Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 37

StarTVibune INSIDE Forum E2 Letters E3 Community E4 PINION SUNDAY, 1ANUARY 25, 2004 Edrtonai editor Charles Levendosky and acting editorial editor Phil Ellsworth an be reached at (307) 2660605, 1-800-5590583 a editonaltnb.com SECTION Casper Star Tribune 170 Star lane, P.O. Box 80, Casper, WY 82602 (307) 266-0500 or 1-800-559-0583 The Casper Daily Tribune: Est Oct 9, 1916 by J.E. Hanway; The Casper Star Est in 1949 2004, Casper Star-Tribune Nathan Bekke, publisher; Dan NeaL editor STAR-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL Term-limited legislators in limbo In addition to restricting House and Senate members to 12 years each, the term limits law limits the governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and state superintendent of public instruction to two terms, or eight years in office each. Let Main Street work for Wyoming Downtown revitslization effort has succeeded in Evanston Wyoming pulled the plug too early in its first attempt to use the national Main Street program to revitalize downtown areas. If the program is successfully reintroduced by the Legislature, the state must learn from that mistake.

Since 1980, the National Main Street Cnter has worked with communities in 36 states to revitalize their historic or traditional commercial areas. Designed to preserve historic commercial architecture by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it has also become an influential economic development tool. Due to state budget cuts and a lack of support Wyoming's affiliation with the program ended in 1987, only a year and a half after its state office opened. But Evanston kept the program alive through its urban renewal agency, with outstanding results. With a partnership of public and private interests, volunteers have rehabilitated many downtown buildings and kept the area thriving.

The 21st annual Renewal Ball raised $50,000 for the program last year, demonstrating great support for it. House Speaker Fred Parady, R-Rock Springs, is one of six legislators sponsoring House Bill would create a state Main Street Advisory Board. The seven-member panel would be appointed by the governor and develop a plan to operate the program. The program itself would be run by the Wyoming Business Council. Five communities willing to commit for at least three years would be chosen for a pilot project.

The idea comes with a price tag of $273,500, but Wyoming Association of Municipalities Executive Director George Parks a strong supporter of the bill said there is money for the program in Gov. Dave Freudenthal's recommended budget for the Rural Development Office. Parks noted Main Street is "a logical follow-up" to the community assessments conducted by that office last year for the Wyoming Business Council. Jim Davis, former director of the Evanston Main Street program, said a state office could help smaller communities with limited resources by forming a network to share solutions and provide technical assistance and encouragement. Evanston has proven that the Main Street program can revitalize a community's heart.

The Legislature should put it back to work in Wyoming. i Joan Barron STAR TRIBUNE CHEYENNE It's an uncertain time for legislators who are bumping against the wall of term limits this year. The lawsuit challenging the state's 1992 term limits law has been filed in Laramie County District Court. Attorneys for the plaintiffs had not yet filed a motion to certify the case to the Wyoming Supreme Court last The big question is whether the state's high court can issue a decision before May 28, the opening date for candidates to file for office. If no ruling is forthcoming by that key date, Secretary of State Joe Meyer and his staff will have giant headaches.

It will be Meyer's job to refuse to accept the filings of legislators who are finishing their 12th and last year in the House or Senate. Filing the lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of the term limits ballot initiative, are Rep. Rodney (Pete) Anderson, R-Pine Bluffs, who is House speaker pro tem, and Sen. Rich Cathcart, D-Carpenter, a former long-term Senate minority leader, and two of their Elaine, may run for his seat if he is forced to leave the Senate either by a delay in a Supreme Court decision or by an adverse decision. "Having been chair of the school board she would be a credible candidate but I don't know what she's really going to do yet," Scott said.

"It's too early to say." If the court acts quickly and throws out term limits, the scenario shifts and he may run again. But Scott said his opinions shift on alternate days. Regardless, it appears a Scott will be on the ticket for Senate District 30 in this year's elections. Rep. Wayne Johnson, R-Cheyenne, who is one of eight House members facing term limits this year, said earlier that he planned to run for Cath-cart's Senate seat.

But then again, that was before the lawsuit was filed. Former House Speaker Eli Bebout's name popped up as a possible candidate for Sen. Bob Peck's seat if Peck, who is term limited, cannot run or chooses not to run. Bebout, who is recovering well from surgery for esophageal cancer, said he's been on a roller coaster. "Oh my goodness, I'm just trying to heal and get back to normal and it takes some time," Bebout said last week in a telephone interview, when asked if he would consider a Senate contest.

He added, however, that he's always enjoyed politics. Bebout, who lost the 2002 general election for governor to Democrat Dave Freudenthal, thinks the state has a 50-50 shot of getting term limits shot down. "I've always enjoyed serving the people of Fremont County and gave a shot at serving the state and the voters decided they wanted Dave and that's fine. But I've always enjoyed helping this great state, so who knows what will happen." He said he was grateful for the phone calls, cards and letters from well-wishers. "It's really made a big difference in my recovery.

