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New York Times on E-Voting, I Expected More

On February 14, 2004, the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote a story entitled: Critics punch at touch-screen voting security. As I said in my post here it was a disappointment because it was just a rehash of what has been said on the web about e-voting security for months. I asked public editor Mike King why the Atlanta Journal Constitution didn’t take the story to the next level to do the definitive investigative story. He wrote back : ”…we have a hard enough time finding the resources to cover public fraud that we already have ample evidence exists.”

Yesterday, the New York Times wrote its front page story Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Its Security. Again another rehash of what has been on the web for months. Indeed, it was almost a carbon copy of the information that the Atlanta Journal Constitution provided. It did not offer one more bit of insight.

So what does this mean? Does it mean that the New York Times and Atlanta Jourmal Constitution, at least in some case, are no better than the web writers? Or does it mean that neither has the resources, or is not willing to use its resources, to take the story to the next level and do the definite investigative story on whether the electronic voting machines are trustworthy?

Voters have to feel certain that their votes are not being manipulated.

The papers are in a bind. After all, they both did front page stories. So they are not totally writing off the e-voting machine critics and the web writers, but at the same time they are just repeating what web readers have heard for months. I don’t know about you, but I expect more.

2 Responses to “New York Times on E-Voting, I Expected More”

  1. Tom Says:

    I posted something about this on Saturday after hearing about it from Tim Karr at mediachannel.org… I was happy to see *something* on the topic, but it didn’t really sway me one way or another. It was just like an article for the sake of writing about the topic. I concur with you on looking for something more.

  2. Leonard Witt Says:

    Hi Tom:

    I am still predicting that eventually one of the big respectable media companies will do the definitive investigative story. Who else would we trust to do it right?

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