Mike Forster's Position Papers

Clean Elections in 2004

Mike Forster, Palo Alto California
Copyright © 2002 Mike Forster

The United States must have unquestionbly clean elections by 2004.

It is sad that this topic must even be raised, but the debacle of the 2002 US Presidential election must not be repeated. US leadership in world democracy would suffer, not to mention simple embarassment in the international community.

This will not happen accidentally, nor will it happen at the last minute. It will require constant attention from now through 2004, and continuing beyond.

Many activities and flaws that became apparent in Florida in 2000 must not be allowed to repeat in 2004 in any state. These include:

Questionable elimination of felons and other legally entitled to vote;
The outsourcing of voting eligibility lists to a private company, with insufficient government oversight;
Inequality in the effectiveness of voting machines and methods among counties and jurisdictions; and
Rules that allowed the campaign manager for the Republican candidate to be the primary decision-maker in administering the election.

Technology can help - but only if design and applied appropriately. Touch-screen voting is gaining popularity - but the safest approach for voter accuracy and confidence would be for the touch screen to also print a copy of the final vote for the voter to verify before confirming. Such safeguards are not receiving enough attention.

Many organizations are likely to be needed to assure a clean election in 2004: the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the ACLU, the federal and state governments, and many others.

However, leadership in this cleanup should be provided by outspoken demands by the political parties, both major and minor. This will be one key message the parties can deliver that could begin to restore confidence and respect in politicians in the US.