Off by 9%? What Was That Margin in 2000? 2004?

A recent meeting of the House Science Committee heard testimony on the reliability of voting machines. "It would take somebody relatively unsophisticated to hack into a machine," reports Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore. "The biggest problem isn't hacking, but programming errors. In some cases, the margin of error is 9 percent." Say what?

"The election system in its entirety exhibits shortcomings with extremely serious consequences," wrote Steven Hertzberg, director of the study by the San Francisco-based Election Science Institute, "especially in the case of a close election." If I recall correctly, we are in the mess we are in called Iraq because the Supreme Court installed W after less than a 1% difference in Florida in 2000. The mess was exacerbated after the administration was allowed to remain in office in 2004 after a vote difference of less than 2%.

Congress, despite this hearing, doesn't seem overly concerned by this 9% error in a country that calls itself a role model for democracy. A bill by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., to require paper trails for any voting system has collected more than 200 signatures in the House, but the leadership won't allow a vote. The Republican leadership. The leadership of the party who'd president won by less than 2% in both the last 2 elections.

The midterm Congressional elections are now just over 2 months away and I have a very uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.