March 9, 2006

Imaginary Votes

What do you call a country that allows its vote tabulating procedures—at all levels of elections, across many regions, and haphazardly—to be privatized such that no auditable recount is possible? A Democracy is not the word that springs to mind. Unauditable electronic voting is a relatively new phenomenon and, by and large, the American people have not yet cottoned on to its deadly implications. Some grassroots groups, however, have taken up the challenge and are making progress fighting back. Linda Schade is a co-founder of TrueVoteMD, a campaign for verifiable voting in Maryland. At this point, though it isn't entirely a done deal, it looks like TrueVoteMD will succeed in getting Maryland to switch to an auditable system before November. Without Linda and people like her this country would be far worse off: she exemplifies the very best American tradition of local political activism. And her wise insight into the political process could, I think, teach "the pros" at the national level a thing or two. This podcast runs about an hour.