A Uniform Voting System for California: Ending Private Control of our Elections

A Uniform Voting System for California: Ending Private Control of our Elections
Forrest Hill
Tuesday, 12 September 2006

The accuracy of our elections will take a giant step backwards if either Bruce McPherson (R) or Debra Bowen (D) are elected Secretary of State. While the two candidates differ on various technical issues surrounding the certification of voting machines, both continue to support an open market for our votes controlled by private voting machine manufactures.

Since there are 58 counties in California, the potential number of voting systems in our state is large. No matter what safeguards Bowen or McPherson dream up, putting the integrity of our votes into the hands of a 'network' of private corporations is really a recipe for disaster.

If we are serious about assuring the accuracy of our vote we need a Secretary of State that will work with the local county registrars to create a 'single uniform system of voting' throughout the state, administered by a non-partisan elections commission.

Under a uniform system we can use touch screen systems as long as the votes are recorded on a paper ballots. We can count the paper ballots using optical scanners as long as the code is owned by the state, not private companies that contribute to partisan campaigns.

Under a uniform system we can make sure that all citizens have an equal opportunity to vote by having adequate polling stations in all communities and by training and professionalizing a network of poll workers.

Fixing our voting system is really not rocket science. Almost all democracies in the world use a single system of voting to ensure accuracy - why do the Democrats and Republicans want to play election roulette by placing our democracy in the hands of private companies?

If you liked energy deregulation you are going to love voting under a decentralized privately control voting system. It should be no surprise that Bowen supports this type of arrangement as she was also a strong supporter of deregulation, I don't know what McPherson's excuse is.

Unless we end the privatization of our election system, public confidence in our elections will be eroded and the results of any election will remain open to question. Neither Bowen nor McPherson have any intention of moving in this direction.