OpEdNews - Page 2 of Article: California's Bowen, the press and the election integrity S.O.S.

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.
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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.

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