An
op-ed in the Washington Post today warned that electronic voting machines may not be ready for prime time this November. The op-ed, written by former Republican governor Dick Thorburgh of Pennsylvania and former Democratic governor Richard Celeste of Ohio, states that:
...we believe it will be essential this year that jurisdictions have backup and contingency plans that anticipate a wide range of possible failures in their electronic voting systems, including those that occur in the middle of the voting process on Election Day (or days).
As Thorburgh and Celeste point out, this year's election is likely to be a contentious one. Even Adam Duritz is telling people to vote (incredible concert on Saturday at Nissan Pavilion). The bottom line is that democracy only works if election results are credible. The op-ed offers a few solutions:
Jurisdictions need to come up with contingency plans for such November problems, if they haven't done so already. One possible example: Make preparations to fall back to paper ballots if necessary. ... applicable backup technologies such as paper trails, which provide an independent, permanent record of activity on a voting machine, might already be in place.
Here's hoping that the states are listening. And Congress, too -- H.R. 550 is set to go in front of the House Administration committee this September.
An article in The Record in Bergen County, NJ, reported that Rep. Scott Garrett (R - NJ) racked up thousands of dollars in trips to foreign countries paid for by groups like the American Israel Education Foundation, the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, and the Korea-United States Exchange Council. Did these free trips influence his positions at all? Quite possibly. Earlier this year, he co-sponsored a bill calling for a free trade agreement with Taiwan (the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, or CIECA, paid $5,080 so he could take a five-day trip to Taiwan a few years back. Note that CIECA works to improve Taiwan's business relations with the rest of the world -- it has nothing to do with mainland China).
Garrett's real problem, though, is his trip to Korea:
Garrett's Korea trip appears to have broken House rules because it was funded by the Korea-United States Exchange Council, a registered foreign agent, and House rules bar members from accepting travel from foreign agents.
You may have heard of the Korea-United States Exchange Council. It has ties to a very well-known Congressman from Texas, among others:
Roll Call reported last year that the Korea council was created by Hanwha Group chief executive Kim Seung-youn with the help of a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and funded trips for DeLay, Garrett, and 10 other members of Congress including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Donald Payne, D-Newark.
You can read about Delay's trip here.
Finally, Garrett violated some rules in reporting his trips. For example, he didn't file a report on the Korea trip until 15 months after he returned; it was supposed to be filed within 30 days. Garrett's opponent in this election has sent him a letter calling for an explanation. These are serious allegations, and we at Common Cause hope that Rep. Garrett has a serious explanation.
In a recent study on campaign contributions in this year's race for governor, Common Cause New York found that less than a quarter of the campaign contributions to all candidates came from upstate New York, according to this article in the Star-Gazette. Uber pollster John Zogby says that could be a problem:
"It's obvious upstate New York is not what it once was," said Utica-based pollster John Zogby when asked about the relatively weak fundraising upstate. "This (imbalance in campaign donations) doesn't bode well for post-election lobbying."
Of course, all of the candidates claim that they won't be influenced by the origin of their campaign funds. But Common Cause's Rachel Leon found the concentration of donors problematic:
"Obviously there is more revenue and wealth downstate. It shows a desperate need for public financing. We want to encourage small donations" by matching them with public dollars, as New York City does now, she said.
Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group also supports a switch to public financing:
"Campaigns have to be paid for by somebody," he said. "Either by the wealthy and powerful or the average New Yorker... It's better if everyone has a financial stake in the system, rather than just the wealthy few."
Democratic candidates Eliot Spitzer and Thomas Suozzi support some kind of public financing of elections. Republican John Faso does not.
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