Technology for election reform

If the Wisconsin Republican's want real election reform then they should think about investing in projects other than ID cards for all voters. On a personal level I find the concept of ID cards to be orwellian, if not fascist. In a modern society with omnipresent computer networks, what value is it to force people to carry cards other than to demand "Your papers please. " This brings to me visions of SS agents in black leather coats as seen in old WWII "B" pictures.

Real solutions can be built in an open method more in keeping with the tradition of a modern democratic-republic. The State of Wisconsin could take up the baton of the open-source election software movement. (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/evm2003) The University System could easily provide the labor. We would need never worry again about manufacturers of proprietary electronic voting systems promising to deliver the vote to a particular party.

Here is a suggestion for discussion ... We could ensure all of our voting places are networked via a secure, interoperable, encrypted network and put each voters address and picture in a simple and secure web accessible database. The database could be assembled with data on site at each polling place with laptops and digital cameras. The addresses could be verified against public records and the pictures would discourage fraud by putting a face on any perpetrator of fraud. No making the elderly and poor take a bus to the local DMV office. No disenfranchisement by inconvenience.

If we want secure elections then we should talk about solutions that encourage greater participation rather than making it more difficult. By statistical measures, the groups impacted by the current voter ID proposals tend not to vote for Republicans. If a bill could be targeted at restricting Republican votes, would not the Republican Party be up in arms?

At the heart of the matter is the right of the citizen to vote.

Are the political parties willing to discuss real election reform, or is the current discussion just orwellian double-talk designed to cover up electoral manipulation?