Reply #5: Ohio: Student's Essay On Voting Claims 2nd In Contest [View All]

[livvy]

Neat human interest story...you go, guy!



Student’s essay on voting claims 2nd in contest
By MATTHEW SCHOMER
Salem News staff writer

BELOIT — “In order for democracy to function properly, elections, which are the heart of a democratic government, need to have top notch security. To negate this results in the deterioration of our government.”

That passage, written this spring by West Branch High School senior Josh Gaines, was part of an essay on the reliability of voting technology that won him second place in a national competition.

Gaines’ essay, “Democracy’s Downfall: Is the Computing Technology for Electronic Voting Secure and Reliable Enough for National Use?”, won second-place honors in the Schubmehl-Prein Essay Contest in August at the University of Notre Dame.

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And having a passion for the topic didn’t hurt his chances of winning either.

“The votes, really, are the only thing between the leader of out nation and the people,” he said. “I feel very strongly that if we’re going to have machines that will decide the leader of this nation, they ought to be foolproof.”

But looking at his essay, one doesn’t find many reasons to trust the machines.

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http://www.salemnews.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=2749