May 30, 2007

To: Sandy Rowe, Editor, Oregonian

In this country, we are in the process of transitioning to electronic voting systems, and must try to ensure that they are accurately counting votes. We must all take the responsibility for ensuring that our votes are counted properly, in order to prevent the wholesale perversion of our Democratic ideals.

There are advantages to using electronic voting machines. They can display the choices that people can choose from in nearly any language; they can allow for faster and more accurate counting of ballots (if implemented properly); and allow for the hearing and vision impaired voters to more easily cast their ballots. These benefits are worth the trouble of solving the current problems with these machines.

We must make it clear to our elected officials that voting machines should not be “black boxes” that we cannot audit ourselves; The design and manufacture of these machines should be either overseen by the government or performed by a government agency. This will increase the transparency of the process and mitigate the opportunities for purposeful manipulation of votes.

There has to be accountability if we are ever to reap the benefits of electronic voting. Some of it is placed on our shoulders and a portion is placed on the shoulders of our elected officials. If we step up to the plate, and encourage others to do the same, then we will be starting down the road to regaining our Democracy.

Sincerely,

Sean Porter