While politicians and commentators debate the legitimacy of allegations of fraud, the state faces concrete issues with its election administrators. The recount scandal is but the latest manifestation of a system fraught with abuse. From mismanagement to obvious discrimination, election infrastructure in the Sunshine State is rickety and chaotic, subject to manipulation and worse...In the absence of transparency, both abuse — and false ...

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While politicians and commentators debate the legitimacy of allegations of fraud, the state faces concrete issues with its election administrators. The recount scandal is but the latest manifestation of a system fraught with abuse. From mismanagement to obvious discrimination, election infrastructure in the Sunshine State is rickety and chaotic, subject to manipulation and worse...

In the absence of transparency, both abuse — and false allegations of abuse — can thrive. But some think the incentive to adopt and enforce open and accessible election procedures is low — particularly among sitting politicians.

“None of the party elites want transparency,” said Black Box Voting’s Harris. Whether Democrat or Republican, she added, there isn’t much incentive to change the system. As it stands, Harris said, “the truth of the matter becomes unknowable.”

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.