If you are Not Outraged, Perhaps you don't quite understand the problem?
If you're Not Outraged, Perhaps you don't quite understand the problem for democracy here...? (IT'S TIME TO GET REAL VERIFIABLE DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, say bipartisan groups)
Something like a hundred million Americans voted on electronic machines in 2004.
Electronic voting machine companies like DIEBOLD have often claimed that they need to keep voting machine software "secret in order to keep it secure", one wonders why DIEBOLD prominently advertises that its touch screen ATM software is non-proprietary (non-secret) and therefore open to inspection at any time by its banking customers.
Or why banks like Bankcorp South insist that all of the software be open and disclosed on any ATM machines that handle its *money*. And the main company manufacturing voting machines (Diebold) and the main company manufacturing the ATMs in question in the ad linked to below (Diebold) are one and the same. Diebold. Whose chairman famously promised to do whatever he could to deliver a certain state's electoral college votes to a certain presidential candidate (does it matter which one before you decide if this is a conflict of interest or not?)
So: secret proprietary software, secret vote counting, and no paper ballot and not even an (inferior) paper trail for electronic touch screen elections, even though this is at the CORE of our democracy and transfers power and control of the military in the world's sole superpower.
But, the same company named DIEBOLD manufactures non-proprietary verifiable ATM software, open data calculations, and full paper trails for corporate banking customers for electronic touch screen ATMs, because no bank really wants it otherwise!
So we get verifiable ATM transactions, but we DON'T get verifiable democracy?
If a secret counting of the vote takes place (as it does in the proprietary counting software of voting machines), then if that secret counting is done by a political enemy, that is the definition of actual or potential tyranny. If the secret vote counting is done by your friend, then that the is the definition of actual or potential corruption (or perhaps *you* are the tyrant yourself, since you have your friend counting votes secretly). While secret *ballots* are vital, secret *counting* is ANATHEMA to real democracy. We've always had vote counting open to the public and observed by any interested citizen or else at least representatives of all political parties.
The link to the actual Diebold ad advertising non-secret software for ATMs is contained at the DemocraticUnderground (DU) link below:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x328130
Can you even imagine if a hostile country made a 'modest proposal' to not take our ports, cities, or factories, but merely wanted to count our votes in secret? What would we CALL THAT???
Does anyone remember what to do from civics class when democracy is being hijacked? Use your imagination, or go to some of the following links:
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/
Or
http://www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml
But note, this is a very bipartisan/nonpartisan effort as well, and for a recent press release on bipartisan Georgia activities to force Diebold to support verifiable democracy, see:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x328147
And what would we call it when the media (now owned by a half dozen or less huge corporations) fails to inform the American public of facts like this about the most important thing in our democracy? And what has become of the right to vote, if there is no verifiable and public COUNT of that vote?
Paul Lehto
Attorney at Law