subject: | Sarah Lifton: your words offered some comfort | | author: | Howard2 | | date: | November 6, 2004 - 10:45am | | Charles--
As I sit here, devastated, your words offered some comfort. But I have to take issue with one point you made. I don't think this was a fair election.
From the missing absentee ballots and Jim Crow intimidation tactics in Florida, to the GOP "poll watchers" in Ohio and plans to discourage voters in Detroit, to destruction of Democrats' voter registration forms in Nevada, Oregon and elswhere, there was a calculated, systematic effort to disenfranchise voters who opposed Bush.
And even for those who were able to cast ballots, we don't actually know how they were cast; we only know how they were counted. Never was Stalin's quote more apt than when applied to computerized voting machines, manufactured by companies with close ties to the victor and his party, run by closed-source, proprietary software that could easily have rogue code implanted that deliberately tips the tally in one candidate's favor and leaves no trace.
Am I paranoid?
I don't think so. The verified voting movement was critical in exposing the vulnerabilities of the touch-screen machines, and some progress was made, but they are still a disaster waiting to happen in every election without a paper or some other trail.
It's naive to think that people who don't hesitate to lie in order to send other people's kids to die to carry out a personal vendetta, secure a country's oil and hasten Armageddon wouldn't stop at rigging the vote. Win at all cost, is their motto. Collateral damage, like the Constitution and Bill of Rights, be damned.
Yes, we have a lot of work ahead of us. I hope we can sustain the momentum and the will.
Sarah | | [ ] | |
