Votes are the currency of democracy, but casting a ballot is far more precious than any monetary transaction. All political power is inherent in the people and that is the core value of the vote. The reason millions of dollars are invested in political campaigns is to capture our votes. We fail to recognize the worth of this treasure we hold and are allowing democracy to be electronically swindled away.
Running a clean election is based on a simple precept: Vote in private; count in public. The secret ballot protects the voter from outside intimidation to afford the freest expression of democracy. Counting votes in public ensures total transparency for security and accuracy in the tallying. Paper ballot systems are vulnerable to tampering at 5 points of entry, but they are inherently reliable and secure because of the simplicity and transparency of the process.
Josef Stalin said, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything.” New York Republican Congressman Peter King paraphrased Stalin when caught on video weeks before the November 2004 election saying, “It’s over. The election’s over, we won. It’s all over but the counting and we’ll take care of the counting.”
Interesting, especially the last paragraph. He is, of course, pointing out that many of today's electronic voting systems have yet to provide the transparency that democracy requires to assure the voter and the public that elections are aboveboard. That is, each vote is accurately counted. Most fundamentally, a paper trail. The most frequently stated excuses are the expense of providing printouts or it would be technically difficult.
BS! I am a Computer Systems Specialist, PC & Mainframe, and I know that these excuses are just that, excuses. Here are examples of how a paper trail could be implemented.
- Done any grocery shopping lately? Know those small printers that are internal or external to the cash register? A cash register can provide a "paper trail" of your purchases but electronic voting systems cannot!?
- Not every electronic voting machine needs to have an individual printer. You could have a voting system where 2 or more machines are connected to a common printer (have a network printer at your job?) and these voting machines could print there.
- Vote Printouts can be done twice or use carbon-copy; one for the individual voter to verify; the other goes into a ballot box, the contents of which, could be use for vote verification or recount.
- A more suffocated Voting System could have a central PC with certified software running the voting system at the voting place, with the voting booth containing just a terminal, have printer or printers connected for paper trail to voter, the data hard drive (where the actual voting data is kept) be a lockable & removable one. This hard drive would be picked up after the Polling place closes, by certified people with the key, and taken to the Registrar of Voters for the area, where the data would be read and counted and reprinted. This would be the most expensive option in the short run. Note the security issue with the hard drives is the same as using paper ballots and boxes.
As to the cost issue, just what is the worth of your vote?
You have to decide, but don't let the corporate interest who make the electronic voting systems dictate what your vote is worth.
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