One Utah

Yesterday afternoon – about 2:15 or so – I arrived at the county complex to vote. Lo and behold! Standing next to me in line was my State Rep - Ralph Becker. Now, I have mixed feelings about these situations. On the one hand, he’s a public figure and he’s chosen to be one; on the other, he’s a regular person who wants some peace and quiet. I defaulted to the “You’re my rep, you have to be nice to me mode” and engaged in some chitchat about politics and society in general and recommended he read “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada.” I mentioned I’d like to bring Bill Scher to town and he said he might be able to help with that – at least finding someone to sponsor. (To be clear, no commitments were made and he’s a busy man what with running a business and being a state rep and having a life so if something happens, great, if not, hey, come on, he’s a busy guy.) That’s not my point. The process was surprisingly smooth. Although the line was long, it moved quickly. The process of checking in was the worst part. I handed over my ID to the poll worker – whose computer timed out and she had to be logged back into the system. Then, I got my voting card, signed the book, and waited about 20 seconds for a machine.

If you’ve used the Internet or an ATM machine, the process is incredibly easy. Touch the screen, touch next, touch the screen so forth. Touch “print ballot”, it reviews your votes, you print each screen, then you vote is cast, you hand the card back to the poll worker and you’re done.

I’m not sure I trust the system – I know it can be too easily hacked and electronic data is wonderful but easily corrupted. Even with the printed ballots, elections can be stolen. I’m upset that as a society we’ve reached a point where we have so little trust in the system and that sadly, the system has done nothing to truly earn our trust.

It’s incumbent upon all of us to be involved, to demand accountability, transparency, honesty, and integrity of ourselves, our leaders, and the system. Our responsibility as citizens doesn’t end when we vote, it begins when we vote. So don’t just vote this year - track who won, stay in touch with them - there are many tools - call their offices, send letters and emails. Hold our elected officials feet to the fire - both individually and collectively. Democracy works when we the people participate in an ongoing way.

This entry was posted Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 11:32 am and is filed under SLC Politics, Voting Rights. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.