E-voting attracts global monitors

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/23/04

 

The United States regularly sends experts to monitor elections in fledgling democracies and nations troubled by civil war and corruption. But after the controversial election of 2000, experts from other nations are eyeing the American system — including Georgia's.

A team of international monitors has spent this week in Georgia, drawn by the state's use of electronic voting machines, which has attracted vehement opposition from activists who fear they can be manipulated to steal elections. Monitors from Argentina, Australia, Ireland and Zambia are leaving Georgia today for California to compare notes with teams that visited Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Ohio. The group, hosted by San Francisco-based human rights organization Global Exchange, plans to issue a report next month.

At a public hearing Monday at Georgia's Capitol, the four monitors got an earful from about 20 touch-screen voting machine opponents. Besides being susceptible to tampering, the machines offer no tangible evidence that a vote has been properly recorded, the critics said.

Ginny Howard of Smyrna trembled as she contended that American democracy is being undone by voting machines, an uninformed electorate, unscrupulous politicians, greedy corporations and compliant journalists.

"It is important for ordinary citizens to understand that when we can't see our vote, everything is lost," said Howard, co-founder of the League Opposed to Virtual Elections.

Poll: Machines are OK

Polls conducted in January and in 2003 by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government have said that most Georgians are comfortable with using the voting machines. But the monitors said they are troubled that a segment of the population has no confidence the machines will accurately record a voter's intent.

"The appearance is just as important as the reality," said Australian monitor John Cameron, a lawyer.

Hugh Esco, co-chairman of the state Green Party, told the monitors how difficult it is for third-party candidates to get on the ballot in Georgia and to compete with well-financed mainstream party candidates — including wealthy candidates who bankroll races with their own money.

"Democracy sounds like a great idea and we ought to try it here," Esco said.

The intensity of the advocates was not lost on the monitors. "Democracy requires these kinds of people," said monitor Luis Tonelli, an Argentine professor, political consultant and magazine columnist.

The states visited by the four international monitors were chosen for different reasons. Georgia was ed because it is one of only two U.S. states that vote exclusively on touch-screen machines. Florida was chosen, of course, because of the vote-counting debacle of the 2000 presidential election. The others are considered swing states crucial to victory in the 2004 presidential race or have experienced past irregularities. Range of issues

Global Exchange coordinator John Gibler, who is escorting the Georgia group, said the monitors are on a fact-finding mission and did not come with an agenda. Besides electronic voting, the monitors are looking at campaign finance, minority voting rights, ballot access and political redistricting.

"I get the impression that it goes to the highest bidder," Cameron, the Australian, said of American elections after learning about the astronomical amounts of money poured into some campaigns.

The monitors also included Victoria Somers of Ireland, who has observed elections in South Africa, Bosnia, Tanzania and Kosovo, and Elijah Rubvuta of Zambia. Some of the group's 20 monitors plan to return to the United States to observe the November general elections.

The group met with representatives of the Georgia Secretary of State's office, who tried to reassure them the state's voting machines are tested rigorously. They also met with the American Civil Liberties Union, government watchdog Common Cause, the Carter Center and the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials.

During their stay, the monitors got a taste of many things Georgia. After dining on fried green tomatoes, fried okra and other Southern standards at the Whistlestop Cafe in Kennesaw, the monitors glimpsed local character Dent "Wildman" Myers outside his Civil War paraphernalia store with two holstered pistols around his waist. Affixed to the store was a bumper sticker reading, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Jefferson Davis."