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November 07, 2006
The campaign that never happened
Amherst Times, November 5, 2006 (column)
Autumn arrived: the leaves began to fall and the political signs sprouted up in people's yards. For a week or so there was excitement about the "tight" Senate race—a virtual tie according to some polls taken in September—but then abruptly Sherrod Brown, the Democratic challenger, seemed to leap into the lead, ahead by double digits in late October. I have to admit, I was a bit puzzled. Was it Ohio's economy and the war in Iraq? It certainly has begun to seem that our election system is in trouble. A 230-page report commissioned by Cuyahoga County on its May 2 primary fiasco was made public in late October, and revealed widespread concerns about the reliability of the AccuVote electronic voting machines. Similarly, Vicki Lovegren, a mathematics lecturer at Case Western Reserve University who has become a local advocate for election integrity, said, "If you're a computer scientist, you're nervous," adding: "When you have electronic voting machines, it doesn't take a conspiracy of many people. One person can affect the outcome without anyone knowing." Read article.