publicly-held standards? If the opposition to this is based on too much federal regulation, then make it a corporate self-regulating process by putting the auditing contracts out to competitive bid. Bill the voting machine vendors for the audit. Why should they not be expected to pay the price of protecting the public interest, since they're profiting on this trust?

Consult with top security and programming executives and experts while constructing the requirements a bidding auditor should be expected to pursue. The rules and standards should be strict. Benchmark results should be made public.

The names of the programmers who wrote the codes should be a matter of public record (I’m willing to realize this may be harsh, but I am looking for some form of public accountability). I’m not suggesting that any company’s programmers are necessarily crooked; rather, I am suggesting that precautionary measures be taken because it is not difficult for a programmer to, for example, code “if” statements into a program that can compromise the system unnoticed. (Thanks, Rik.)

A whip will be required; make one out of the very reason the vendors do business with the government in the first place. Withhold the percentage of money the vendor would be counting on for its profit if it does not pass audits and meet specific security requirements. Hit ‘em in the checkbook, the mightiest regulator there is.

Please note that my thesis is not about whether the election was stolen or whether intentional, systemic fraud was committed to secure a specific result. For two election cycles now, we’ve seen evidence of electronic voting system failures. Why do so few care whether anything gets done? Why won't we fix the glitches?

There may be hope for forcing reform onto the congressional agenda. Stories seem to be drip, drip, dripping out there in various precincts. It’ll take at least one story to make a splash before anyone notices.