To the Editor:

Your editorial (“Let the High Court cast decisive ballot,” 3/1/06) correctly drew attention to the root cause problem in Florida/2000 – hanging chads; that is, imprecision in mechanically recording many of the votes cast on cards with coded marks or holes.

One way of dealing with the consequence – uncertainty in interpreting some votes and declaring the winner – would be to reduce the imprecision in recording the vote on a physical medium through better technology.

Another way would be to adopt a technology, e.g., DREs (computers), wherein it’s not possible to even check properly the precision of the vote recording process and so there is no way of contesting the official result by a recount.

I call that faith-based voting. No hanging chads, no independent audit, no recounts, no embarrassing arguments. Problem solved: except the integrity of our democracy is destroyed. Hey! Get over it, move along.

Michael Doyle
Upper Black Eddy, PA