Protect our elections

I have been meaning to write an impassioned plea for paper ballots, but I've just been busy. Then a smart person wrote a letter to the editor and made the case in less than 500 words. So let me introduce you to Jody Beisch, Tuesday's anti-idiot and one of the reasons I stay here, apparently:

If we value our freedoms and our right to vote for the leaders who pass the laws that affect our lives, we must fiercely monitor and protect our democracy (11/26, A-2, “Ballot issues resist fix: Nonpartisan group will release a report Wednesday with a state-by-state assessment of voting”).

It has been shown time after time that electronic voting machines are not secure and reliable on a consistent basis. Through operator error, machine malfunction, programming glitches and probably fraud, votes have been lost and recorded incorrectly, not once or twice, but numerous times all over the country.

Sometimes it doesn’t make a difference in the outcome of an election, but often it does. Regardless of our beliefs or political affiliation, we must demand paper ballots so that we can be reasonably certain that our votes are being counted fairly and honestly.

If we don’t protect our democracy now, we may wake up some day without it.

Jody Biesche
Kansas City