Senators Clinton and Kerry Submit Open Voting Bill

An anonymous reader writes "DailyKos is reporting that a group of senators and representatives including Hillary Clinton, John Kerrry, and Tubbs Jones, have proposed an 'open-source' voting bill. This bill (The Count Every Vote Act of 2005) corrects many of the problems in the last election. Notably, it requires paper receipts, and that the source and object code of all electronic voting machines to be open and readable by the public. " Commentary on the bill available at the Miami Herald.

Comments

Re:Corporate Lobbies vs. Public Interest

[bheading]

The public interest is for a hand-counted vote, observed by all the candidates and other independent members of the public, which in other countries is typically completed well within 24 hours of the polls closing.

Any kind of mechanised vote counting whatsoever serves to hide the vote counting process from the electorate. Receipts are a red herring; they are the only way to verify the electronic count and, as a result, render the electronic count completely redundant.

Re:Corporate Lobbies vs. Public Interest

[kbnielsen]

How is it, that Bush has been right on the war on terror ??

I'll agree with you, that Bush won the war. But he has lost the peace. If you take a look at the world at present:

• Afganistan: Outside Kandahar mostly ruled by loal warlords, whose loyality is really doubtfull. Law and order has not been restored in Afganistan after the fall of the Taliban rule
• Iraq: Daily reports of wounded or killed American soldiers, especially since the official war ended. An undisclosed, but very high, number of civilian casualities. Some humanitarian organisations estimates this to be over 100.000 individuals.
• Rest of the world: More people hates the USA than before Bush took office. In many parts of the world, the us is no longer seen as the leader of the free world or the big idol, to whom other countries can look up to. This is especially true among the closest allies of the United States, such as Germany and France. For instance, Germany has been a very close ally to the US in more than 50 years, and has followed the US through thick and thin. Now the Germans put the foot down, but the US isn't listening.

Please don't forget that the attacks on the US was motivated by hate to the US. How can one claim to create a more secure world, if one is only stirring up more and more hatred ??

And to all the military-centric folks: No, a great big military doesn't help, because you are not fighting an organized army.

So no, I'm not in the opinion, that Bush has done a very good job while in office.