David S. Broder’s Election Expert

May 13, 2007

David S. Broder, the "dean" of Washington journalists writes about new election legislation pushed by Democrats that demands a paper trail for every vote: A Paper Trail Toward Chaos?

As a non-expert, I turned to the man who knows more about the conduct of elections than anyone else in the country, the director of the Houston-based Election Center, Doug Lewis.

"I have no problem with the objective of creating paper receipts," Lewis said, "But they have rejected every idea we’ve offered them to show what might work. I’ve been at this 40-some years, and I have not seen a piece of legislation worse than this. It is overly prescriptive, overly detailed, a cumbersome monstrosity to deal with."

So who is Doug Lewis?

– 1973-1974: Executive secretary of the Kansas Republican party, according to articles in The Great Bend Tribune. This appears to contradict the biographical details given above.
– 1976: Executive director of the Texas Republican Party. Again, this appears to completely contradict the biography given by the National Symposium on Presidential Selection.
– 1976: Texas Chairman for President Gerald Ford’s unsuccessful reelection campaign.
– 1977: Finance director of the Texas Republican Party.
– 1986 – June 1993: Lewis ran a Texas used-computers business called Micro Trade Mart, Inc. (according to e-voting activist Bev Harris)
– 1994: Lewis was appointed to his position at the Election Center

Bev Harris wrote in her 2004 book Black Box Voting that, in a telephone conversation with her, Lewis defended his qualifications to run the Election Center as follows: "My background is that I owned a computer hardware and software business. I’ve never claimed to be an expert. That’s the reason we have laboratories, nationally recognized laboratories."

If the "dean" is a dumb partisan hack, what is the rest of the press gang …

Posted by b on May 13, 2007 at 09:01 UTC | Permalink

Comments

let me start out by saying what a great job you are doing Bernhard. I suspect many of us are suffering from outrage fatigue and/or have noticed that the weather is quite nice and there are things to do that do not involve a keyboard and monitor. that might explain the slightly decreased number of comments here of late. you can be sure that it is not because you are not providing insightful and thought provoking topics.
on David Broder, Glenn Greenwald has been doing a nice expose’ on this corporate media stenographer. doncha know he is the “voice of the people”?

Beaming after the Columbia event, Gravel walks with [Newsweek’s Jonathan] Alter to a nearby Cuban restaurant for a late lunch. On the way they encounter a gray-haired gentleman in owlish glasses. Alter greets him very respectfully. “This is Tom Edsall,” he says. Edsall was a senior political writer for the Washington Post for 25 years. He retired from the paper in 2006 and now writes for the New Republic and teaches at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Gravel smiles broadly and says, “Hey, can you straighten out David Broder?” Broder, an influential columnist at the Post and the unofficial godfather of the D.C. press corps, has been a target of much criticism from liberal blogs for seeming to provide political cover for Bush on Iraq, even with a majority of Americans now opposing the war. “He doesn’t believe in the power of the people!” Gravel says.
Edsall blinks and looks perplexed. “David Broder is the voice of the people,” he replies matter-of-factly. Gravel starts to smile, assuming Edsall is making an absurdist joke. But Edsall is not joking. The two men look at each other in awkward silence over a great gulf of unshared beliefs, then Gravel chuckles and walks ahead into the restaurant.

what a surprise that he would find a republican hack to cite as the expert on voting.

Posted by: dan of steele | May 13 2007 11:56 utc | 1

please leave a comment for Broder at the site

Posted by: Susan | May 13 2007 16:57 utc | 2

Seconded. Bernard remains ‘on it’.

Posted by: jeff in chicago | May 13 2007 23:41 utc | 3

Can I third?
Charlottesville, in my neck of the woods, has decided they don’t want to vote without a paper trail. (red state btw)

Posted by: beq | May 14 2007 1:34 utc | 4

Quaded. I think I speak for many when I say I most wholeheartedly appreciate everything being offered here, and usually have nothing to offer in addition — so I am silent in interests of keeping the noise low and the (excellent) signal high. But I come here every day, multiple times a day, and always leave with something tasty on my plate.

Posted by: Pyrrho | May 14 2007 4:00 utc | 5

I just read that article an hour or two ago, and was wondering if the Demos hadn’t really put their foot in it.
One note struck me as a bit off key though, which was the amount of research and column space he gave to the HAVA. In a way, he seemed to be making a case. He described the “2 year process” etc., etc. almost lovingly.
Why strain that hard on that particular gnat?
I see the camel was indeed lurking nearby…I can sleep now.
Goodnight and thanks for your research.

Posted by: Julie Slama | May 14 2007 6:39 utc | 6

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