Reply #20: Opinion Adam Levenstein: When Even the Illusion is Gone [View All]

When Even the Illusion is Gone:

"Black Box" Voting and Faith-Based

Elections

- by Adam Levenstein

"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year." --Walden O'Dell, CEO, Diebold Inc.

"It's not he who casts the votes that matters--but he who counts the votes." --Josef Stalin

"There were security holes all over it." --Roxanne Jekot, computer programmer who examined Diebold's voting machines

In the United States, we don't have much in the way of democracy. Every four years, we go to the polls, and select which white man from one of our two corporate-backed parties we want to be President. Then - lest our votes directly go towards the individual in question - faceless electors who our votes actually go to meet and they vote in the actual President.

Beyond that, every two years we select Congressional representatives; sometimes some people of color and women manage to slip in, but it's almost always from the same two parties.

In 2000, everything changed. Recount after recount in Florida yielded differing results, none establishing a clear majority. The nation was riveted; which group of faceless electors was going to vote in the President? Democrat Al Gore's electors, or George W. Bush's electors? Eventually, the Supreme Court stepped in and told Florida to stop counting the votes; the last recount, which showed Bush in the lead by the slimmest of margins. Compelled by the order, life-long Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris faithfully certified the results, with George W. Bush the winner.

Immediately after the recounts started, explanations flew. Initially, the confusion was due to ill-conceived "butterfly" ballots that voters could potentially misalign. Then, hanging pieces of paper called "chad" were to blame. We weren't given the option to decide that maybe, just maybe, the thousands of African-American voters systematically removed from the polls under the guise of "making sure felons didn't vote" might have had something to do with the problem.

http://www.lefthook.org/Politics/Levenstein021204.html