Lynn Landes
THE SECRETIVE WORLD OF VOTING MACHINES
Fri Jul 18 14:00:55 2003
208.152.73.146

THE SECRETIVE WORLD OF VOTING MACHINES

Lynn Landes by Lynn Landes - lynnlandes@earthlink.net

The most successful coup is one that few notice.

Over the last 100 years Americans have slowly but surely surrendered our public voting process to private corporations and their voting machines... in violation of our constitutional right to fair, open, and observable elections. The price paid has been the legitimacy of our democracy.

Voting machines can be easily rigged and impossible to monitor. They are sold and serviced by a handful of companies dominated by active and wealthy members of the Republican Party and foreign investors. There is no restriction on who can own voting machines companies, including felons.

The use of voting machines should be unconstitutional, but Congress has failed to act... except to pass laws that give billions of dollars to the states to purchase voting machines, while failing to require any mandatory safeguards or standards. Meanwhile, misguided voting rights groups are suing for the right to use the latest most sophisticated computerized voting equipment... which are the easiest to rig by the fewest number of technicians.

In the last several decades the rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer. This is not a formula for a conservative groundswell. Yet, both conservative Democrats and Republicans have long enjoyed success at the polls. Have elections in America been rigged to shift power to right wing candidates from both parties, despite the public's support of left-wing causes such as universal health care, quality public education, a clean environment, and a living wage?

In the secretive world of voting machines... anything is possible.

(See: Nov 12, 2002 American Coup: Mid-Term Election Polls vs Actuals by Alastair Thompson of Scoop)

HEADS UP! Forum on Voting Machines: A Threat To Democracy? (hopefully in August), Ethical Society in Philadelphia. Lynn Landes, Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, and others will discuss a wide range of controversial issues that surround the use of voting machines. Admission is free. Video taping allowed.


MUST READ!

Voting machines have been in America since 1889. The use of computers in voting technology began around 1964. Most of Europe still uses paper ballots. In Canada's last national election, paper ballots were hand-counted in 4 hours. Today, 98% of votes in America are tabulated by voting machines.

* Constitutional issues - federal & case law
* Information about the private companies who sell and service voting machines
* Technicalities - vote rigging, audit-ability & 'voluntary' technical standards
* Voter News Service (VNS)



Complete list of Landes articles:
http://ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm 

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