I have this thing about finishing what I've started, so I'm going to take advantage of this brief lull between election and inauguration to check this diary off of my to-do list. It finishes a story that is now two years old. The first three parts are here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
I did not visit the Senate to make a pitch for anything, just to raise awareness about the issue of electronic voting machines, but a number of aides asked for my perspective.
I acknowledged that there were those who wanted to return to hand-counted paper ballots. I said I had no objections to this, if that’s what people wanted to do, but that I didn’t think most people wanted to do this. Therefore, I was concentrating on measures to assure the reliability of electronic voting.
I said I thought optical scan was the best available solution, combining the security of a ballot marked personally by the voter and the speed of computerized tallying. I had heard that there were ways to hack optical scans as well, but, at this point, I was sufficiently confident that optical scans were better than touchscreens that I was happy to postpone worrying about the security of optical scanning equipment until everyone was voting on them or with hand-counted paper ballots. I also said that I was convinced that optical scanning equipment was technically more reliable and less expensive than touchscreens. In addition, I emphasized the need for audits.
Of the five aides I met with at some length, I thought four were legitimately interested in the issue. Two were fairly new to their positions, admitted that they did not know that much about it, and seemed especially happy, perhaps even relieved, to receive some introductory material on the subject. Of the aides who "popped out" to receive the materials, I thought about half were genuinely interested and half were being mostly diplomatic. One Republican aide seemed prepared to be harangued, and then seemed confused when the conversation didn’t go that way. Everyone promised to try to pass the materials on to someone else who might be interested in the issue, should they find them too introductory to be of use to them personally.
The most interesting reactions, however, came from some of the receptionists to whom I gave materials when an aide was not available. (Keep in mind that the young people who man the reception desks in a senator’s office aren’t your typical administrative assistants; they usually aspire to careers in politics or government.) They were often happier to see the materials than even the most interested aide. (I don’t think John McCain’s aide will be seeing the Arizona notebook any time soon, LOL.) This got me to thinking about Dean’s plan to take over the Democratic Party from the ground up...perhaps we have been targeting the people at the wrong level in government, too.
Anyway, that’s pretty much my story. I will add that I had a great time...a Deaniac friend came up from Florida and tried to meet with the aides for her two senators. I still need to get the details from her, but suffice it to say that elected officials from Florida don’t seem to be sleeping very well these days...be they Democrat or Republican.
Shortly before we left for our trip, my friend had reminded me that Dean’s birthday was on Friday. This brought back fond memories, as I had attended his 55th birthday bash in DC in 2003. I, in turn, reminded my friend that DNC HQ was very close to the Senate offices. So on Friday we stopped by on our way home to drop off contributions in honor of Dean’s birthday. (I half-joked that they ought to consider framing my check instead of cashing it, as it may well be my first and last contribution ever to a partisan organization.)
We struck up a conversation with our cabbie on the way over, who turned out to be originally from Afghanistan. He was decidedly circumspect when we first started talking politics, but when he found out we were Deaniacs, he was transformed to the point of asking us to bring him back some DNC stuff, which we did. We were sorry Dean wasn’t in that day, or we could have had him autograph them.
We played tourist on Saturday. We both paid our first visit to the Holocaust Museum. It is hard to know what adjective to use here. My friend had to quit after three floors, so I will visit the remaining two on another trip. We enjoyed meeting a Maryland elections activist for dinner on Saturday night. We talked mostly politics, big surprise! On Sunday morning, I dropped my Florida friend off at Union Station to catch her train, and then headed home, stopping in Richmond to have lunch with another activist.
In short...my idea of a great "vacation"!