Paperless Electronic Voting Must Go!

This morning I signed a petition dealing with election reform that will be circulated to members of Congress in an effort to provoke official action by highlighting the extreme importance of restoring integrity to the election process concerning how our votes are registered, counted and tabulated. Our democracy, after all, begins and ends with the election process. If you would like to participate in this important process, the online petition can be found at the following URL:

http://www.wethepatriots.org/HAVA/requestbyvoters.php

Americans no longer trust in the outcome of our elections. It has reached a point where reasonable men and women are demanding a more transparent and verifiable approach to ensuring that their vote counts in the manner in which they intended. Electronic voting has been responsible for creating this distrust as there is no effective way to validate, verify or confirm vote counts in a way that would restore complete faith and trust in the process. In this period of high tech, where our elections are concerned, Americans are far better served by low tech -- by restoring the pre-eminence of the paper ballot. After all, the paper ballot cannot be fraudulently modified or altered without easily being detected. It can be counted, and recounted, in a very precise manner that would go a long way in restoring unwavering faith in the integrity of our election process.

Election alarm bells are ringing loudly when historically accurate exit polling data is no longer corresponding with the voting results as tabulated largely by electronic voting machinery. We must aggressively and quickly enforce corrective measures so that Americans can once again honor and respect the results of the people's voice. Yes, Americans must once again trust in the election process -- that their voices are being registered and heard accurately. For absent this, our democracy is nothing but a sham, where the interests of a powerful few trump, silence, or veto the voices of the majority. And such a scenario is certainly not a democracy but, more accurately, a dictatorship.

Real Political Reforms Desperately Needed

As a democrat, I was delighted with the results of the past congressional elections. My first thoughts were that finally we'd have some real oversight in Washington. The Republicans would no longer be able to shove their elitist agenda down our throats or sweep their unmentionables under the rug. They would finally have to face reality and deal with their gross mismanagement, corruption, and abuse of power -- both on the Executive and Congressional levels.

Clearly, the recent period of Republican rule proved the age-old theory of "absolute power corrupts absolutely". Only in this particular stretch of time, most notably the past six years, the abuse of power was dramatically more insidious than in previous incarnations -- even more so than those chronicled during the Nixon/Watergate era of the 70's.

To be complete, there are so many areas within our government where reforms are urgently needed. Our democracy is in peril, the result of years of abuse, many recently authored by the Bush administration and his rubber-stamp Republican congress.

For purposes of this post, I'll focus my comments and suggestions on what I regard to be a top priority -- Election Reform. For absent election reform, our democracy will become a pointless sham (if it hasn't already). Many thoughtful Americans are of the belief that the past two presidential elections were stolen and not the true representation of the people's will. As a result, America and the rest of the world are suffering the political and economic consequences of this treachery.

1. Election reform - The strength of our democracy depends upon fair and open elections that are tamper-proof. Uniform standards are needed that insure voting integrity and accuracy. Let's start with dumping electronic voting. Restore paper ballots to a pre-eminent position as our exclusive voting technology. Also, impose severe criminal penalties for those who attempt to, or have tampered with, the integrity of the voting process.

2. Lobbyist reform - We need public financing of our elections. Let's admit the obvious: we will not have fair and transparent elections so long as K St. runs the show. We must find a way to remove lobbyist money from the political equation. Our elected representatives are forced to focus too much time and attention to building a campaign treasury for the next election cycle. And in so doing, their true constituencies suffer the consequences as their representatives must first satisfy the demands of corporations and their hired lobbyists rather than address the real needs and aspirations of their constituency -- the average citizen. The consequence of this arrangement with respect to the average Joe is "taxation without representation". We need public financing of our elections.

Also, and very importantly -- new rules must be implemented that prohibit former legislators and/or their staff members from joining lobbyist groups for a period of at least five years after leaving their prior position. Among other things, this hideous process has been largely responsible for selling out America to foreign interests. In such a scenario, greed and self-interest often take precedence over what is truly in the best interest of America. This must be stopped. There are, of course, many other areas that scream out for real reform. Future posts will address these areas in equal measure.

I realize that many of you will conclude that my suggestions will never be pushed, that I'm being impractical or idealistic. And all I can say to those of you who share that perspective is that such a view does not in any way diminish or alter the fundamental truth of the matter and that is simply that without the reforms highlighted above, the vast majority of Americans will continue to be disenfranchised both politically and economically.