NYT ON ELECTORAL IRREGULARITIES

The New York Times has a dynamite editoral this AM, Count Every Vote.   For a change it's about the irregularities in the US, not the Ukraine.  Some highlights below the fold.

Every vote is supposed to count in America, but candidates too often maneuver to disqualify votes that they think might go to the other side. A month and a half after Election Day, battles are still raging in Washington State and in San Diego over whether to count all of the votes that were cast. The answer to that question must be yes.

(snip)

In Ohio, where a recount of the presidential election is under way, it is becoming clear that as important as recounts are, they are not enough to ensure the integrity of our elections. Representative John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan, has charged that an employee of a company that makes vote-counting software used across the state may have tampered with one county's vote tabulator after the election to make the recount come out right. If people other than election officials have free access to the tabulation software, it can make a recount an empty gesture.

Clearly the American election system needs significant improvement, starting with voter-verified paper trails for every vote cast electronically. In the current flawed system, the best chance we have of producing accurate results is to be on guard for manipulation of electronic voting machines and tabulation software, and to conduct conscientious recounts when the outcome is at all in doubt.

These guys really get it!   Actually the NYT has been out in front on this issue all along.  Check out their series of editorials Making Votes Count (the whole sequence of back-numbers is available to registered users at no cost).  

I thnk it's really significant that Ohio is now being mentioned in the MSM.  Hopefully the momentum will continue.