Great article: E-Voting Reaches Religion Status!!

[Stevepol]

Great idea: Maybe we DU-ers should bring along a prayer rug when we vote, along with a bottle of holy water, sprinkle a little water around, genuflect, then bow three times deeply, foreheads to the floor in front of the all-holy voting machine, then give it a holy kiss, all before voting. Courtesy John Gideon and Voters Unite



E-VOTING REACHES RELIGION STATUS

By: PAUL JACOBS - For the North County Times

Elections in America have achieved cult status. A sect of county election officials all over the country trust the voters' will to an unholy trinity of manufacturers of proprietary electronic voting equipment.

When election officials propose spending millions of taxpayer dollars on privatized voting systems, county administrators and our elected officials obediently bow and approve obscene expenditures without a doubt. Cultists never question the dogma; they just blindly follow.

The sad fact that only a minority of voters participate in the charade of electronic voting is further evidence that elections in America are now faith-based, cultish affairs reserved for the true believers. Elections have become so ethereal that citizens demanding sanctity of the process are treated like unworthy, wayward members of the flock in need of a good flogging.


Electronic elections lack any scripture dictating uniform procedures to ensure integrity of the highest order. Instead, false idols act as the sole divinity in their respective jurisdictions. These stone gods know nothing of computer programming codes, and even if they did, the software that runs our elections is considered "intellectual property" and off-limits to independent inspection.

It's like a church leader using a Bible that has had all the pages glued together, making it impossible to look inside to see the light.

In Riverside County, the election goddess is Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore. County administrators and the Board of Supervisors are her flock, and the voters are heathens needing to be saved at the altar of a touch-screen voting machine. We even vote in privacy ---- much like a confessional.

Our high priestess of electronic voting writes her own bible of spur-of-the-moment rules. Secular election laws are irrelevant and something to be worked around, because the machines are her higher authority. No mandatory standards existed when Riverside County took that leap of faith with electronic voting in November of 2000. As commandments have been written since, such as the requirement for a paper audit trail, Dunmore has resisted the laws of mere mortals ---- including California's secretary of state

snip ....

Here's the link if you want to read the rest: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/08/13/opinion/jacobs/17_25_508_12_06.txt

[Land Shark]

1. good article, thanks for the link

the nctimes.com is serving part of San Diego County, too.

[JimDandy]

2. This is the best line

to reach the citizens of my state (Utah):

"It's like a church leader using a Bible that has had all the pages glued together, making it impossible to look inside to see the light."

Utahans will GET that analogy to e-voting!

[Kurovski]

3. K&R(nt)

[autorank]

4. Stevepol, you're right on target. I love this! K&R ln/t

[suziedemocrat]

5. K&R

[tbyg52]

6. Faith-based voting! n/t

[mhatrw]

7. Thanks. n/t

[Kolesar]

8. Great use of humor and metaphor

I wish I could still recommend it.