Polticizing, and funding indefinitely, four presidential appointees – the Election Assistance Commission – to make decisions affecting elections across the land is another dangerous idea. Look no further than the Department of Justice and the US attorneys to see how we all lose when politics is injected where it doesn’t belong. A look at the EAC’s track record would also be instructive. Here’s just one example. The EAC refused to let the affected municipalities know that Ciber, the largest of the certified labs, had been secretly decertified in July of 2004. Neither the public nor election officials were notified, and thus ran the presidential elections on machines that had not been properly tested nor certified.
While it may appear as if we run elections for the enrichment of the vendors and the convenience of various election officials, it is the people who are supposed to be the be-all and end-all. The greater the separation between the voter and his vote, the less confident we can be that our elections are really putting into office the people’s choice. And that, as we all know, is cause for grave concern.
What is it with these companies? They have made millions of tax dollars while supplying shoddy equipment, missing deadlines, and making false promises. Communities are as locked into vendor control as a drug addict is to his supplier. Vendors often orchestrate every single aspect of voting and end up holding the voters, and democracy, hostage. If we were talking about a publicly owned corporation, the board of directors would likely be (justifiably) sued by its stockholders . We, the people, are the stockholders in American democracy. How our elections are run, and the level of true confidence we have that our votes are being counted securely and accurately, is a test of us as a nation. Outsourcing our elections is simply not a good idea. And what about letting private corporations write the legislation regulating our elections is definitely a no-no! I’m not exaggerating.
So, when the NYT fails to mention three large and quite serious flaws with the bill, what are we to conclude? They are not amateurs. On the contrary, they are often viewed as the crème de la crème. So, where are they getting their information? Are they just plain lazy? Do they depend solely on mainstream sources (the supporters of the bill, the backing organizations, press releases by the vendors) without digging deeper? Can they be so cavalier about something that will affect all of us and the way this country is run for years to come?
Whatever happened to critical thinking, investigative journalism, and responsible reporting? No matter how you slice it, it’s a further indictment of this so-called free press, without which democracy can’t exist. Maybe they think that the bill has some good points, and the fact that it gives away our elections to a few unqualified individuals is unimportant. If so, they should stand by their view by stepping forward and saying that. But it is an insult to our intelligence by pretending to present the entire story. As we saw in Bill Moyer’s PBS special “Buying the War: How the Mainstream Press Got It So Wrong,” people depend upon the press, even in its debilitated state. Its breakdown is part and parcel of our national nightmare and, sadly, a major contributing factor to it.
All of us are done a tremendous disservice by the press’s abdication of responsibility32. No wonder so many are turning, in disgust, to the net for the news. We need backbone in our journalists and editors. To quote Murray I. Gurfein, the federal judge assigned the Pentagon Papers case, “A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.”
I’m sure no matter where you find yourself on the political spectrum, you would probably agree that we can’t afford more tainted elections. It’s never been more important for the press to return to the ramparts and get the job done honorably. In the words of Corazon Aquino, political leader and president (1986-92) of the Philippines, Freedom of expression – in particular, freedom of the press – guarantees popular participation in the decisions and actions of government, and popular participation is the essence of our democracy. ***
Whatever you do, don’t sit there feeling helpless – do something!
First, contact CA SoS Bowen secretary.bowen@sos.ca.gov and thank her for standing up for voting integrity and fair and accurate elections. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Do it now. She is already certainly getting lots of irate mail from lovers of computerized voting and election officials who can’t see the forest for the trees. Let her know that lots of us voters think she did the right thing.
Write a letter to the editor of your local news outlet and demand more in depth coverage of election issues (not candidates and fluff, but how our elections are run and the votes counted).
To see how bad an article can be (simultaneously misleading and downright wrong), go to http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4924 “Most Atrocious Reporting of the Moment' Award Goes To...” This is what we’re up against, folks.
Contact your congressional reps http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and demand that they use the summer recess to closely study the various reports issued in California4, Connecticut and Florida (courteously providing links) and encourage them to take the conclusions to heart before making any moves on the direction our elections take.
Beware! There’s a very good chance that the machines that your state uses are in one of those reports. Remind Congress that last summer, a whopping 92% of those polled by Zogby favored more transparency in the manner our votes are counted. http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1163
Urge them to opt for more observable elections, where vote counts take place in public, at the local level, with more citizen oversight.
In a nutshell: Let’s vote in private, and count in public!
Finally, extra credit for those with 10 minutes for a crash course on the press’s utter disregard of the vital election issues. Go to Project Censored, http://www.projectcensored.org/ which annually releases their top 25 stories in “the news that didn’t make the news.” In 2005, the #6 story was “The Sale of Electoral Politics” and the especially timely synopsis touches on the key players and the back-story. We seem to be losing ground. In 2006, “Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage” was the #3 story.
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. We aim to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Electronic (computerized) voting systems are simply antithetical to democratic principles.
CER set up a lending library to achieve the widespread distribution of the DVD Invisible Ballots: A temptation for electronic vote fraud. Within eighteen months, the project had distributed over 3200 copies across the country and beyond. CER now concentrates on group showings, OpEd pieces, articles, reviews, interviews, discussion sessions, networking, conferences, anything that promotes awareness of this critical problem. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005.
If voting could change things they'd make it illegal.
It's been seven years since the 2000 election and the opposition to creating a fair, variable, uniform voting system has been fierce and one has to wonder why anyone that says they believe in democracy would be so against doing such.
