E-Voting LA Times Letter

In response to the LA Times story that Steve blogged for us earlier this week, I wrote a letter to the LA Times editors. Today I received a call informing me that it is under consideration for publication in the Saturday (March 13) edition of the paper. Here is the letter as I submitted it:

Dear Editor:

Regarding your story, "7,000 Orange County Voters Were Given Bad Ballots" (California, March 9):

Contrary to what the Orange County Registrar, Steve Rodermund, seems to think, the issue at stake is not whether the results of any particular March 2, 2004, race are thrown into jeopardy by the problems with Orange County's electronic voting machines. Rather, the issue is that if any race had been close enough to be threatened by these irregularities, there would have been no way to verify the election result short of a complete revote.

After all, once an electronic ballot has been tallied, there is no possibility for a recount or appeal -- the count is the count and we must accept it, "right or wrong".

Our Secretary of State and the various County Registrars should be working now to implement mandatory paper records of all electronic ballots by the November election. This is the only way to enable a legitimate recount should any election results be contested.

Sincerely,
Derek Fox

Here's hoping that it makes the final cut!