Friday, February 10, 2012

A 'Shaky Day' for Democracy?

November 8, 2006

The following guest entry was written by Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project.

Tuesday had the potential to be a very shaky day for American democracy. Electronic voting had been subjected to a lot of well deserved criticism. E-voting was simply not ready for prime time. The votes are unverifiable and in, most cases, the proprietary software that runs the systems is neither subjected to independent review or open to examination. Both fraud and mistake were possible and were hard to detect.

But e-voting should not be our only concern. Millions of American were expected to be disenfranchised by onerous ID requirements -- both real and phony. They were improperly purged from the voting rolls. Countless numbers of legitimate voters were forced to cast “provisional ballots” that will never be counted.

To make things worse, many more were shut out by election equipment that is not accessible to persons with disabilities. It is time to reexamine and reform American election systems to make good on the promise of democracy.

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Juliana Gruenwald

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Juliana Gruenwald has been covering tech and telecom issues for more than a decade for National Journal, Interactive Week, BNA and Congressional Quarterly. This is her second stint with National Journal. She was recruited by NJ in 1998 to help launch its first tech policy publication, Technology Daily. She left in 2000 to cover international tech and telecom issues for Ziff Davis Media's Interactive Week magazine. She started her career at United Press International as the wire service's first Helen Thomas Intern. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. A Minneapolis native, she misses the lakes but not the cold.


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Josh Smith covers technology policy as a staff reporter for National Journal. He previously interned at National Journal Daily, a Senate press office, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he covered the state legislature, courts, and crime. In 2009 he graduated with honors from Southern Utah University after managing an award-winning student newspaper as editor-in-chief. Josh has received state, regional and national awards for his political and policy reporting, including first place in CapitolBeat’s 2009 Best of Statehouse Reporting college competition. A native of drop-dead-gorgeous Utah, Josh lives in Virginia with his wife, Amber.