We don?t want an election without a paper trail. The makers of the voting machines say no one can look inside of them, because they would reveal trade secrets. What secrets? Isn?t their job to count votes? Or do they get secret messages from Mars? Is the cure for cancer inside the machines? I mean, come on. And all three owners of the companies who make these machines are donors to the Bush administration. Is this not corruption?
So Bush will probably win if the country is covered with these balloting machines. He can?t lose.
— Gore Vidal, Interview with the LA Weekly
I voted in Mississippi’s last election. In 2000, I voted in the presidential election.
Still, I’m not sure my vote — or yours — mattered much.
Internal memos from the Diebold Corporation — one of the companies manufacturing electronic voting machines — reveal Diebold’s own employees have strong reservations about using these devices in elections.
As it turns out, anyone with basic knowledge of Microsoft Access can alter voting records. And that’s bad news — especially since the electronic voting process generates no receipts or paper records of any kind. As a result, no independent auditing of ballots cast is possible. An election could be manipulated, and no one would know.
Frankly? I believe it’s already happened. What else explains why one machine in Florida Precinct 216 cast negative 16,022 votes for Gore in the last presidental election?
Georgia’s last governor’s race — also managed by Diebold machines — was another of those races deemed too close to call … despite the fact that the Democratic candidate was, by and large, the favorite. At the last minute, however, the percentage of votes dramatically shifted … and now, Georgia has a Republican governor.
Meanwhile, Diebold is working overtime to stop a growing grassroots movement dedicated to making the memos public knowledge.
You won’t be surprised to learn, will you, that the Diebold Corporation is a staunch supporter and major donor to the Republican party … or that it’s controlled by Republican interests?
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