"The people who cast the votes decide nothing," Josef Stalin famously said. "The people who count the votes decide everything." Or so claimed Stalin's private secretary, Boris Bazhanov, although a second source has never confirmed the quote.
Sounds like Stalin, though. Or maybe Dick Cheney.
It's way past time to call local and state elections commissions, not to mention the Diebold corporation, to account for the shaky and suspect elections of recent years, at every level. If we needed another heads-up after 2000 and 2004, it was provided by the recent Maryland Democratic primary in that state's Congressional District four (see below).
Here's John Nichols, writing on this topic in the most recent issue of The Nation:
"The Sunday Washington Post headline said it all. Echoing a theme that is finally being picked up by print and broadcast media that for too long has neglected the dramatic problems with this country's systems for casting and counting votes, the newspaper's front page announced: 'Major Problems At Polls Feared: Some Officials Say Voting Law Changes And New Technology Will Cause Trouble.'
"Following a disastrous election day in Maryland that was defined by human blunders, technical glitches, long lines and long delays in vote counting so severe that some contests remain unresolved almost a week after the balloting, the Post declared that, 'An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.'
"No fooling!"
Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.
If we, the people, don't rise up and demand an unconditional, comprehensive universal return to paper punch-card ballots, along with state and local apparatuses honest and capable enough to audit them, we've got to be either crazy or hopelessly apathetic.
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