Money, influence and the fate of democracy in New York

Money, influence and the fate of democracy in New York

Sunday, March 1st 2009, 4:00 AM

-snip-

New York, one of the last states to comply with federal laws and court orders requiring an upgrade of voting machines, is holding public hearings - the next is Wednesday night - on the pros and cons of different computerized voting systems.

But the public hearings may be window-dressing for a rigged process.

-snip-

As watchdogs have warned for years, the private corporations that manufacture and service voting machines are salivating over the prospect of supplying New York with voting machines.

One company, Nebraska-based Election Software & Systems, has paid $500,000 since 2005 to Davidoff, Malito and Hutcher to lobby the City Council, the mayor's office, the Board of Elections and other bodies.

-snip-

The other leading firm, Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., paid about $172,000 to lobbyists between 1999 and 2005.

-snip-

But insiders at the Board of Elections, including several eyewitnesses, say the choice is being influenced by two political fixers, Queens Republican John Haggerty Jr. and Bronx Democrat Stanley Schlein.

-snip-

Actually, the whistleblowers are people who are disgusted by the prospect of our democracy being hijacked and distorted by paid mercenaries and political cronyism - disgusted and ready to fight back.

As we all should be.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/louis/index.html

ER: Did I say that?

at least the late 1960's . . . by computer, that is.

Computers provide for huge steals from greater distances!

They used to fix the lever machines by shaving the plastic counting wheel with a razor . . .

would make the wheel skip 200-300 votes at a time!