The draft-deferring Saxby Chambliss won election to the senate by declaring his opponent, incumbent Georgia Senator Max Cleland?a man who lost three limbs in Vietnam??too unpatriotic? to remain in office. Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel?s Web site proclaims the largest victory in state history, but fails to disclose that 80 percent of the ballots were programmed and tabulated by Election Systems & Software (ES&S), a company he built and still partially owns. More than 91,000 African American voters are inexplicably ?purged? from the presidential vote in Florida. It?s enough to turn the most hardened skeptic into a veritable Fox Mulder.

Whether coincidence or conspiracy, ?there?s not much of a paper trail from the voter?s hand to prove it,? writes Thom Hartmann in a Common Dreams report. One would think that, for democracy?s sake, all parties involved would be amenable to a ballot recount. Yet in Nebraska, such a request was denied, and a reporter investigating the story was threatened with legal action. Hagel?s Democratic opponent, Charlie Matulka, demanded a hand count of the votes, only to learn that Nebraska had just passed a law prohibiting government-employee election workers from looking at the ballots, even for a recount. When reporter Bev Harris reported the story, ES&S threatened to sue her for taking it public. Harris responded by publishing the ES&S letter on her website and sending a press release to 4,000 editors.

In light of these alarming events, actor Peter Coyote recently wrote a letter to California Senator Barbara Boxer voicing his concern that the precedent set in these elections could result in ballot tampering in 2004. Coyote is so passionate about this issue that he initiated an e-mail campaign encouraging people to call their representatives. Matulka has expressed similar concern regarding the upcoming presidential election. ?God help us if Bush gets his touch screens across the country, because they leave no paper trail. [They] can take over our country without firing a shot, just by taking over our election systems.?
?Erin Ferdinand

Go there>>To Win An Election, Just Control The Machines

Related Links:

• Peter Coyote Letter to Senator Boxer
• Black Box Voting