Every Vote Counts

Stalin once said it's not the votes that count but who counts the votes.

So here we are in a presidential election year and there is genuine concern about "who counts the votes." Can there be a more compelling question in a democracy?

One person, one vote sounds so reasonable and -- dare I say it -- democratic. But the voting process in America is anything but fair and balanced. When members of a certain party concoct various devious schemes to suppress votes, purposely misinform potential voters, spread vile untrue filth about certain candidates, play the race, gender and religious cards, and literally tamper with vote tallies, then we are not a truly representative government! Are we?

In 2004 I was at a small reception for John Kerry in Robert Altman's office and future senator Al Franken expressed deep concern about the Diebold voting machines and the potential for widespread vote tampering. He asked Senator Kerry if he was concerned about it. The senator said he was aware and would do something about it. In fact, there was a 25 million dollar voter fraud fund that could be used to investigate such claims, but alas, Kerry did nothing about it after losing a profoundly suspect election. An election in which -- instead of the Supreme Court bailing out Bush -- Ohio and Florida became cesspools of shady vote-counting and un-counting.

So we must not only ask who counts the votes, but actually find out!

See you at the polls?

Comments

[LoRiseAntlers]

Well,it appears as if the Democrats learned a lesson or two.With the "super delegates" already pledged to Biliary and Howard Dean talking about "arrangements",it really appears as if the fix is about to be put in.

[GlockGal]

Good post, Belz. I'm glad you raise issues a lot of people may not want to hear, but should keep in mind. (I'm a product of the Chicago era of "Vote early -- and often," a statement which has always made me highly suspicious of the process.)

When Kerry didn't argue over results, he lost any credibility he may have had with me. Who paid him to not care who counted the votes? What back-room deal was struck? (Maybe if he remained quiet, he and his wife would owe less in taxes? Anything is possible.)

C'mon, between the fraudulent counting/m­iscounting­/underrepo­rting and the endless schemes keeping people from voting or enouraging them to swing their vote, how can we not be at least a little paranoid about the election process? It keeps changing, but the amount of fraud stays the same.

The electoral college is a flawed system, well past any point of usefulness. Just the fact it exists has discouraged and intimidated voters since far before the first time I voted. A lot of people have looked at the system and decided there's no point in casting their vote; no one should feel that way in a democracy. The system needs to change.

I'm not sure how to go about it, however, since no system is 100% accurate, even if the votes are checked, then double and triple-checked. We've all heard about (and sometimes seen) the number of ballots left uncounted, which is why I'm not fond of absentee voting unless it cannot be avoided for some reason.

Before we turn into a parody of a banana republic, perhaps we should start looking at other nations to see how they tally their elections. There has to be a better way.

By the way, Belz, how much better or worse is the election process in France? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Doofus]

Trying again, as this is how we NEED to do voting.

What is called for is 'double-entry' voting. After you do your 'official' voting, take your printed receipt (you got one, right?) over to your candidate's people (or some neutral 3rd party) and log your vote with them. Fact is, you've GOT to have a printed record, AND an advocate has to count it, for the voting system to work properly.

Until then we're just going on faith. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I guess.

[Doofus]

Just because you're *paranoid* doesn't mean you're not living in a Democracy.

Who oversees those who oversee the vote counters?

C'mon people, have some faith in the system. Even if it *is* f*cked up, we fortunately have no way of knowing, hardly.

-----------
What is called for is 'double-entry' voting. After you do your 'official' voting, take your printed receipt (you got one, right?) over to your candidate's people and log your vote with them. Fact is, you've GOT to have a printed record, AND an advocate has to count it, for the voting system to work properly.

Until then we're just going on faith. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I guess.

[TomR]

----
So we must not only ask who counts the votes, but actually find out!
----

Right you are. But even before that, we should find out who delivers the votes to be tabulated.

Why don't we start with New Hampshire's Butch Custody and the Hoppy Kid:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5586

- Tom

[Esgarqui]

I wonder how much or what was offered to the UNIONS by Hillary. There must have been a “mordida”, same “mordida” that was given to other unions. Unions try to impose the interests (power and money they receive) in order to provide the votes of their members. Union members should vote freely, but many times they are threatened by their leaders, and they must succumb in order to bring bread to their families’ tables. Shameful, but true. This maneuvering is the same all over the world, particularly in Latin America. Our parents or we left our countries looking for a better life and a better world. In Mexico union leaders get the vote forcing members to abide by their decision. Most unions have representatives in every city block and these representatives are paid with favors such as free electricity, furniture, land lots, jobs, etc. (paid by the city, state or country, depending on the election). The voice of unionized voters is not their own, it’s the one their leaders’ convenience dictates. WAKE UP HISPANOS. Say no to the corruption of leaders. Express your own voice. To be able to vote is not only a privilege, it is a RIGHT. No one should take away your right to vote. Let your voice be heard. MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT. Please have faith is this country, and get out a vote, take your family, your friends and neighbors. Spread the word. Many times, in Latin American countries, vote are burned or thrown away, but IN AMERICA EVERY VOTE IS COUNTED.