So many wonderful people. We're so blessed in this great state. It's just Wyoming," he said. He said the small tumor in his esophagus was found during a routine endoscopy exam. As you can tell there is plenty of legislative pondering going on during this unsettled time.

The next challenge coming up fast for the lawmakers is the budget session that opens Feb. 9. Scott identified the budget "surplus," or whatever you want to call it, and tort reform as two big issues facing the lawmakers during the short session. "We've got enough money for a glorious fight," Scott said. audits in each state.

I can't see any possible objection to this bill. Ignore the inevitable charges of "conspiracy theory." (Although some conspiracies are real: As Thursday's Boston Globe reports, "Republican staff members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the To support' verified voting, you don't personally have to believe that voting machine manufacturers have tampered or will tamper with elections. How can anyone object to measures that will place the vote above suspicion? What about the expense? Let's put it this way: we'ie spending at least $150 billion to promote democracy in Iraq. That's about $1,500 for each vote cast in the 2000 election.

How can we balk at spending a small fraction of that sum to secure the credibility of democracy at home? constituents, Scott Zimmerman and Keith Kennedy. They claim it would take a constitutional amendment to impose term limits in Wyoming. The ballot initiative that passed in 1992 with a whopping 77 percent of the vote created a state law, not a change to the Wyoming Constitution. Article 3, Section 2 of the Wyoming Constitution contains the qualifications and terms for members of the Legislature. It says only that senators shall be elected for terms of four years and representatives for terms of two years.

Senators must be at least 25 years old while representatives must be 21 years old. And that's it. In addition to restricting House and Senate members to 12 years each, the term limits law limits the governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and state superintendent of public instruction to two terms, or eight years in office each. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, the most senior member of the Senate, is pessimistic about the Supreme Court whipping out an opinion before May 28.

One of five senators who is term-limited this year, Scott said his wife, that software at Diebold and other manufacturers is full of security flaws, which would easily allow an insider to rig an election. But the people at voting machine companies' wouldn't do that, would they? Let's ask Jeffrey Dean, a programmer who was senior vice president of the voting machine company, Global Election Systems, before Diebold acquired it in 2002. Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting" (www.blackboxvot-ing.com), told The Associated Press that Dean, before taking that job, spent time in a Washington correctional facility for stealing mon-, ey and tampering with Electronic voting technology puts democracy at risk mm ill III Questionable programmers aside, even a cursory look at the behavior of the major voting machine companies reveals systematic flouting of the rules intended to ensure voting security. Software was modified without government oversight; machine components were replaced without being rcchecked. computer files.

Questionable programmers aside, even a cursory look at the behavior of the major voting machine companies reveals systematic flouting of the rules intended to ensure voting security. Software was modified without government oversight; machine components were replaced without being rechecked. And here's the crucial point: Even if there are strong reasons to suspect that electronic machines miscounted votes, nothing can be done about it. There is no paper trail; there is nothing to recount. So what should be done? Rep.

Rush Holt, has introduced a bill calling for each machine to produce a paper record that the voter verifies. The paper record would then be secured for any future audit. The bill requires that such verified voting be ready in time for the 2004 election and that districts that can't meet the deadline use paper ballots instead. And it also requires surprise leaked internal e-mail from the companies that make these machines suggest widespread error, and possibly fraud. What would this do to the nation? Unfortunately, this story is completely plausible.

(In fact, you can tell a similar story about some of the results in the 2002 midterm elections, especially in Georgia.) Fortune magazine rightly declared paperless voting the worst technology of 2003, but it's not just a bad technology it's a threat to the republic. First of all, the technolp-gy has simply failed in several recent elections. In a special election in Broward County, 134 voters were disenfranchised because the electronic voting machines showed no votes, and there was no way to determine those voters' intent. (The election was decided by only 12 votes.) In Fairfax County, electronic machines crashed repeatedly and balked at registering votes. In the 2002 primary, Paul Krugman THE NEW YORK TIMES The disputed election of 2000 left a lasting scar on the nation's psyche.

A recent Zogby poll found that even in red states, which voted for George W. Bush, 32 percent of the public believes that the election was stolen. In blue states, the fraction is 44 percent. Now imagine this: In November the candidate trailing in the polls wins an upset victory but all of the districts where he does much better than expected use touch-screen voting machines. Meanwhile, machines in several Florida districts reported no votes for governor.

And how many failures weren't caught? Internal e-mail from Diebold, the most prominent maker of electronic voting machines (though not those in the Florida and Virginia debacles), reveals that programmers were frantic over the system's unreliability. One reads, "I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded." Another reads, "For a demonstration I suggest you fake it." Computer experts say 3.