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In America and elsewhere, electoral fraud isn't new nor should anyone be surprised it occurs. But as technology improves, so are better ways found to pre-arrange outcomes. It's easier than ever today so more time, effort, money and other resources are earmarked for it. The result:
- elections and their run-up are mere kabuki theater; the major media and PR industry play the lead role and everything is pre-scripted;
- secrecy and back room deals substitute for a free, fair and open process;
- candidates are pre-selected;
- big money owns them;
- key outcomes are predetermined;
- both major parties share fault;
- partisan politics serve the privileged;
- they get the best democracy money can buy;
- elections give them cover;
- independents are shut out;
- the media ignore them;
- issues are unaddressed; horse race journalism and trivia substitute;
- voter disenfranchisement is rife; many are peremptorily stricken from the rolls; others are intimidated not to vote or are deterred by various illegal practices;
- A little-known one is called "vote caging." It's to suppress minority voters by delisting them if they fail to answer "do not forward" registered mail sent to homes they're not living at — because they're at school, in the military, or away for other reasons.
- 4.5 million or more Americans can't vote because of past criminal records, or they're currently part of the largest prison population in the world at 2.3 million (mostly black and Latino, and increasing by around 1000 a week).
- half of eligible voters opt out because their interests go unaddressed;
- elections are privatized; touchscreen electronic machines do our voting; 80% of all 2004 votes were cast and counted on corporate-owned, programmed, and operated machines with no receipts for verification and no vetting of their "trade secret" software; computer professionals knows these machines are notoriously easy to manipulate — to erase votes, make ones for one candidate show up for another, go dead and be inoperable, or control an entire computer network through one machine and be able to change, add or erase votes easily;
- Stephen Spoonamore is a self-described "life-long Republican" and one of the world's leading cyber crime experts. In a just released October 2006 interview, he explains how the "structures" of Diebold's machines are inherently flawed and what he considers "IT junk." Regarding the 2000 and 2004 elections, he says: "There is a very strong argument [that they were] electronically stolen, the hanging chads were just a distraction....I think [Diebold machines] are brilliantly designed....to steal elections;" so
- losers are declared winners, and not just for president; as a result, the electoral process assures people lose out, or put another way — operatively, democracy in America is pure fantasy.
Calling it corrupted and needing repair barely explains things. We have a two-party duopoly. Democrats are interchangeable with Republicans. Differences between them are minor. Not a dime's worth to matter. Both sides support corporate interests, imperial designs, aggressive wars, and the divine right of capital to exploit workers, gain new markets, control the world's resources, and rule it without challenge. Unconsidered — beneficial social change and real electoral democracy with every US citizen 18 or older eligible to vote as the Twenty Sixth Amendment allows.
