Here is a first-class example of how not to serve the public interest. Both Democracy and journalism are ailing badly here in these United States

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WAPO ARTICLE:
Debating the Bugs of High-Tech Voting

Here is a first-class example of how not to serve the public interest. Note how the reporter frames the struggle over DRE machines: as an "already-cantankerous debate" between Two Sides, equally respectable. On one side, there's "a coalition of voting rights activists and prominent computer scientists," arguing against the use of the machines. On the other side, we have.... the manufacturers
of said machines, "and many election officials." In between the two are "state officials" trying earnestly "to strike a middle ground."

God forbid the Post reporter should "take sides," as that would violate the Golden Rule of "balance," and the "debate" might turn still more "cantankerous"--or maybe it would get a bit more edifying, as real debate should be. A real debate would duly note the mammoth qualitative difference between that coalition and those interests pushing the machines on an electorate that doesn't want them. (According to a recent Zogby poll, over 80% of the American people would much prefer going back to paper ballots.) That is, a real debate would not equate those "sides," as only one of them, that "coalition" of reformers and computer scientists, is expert,
disinterested and patriotic, while the other has only a vested interest in imposing the machines on us. Diebold and its corporate peers are not just out to make a buck, but also share a whopping partisan agenda, having long since been in bed with the Republicans. For their part, those "election officials" clamoring for DRE machines are, by and large, either agents of the GOP, or Dems who have been purchased by Diebold et al., and/or county bureaucrats who want their lives made easier. They like the DRE machinery primarily because it frees them from the tiresome chore of having to count paper ballots, just as their counterparts in Canada and Germany and France routinely do without complaint.

That isn't a good reason for adopting those machines. In fact, there's no good reason to adopt them, as they keep breaking down, cannot be audited, are easily hacked and cost (at least) about three times as much as other kinds of
voting system. Add to all that the vendors' partisan connection, and you have a system no-one wants, except for those who stand to profit from it. That the Post would treat such corporate flacks and party hacks as righteous witnesses, comparable to scientists and civic activists, tells us that democracy and journalism are both ailing badly here in these United States.

Mark Crispin Miller is the author of "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)"

Submitter: Joan Brunwasser

Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Submitters Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.