Primitive is Revolutionary?

For years I ran elections here in Shiloh. In the twenty-nine years of modern Shiloh's existence, I probably ran more than half the local elections, and I was an official -although unpaid-observer at a number of Knesset Elections.

Our voting method may seem primitive, considering how much of the world relies on all sorts of technology.

After checking a person's name and Identity Card, we give them an envelope, or two, if the elections are for two separate ballots. Then they go into a "private space," voting booth, and choose the ballot of their choice, which afterwards, as we watch, they put into the ballot box. In Shiloh, we've found ourselves using any box we could find. A few times we conveniently found ourselves with a box which had contained laundry detergent--to guarantee clean elections!

Our small local elections are a little easier. There's no envelope, but we give a ballot with the candidates clearly listed. There was a time when people just got an "official" piece of paper and were told to write the names themselves, but one year a couple of Moshe's and a couple of Shlomo's were running against each other. Some people just wrote Moshe or Shlomo, without indicating which one, so their ballots were invalid. Then we started to print up ballots ourselves, making it a simple matter of checking off the desired name.

On those long nights, "primitively" counting out the results and carefully calculating it all, we'd feel pretty dumb. Wouldn't it be easier to just find a way to computerize it all?

Of course, all of us who use computers and internet know how mysteriously unreliable they can be. That's what was recently decided in the State of Florida.

Florida to Shift Voting System With Paper Trail

So if they need some advice from an experienced election coordinator, they can call a professional consultant, ME!