C. Roy ReynoldsIT IS fortuitous in a sense that the electoral woes in America come just at the time that the old crusade for electronic voting in Jamaica is being pursued with new vigour. Whether we will learn the pertinent lesson is another matter. Even those who defend most ardently the idea of electoral salvation through electronics must now have cause to consider. For what we are faced with is enormous expense for a system that is sure to make things more complicated than they are at present.
It is now obvious that it requires considerably more than computer software design skills to ensure a system that works. And apart from the electronic equipment there is the matter of supporting laws and regulations; like laws pertaining to recounts. Even now, three years after the last election petitions are being pursued, would that be possible under the proposed new system?
And what expertise will the courts have to adjudicate an election petition? Will it be completely dependent on what it is told by some organisation or foundation which holds the patent for the system? Nor can we reasonably expect that the system will be less vulnerable to tampering than what we now have? To beat the present system it takes a lot of collusion between many persons and a rather tedious exercise. In the vast majority of jurisdictions beating the system is not even practical to pursue. With the proposed system some hacker can stay in any part of the globe and gum up the works. If they could break into the US Defence Department and into some of the world's most secure banking systems what could they not do with a system designed by some unproven local engineer. It is my firm view that now it would be possible to steal not only a few ballot boxes but to hijack an entire election.
And knowing our politicians I am willing to bet that even now the thought, at least, has occurred to all of them. Thus our electoral system could end up as just another video war game. We speak glibly about referenda on this or that, but it seems to me that in a matter that affects the entire population this is far more essential to put to a referendum. We spout off about corruption and waste at the drop of the proverbial hat but I believe few other things manage to embody both corruption and waste as this wild idea of spending vast amounts of scarce money on a system that offers more problems that it is intended to solve.
We talk about people not taking part in elections. Well this incursion into the bizarre is almost guaranteed to cause even less participation. Personally I have voted in almost every election since adulthood, but I have no intention of making the effort only to consign my ballot to an uncertain fate in cyberspace. Other people are almost sure to be intimidated by the gadgetry and stay away.
If we think we have seen trouble associated with elections wait until we get the new system. As I watched elements of the two main political parties in America face off in Florida I just shuddered to think how a similar confrontation in Jamaica would end up. The Governor General has been almost threatened over the appointment of members of the Electoral Committee so that body can pursue the dementia of the proposed new system. If he wants to do this country a favour he will refuse to appoint anybody without a guarantee that they will not descend into madness. Let him not be the one to give reality to the Jamaican folk saying: "Trouble deh a bush, anancy carry it cum a yard!"
Our politicians are understandably pained because most of us have such low regard for them. That regard is sure to sink even further if they pursue this profligacy of committing us and our money to this hare-brained scheme. Not only will it not work but it is sure to add more fire to our political pot.
Finally it is remarkable to me that we continue to go into things with "eyes wide shut" thus incurring consequences that are entirely predictable.
C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.
