Fair voting in the electronic age
| Autor | Wade L. Robison |
| Páginas | 2994-3011 |
2994 • XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Fair voting in the electronic age
Wade L. Robison
Abstract: There are many barriers in the way to the ideal of a fair vote in elec-
tionsAnelectionisfaironlyifanumberofconditionsaresatisedamongthe
most important of which are that a citizen who wishes to vote is able to vote
without undue hardship or impediments, that each citizen’s vote is counted
and is counted for no more and no less than the vote of any other citizen, that
citizens are able to determine clearly who is standing for what position and how
to vote for one or another, and that the counting of ballots is as perfect procedur-
ally as is possible.
We shall concentrate here on what I call the voting conditions and, in
particular, one set of voting conditions, the design of a ballot and of any vot-
ing machine in which such a ballot is placed. We shall use as our test case the
design of the Palm Beach paper ballot. That design is now famous, or infamous,
for misdirecting voters so that even the most intelligent, well-trained and most
highly motivated would make mistakes – like voting for Pat Buchanan instead
of Al Gore, a mistake apparently made by upwards to 23,000 voters, more than
enough to have changed the outcome of the election – and the subsequent history
in the United States where, arguably, that ballot design cost Gore the election
and opened the way for George W. Bush to become President. That ballot illus-
trates well what I call an error-provocative design.
Keywords: voting, fair election, procedural justice.
In aiming to achieve the ideal of a fair vote, we should distin-
guish the following:
Entry conditions – These are whatever conditions are in place
to permit someone to vote in an election. Citizenship seems an obvious
condition for entry, but some argue that citizenship must be proven by
somesortofidenticationcardadriverslicenseforinstanceinsome
states in the United States – and some argued in times we hope are long
Working Group: Democracy, participation and representation • 2995
gone that only those who can pass a test about the Constitution should
bepermiedentry Itisrather obviousthatthose whowishto depress
thevotesofanyparticularconstituencywillndaddinganentrycondi-
tiontheeasiestwaytoproceedandthedierentvarietiesofconditions
is limited only by the human imagination – which means not at all.
Voting conditions – The conditions under which those entitled
to vote get to vote are as multitudinous and varied. Can a voter cast a
ballot only on a particular day designated as election day? If so, is that
a day everyone can make it to the polls? If not, what are the procedures
for not voting on a particular day? What are the procedures for absentee
ballots? For those who vote at a polling place, a voter has to get to a poll-
ing place, gain entry, pass through whatever procedure is in place to en-
sure one is entitled to vote, vote, and leave. Each point in the procedure
can be problematic. Where are the polling places, and, in particular, how
convenient are they are voters? Are they well marked? Is there parking
nearby, or are they close to bus or subway lines? How long are the lines
at polling places? Are the lines orderly? Are voters hassled or intimi-
dated while in line? What procedures must be followed to gain recogni-
tion that one has a right to vote? Are those checking well-trained? Is the
information they need readily available so that voters do not have to
wait too long? Is the voting done in public or private? Is the mechanism
for voting easy to use – a machine, a paper ballot in a box, and so on?
Canvotersreadily leave when nished Musttheypass some sort of
gauntlet, physical or otherwise, to leave the polling place?
Counting conditions – Once ballots have been cast, they must be
gathered together, with the votes for each candidate counted correctly
and then properly recorded next to the candidate’s name. All sorts of
things can go wrong here. The ballots may not be properly gathered
together, some being left out entirely. Or once gathered together, those
individuals or machines may miscount, leaving out some or adding in
others that were, say, rejected as faulty at the polling place but some-
how ended up with the acceptable ballots. Or the ballots themselves
maybefaultysmudgedandsodiculttoreadorwithtoomanyboxes
marked, or with a lack of clarity about which boxes are marked. What
can go wrong will depend upon the nature of the ballots, obviously.
Think of Florida’s 2000 election and the hanging chads, an issue that
only arises in a voting machine that punches out a piece of paper when
one “marks” the ballot. But even once we get past those problems, we
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