The myth of fair elections in America -- Observer (England)

[Demeter]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1866780,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=15


The debacle surrounding the Republican victory in 2000 demonstrated to the world that America's electoral process is wide open to abuse. But as Paul Harris discovers, the system has actually worsened since then

Thursday September 7, 2006
Observer.co.uk


One person, one vote. Count the totals. The one with the most wins. The beauty of democracy is its simplicity and its inherent fairness. It equalises everyone, even as it empowers everyone. What could go wrong? In America, it turns out, quite a lot. Everyone remembers the debacle in Florida, 2000. The recounts, the law suits and the eventual deciding of a presidential election - not by the voters - but by the Supreme Court. The memory still causes a collective shudder to America's body politic.

Which makes the fact that America's system of voting is now even more suspect, more complicated, and more open to abuse than ever before so utterly shocking. Across the country a bewildering series of scandals or dubious practises are proliferating beyond control. The prospect of a 'second Florida' is now more likely not less. There are many - and not all of them are conspiracy theorists - who believed it may have happened in Ohio in 2004.

This week the venerable New York Times was the latest of many organisations and institutions to declare that America's democratic system is simply starting to fail. Not in terms of its democratic ideals, or some takeover by a Neocon cabal, but by a simple collapse in its ability to count everyone's votes accurately and fairly. The Times is editorialising on a shocking government report into electoral rules in Ohio's biggest county, Cuyahoga, which contains the city of Cleveland. It details a litany of errors and a large discrepancy between the paper record of a ballot and the result recorded by the new Diebold electronic voting machines the county has just installed. It also worried that 31 per cent of black people were asked for identification as they voted compared to 18 per cent of other voters. ' report should be a wake-up call to states and counties nationwide,' the paper thundered.

But Ohio is far from isolated. The problem is simply that America has no national standard for tallying the votes in its elections. Apart from a few federal mandates to safeguard broad constitutional rights, it is left up to local officials to sort out the details on the ground. This means in one state a machine might be used. In others a simple paper ballot and a pen. Or it varies from county to county. In one small town a touch screen machine might be on hand, a few miles away other voters might use a punch ballot and in the next county after that you might use a pen. Or pull a lever. Or countless other complex ways to do what should be so, so simple. It also means in one place there is a solid (paper) record of a vote that can be recounted, while in others, it is all down to famously fallible machines and their electronic memories.

You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to be seriously worried about this state of affairs. In many ways, it is more worrying that the system is not being deliberately stolen from on high. It is actually broken from the ground up.

[e-mail]

IT IS SWEETLY NAIVE OF MR. HARRIS TO THINK THAT THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY GOING ON HERE.

[In Truth We Trust]

1. Want Democracy?!? Paper ballots and HAND COUNTS Now!!! nt

[Land Shark]

2. One must be very naive to think no one cheats for control of the world's

richest country and sole superpower! The real issue is the flip side of being an overly conspiratorial theorist, and that is the enforced "Pollyanna" that's going on such that this editorial writer feels compelled to protect himself against "conspiracy" attacks.

After all, a successful election criminal can get to be an election official and set election security policy for the future, quite unlike a successful bankrobber for example, who can not become president of the bank nor can the bankrobber set future bank vault security policy.

There's every reason in the world to be concerned about elections, long before 2000, even.