Watch out for the voting machines
Nearly every county in America now uses electronic voting machines that – under several dummy corporations - are made by a single deeply-Republican family. Given the irregularities that erupted in past years – and the potential for untold mischief – I had expected that this matter to receive copious attention from Democratic groups. Yet I’ve heard nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, lack of attention is deeply disturbing.Now dig this recent statement:
”If someone were to hack into the machine, if the logging is not secure and doesn’t protect it from rollback, that would allow someone to tamper with it and leave no trace.” – Candace Hoke, Cleveland Marshall College of Law professor, on defects in optical ballot scanners currently in use in voting in the U.S.; quoted in USAToday.
One bit of progress. In most counties and precincts a separate paper record is kept, that can be audited. In most cases, this means a physical ballot that you marked by hand and that was scanned-in as it went into a box. It’s an improvement, allowing random audits that might catch any cheaters. Still is this true in YOUR area? It’s your duty to check.
If your region doesn’t use this method… if you use a “voting machine” with a touch screen, for example… then when you finish voting, ask to see the log of your vote on the printed record. Verify that it printed what you remember voting. Spread the word about this and make your friends curious! If enough people do that, then one of many failure modes will become a bit less likely.
If you cannot do this simple check, start asking why. Bring it up on your own discussion lists and make it viral.
And the SuperPacs
Finally, by now all of you savvy types will have watched the YouTube of Stephen Colbert handing his SuperPac over to Jon Stewart. It is rich, hilarious… and educational… and absolutely scary for the future of our republic. This will be the summer and autumn of lies. Expect a BILLION dollars – no less- to be spent by Super-Pacs with zero reporting of where they got their cash. Is this the America you want?
Any American with a lick of patriotism has to know by now… we must get the money out of politics. Or the Republic is over.
(David Brin is a scientist and best-selling author. His future-oriented novels include Earth and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. The Postman inspired a film by Kevin Costner. Brin is also a leading commentator on technological trends. His non-fiction book, The Transparent Society, explores issues of privacy and accountability. This column was originally posted at his blog, Contrary Brin)
(Clown Congress image by BILL DAY, Copyright 2011 Cagle Cartoons)
