Dan Wood: The Eponymous Weblog (Archives)

This blog post is for any readers who live in California, who care about having their votes counted properly, and who are registered to vote as Dem (or Independent, since you can request a Dem ballot at the polls).

As a programmer, I'm well aware of the many ways that one could write software that looks like it's doing one thing while actually doing another. So the fact that electronic voting machines being used today all over the country are unregulated, completely unverifiable, and in fact have been publicly demonstrated to be crackable leaves me, well, not entirely confident that my vote will be counted as I cast it. I've heard that nationwide, only 48% of voters are confident of their votes being counted correctly. (Has everybody seen this Vegas/Voting comparison?)

This is why I'm so strongly supporting Debra Bowen, who is running for the office of Secretary of State, in the primary election (this coming Tuesday). This woman is amazing — she is perfectly qualified for the job that is essentially elections chief. She is a huge proponent of verifiable voting systems, and is outspoken against the incumbent, who recently recertified Diebold machines despite their demonstrated flaws. She is truly an expert at these issues (currently chairing the state senate elections committee), and has been endorsed up the wazoo by just about every organization and newspaper that has indicated their choice.

Amazingly, though, she's "neck and neck" with her opponent, Deborah Ortiz, a state senator who has done a good job, but is just not focused on elections matters. How is it possible that they are running so closely? I think it's because most voters just aren't familiar with the candidates and how different they are; their similar first names probably doesn't help! It's astounding... Bowen has been tech-savvy for years and of course has a website (DebraBowen.com); Ortiz seems to be running off of her record on health care issues and doesn't even have a campaign website!

I certainly have some opinions about the other statewide and local (to me) candidates, but Bowen is the candidate that I think it the most important in the long run ... more important than who we choose for Governor to oppose our Governator in November. If I could only make one mark on my ballot this time around, it would be for Bowen.

So Californians, please pass the word around about Bowen. Don't let the S.O.S. be decided by randomness. Let's not allow "Florida" or "Ohio" to ever happen in California.