Who's counting?

By Libby

For all the focus on the polling and turnout models, one very important point has been omitted from the discussion.

This Tuesday's crucial contest will be primarily run on 100% faith-based, Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen or push-button) e-voting machines across the state. There will be no way to determine after the election whether the computers have accurately recorded, or not, the intent of those voters who voted on them. As VerifiedVoting.org summarizes the crucial contest, it "will be essentially unrecountable, unverifiable, and unauditable."

It's useful to remember that ultimately, the final tallies are still in the hands of GOP friendly corporations. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt attempted to address the issue with House Bill 5036, that would have helped states move to paper ballots over touch-screen electronic machines. Unfortunately, it died out of committee.

On Tuesday, the bill, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, went down to defeat in the House 239-178, with 223 Democrats in favor and 176 Republican opposed, after the White House sent out a statement opposing the measure. The statement said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill because it would "create a new program that is largely redundant with existing law, and therefore unnecessary, to reimburse States for the costs of making last-minute changes to their voting systems by Election Day 2008."

Holt vows to keep fighting and says "it's possible to get some of this done before this year's November elections." Looking back on 2000 and 2004, it seems to me this is a lot more important battle for progressives to be fighting than bickering over which Democrat is more electable. That won't mean jack if we don't have a verifiable vote in November.