Barnum’s observation aside, there is a deep and profound divide between those that seek to drape democracy with a veil of clandestine voting processes, and those citizens who seek to shine the light of day into all halls where voting takes place. That light frequently shines brightest when listening to the nationally recognized voting integrity radio program, “Voice of the Voters”. Airing on The Renaissance Radio Station, WNJC1360 in Philadelphia, and on the web wwwdotwnjc1360dotcom, “Voice of the Voters” consistently breaks the latest news, and offers straightforward long lasting solutions concerning the systemic problems forming Americas voting integrity nightmare.
The broadcast of February 6, 2008 was another of the two hour specials, that came about by the joining of air time from the authors earlier program, “American Voices”, with that of “Voice of the Voters“. The first half of the program, introduced by the author and hosted by election savvy songstress (more on her vocalizations later) Lori Rosolowsky reaffirmed the pervasiveness of the voting predicament in this nation with an hour long discussion of the circumstance in the state of Virginia.
Ms. Rosolowsky’s first guest was Attorney Ivy Main, Policy Director for the New Electoral Reform for Virginia, “New Era”. Ms. Main related that the Registrars are not friendly to the idea of dropping Direct Recoding Electronic (DRE) voting machines. Coupled with a “Legislature that does not like to move fast”, and “Local election officials that were relying on vendors” for advice and direction of how to best serve the publics right to vote, produced yet again the perfect storm of ineffective government.
Attempting to stay afloat and steaming in the correct direction in that storm is State Senator Mark R. Herring, of Virginias 33 Congressional District. Senator Herring told Ms. Rosolowsky that his unofficially named “The Verified Voter Bill”, Senate Bill SB292 was created because he understands that it is “critically important in any democracy that voters have confidence in the voting process”. Meaningful elements of SB292 which the Senator mentioned were (1) requirements for Random Post Election Audits, (2) Effective Recount Rules and Guidelines. (Provides for a random audit of optical scan tabulators after each election to take place within 24 hours after initial vote counts are completed and before the election results are certified. The State Board of Elections will establish procedures for the audits, hand counts, and evaluating discrepancies between hand counts and tabulator tallies. The bill also requires that recount officials select a random sample of at least five percent of the optical scan tabulators used in the election being recounted and that the paper ballots counted by those tabulators be recounted by hand. If the hand count detects machine errors, then the recount officials may designate additional machines to hand count.)
The Senator went on to explain that “Virginia has a citizen legislature”, and “the process is very compressed”. Thus, two bills, his SB292 and a parallel bill SB35 (SB35 Requires hard copy optical scan ballots to be rerun through appropriately programmed tabulators in recount proceedings. Present law provides that the tabulator printout will be sufficient unless it is unclear or the court orders the ballots to be rerun.) of Senator Creigh R. Deeds of District 25, “should fair pretty well in the Senate, then to the house where it may take as long as two weeks”. As it stands, possibly as early as the end of February (2008) the citizens of Virginia may have some legislative help in acquiring a more meaningful voting process. To keep abreast of the bills progress and to contact legislators in the Commonwealth of Virginia, wwwdotvirginiadotgov.
Next to the fast moving broadcast was Dr. Alex Blackmore. Dr. Blakemore, one of the leaders of the Verified Voting Coalition of Virginia (VVCV) opened with “our recounts are a farce”, and “the recount is merely a reprint”. A computer scientist by training, he explained that there is ‘no provision in Virginia for looking at paper ballots in the precincts that use them‘, making an audit a moot point, except in very rare and specific circumstance. As far as post election audits in Virginia, “After the certification period, if the margin is within 1% a candidate can demand a recount, if the margin is within ½ of 1%, then the state will pay for it”, said Dr. Blakemore. Clearly, Virginias policy makers are far more confident in the accuracy of their voting systems than the voters and the contestants. Challenging races that are of such narrow margins creates the purrfect condition for the Copperfield Effect to take place where the election is magically stolen within a margin barely larger than the 1% threshold! Presto Change-o…ShazaaaAAM!
However, Dr. Blakemore went on to reveal that Virginias “finest minds in electoral officialdom” suffer from the same systemic stupidity as in virtually all the other forty nine states when he stated, “The court is allowed to order recount officials to examine the ballots, but have chosen not to”. Chosen not too is a phrase far too frequently applicable when referring to “decision” making processes by American bureaucrats. The simple truth explaining that unflattering phenomenon is that saying no is almost always safer for the decision maker than saying yes. Saying yes sometimes requires intestinal fortitude, which is in woefully short supply amongst Americas bureaucrats.
Jeremy Epstein was next to speak in the long line up of activists. Co-Founder of VVCV, Mr. Epstein echoed most of what was said and pointed out that one County in Virginia, Fairfax, has 1/6 of all of the states registered voters. Thus, if problems occur in that county the state wide results could be skewed and placed in doubt even in the minds of skeptical bureaucrats. He too noted that this is a problem that extents from sea to shinning sea, when he said, “four states from Super Tuesday are doing audits”.
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