Of course the answer is that the last thing the powers that be want is to actually have the people's voice counted. Whether we can fix this problem in time for the 08' elections is doubtful and if indeed we don't you can count on having another Republican in office and if and when that happens we'll have fascism before we'll ever see a true democracy where every vote is counted.
I wish I could say I had some hope but it's going to take a massive media effort coming from a media that is owned by the same forces that will do everything in their power to make sure we don't have election reform. Add in the fact that the thieves of democracy have perfected the act of stealing and I get even more discouraged.
We'll need a voter drive even bigger than the ones we had in 04' and 06', and I mean a serious effort to get more people to the polls then every before to overcome the forces that will be against us. Because if we don't the very real possibility of this country becoming a living Hell is very real.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 1762 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 10:08:40 AM
This is what war is- take the goood battles & keep fighting
Joan
You really pulled it all together- I feel like you were in my head the last week and took my thoughts and put them down in an article (and I haven't talked to you at all). The best is there was, given how much that came out this fast and furious last 10 days, someone needed to recap. I have spent hours tracking down that Conn. study and couldn't find it. I knew I saw it but there were hundreds of emails everyday and so much stuff I started thinking I hadn't seen it-- and there it is in your excellent piece.
It is very hard to have hope when you're fighting fascism- particularly when most who participate in it don't recognize they are- I mean the media, the government, etc. And as you say we have spent years being ridiculed and marginalized. But to the person whose comment precedes mine- if you insist on having hope that tomorrow will be better in order to fight; if you give in to the forces which have every intention of causing you to cave in and think this isn't already fascism; if you focus on how much they've gained and how large the mountains we have to climb– well you understand where I'm going. Joan gets it.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer
We're making progress. We moved to the violently opposed stage and with some positive push, using the riches we've just been delivered, we might start scratching the surface of the self-evident!
Thanks for this piece
andi
by
andi novick (54 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 15 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 11:04:54 AM
your words mean so much to me. even though i have spent more time in bed than out in the last six days, this was a piece that was fighting to get out, almost like an alien being. i wasn't sure that i could put it together; there is so much going on and my mind wouldn't function at its usual level. my daughter's support and excellent editing skills helped make this a reality.
thanks, andi!
if i'm going to be on someone's wavelength, i could do a lot worse being on yours...
by
Joan Brunwasser (164 articles, 3538 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 634 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 11:49:56 AM
Thanks Joan, sorry to learn of your recent illness and hope you make a speedy recovery. This article shows you're back in fine form though, and so with your permission I'll use it in a letter to my local weekly, the Lassen County Times- with a new twist: I was the first to use links to other articles in letters to the Editor, but this time I'm going to try using tinyurl so your long URL is reduced to this: http://tinyurl.com/2c3ecr, and if it works, this could become another tool to spread the word that the jig is up for the computerized voting industry. That bell can't be un-rung, they can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. The link to the Zogby poll was a nice touch, and now that it's almost been a year to the day it was released, August 23, 2006, a lot has happened to turn it into a sea change.
by
Chuck Garner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 118 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 12:21:12 PM
Joan, Once again, you have written an article that is human and inspiring and informative. We are so lucky to have YOU on our side. Please feel better soon! Thank you and onward, no matter what. SM
by
Joan Brunwasser (164 articles, 3538 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 634 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 12:29:58 PM
Computers are amazing beasts. They can do almost anything but …
Within the bowels of the computer, we can change day into night, call an elephant a donkey or visa versa. We can even replace program code on the fly when our mission is done. Yep. The code running Election Day may not be the same that’s left for a proper investigation. Still, it’s not the hackers we need to be focusing on. Breaches from an inside source are much more sinister and much less apt to be found. Do I believe in conspiracies? No…well I didn’t until I started collecting “facts” for my novel’s Deputy Elections Supervisor Cady Palmer. Now I believe without a doubt a silent coup could rage across the country in our high-tech state-of-the-art independent vote-counting machines. The trick would be to keep the wins within the margin of error. Just skim off the top. One for you, two for me. Would we ever find out?
Back to business, business basics that is. We need to stop pushing a fix until we thoroughly define the causes of our problems, until we determine the entire solution. We need to operate more like a profitable business. That means start from beginning to end: procedures, election laws, controls quality assurance, rigorous pre-election testing for more than a token number of machines, audits…The list is long…and complex.But after six years, isn’t it time we do it right?
Lani Massey Brown, A MARGIN OF ERROR: BALLOTS OF STRAW, a novel
by
Lani Massey Brown (14 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 14 comments)
on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 at 3:57:07 PM
The Courage Campaign has published a petition I developed in support of Bowen's top-to-bottom review and we've collected almost 2,000 signatures so far! If you can help spread the word by emailing the link to your list, posting the link to the OpEd News, that would be greatly appreciated. We are looking for organizations to endorse this effort and send the link out to their lists. Bowen needs our support now that her detractors are so active, thank you for being one of those who is proving her the back up she needs for this difficult job.
Joan, Fantastic article! I stay up on the topic as much as my crazy schedule allows. Bowen's decertification action is so very pivotal to reclaiming our democracy. I've sent her a message of thanx. Now get over that awful flu!
SS, CA
by
Joan Brunwasser (164 articles, 3538 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 634 comments)
on Thursday, August 9, 2007 at 7:55:25 PM
16 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
