Regarding William Jackson's comprehensive article, “Voting system requirements,” yes, voting system requirements should be technology-neutral. However, our election laws should not. If we are to secure one voter, one vote, every-time integrity in our election process, we must also look to our election laws. Computers, paper, people will fail. Election laws must recognize technological voting anomalies. The debacle in 2000 with the pregnant chads resulted from failure to maintain the voting equipment properly. But it was the failure of Florida's election laws that permitted the chaos that followed. In 2006, it was the failure of Florida's election laws that permitted an election with statistically improbable results to stand (Sarasota's 18,000 undervotes). Had state election laws been on par with technology, both elections would have been automatic do-overs. Until we fix election laws to catch up with technology, our election processes will continue to be broken.

Lani Massey Brown
Author of “Margin of Error: Ballots of Straw”