By Robert Willmann, Jr.
Robert Willmann, Jr., is an attorney in San Antonio, Texas. He has previously been an Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Bexar County (San Antonio), and has served as a part-time magistrate in the Bexar County system.
November 4, 2014
Persons not a part of the government have power to decide in only two functions in our state and federal governments—as jurors in court trials and as voters in elections. More accurately, however, today the outsider as decider has the final say in only one particular instance of the two: jurors who unanimously find a criminal defendant “not guilty”.
Otherwise, a jury, if it is permitted to decide issues in the first place, is subject to further review and displacement in civil cases and after a finding of guilt in a criminal case. Votes, though made by secret ballot unconnected to the identity of the voter, are subject to review when the validity of the election is challenged in a civil court action. In deciphering an unclear ballot — perhaps the result of the voter writing an amusing and profane comment by a candidate’s name instead of properly marking the selection — the “intent of the voter” will be decided in court.
This review of voting by the judicial process is no longer relevant, as one stark fact must be made perfectly clear. No election can be assumed valid if electronic voting machines or any related devices are used. Every system has limitations, and the public got a hilarious look at some of them in the 2000 presidential election when in Florida the punch card system choked on its own design.
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