Presidential
RamblingsPresidential
Ramblings
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Some Member Benefits – Hey, let’s network!There are lots of benefits (and some hazards) associated with being DACS president. One of these is that people (1) assume that I know every DACS member personally and that (2) every DACS member is an expert in something. While the latter is probably true, I come up woefully short on the former. As a consequence, I get a number of calls each month from people looking for help. If I can provide that help in a few minutes over the phone, I try to do so. However, after turning down any number of callers, I finally decided that we should do something about this situation. So, somewhere in this issue is an ‘ad’ announcing a directory of member services. All right, we’ll come up with a better name, but here is the scenario: I get a call from someone— anyone— who has a problem with their computer. They want someone – anyone – to help them solve that problem. They are even willing to pay for this help. They wonder if there might be a DACS member who could help solve their problem. Now I know from number 2 above that somewhere there is a DACS member, probably several, who can solve their problem in few moments. However, because I’m so inadequate on number 1 above, I can’t send the caller to an appropriate DACS member. Now, let’s extend this a little as we need not limit this to computer-related businesses. If I need someone with a backhoe to do some excavating (and I do), I’d just as soon hire a DACS member to do this work as anyone else. That’s where a member service index comes in. If we have an index of member-run businesses, I can refer callers to that list, or even use it myself. Electronic VotingThis fall may people around the nation will all be treated to a first encounter with electronic voting machines. Never before has our nation made such a big change all at once in how we vote as a large part of the country experience in November. I wish we were going thru this monumental change at a less critical point in our history. Will we be able to trust the results? I’m not so sure. Try this: type “e-voting” into your favorite web search engine and read a few of the items you find. It will scare the living bejesus out of you. See if this sounds like a good idea: we all vote and then a private company takes all the ballots in a closed room, does the count and then destroys the ballots before anyone else can confirm the results. This is exactly what will happen this fall in all states that adopt paperless electronic voting. So far Nevada is the only state to actually implement electronic voting machines with a paper audit trial. A California law requiring the paper trail is still in the courts. Ohio has halted deployment of paperless machines. To find the status of electronic voting in Connecticut, I looked on the Connecticut Secretary of State web site. There are three documents that talk about a test of voting machines in five Connecticut towns. To get a more up-to-date status, I called the Secretary of State office and learned that Connecticut will require electronic voting machines that provide an audit trail. I’m now trying to learn exactly what that means. A bill approving the purchase of new voting machines was vetoed by Governor Rowland so we will not have new voting machines until the 2006 elections. At first blush, we may be OK here in Connecticut; I’m waiting for a return call from the Secretary of State office. However, Connecticut is very unlikely to be a deciding state in the coming Presidential election. We need our Congress People to act to ensure that all states have verifiable voting results in this and all future elections. Call your Representative and Senators and urge them to cosponsor bills requiring that all voting machines provide a paper audit trail. In the House, ask that they sponsor HR2239 (Holt – D, NJ) rather than HR4187 (King – R, IA) which is a far weaker bill. The Senate has three bills pending. The best is S.2313 (Graham/D, FL – Clinton/D, NY – Boxer/D, CA) which is already a compromise bill. The weakest is S.2437 (Ensign – R, NV). You may notice a correlation between party affiliation and the strength of the bills. Yes, I did a bit of digging into all this. If we value our democracy, then this issue is more than important – it’s critical. If you do nothing else, visit the VerifiedVoting.org web site and just read a little. —Jim Scheef |
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