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  • Lani Massey Brown

Lani Brown

1 year ago

in A slow extinction from apathy… on A Writer's Life
If I write it, will they hear me? I felt democracy die a little during the chaos of the 2000 election. Again in 2004 and yet once more in 2006. I thought I might spark some interest in our failing election system by weaving a tale of intrigue. So, in "A Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw" one woman stands between a ruthless politician and the White House...one woman and the man sent to spy on her.

I'm hopeful, but also encouraged that at last elections and voting macmachines are receiving some long overdue attention. We'll see.

CJ: Thanks for the comment, Lani. I think the interesting thing now is that, seeing how popular the 'net has become in current campaigns, in theory it should improve things, particularly the perception of democracy. It allows people to have more of a say and to express their views where they might not have been able to before; the "1984" Hillary Clinton ad, for instance.
But all that would be worthless if there's another mishap with a voting machine. It seems like democracy comes down to a piece of software and how well it's written.... our system is different, but it's not perfect either, and I'm just not sure there are that many better ideas right now. That's the problem.
I'll have to have a look at your book at some stage. Sounds interesting. I rather feel like a political thriller at the moment. ;)

1 year ago

in You Can’t Patch an Election on The Technology Liberation Front
Yes! Our election track record suggests the need for a more rigorous business approach to election equipment. Quick-quick dump the punch cards. Hurry up and scrap the touch screens. Errors will occur…technology just speeds up the process and mega-increases the volume. Our procedures and laws need to be brought inline with technology.

Paper ballots offer the means to verify and recount votes. Unfortunately, these and other paper trails will not ensure one-voter-one-vote-every-time with state-of-the-art independent, stand-alone vote counting machines. Optical ballot scanners are just as suspect as touch screens. Until we implement high-bar stringent guidelines for voting machine providers and elections officials to uphold, until we fix our election laws to protect us from machine and human error, and human interpretation our election process will continue to be broken.

Lani Massey Brown,
A MARGIN OF ERROR: BALLOTS OF STRAW, a novel
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