| Susan Bysiewicz seems to be basking in the post-election glow of the debut of statewide optical scan voting machines:
"I think we had an extremely smooth day and voters were very pleased," said Secretary of the State Susan L. Bysiewicz, whose office supervises elections in the state, and has overseen the transition to optical scan machines. Bysiewicz said her office had received "very nice unsolicited calls" from voters on Tuesday praising the new machines.
Yes, the optical scan machines seem to have worked OK, by and large. (We'll have a better idea once the mandatory recounts of close races and sample audits are finished).
But as MikeCT notes in a comment at CTLP, it's worth recalling that Bysiewicz is essentially taking credit for a system she had vehemently and consistently opposed:
She tried her best to get things wrong, insisting on a touch screen system over the vociferous objections of registrars of voters and democracy advocates, writing her RFP for voting machines to specifically exclude optical scan machines, refusing to listen to or meet with critics, harrassing her opponents (sending a letter to the boss of a professor critical of the new machines), and finally reversing course when the opposition became overwhelming and when it became clear that her chosen vendor couldn't meet the requirements of the contract. It's a pattern with her. Take the wrong stance until it becomes totally politically unviable, then take credit for your smart decisions when you're forced to reverse yourself.
Bysiewicz's stated preference for Diebold-esque touch-screen machines goes all the way back to the summer of 2001, just months after the election day 2000 debacle. (Actually, Diebold subsidiary LHS manufactures the optical scan machines used in CT.) Even now, she routinely dismisses critics and skeptics of new voting technology as "conspiracy theorists" (see her interview from Monday - mp3).
So, let's give credit where credit is due:
Great job, Inanimate Optical Scan Machines! |
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