Krugman on E-Voting

Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Paul Krugman is sounding the alarm on electronic voting now too. (Warning — New York Times, requires free registration, yadda yadda you know the drill.)

I’ll discuss what to do in a future column. But let’s be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake.

Couldn’t have put it better myself!

UPDATE: After reading Atrios’ take on Krugman’s article, I thought I should come back and add a note to this. Many people seem to think that the opposition to electronic voting is, at root, a partisan issue, but it’s not, or at least it shouldn’t be. The one thing that every party should be able to agree on is the need for a fair and impartial counting of votes. If that’s not guaranteed — if the system is perceived to be rigged, or just random — then democracy cannot function. Krugman leads his article with the Diebold case, which is relevant, but which also has some partisan overtones (Diebold’s CEO is a leading GOP fundraiser), which could be confusing if you’re new to the issue. Thanks to Atrios for highlighting this important distinction.

Sound Off, Loudmouth!

No comments yet. Why not leave one yourself?