Wednesday, November 03, 2004

The Greatest Democracy of All

What the U.S. can learn from India's electronic voting machines. "While we in the United States agonize over touch screens and paper trails, India managed to quietly hold an all-electronic vote. In May, 380 million Indians cast their votes on more than 1 million machines. It was the world's largest experiment in electronic voting to date and, while far from perfect, is widely considered a success. How can an impoverished nation like India, where cows roam the streets of the capital and most people's idea of high-tech is a flush toilet, succeed where we have not?"

"Unlike the machines used in the United States, the Indian machines are not networked. Each one has to be physically carried to a central counting center. This takes more time, of course, but reduces the opportunities for mischief. Someone who wanted to throw the election would have to fiddle with thousands of machines, one at a time."

"Or, as the Russians might put it: Why build a million-dollar pen when a pencil will do?"

Another site, E-Voting News and Analysis, from the Experts lists the current problems occurring in the various US states.

It seems weird that the US votes on a weekday. In Australia they picked the election day so that it didn't conflict with the football finals.

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