More Democrat Platforms on Vote Machines
Democrats in the second, third and fifth districts all did better than my own fourth district platform committee on the question of unaudited and paperless voting. All of them at least mention “paper,” although the weak wording in the third district barely even manages that:
We support using paper ballots for recounts.
The fifth distirct has some familiar wording–I think I wrote it! I circulated a draft resolution to several counties and it included the phrase “human eyes.” Here is what survived in the fifth district’s platform:
We support: All computer systems used for voting in Iowa elections must produce a paper copy of the ballot that is verifiable by the voter before it is cast and that will be countable by human eyes.
The most ambitious wording comes from the second district. It calls for three improvements in voting:
We Support:
Voter-verified paper audit trail, mandatory random audits of at least two percent of precincts, and public disclosure of software used on voting equipment;
The committee working on the state platform has good planks and weak planks to work from. The main value of this debate is probably what takes place in the committee itself. Here’s hoping the people from the second and fifth districts understand their own platforms and can convince the other districts to adopt the stronger wording.
Thanks to Lynda Waddington for tracking down these platforms.