If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, there is nowhere in American government or society where that holds truer than in the various committees created to conduct and monitor elections. Attempts to manipulate elections have a history going back to ancient Athens.

On a national level, there is the Federal Election Commission. Statewide, responsibility for ensuring the accuracy and incorruptibility of the election process lies in the office of the Secretary of State. Locally, that assurance falls squarely on the Amador County Office of Registrar of Voters and the current registrar, Sheldon Johnson.

Fear of fraud in elections has led to the creation of the watchdog concept of the Election Observer Panel, mandated by the state to be formed in each of California's 58 counties. In forming the panel for Amador County, the registrar's office invited participation from the Democratic and Republican central committees, the Amador County Grand Jury and three media outlets: KNGT radio, TSPN television and the Amador county news - www.boitano.net.

For the June 3 primary election, members of the panel were welcome at any of the county's 29 polling places to observe the process and speak to staff and supervisors or directly to the voters.

With the election behind them, all members of the panel were invited to last Thursday's "post election meeting to wrap up the June election and begin on the November election." Sharon Mahoney of the grand jury was the only member of the panel in attendance.

Amador deputy registrar of voters George Allen and county elections supervisor Debbie Smith conducted the meeting, providing information about the election results, the safeguards provided by the modern voting procedures and details of the election process.

Elections are very costly. The 2005 special election held to vote down Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's list of controversial initiatives cost the state about $80 million. This year, the February primary is estimated to have cost upwards of $90 million. Amador County spent $106,000 on the February primary. Figures aren't in yet for the June direct primary.

The money spent on elections isn't making anyone who works at the polling places wealthy. The workers earned $88 each for up to 14-hour days in June, with supervisors awarded an extra $10.

Amador County, historically famous for voter turnouts as high as 88 percent, fell short of 48 percent in the June election. Of 20,353 registered voters, only 9,663 cast their ballots. Of the ballots cast, more than half were vote by mail, formerly known as absentee ballots.

Prior to election day, more than 10,000 mail-in ballots were sent out. More than half were used to vote, with a rather large, though unspecified, number hand-delivered to the precincts.

Asked about the danger of voter fraud in VBM proliferation, both Smith and Allen stated that the modern, computerized voting safeguards provide great security. "Scanned signatures prevent fraud," said Smith, "and double protection is provided by verification with the state."

"The state is actually the keeper of the voter lists," Allen added.

Among recent developments in the hotly contested area of election law, none is more heated than the laws requiring identification at the polling place.

"In California," said Smith, "at the polls, you can't require ID." This may not continue to be the case, if advocates of such a requirement have their way, as has happened in a number of other states.

Partisan battles have taken place across the nation. Republicans, who strongly favor the identification requirement, say that it prevents fraud at the polls. Democrats, who oppose such a rule, argue that it disenfranchises the poor and elderly, largely by requiring something that will cost the voter money.

In 2005, the Indiana state legislature passed a law requiring photo identification. The law was challenged in the courts and fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just prior to this year's primary in Indiana, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was valid. The Associated Press reported that Indiana provides IDs free of charge to the poor and allows voters who lack photo ID to cast a provisional ballot and then show up within 10 days at their county courthouse to produce identification or otherwise attest to their identity.

Curiously, also according to the AP, Indiana voters who use mail-in ballots are not required to show photo ID, even as the trend in elections heads inexorably toward voting by mail.