The Fighting 29th and other folks round these parts have speculated on what Massa will be doing now that the 2006 elections are over. Although generally non-committal at the moment (give the guy a break, he just spent 2 years and re-mortgaged his house to run this race), one hint came out of a recent post of his on MyDD:

I believe that my first contribution as a post election candidate is to champion the demand for using paper ballots — ballots that can be scanned and retained for recount and accountability as needed. A verifiable election system is job one! I hope that all voters will get involved in this effort. Now is the time to do this! Although I lost my race, Democrats across the USA won. Now is the time to take up the cause for verifiable balloting because now, when we have won, is the time when we can push this issue without sounding like sore losers. Now we can champion this cause as gracious winners.

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it does give us moral leverage.

Here in NY we currently have a county-by-county choice for ballot type. Our new Democratic Governor can get involved and change previous decisions leaving this choice to the counties. - I urge Governor-elect Spitzer to put in place the requirement for state wide optically scanned paper ballots to avoid having the voters of New York using 8 different kinds of machines during the next election. This seemingly simple decision is at the heart and soul of the very exercise of our democracy, and it is a subject that demands attention at the local as well as national level.

Seems reasonable to me. Paper ballots and scanners are much better than those goofy full-screen e-voting machines. Here at RT, we’ll be keeping on the story as well– I’ve added a link to NY Verified Voting, in the NY Politics blogroll over to the right. Worth a quick look, at the very least. Massa continued:

Over the coming weeks and months I will continue to post ideas, alternatives and commentary. Also, we will be changing out our campaign web site from a purely campaign theme to one that will move to build rural roots for the Party of FDR in Western New York.

Massa did so much to attach jumper cables to the sleepy remnants of the Democratic party in the Southern Tier. He went from end to end of the district and helped 3 Democratic mayors get elected in cities down there (in the case of Corning, the first Dem mayor in 40 years). It’s great to see his follow-through is as good as his swing. Here’s hoping Dean’s “50 state strategy” means that the DNC will see the value in providing a little help to Massa in this effort.

Folks in rural WNY deserve a choice. And they deserve an honest, clear presentation of what that choice is.