Ethan Leib, Professor of Law, UC Hastings, who is partly responsible for introducing me to the joys of blogging, had an interesting editorial piece out in last Sunday’s Washington Post about the innovative and tantalizing possibility of voting by phone during political elections. One of Ethan’s specialties since grad school is "Participatory Democracy." He has written extensively on methods and means by which citizen participation in the civic process can be encouraged and advanced. In his WaPo editorial piece, Ethan argues that a nation prepped and primed by "American Idol," should find voting by phone both attractive and easy. (Ethan is one of the law "prawf blawgers" currently blogging on legal issues at PrawfsBlawg)
Why Not Dial-In Democracy, Too?
By Ethan J. Leib
Sunday, May 28, 2006
"The people have spoken: Taylor Hicks is our newest democratically elected American Idol. Americans cast 63.4 million votes in last week’s election — nearly as many as were cast in the 2002 congressional elections, and more votes than George W. Bush got in 2004. Judging from the level of participation it inspires, "American Idol" isn’t just a wildly successful television program — it’s also a successful democracy.
It’s not a perfect democracy, of course. When Chris Daughtry was eliminated despite his talent and popularity — and the heroic pleas on his behalf from the grass-roots "Chrisaders" at http://www.DaughtryGang.com — many learned the hard way that participatory democracy can produce results that seem terribly unfair, or that give rise to suspicions of rigging.
But the show still inspires more water-cooler conversation than this year’s hotly contested House races in Colorado or Connecticut. Moreover, 35 percent of the show’s voters believe that casting a vote for a contestant on this juggernaut of a television program counts "more than or as much as" voting in a presidential election, according to a recent survey….."
In his article, Ethan enumerates the pluses and minuses of technology driven phone voting. There are many issues here and he brings up several. Certainly, the current system needs a shake up from the tired old formula which seems to attract older and more partisan voters.
There is something interesting about telephone voting I wish to note here. (I wish I could find the link) One Swiss canton tried to make it easier for its citizens and arranged for voting by phone from home. Percentage of votes cast actually went down!
It appears that there are several tangibles and intangibles to why people will or will not do their civic duty. The most important of course is how high the political stakes are. During acute financial, national or cultural upheavals voters turn out in large numbers despite severe obstacles of weather, mobility and time constraints. When not much is at stake on the political / national scene, the visible reason for voter lethargy is inconvenience – time away from work, driving, standing in line, bureaucratic calisthenics etc. But there are some other less obvious reasons why we participate in the political /civic process – we want to be SEEN by our neighbors and friends as conscientious citizens. When voting from home via telephone took away the "look at me" incentive, many did not bother to vote.
Obviously, American Idol gives folks a more compelling reason to vote than do our political candidates. Perhaps, instead of multiple presidential debates, we could have at least one singing contest for the primary candidates as well as the final nominees of all parties?
Accidental Blogger 
10 responses to “Democracy Calling”
Just how foolproof (against rigging) would a telephone democracy be? Even touch-screen voting doesn’t provide the voter with a clear paper trail ( even if they are made by Diebold that provides paper trails for its ATM transactions).
I may seem like a Luddite, but am firmly in the camp of paper ballots and old-fashioned ‘watch them being examined and counted by all party reps’ school of thinking.
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Phone voting is way off in the future. Too many avenues open for fraud at this time. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they do figure out a way.
I am okay with electronic voting. But I sure would like a receipt like Diebold issues at the ATM, as you pointed out.
Whatever the method, it has to be verifiable through a paper trail. I will never be comfortable with just some glowing numbers on a screen.
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Not sure I would agree with that assessment, insofar as the technology is concerned. Payments via cellphones are already a reality in many countries and are scheduled for launch in the U.S. soon, courtesy eBay. Internet voting is also on the rise in Europe.
But yes, voting is a communal activity and should remain so. I still remember the thrill of casting my first vote, years back and the pride with which my friends and I bore the ink mark on our index finger for days.
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The main issue is not so much the technology as it is the need to prevent cheating and rigging. The problem with the electronic voting is that it makes it very easy to cheat , especially when propietary code is used. I wasn’t hugely impressed by the GEMS central tabulation software used in some voting machines ( which was briefly available on the internet for anyone who cared to try it out and hack the results)- it was all to easy to flip results by just changing a few numbers in the MS Access database, with no logging of the improper access.
In Indian elections, it would be ‘ballot stuffing’ of a different kind, in places where polling officers are complicit. Though to be fair, the Election Commission is trying some procedural measures such as videotaping etc. to reduce the chances of that happening.
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Sujatha, you’ll be surprised to learn that the last general election in India was an all electronic affair. And so successful was the outcome, that Sonia Gandhi, only half facetiously, remarked to a visiting American dignitary that India could advise the U.S. on holding fair elections, after the Diebold machines kerfuffle in 2004.
Why does one company have a monopoly in the EVM market beats me, just like the way Haliburton is the preferred recipient of so many federal contracts. One would think that, given their much touted belief in the inherent fairness of the marketplace, the Republicans would exhibit at least a semblance of respect for due process.
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I did know that EVMs are being used.The ‘ballot stuffing’ of a different kind that I referred to was of the variety where the polling officer and the button-press goonda collude to increase the vote count for the candidate they favored.
My mom used to be a polling officer before the EVMs were introduced- she was advised not to take on polling officer duties at the time they were. I don’t know what to make of that, except that while ballot stuffing didn’t require the collusion by the P.O earlier, it does now.
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Also, each state in the US has its own laws regarding polling- there is no uniform law for the whole country.This makes it impossible to have a single voting system for all local, state and federal elections here. Diebold isn’t the only vendor, ES& S, Sequoia are some of the other vendors. It’s more of an oligopoly.
The following show was up today on Democracynow.org regarding Election problems in 2004. Amy Goodman interviewed a couple of people regarding the evaluation of Diebold voting machines.
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I had seen a newsclip in 2004 where an Indian election official had offered to help with electronic voting in the US.
It is indeed mind boggling that we don’t have a national election commission and a uniform system of voting in the US – at least in the presidential elections, the only time all Americans vote for the same office. Also,the underbelly of the quaint and outmoded electoral college that we saw and paid attention to in 2000 and 2004 was disconcerting. It is a ridiculous practice in this day and age. It flies in the face of direct democracy. The US president represents the entire nation. I don’t understand why there should be weighted representation for the states. Isn’t that already accomplished by the fact that Idaho, a state with a population 1/3 that of the city of Houston, has the same number of US senators as the state of Texas?
It is all about local control and local powerbrokers influencing national elections. Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 come to mind.
As for electronic and phone voting, Sujatha rightly pointed out that the technology is there. It is the will to implement it in an honest and foolproof manner that is lacking.
As the Swiss phone voting indicates, voter apathy cannot be overcome by technology. You can lead the horse to the trough … etc.
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How to rig elections for optiscan machines
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Oops- Here we go again- Election rigging
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