The following appeared in the March 7th Edition of the Financial Times (Partially noted, Retrieved March 13, 2007):
Computer wizardry that swung Senegal election
By Dino Mahtani in Dakar
Published: March 8 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 8 2007 02:00
In an elegant back office in Senegal's presidential -palace, Thierno Ousmane Sy, presidential adviser and computer wizard, shows off the secret weapon that helped re-elect his boss last week.
Opening databases on his computer, he reveals extensive lists of voters. Clicking on a random name, a box pops up showing telephone details, voter identification number, party member seniority, religious affiliation and even details of ties to local witch-doctors and political "godfathers". If the voter is sufficiently influential, a long personal history is contained in the notes....
My hope is that the success enjoyed by this wizard is studied by the campaign to assess what else can be done that is not already being done to insure success. In addition, there should be active consideration given to Interent-Based Voting. There has been studies & discussions. It seems to me that if Estonia is able to insure a high turn-out, we should have the ability to do it. Senator Clinton's Every Vote Count Act (which I signed up as a Co-Sponsor online), is a fine idea..but we ought to take it one step further in order to move to a fully online system.
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