My intent is not to raise unnecessary conflict, only to state my opinion and point the way to more information on the examination of our recent election, which I mentioned earlier. It’s important to note here, the most critical question is not whether Kerry or Bush should’ve won, nor is it who actually won. It’s deeper and more far-reaching than that.

The bigger question is, how are Americans going to vote and have their votes counted in the 21st century?

It’s a question of process, which I happen to have some experience with. As a manager in an organization that distributed technical information, I used, designed and helped scrutinize the processes critical to our function. We learned to take our processes seriously, not toss them together and simply hope they worked. We were sure to hear from our customers when they didn’t, but that was too late. We had to look for holes, for what could go wrong, before it went wrong. We had the experts and process owners scrutinize them. Then our leadership insisted we have outsiders look closely at our processes and ask questions, until no one had any questions, because everything had been made clear.

Counting votes isn’t rocket science, any more than balancing your checkbook is, it simply happens on a larger scale. Nor is it something that requires great secrecy. There should be nothing proprietary about any software used to count the public’s votes. The process should be as transparent and straightforward as we can make it. Security should involve openness. Nothing should happen behind closed doors. That’s where tampering is more likely to take place. Nothing should be taken for granted, or on faith. Counting votes should produce repeatable results. Any suggestion that no paper trail is needed should raise red flags.

Serious questions have been raised regarding the election and vote counting process. These questions deserve to be answered, not ignored or dismissed as paranoia or foil-head conspiracy theory, or even simply as sour grapes. Many of these questions were raised, months before the recent election, by numerous individuals and organizations. This is not a partisan issue, it’s only being treated as one. The questions haven’t been cleared up. Why aren’t more Republicans concerned about this? Perhaps it’s simply that when you’re content with the result, you don’t question the process. But if we lose the power of the vote, if we let the process slip into secrecy and obscurity, then where are we? The people running the election process may be honest today, but if it’s not an open process, what happens tomorrow?

Common Cause joined the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and The Century Foundation to co-sponsor “Voting in 2004: A Report to the Nation on America’s Election Process,” a day-long presentation which took place yesterday in Washington D.C. William Rivers Pitt covered the Conyers Hearings in detail, as he atttended a forum in Washington, D.C. today.