| | |  Editorials | Opinions 
Why Is It So Difficult to Run an Honest Election?
 Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari - PVNN
May 11, 2010
Despite the obvious answer, power, there are so many other factors that simply do not help. "Where" is power in Mexico today? Mexico is half the way in a transition between an over powerful President who decided everything in the past to the new elite: "The political parties". Today they decide on everything but the context is not clear.
More, Mexico is not beyond the "cult of one person": So, within the political parties there are "personalities" who either think they detain power (because of the noise they make) or they manipulate people within the political parties to make it look like they actually have power: a couple in the lower chamber, a couple in the upper chamber and some in the political parties.
These last ones have not passed from screaming to the public life to receive (not earn) a salary from the government. The decision to enter the public life depends of course in the political parties mechanics. Votes? The party will bring all sorts of "supporters" to vote for the person they have decided upon. This is Mexico today.
There are two components to elections in Mexico. Arranging the "political parties' frame of reference" scheme and the "voting proper" scheme. (i.e. the "politicians" and the "people")
As far as the political parties' frame of reference, we need to study the "whys" and the "because's" of the Mexican government system: This part deserves a series of articles so let me leave it in the air for further articles.
The "voting proper" scheme has far more components:
The first one is pure ignorance. Stop anybody in the street and most of them do not even have a clue what are the government's and/or the citizen's obligations and responsibilities. To the eyes of the people, anybody who enters the government is corrupt and he/she is there to become rich which seems to repeat itself over and over again. For the average citizen, the government "must give them" everything.
A requirement for an honest election is a secret ballot. We will need electronic voting. Computers regularly handle multimillion-dollar financial transactions, but much of their security comes from the ability to audit the transactions after the fact and correct problems that arise. Much of what they do can be done the next day if the system is down. Neither of these solutions works for elections. Mexican ballots for elections are relatively simple. To my knowledge, the most complicated ones are American elections: people have to vote on about 40 to 60 different issues. The simplest election I have worked on was in Cambodia: Decide on a Prime Minister from 23 possible political parties.
Speed is another factor. Many countries today demand election results before they go to sleep the very same day of the election; we won't stand waiting more than two weeks before knowing who won, as happened in Afghanistan.
Voting systems are used infrequently, at most a few times a year. Systems that are used every day improve because people familiarize themselves with them, discover mistakes and figure out improvements. Even more, electoral officials do not always know how machines work and this contributes to the distrust found in the Election Day. It should be no surprise that there are problems with voting. What's surprising is that there aren't more problems. So how to make the system work better?
• Simplicity: This is the key to making voting better. Registration should be as simple as possible. The voting process should be as simple as possible. Ballot designs should be simple, and they should be tested. The computer industry understands the science of user-interface - that knowledge should be applied to ballot
• Transparency: All computer code used in voting machines should be public. This allows interested parties to examine the code and point out errors, resulting in continually improving security. Any voting-machine company that claims its code must remain secret for security reasons is lying. Security in computer systems comes from transparency - open systems that pass public scrutiny - and not secrecy.
• Uniformity: Simplicity leads to uniformity. Mexico doesn't have one set of voting rules or one voting system. It has 31 different Electoral systems: one for each state each with its voting rules - one for every state. The more systems are standardized around the country, the more we can learn from each other's mistakes. If I am ever appointed to work for elections in Mexico this will be one of my priorities at the Federal level.
• Verifiability: Computerized voting machines might have a simple user interface, but complexity hides behind the screen and keyboard. To avoid even more problems, these machines should have a voter-verifiable paper ballot. This isn't a receipt; it's not something you take home with you. It's a paper "ballot" with your votes - one that you verify for accuracy and then put in a ballot box. The machine provides quick tallies, but the paper is the basis for any recounts.
My advice is to vote carefully. Commit yourself with Mexico and vote. Read the instructions carefully, and ask questions if in doubt. Follow the instructions carefully, checking every step as you go. Remember that it might be impossible to correct a problem once you've finished voting. A good voting machine would allow you to request a paper ballot if you have any doubts.
And be sure to vote. This year, thousands of people are watching and waiting at the polls to help voters make sure their vote is considered.
Guillermo Ramón Adames y Suari is a former electoral officer of the United Nations Organization. Contact him at gui.voting(at)gmail.com |
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