Letter: Urgent need to revamp U.S. voting process

Monday, Jan. 8, 2001 | 9:24 a.m.

If America is truly to be a democracy, the first priority of the newly sworn in Congress needs to be a cleanup of the voting process in America. If the selection of elected representatives is flawed, everything they do is flawed as well. Unless each citizen is assured that the vote they cast is counted, each citizen is not equal. The erosion of democracy was evident in this election; it is essential that it not be perpetuated.

I have a friend who worked as an assistant inspector on Election Day in Scripps Ranch, a financially comfortable section of San Diego. The votamatic machines were stuck and inoperative by 10 a.m., and they had to call the registrar of voters to come and fix the machines. Imagine how the voting machines were operating in the inner city! And how long does it take to get them operable again? This was a problem across the country. These are the kind of machines that caused Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to call the voter "incompetent."

Will Congress act upon its primary responsibility to the people of America?

PATRICIA VAN BETTEN

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