The resounding victories of 2008 are indeed a great breath of fresh air for many of us who've been observing the decline of our country's electoral processes. For we who've tracked the ongoing exit poll discrepancies and vote suppression techniques over the past several years, your victory represents a mandate far, far greater than the official 7% margin portends and instead signifies a truly great awakening of awareness and wisdom in the American body politic.
America, like Gulliver shrugging off the ropes and tethers of the Lilliputians trying to restrain him, has simply become so powerful and resolved for change that the best efforts of the agents of the status quo are no longer any match for us.
It was an uphill battle and you and all of us have won it together.
But now is no time to rest from our work to guarantee that everyone who has a right to vote is allowed to vote and that every vote cast is counted and reported accurately. This is the bedrock of our democracy and it is our duty as Americans to defend it against those who would compromise, squander or sell-out these principles.
I am a computer scientist, inventor and election reform advocate.
I presented my design for a simple, economical and fair balloting system at the WeCount2006 conference in Cleveland and received a number of strong endorsements from leaders in the election reform movement.
For example,
" In my opinion, [Marc Baber] has thought more deeply and originally about this than anyone I've encountered. His ideas are simpler and more elegant than OVC, providing an even greater level of transparency and verifiability. At the same time, his system is efficient and uses technology appropriately. I wonder what you think, and I wonder ultimately if his is a proposal that our community can get behind." -- Dr. Josh Mitteldorf 11/20/2006
Details about the proposal can be found online at: http://www.marcbaber.com/ElectionReform.htm (page includes links to a PDF or MS Word version of my paper "A Practical Election System with Integrity" as well as a video of my talk in Cleveland. Further improvements came from discussions with others after my presentation that are not yet reflected in the drafts.
I would characterize my approach as unique because, even though I'm an accomplished technologist, I am able to "not fall in love with the technology" as I was once counseled by Dr. Justin Rattner, then head of Intel's Supercomputing Division.
Some who have a love for open source software have seen the election reform movement as an opportunity to further the open source cause (one I very much support in other contexts) by fielding touchscreen voting systems running publicly-reviewed programs. Such systems would still suffer from all the problems inherent in any kind of touchscreen voting system (how do we really know which version of the software is being run by this voting machine today?) while providing would-be election riggers a decided advantage in that they could start with the publicly-available software and easily produce their own variations that might be installed on actual election systems if any were left unsupervised for a few minutes.
Some who have a love for crypto technologies for unbreakable codes have proposed elaborate systems that would supposedly guarantee the voter's intent was accurately recorded. Unfortunately, such systems generally rely on random sampling of un-voted ballots to ensure that encryption itself isn't hacking the vote. Such random selection techniques could easily be defeated by a corrupt election official who produced two sets of ballots-one for the sampling process and one for stealing the election.
I have steered clear of these and other pitfalls with my proposed solution(s). I developed my design by systematically identifying and addressing the most serious risks election systems face (of the wholesale election fraud variety) while avoiding the trumped-up small-to-nonexistent risks (such as voter coercion and vote-selling) raised by advocates of extreme voting secrecy measures, whose "solutions" actually provide more cover for the most common election theft practices.
My proposed system provides at least as much privacy and anonymity for the voter as Oregon's current system or any other state's absentee voting system, but it also provides a way for any voter to confirm that their vote was actually recorded and that it was recorded accurately by means of a tear-off ballot receipt number that could, optionally, be typed into a website after voting to confirm their choices.
Whereas others in the election reform movement have all but ignored concerns about so-called "voter fraud", I have proposed a system that addresses these supposedly "right-wing" concerns as well. After all, Election Integrity is not a partisan issue.
At the risk of oversimplifying, my system is a hybrid of the vote-by-mail system used in Oregon and would combine ballots mailed out to voters (to confirm registration address) with ballots delivered by voters in person to polling places to preserve chain-of-custody, the possibility of conducting exit polls and make it more difficult for the few who might be tempted to vote more than once with mail-in ballots. An absentee, mail-in system, would still be available for handicapped and/or frequent travelers, but would be expected to be a relatively small fraction of total voters.
Visiting the polling place would be a simple matter of signing the polling book and delivering a hand-marked ballot (or vote-pad marked ballot for blind voters). Because no machines are required in the polling places and most ballots will have been pre-marked in private by voters at home, there will be no lines and no machine malfunctions to worry about.
There are too many features and reasons behind my proposed system to be discussed here, but I would very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss the proposal further with members of the Obama administration, including FEC staff and appointees. We must take advantage of America's awakening to restore fair elections. Liberty will not last long in a country without a "level playing field" for future elections.
Thank you for your attention to this vital matter.
With great appreciation,
Marc Baber
November 8, 2008
Atherton, Calif.
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