Reprinted in full with author's permission (a VCC cohort of mine - go team!)
http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=9724It's time for people to reclaim their rights and make their voices heard
by Larry Hourany, 4/2/2006
The year 2006 will be a crucial one in our nation’s history — the past six years have underscored that well enough. This is a time where the drift — a plunge really — toward one-party rule must be aborted. No matter what anyone’s political leanings may be, if they are paying attention to the direction our country is moving they must be aware that unopposed party rule is neither healthy nor sustainable.
Central to the nation’s finding a real leader and getting him/her elected are the problems of the election process. The screw-up of the 2000 election followed by the contretemps of the 2004 election have produced a government so out of touch with the people that its approval ratings hover in the 30 percent range. For the 70 percent of us who do not approve of the way our government is being run, we must first start by reforming the election process.
The heart of the American Constitution are the protections afforded common citizens and their right to challenge unfair, illegal or otherwise questionable practices and procedures by individuals or by the system itself.
In 2000, that protection was abrogated by the Supreme Court when it ruled that the Florida law requiring hand-counting of questionable ballots was to be suspended and the election awarded to G.W. Bush. This, in addition to the multiple other voting irregularities, must never be allowed to again subvert the elections of those to whom we confer such awesome power.
The crucial first step in producing a fair and honest election is to have a transparent, secure and verifiable voting system. Joseph Stalin said, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
The major “counters” across the nation have been the Diebold machines. The Government Accounting Office has indicated that these machines have led to miscounting and loss of votes. When elections are decided by a few hundred votes, it is absolutely essential that every vote be properly counted and that the entire election is open to verification.
With the voting machines dependent on a proprietary code that Diebold refuses to allow election officials to monitor or verify, and with the presence of uncertified machines to keep us company in the voting booth, Americans are participating in a sham process. At the time of the last election it was not known that the programming was illegal. However, now it is clear, thus every official who abides this violation is in dereliction of duty.
One organization, VoterAction.org, has filed suit against the California secretary of state, C. Crinich, Humboldt registrar of voters, and 16 other county registrars. This suit alleges that voting laws have been violated by use of the Diebold machines and that voters’ constitutional rights have been infracted.
On the local level, we are having mixed results confronting this problem. On March 21, the Elections Department proposed, and the Board of Supervisors indicated a willingness to approve, a non-electronic, low-tech assistive voting device called Vote Pad. This would satisfy the disabled voter provisions of the Help America Vote Act and presumably stop the county from buying Diebold touch-screen machines.
Despite this good news, we must still object to the optical scanners used to count all votes, including those cast on Vote Pad. The illegal interpreter code simply requires blind trust and gives no basis for confidence. A secret ballot means casting your vote in private, not counting the votes in secret.
Several states are now conducting much-needed examinations of the Diebold machines, over the manufacturers’ objections. Several counties and states have recently dropped plans to use Diebold machines. This is a promising step in re-establishing election integrity.
To be sure your vote counts, you must insist on proper, nonpartisan analyses of the entire system to which governance of our nation is entrusted. This is not the time to concede the issue to other — not when there is so much evidence you are being treated as though your vote doesn’t count — and neither do you. And it is critical that you insist on hand-counted paper ballots, counted at the precinct under the watchful eyes of the citizens of your community. It is time to retrieve your citizenship. As Aldous Huxley reminded us: A fact doesn’t disappear just because it is ignored.
Come to the Demand Your Democracy Forum presented by the Voter Confidence Committee on Tuesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at HSU Founders Hall Room 119. For more information, go to www.voterconfidencecommittee.org.
(Larry Hourany, Ph.D., is a McKinleyville resident.)
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