Human nature is at play in the matter of whether Vince Gray or any major politician will challenge Adrian Fenty in this fall’s election.
I am just as interested in the mechanics at play in the balloting.
When we go to the polls Sept. 14 and Nov. 2, will we be casting paper ballots? Will our votes be accurately and properly tallied? Or will we wind up wondering about “phantom votes,” as we did back in 2008?
Forget hanging chads. In the Ward 2 election two years ago, our cracker jack voting system counted 1,554 write-in votes, despite the absence of a write-in campaign.
Calling the system “fundamentally flawed,” the city council established a special committee to try to avoid another voting debacle. I find myself both encouraged and very concerned as we approach the next vote.
Here’s the encouraging news:
D.C.’s Board of Elections and Ethics has brought in a strong professional to run the operation. Rokey Suleman left his job as registrar in Fairfax County and joined the D.C. agency in the summer. By many accounts, he’s setting the stage for a smooth and fair election process.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh chaired a series of hearings on the debacle that was the last election. She heard from Sequoia Voting Systems, the company that D.C. used to run its voting operation. She introduced and passed through the council the a sweeping Omnibus Election Reform Act in November.
“This landmark legislation will made D.C.’s elections among the most progressive and inclusive in the country,” the Center for Voting and Democracy said.
So far, so good.
Here’s what worries me. The city is in the process of choosing the company that will run the technical side of the balloting. Three companies seem to be in the running. Will it be a fair process? Will it pick the best?
Sequoia, having botched the last election, is back. Cheh’s report said Sequoia’s testimony “suggest[ed] that Sequoia was too quick to exonerate itself and the equipment used in the tabulation process.”
Then comes Election Systems & Software, or ESS. Based in Omaha, Neb., ESS is the largest voting machine manufacturer. It has recently come under scrutiny because it bought another large voting machine company. New York Sen. Charles Schumer asked Attorney General Eric Holder to scrutinize the purchase to see if it violates any antitrust regulations.
The deal would “put a single company in a position to shut down the federal government at will,” the watchdog group Black Box Voting wrote in a letter to Holder. The American Association of People with Disabilities complained to Holder that ESS made devices that expressed “a lack of attention to the rights of voters with disabilities.”
The third company is Hart Interactive, out of Texas. It seems to be the least encumbered of the three.
Now comes the time for the D.C. agencies to choose the best company to make sure the elections run smoothly and fairly. Here’s hoping Cheh and the council keep a watchful eye.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].