[kellygrrrl]

as much as I agree with you, Richard, that the Diebold situation and the cheating is really frightening, what I find MORE shocking and dangerous re '04 is how many people REALLY did vote for Bush.

Now that's SCARY!

[CatfishJohn]

..A simple yet telling reality about obvious ohio vote count chicanery ( and the negligence of the pro-republican corporate media-e.g. Cbs/viacomm executives even openly stated they intentionally slanted their news coverage "pro bush" in late summer through early fall 2004 to get him re-elected)is revealed in a highly reliable exit poll which surveyed by sex. in ohio, 53% of women and 51% of men stated at exit polls tabluted scientifically across the state " I voted for kerry"...this is 52% Kerry based on a nearly 50/50 female /male split in voting ratio. so, unless there is a 3rd sex indigenous to only ohio who voted in this election heavily for bush, 52% of ohioans ( completely concordant with early evening exit polls predicting a kerry margin of 51-49%) voted for john kerry...yet Bush wound up winning 51-48% based on ohio's ( i.e. blackwell's) "official " tally....

[Northwoodsbirder]

I may not be able to fix all the problems but I WILL cast my vote. "Future senator Al Franken"....... I value your opinion. We need him here in the Frozen Tundra.
Sincerely,
Future Franken constituent.

[LeonBNJ]

To me one of the critical reasons for our current voting systems is not so much to get the numbers right, but to get the out fast. Everyone wants the results in minutes after an election is closed, especially newspapers with deadlines.
Perhaps we need to go back to paper ballots, but so can be machine read, to allow a total paper record in the voters hands. This is done in most of the world with a lot less problems of accuracy and questions of fraud.
Also, we need to not allow the reporting of any voting results until at least 9 or so hours after the vote is completed. This would limit distortions of votes in later time zones in Presidential elections and the rush to get results over accuracy.

[TommyMcCarthy]

My favorite line in the piece? "Future Senator Al Fanken".......damn right. Go Al!!......­..........­..........­..........­tm

[rovezaleeker]

Thanks again for your insight Mr. Belzer.

I brought this issue up at a local Democratic Party meeting here in northern Wisconsin and a staffer from Congressman Obey's office told me to forget about it. "We don't want to raise this as an issue and discourage any potential voters."

You have got to be shitting me?

I live in a town of twenty five hundred people. The local Republican rats had NINE electronic voting machines put into the town hall last year. That's making sure every vote counts. (or gets counted ten or twenty times, depending on the software.)

[HBeachbum]

Don't forget WHY we have these machines now ... the Democrats in Florida who were so stupid that they couldn't correctly punch a ballot designed by Democrats.

[mrcoder]

US Supreme Court proved to the United States in 2000 that who actually counts the votes is all-important. In this case it was the nine justices. All the other American citizen voters that year did not count in the end. Also, voter caging and all of its techniques in the aggregate are another great distortion being perpetrated by bad actors who are in the voting system management.

Organized political crime has proven to be a massive distortion of the voting process in America.

Individual voters who perpetrate vote fraud such as happened in Chicago do not come close to achieving a similar degree of leverage in distorting the outcome of any election.

The problem is that the public is being largely misled by a bait and switch trick by those who would try to move the focus of the voting fraud discussion, off of the primary sources of the problem within the voting system: those bad actors within the system with great leverage to distort the outcome of elections.

Individual voters in Florida did not screw up the 2000 vote, they did not do the voter caging and counting nonsense.

Individual voters in Ohio did not screw with the 2004 vote, voter caging did. Who did the voter caging?

200 million American individuals voters did not vote 5-4 to give Mr. Bush the presidency, nine little Supreme Court justices did.

[lenski]

During the various and sundry events that occurred in response to the 2004 election, I cite exactly one observation that I think places the goals of today's political class in perspective. During the final stages of preparing Ohio's House Bill 3 (relating to various processes relating to elections) for conference committee, the Republican-led Ohio Senate...

REMOVED ALL REQUIREMENTS FOR AUDIT

...of our primarily electronic voting systems.

I believe that pretty well covers it.