IP: "Democracy's digital divide"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Click here to read this story online:
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0307/p11s02-coop.html
>
>
> Headline:  Democracy's digital divide
> Byline:  William E. Kennard
> Date: 03/07/2002
> (WASHINGTON)The United States Senate is set to pass a comprehensive election
> reform
> bill. Although this legislation will go a long way toward correcting
> the deficiencies in American democratic processes laid bare by the 2000
> election, its scope is limited.
>
> The bill rightly allocates billions of dollars to set standards,
> improve voting technology, and bridge a digital divide between voting
> booths in poor, minority areas and in wealthier, nonminority ones. Yet
> the differences in access to new technology that persist outside
> polling places are as much a threat to our democracy as the differences
> inside them.
>
> Indeed, the problems that the Florida recount uncovered were nothing
> but another manifestation of the digital divide - the discrepancies in
> access to technology, such as the Internet. Many people, including me,
> when chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, tried to bridge
> that gap.
>
> Just as Internet use among African-Americans and Hispanics trails that
> of whites by 20 and 28 percentage points respectively, a congressional
> study of 40 congressional districts found that voters in high-minority,
> low-income areas were more than three times as likely to have their
> votes discarded as voters in more affluent districts.
>
> Driving this phenomenon was a difference in voting technology. Voters
> who used out-dated punch-card machines - like those of hanging-chad
> fame - were seven times more likely to have their ballots discarded.
> But when minority voters had access to better technology, their votes
> were more accurately counted. Consider Alabama's Seventh Congressional
> District, where one-third of the residents live below the poverty line
> and more than two-thirds are African-American voters who used modern
> "optiscan" machines. Consequently, the district had the lowest rate of
> rejected ballots in the congressional survey.
>
> A similar gap is found among the disabled. Just as people with
> disabilities are less likely than those without to be online, or use
> computers, they also find it harder to exercise their right to vote. A
> recent General Accounting Office study found that more than half of the
> nation's polling places present at least one or more barriers to people
> with disabilities casting an independent, private vote.
>
> The plan before the Senate goes a long way toward correcting Election
> Day inequalities, yet the digital divide and the challenge it presents
> to our democracy exist beyond Election Day. And the gains we have made
> in bridging it are in jeopardy by proposed budget cuts.
>
> Earlier this month, the Commerce Department released a report that
> found that more than half of all Americans now use the Internet, and
> more than two-thirds - including 90 percent of all children - use
> computers.
>
> These gains, including large increases in Internet use among minority
> groups, are a result of a sustained federal effort to put technology
> directly into communities and to empower them to use it for their own
> needs. This, for instance, was the Clinton administration's rationale
> behind the successful e-rate program, which funds Internet access to
> schools and libraries and is the source of much of the increase in
> technology use among children.
>
> Yet President Bush's budget would undermine these proven, effective
> efforts. It ends the Technology Opportunities Program, which seeded
> technology access in disadvantaged communities. In addition, his budget
> shifts the funding to block grants for the Community Technology
> Centers, an important hub in providing Internet access. But the grants
> don't specify particular programs. Hence, there's no assurance that
> money will continue for programs to promote technology in the classroom
> and the know-how to use it.
>
> A fitting follow-up to the election reform bill would be for Congress
> to resist these cuts and instead propose innovative solutions - such as
> ensuring that all new public housing is wired to the Internet - to
> continue the work of bridging the digital divide. We need to recognize
> that those disconnected from the digital world are alienated from
> American society.
>
> Economically, they are deprived of the skills needed to enjoy the
> high-paying jobs of the new economy. But more than that, they are also
> disconnected from our democracy. The online world is essential to
> making informed choices everywhere, including the voting booth. Simply
> put, to be logged off is to be shut out from the public square of
> 21st-century American society.
>
> Strengthening our democracy will take more than election reform. It
> requires a commitment to making sure that the digital divide is bridged
> not just on Election Day, but every day.
>
> * William E. Kennard was chairman of the Federal Communications
> Commission from 1997 to 2001. He is managing director,
> telecommunications and media, at The Carlyle Group.

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