Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

...... Forwarded Message .......
From: Lillie Coney <coney () epic org>
To: Voting Issues:;
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 11:47:13 -0400
Subj: Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/03/opinion/03fri2.html
NY Times Editorial
September 3, 2004
Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot

Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing 
or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret 
ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the 
Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many 
problems to make it reliable, starting with the political 
partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is 
making matters worse by withholding basic information about the 
service, and should suspend it immediately.

The Defense Department is encouraging soldiers to use absentee 
ballots or fax votes directly to local officials, when possible. But 
it also provides an alternative: Omega Technologies, a private 
contractor, will accept soldiers' faxed and e-mailed ballots on a 
toll-free line, and then send them to the appropriate local elections 
office. Handling ballots is always sensitive, but especially so when, 
as in this program, they are not secret. An obvious concern is that 
votes for a particular candidate could be reported lost in transit, 
or altered.

Omega Technologies is not an acceptable choice to run the program. 
Its chief executive, Patricia Williams, has donated $6,600 in this 
election cycle to the National Republican Congressional Committee, 
and serves on the committee's Business Advisory Council. And while 
everything about the conduct of elections should be open to public 
scrutiny, Omega is far too secretive. In an interview, Ms. Williams 
refused to say who would handle military votes, and whether they 
could engage in partisan politics. "I will not allow the public to 
invade the privacy of the employees of Omega," she said.

The secrecy of ballots could be breached at several points: when they 
are faxed or e-mailed from the field, when they go through the 
contractor and when they are received by local officials. The 
Pentagon has not explained why it is acceptable, or legal, to ask 
soldiers to waive their right to secret ballots. Laughlin McDonald, 
director of the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties 
Union, says he cannot recall another group of voters being asked to 
give up such secrecy. It is particularly inappropriate, he says, for 
soldiers, who are under the direct control of the Defense Department.

Nor is it clear that voting by nonsecret ballots is legal. In 
Missouri, one of two states that will allow votes to be e-mailed 
through the Pentagon this year, the Missouri Supreme Court held as 
early as 1895 that its State Constitution requires that voting be by 
secret ballot. North Dakota has also approved the use of the e-mail 
voting system for military personnel; about 20 states will allow them 
to vote by fax.

The Electronic Transmission Service operates with a lack of 
transparency that is unacceptable in elections management. The 
Pentagon is allowing Omega to keep its staffing secret. There are no 
provisions for parties or candidates to inspect Omega's operations or 
monitor the transmittal of votes. The Pentagon says the procedures 
for doing so are an "internal working document," which it refuses to 
make public, and it does not routinely make public how many ballots 
pass through the system each year. The Electronic Transmission 
Service operated in 2000 and 2002, and in earlier elections, but Ms. 
Williams says Omega did not handle ballots in those years. The 
Pentagon is refusing to say who did.

The Defense Department has taken a "trust us" attitude. Soldiers have 
to trust that military higher-ups will not try to learn their 
political choices and hold it against them, and that local elections 
officials at home will not reveal those choices. The voters have to 
trust that no one at the contractor or the Pentagon will make errors, 
or intentionally alter ballots. In a democracy, matters like these 
should not have to be taken on faith.

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