| Republicans Seem to Want to Keep Computerized Voting Easily Corruptible
by Rob Kall
OpEdNews.Com
Before the age of computers, there were all kinds of ways for a local
politico to "mess" with the voting apparatus. He could arrange
for a mechanical machine to count wrong. Or, the names of people in
cemeteries could be kept or put on the voter rolls.
But now, in the wondrous age of computers and the internet, it's
possible, with a virtually undetectable line of software code that can
make itself disappear after its done its dirty work, to wreak corruption
on hundreds or thousands of computerized voting machines reflecting
hundreds of thousands or millions of votes. A number of recent elections
are suspected of being tainted by this voting corruption. We've opened a
Pandora's box with computerized voting, not knowing what was going to come
out.
But it looks like the Republicans like the way things are, in spite of
clear proof of a multitude of errors and easily corruptible vote
counting. US Congressman Russ Holt introduced a bill earlier in the year
that would take many of the risks out of computerized voting, and it would
add safeguards to prevent theft of elections or computerized tampering
with the voting process.
It seems that any patriotic American who cherishes the central role of
an honest voting process in the maintenance of democracy would almost by
reflex support a bill that would make voting safer and more honest. Yet
since the bill was introduced, not one republican congressman has
signed on to the bill.
Now, one might not expect enemies of democracy and the law, like
Tom DeLay, support such a bill. But it is shocking that not one single
Republican has the spine, the courage, the commitment to democracy to
support a bill that should be receiving bi-partisan support. It is a sad
time when elected representatives respond in lock step, obedience to the
ruling (in this case hedless) leaders, rather than voting based on
principles or for the good of the nation.
It's been shown repeatedly that when mistakes have been made by
computerized systems, and there have been hundreds of them, the mistakes
almost unfailingly are in favor of Republicans. While there is no clear
proof yet, there are a lot of people who believe that a number of
congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial elections have been stolen by
electronic tampering.
One reader suggested that tampering with the voting process is such a
serious offense that the punishment should be the death penalty. But the
fact is the punishment for vote fraud is less than it is for other forms
of criminal fraud.
We need smart, strict laws that regulate computerized voting so it
provides the benefits of the power of computers, while eliminating any
risks of vote corruption or manipulation. This is such simple, common
sense, it's very hard to understand why any honest politician would oppose
it.
Voting systems must provide a voter verifiable audit trail, Software
fraud expert Rebecca Mercuri reported at the Computerized voting forum
held Sept. 7, in Philadelphia (organized by investigative reporter Lynn
Landes.)
Mercuri, who has become a widely cited expert on voting software, says
"A vote that can not be counted is not a vote." And the fact is,
that the way most computerized voting systems work, you can't count the
votes after their cast. You have to trust the software company, and trust
that no-one is tampering with the software or the data. You have to trust
the data acquisition and transmission process and we know that there have
been many problems there.
This issue-- making voting auditable and verifiable is not a minor
consideration. Every single democratic primary candidate should be raising
it-- they should all be raising it in unison at the debates they
participate in. If it's not resolved by the time of the 2004 Presidential
and congressional elections, there's a good chance george the liar Bush
will steal his way back into a second term as president, and there's no
telling how many more congressional and senatorial seats will be stolen,
or gifted to crooked republicans.
The tens of millions of people who voted for Al Gore, who were outraged
by the theft of the election, should all be contacting their national and
state representatives, demanding that laws be passed to prevent any
further shenanigans like what happened in Florida or Indiana (Senator
Hagel won an election with a percentage way out of the polls' predictions,
and he happened to be a major shareholder in the local company that
managed the computerized elections and that refused to allow a
re-count.) While it may be difficult to get a republican-run
congress to pass bills that keep elections, it is also possible to pass
laws at the state level. At least some states will be producing honest
elections. There will soon be model legislation available for any state to
model it's own laws after.
People who protested against the war should be getting out and
protesting against corruption-at-risk voting systems. MoveOn.org and
workingassets.com should get on this issue along with, of course,
the democratic national committee.
Establishing a more honest, less vulnerable election process, in which
people can trust that their votes really count, will help to bring more
voters to the polls, will enable people to regain their faith in
democracy. Failure to do so will spell ill for our nation. Patriotic
Republicans who value the democratic process-- ie., the ones who haven't
sold out to corporate and other special interests-- should treat
honest election legislation as bipartisan.
"It's not the VOTING that's democracy, it's the counting."
Tom Stoppard
Rob
Kall rob@opednews.com
is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com
and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders,
such as the Winter Brain Meeting
and the StoryCon
Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story This
article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in
print, email, blog, or web media so long as this entire credit paragraph
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