A Reminder of ‘Democracy’s Gold Standard’…

...and that the new 'Presidential Commission on Election Administration' does not currently plan to even consider it...

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The good folks at Right About Now have decided to immortalize a quote from this September, 2009 op-ed of mine detailing my call for pilot projects around the country to develop much-needed data and benchmarks for what we describe around here as “Democracy’s Gold Standard”: Hand-marked paper ballots, publicly counted by hand at the precinct on Election Night, with the public, all political parties and even video cameras rolling, and results posted at the precinct before ballots are moved anywhere…

You can click on the cool graphic to enlarge it if you have any trouble reading it. And, about that quote, I totally agree! 🙂

Unfortunately, the supposedly “non-partisan” commission being convened [PDF] at the behest of the President — and being co-chaired by an incredibly partisan former “Swift Boat” GOP operative — in order to “fix” some of the problems which reared their ugly heads again during the 2012 election, such as long lines, difficulty in registration or casting overseas absentees ballots, is not currently set to review the extraordinary problems (here’s just one recent example) that our nation has with vote tabulation in this country, much less explore the need for fully public, fully transparent, fully citizen-overseeable election result tabulation in a nation that supposedly prides itself on government of the people, by the people and for the people.

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Reader Comments on

A Reminder of ‘Democracy’s Gold Standard’…

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11 Responses

  1. 3)
    Ancient said on 2/21/2013 @ 1:25am PT: [Permalink]

    YO YO YO, RIGHT ON. I AM VERY TIRED OF FLUFFY TALK THAT TAKES WE AS A WHOLE NOWHERE. YOUR GOLD STANDARD IS THE SAME AS MINE. PEACE

  2. 9)
    David Lasagna said on 2/21/2013 @ 8:04am PT: [Permalink]

    Brad @2,

    Hilarious. I try to exempt you from death and you think maybe I wanna kill you. Perfect example of the sort of wild and wacky misunderstanding/miscommunication I typically enjoy(?)with women.

    No, no, I favor a living immortalization path for you.

  3. 10)
    Randy D said on 2/22/2013 @ 7:42am PT: [Permalink]

    Brad, I fully support your voting procedure goals. But I just can’t warm to the slogan “Democracy’s Gold Standard.” The “gold standard” is an obsolete economic concept: “No country currently uses the gold standard as the basis of its monetary system” (wikipedia). The only people calling for a return to the gold standard are right-wing kooks.

    The marketing of this idea hardly seemed to matter when you were a voice in the wilderness, but now that you are on the path to becoming a social media meme…

  4. 11)
    David Lasagna said on 2/22/2013 @ 8:34pm PT: [Permalink]

    Just realized Brad is a Na’vi in this poster. Can’t wait to see his cameo in the Avatar sequel which as I understand it is all about voting rights.

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