Monday Links
- “One of the first rules of negotiating is never to threaten to do something unless you are prepared to do it.”
- Policymakers and pundits assume the U.S. is so dominant that we’re prepared to fight multiple fronts at once, and that it won’t affect our security.
- Candidates for office should prepare to raise money, not rely on taxpayer subsidies.
- More market liberalization could help prepare Japan for any other natural disaster.
- Are Tea Party-backed Republicans prepared to go the distance on spending cuts?
Evo Morales’ Biometric Identity System
It was with interest and concern that I read about the new election law recently signed by Bolivian President Evo Morales. The AP reports that it “sets stricter standards for voter authentication, introducing a $30 million system of biometric identification, based on voters’ fingerprints.”
It is important to secure voting systems against fraud, but be careful how you do it. Identity systems are powerful administrative tools which historically haven’t mixed well with authoritarian governments.
A biometric voter identification system was apparently a demand of Morales’ right-wing opposition. Don’t be surprised if he uses it to consolidate power or do far worse than that to his political rivals.
Some advocates have dabbled in supporting a national ID in the United States for election administration, but that would be error. I wrote about the many risks of uniform identity systems in my book Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood.
Cato on Facebook
Cato on Twitter
Cato on Google+
Cato on YouTube
