There is nothing more sacred than the right to vote.
I’m a Marine Corps combat veteran. I’ve lost friends who have laid down their lives in defense of our freedoms. Our right to vote should never be taken lightly and must always occur on voting systems that are both secure, accessible, and can accurately count every vote.
There are strong differences among individuals as to how we should vote. Should it be exclusively on electronic voting machines at the polls, on paper ballots at the polls, or only by mail?
Having a distrust of government is fundamental to the America political experience. Many voters are stridently against electronic voting and voting by mail, believing that they provide an unnecessary degree of separation between voting for individual candidates and ballot initiatives and then the casting of their ballots. They believe that those methods require a higher level of trust in government than does voting on a paper ballot at a polling location.
Personally, I prefer to vote on paper ballots cast in polling locations. I like the idea that I can express my choices on ballot issues or candidates by physically making a mark on a paper ballot and then casting it into the ballot box. I know that if the election is ever in doubt, my same ballot can be retrieved and recounted by the very marks made by my own hand.
The integrity of the election process is much less about the type of voting system used than it is about the integrity of the election workers entrusted to make sure that the elections are fair, honest, and transparent. It is vital to have effective security measures for election workers in place to add to the appropriate checks and balances to prevent any abuses in the conduct of elections.
I don’t believe that voting on paper ballots is less subject to the potential for fraud than is voting on electronic machines or by mail. This country has had elections on paper ballots where additional ballots, after the votes have been counted in a close election, have magically appeared. We can never forget that “stuffing the ballot box” was a sure way to guarantee an election victory.
When I decertified some of our electronic voting equipment, those who favor paper ballots first saw that as a big victory. However, their mood changed when I raised the possibility of trying to correct the problems that the electronic voting equipment testing had identified. How could I be a proponent of voting on paper ballots at the polls and at the same time try to correct the problems that were identified in the testing process? This goes back to the fact that these electronic voting machines are required.
There is no such thing as the possibility of a pure paper ballot election at the polls. Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, the federal government requires a handicapped-accessible electronic voting system in every polling location — even when states conduct an all-mail-in ballot, and then in every location where voters are allowed to drop off their ballots.
One of my duties as secretary of state is to certify the voting equipment to make sure that it is secure, accessible, and can accurately count every vote. Through a rigorous court-ordered testing process, I have identified a number of problems associated with electronic voting equipment. I feel an obligation to see if they can be corrected in time for the 2008 presidential election. Two out of the four electronic voting systems were decertified altogether and cannot be used unless they can be fixed without compromising any of the standards that will lead us to a having a fair and honest election.
Mike Coffman is Colorado’s secretary of state.
