Erosion of the Bedrock of Democracy

I was online looking for the location of my nearby polling place (having moved since the last election) and while I was unable to find that, I did find a very interesting website, http://www.votepa.us/, which touched on a theme close to my heart- the encroachment of voting machines into our election process. There is a poem to the very left side on the home page which really struck a chord, "We've Already Been Over This," by Pamela Haengel.


We've already covered this.

Nearly a century
now gone...
Since women stood with
Raw, aching knuckles
throbbing, swollen ankles
long sweltering days,
freezing cold and icy rain.
Speaking truth in embroidery
that fluttered on a bitter wind.
Suffering torture
at the hands of hypocrites,
Suffering ridicule
at the hands of men,
who preferred them
to just birth babies.
They risked it all
and stood nonetheless.

We've already covered this.

Fifty years more
and here is Selma
and Rosa and Martin and
Oh!
How they walked
and walked and walked and walked.
Left those buses empty
and useless as a womb
that can only abort.
And they walked
their feet speaking truth
and made men of power
angry so angry,
as they turned
the other cheek
for another glancing blow.
But they risked it all
and walked nonetheless.

We've already covered this.

Another half-century gone
and here is Madness
come 'round again, this time
with invisible votes and slick machines,
a diabolical diamond
scintillating
with a million evil facets
designed to confound.
DREs and TSXs and VVPATs
(Oh my!)
Electronics and glitches
and interpreters and code
And a whole lotta
smokescreen
and dirty money
Oh God of Technology
and no one responsible
in this house of mirrors,
every finger pointing
in circles at another.

So continues
this American Struggle
that is
the very heartbeat of our nation.
And so continues
the hope and the fight
and the labor pains
for the dream
that was.
And shall be again.
For we walk,
and stand,
and follow
in mighty footsteps.

One voice.
One vote.

We've already covered this.

--Pamela Haengel, May 6, 2006


Perhaps a bit florid but powerful. I truly believe that having our actual votes-- the most basic and elemental part of democracy--and their counting compromised is something that not enough people are upset about or even aware of. We are entrusting-- and have entrusted-- our literal futures to corporations with vested interests in certain outcomes, whose leaders have been vain enough to gloating promise candidates victory (www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm. Disclosure: I worked for the company who makes many voting machines and everyone I knew was completely appalled when this became public knowledge, because it was felt that the integrity of the company and the machines were now, to put it plaining, down the tubes.

In this day and age people have become complacement and trusting in electronic transactions, but despite the scores of PIN numbers, passwords and encryption and just plain old carefulness, fraud and loss occur constantly. To entrust transactions on such a huge scale as national elections to one or two companies who have manifest conflict of interests is just illogical and ill advised.

Even as I type this I am forced to recall the infamous elections of 2000, when "interpretation" of paper ballots in Florida led the nation to the present dark path (not to mention the subversion of justice as imposed by K. Harris). Simple ballots with unequivocal choices, easily counted are what is needed, not expensive machines composed of proprietary software, smoke and mirrors set up by election workers who probably do not even have an ATM card.

The sad thing is that no one thinks working the polls is sexy or interesting. It's like jury duty. People see it as a major inconvenience and often most people cannot afford to take the time away from work, simple as that. So in both circumstances one is left with the people who not necessarily "should" serve, but can.

That does not mean I won't vote if I have to use an electronic voting machine. You should ALWAYS exercise your right to vote, in a thoughtful manner. It's like the saying (kind of) that just because because your love is not returned, does not mean you shouldn't believe in love. So be a good Spartan and love your country by voting.