corrente

Nice to see Dean in full voice again:

In the face of well-documented voting irregularities throughout [Florida], the U.S. Supreme Court's decision [in Bush v. Gore] created enormous cynicism about whether the votes of every American would actually be counted. Although we cannot change what happened in Florida, we have a responsibility to our democracy to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

This November, as many as 28% of Americans - 50 million people - will cast ballots using machines that could produce such unreliable and unverifiable results.

Without any accountability or transparency, even if these machines work, we cannot check whether they are in fact working reliably. One way or another, every voter should be able to check that an accurate paper record has been made of their vote before it is recorded.

There is nothing partisan about the survival of our democracy or its legitimacy.
(via the Dodge City (!) Globe from Alice Marshall)

Of course, some might quarrel with that word "survival." But Dean is absolutely right to indentify the crisis of legitimacy that electronic voting is bringing to the fore.

Let us remember that Bush was put in the position where the 537 votes made the difference because thousands of likely Democratic voters had already been illegally purged from the voting roles.

Viewed in that light, the crisis of legitimacy of the Bush regime is not a future possibility, but a present reality.