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Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Cox No Fan of Paper Balloting
Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox on Wednesday cautioned state election officials against making paper voting receipts the “official” ballot in recounts.
To do so would be “an incredibly bad decision,” Cox said during a panel discussion with other election experts at the Pew Research Trust offices in Washington.
Some experts have advocated paper receipts as a backup to new electronic voting machines. But Cox said paper ballots are not always reliable, as witnessed in Florida during the 2000 presidential vote recount.
Cox said the state of Georgia had a paper pilot program in some counties in last month’s election.
She said it was slow and experienced snafus like paper jams.
The panel discussion coincided with the release of a new study by the watchdog group Electionline.org on the 2006 election.
The study concluded that this month’s congressional election did not experience the meltdown many experts had prediced, but it was far from a problem-free election.
In Georgia, for example, the study said voters were confused by signs at some polls saying that a photo ID was needed to vote, this after a court decision blocked enforcement of the state’s photo ID requirement.
Cox said during the panel discussion that passage of the photo ID law in Georgia was “a solution for a problem that there was no evidence existed.”
She was praised for spearheading Georgia’s uniform voting system. She in turn credited the partnership with Kennesaw State University’s Center for Election Systems for helping to make Georgia’s voting system so effective.
Among other things, she said, the center has helped the state “put our vendors on notice that they are not going to get away with anything in Georgia.”
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Reyes’ Support for Intel Chair
Here’s the reason you haven’t heard much noise from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on naming U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, as chair of the House Intelligence Committee: Until it hears one way or the other from incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the caucus is lying low, so it doesn’t inadvertently create yet another perceived power challenge to the new leader, according to Capitol Hill sources.
Reyes is a Vietnam veteran who served more than 26 years in the U.S. Border Patrol before his election to Congress in 1996. In recent weeks Reyes has been widely touted by the press as a leading “compromise candidate” for Pelosi, who was caught between those who pushed for Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla, and others who leaned toward Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.
The Hispanic Caucus is trying to avoid the perceived split that the Congressional Black Caucus created, when it sent a letter to Pelosi pushing for Hastings, only to have Hastings rejected.
The Hispanic Caucus is supportive of Reyes and would officially support him if he became Pelosi’s choice, sources familiar with the situation said.
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