Maidan

Terry,
As a government IT auditor, it is inconceivable to me that paper trails are not mandated in electronic voting systems. The lack of an audit trail in any system that we audit, whether computerized or not, is regarded as a significant finding. To exempt voting systems, so crucial to the democratic process, is an outrage. You can add the recent demonstration in Florida, known as the'Harry Hurtsi Hack', of the weakness in Diebold machines to the examples in your article linked above.
The gap between exit polling and official results in the last US election should have immediately triggered a thorough investigation. Instead, it only increased pressure to eliminate exit polling by the corporate media. This, despite a long history of accuracy in predicting election results by that statistical sampling technique.
But, voting machine manipulation is only 1 of several possible techniques for influencing the outcome of an election. After the 2000 election debacle in Florida, congress passed the 'Help America Voting Act'(HAVA). Among other things, this act provides funding for updating machines and systems. It also requires states to maintain a central database of eligible voters with a consistent vetting process for eligibility. You might recall that in Florida a private firm was hired to cull the voter registration files of felons, illegal immigrants and others ineligible to vote. The company was a bit over-zealous and disqualified thousands of eligible voters.
HAVA mandates compliance by this year's election. A January 1 deadline for certain components of the law found a number of states non-compliant. One of the sticking points is the certification of admissible voting machines. The department of Justice last week threatened to sue the state of New York for their non-compliance on this issue.
Along with increased efficiencies, the increased centralization, networking and computerization of the voting systems provide more opportunities for 'managing democracy' in negative ways. Complacency of the citizenry regarding this issue will reduce the election process to 'faith-based' voting.
Later this spring, I will be involved in the auditing of HAVA compliance in my home state. I will let you know how it works out.
Joe Kozak, Austin, Texas

Joe,
Many thanks for your response.

I'm watching in particular the Cuellar vs. Rodriguez contest in Texas, and will also be very interested to see how don Tom Delay's reelection bid in Texas plays out, now that DeLay is indicted and a goodly portion of the Republican power structure is entangled with his sponsor Abramoff's guilty plea of felony fraud. That doesn't include Cheney's chief-of-staff, under indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice, and the operatives around him on the brink of criminal charges. All Republicans, and they've been magically winning election after election via voting machines owned, controlled, and programmed by -- Republican operatives.

In that mix, Diebold (Republican owned and controlled) had the audacity to claim that a printed paper ballot recording a vote was and is beyond the capability of their technology. But they can manage printed receipts for ATM (bankomat) cash deposits and withdrawals.

It's just too bizarre to believe, like waking up in a Kafka novel except it isn't fiction, it's not a dream and it won't go away.

Our only possible salvation is the judicial branch of government stepping up to arrest and imprison politicians in the executive and legislative branches, which is what's happening now.

Contrast that with Ukraine -- which is the theme of my blog here, comparison and contrast of US and Ukraine democracy. Ukraine's members of parliament, equivalent to America's legislative branch, are beyond the reach of the law, and that is Ukraine's fatal error in its democracy. If that problem isn't fixed in Ukraine, Ukraine's democracy will disappear not with a bang, but a whimper, and fairly quickly. Very few people here in Ukraine are really aware as to how profound and serious this problem in Ukraine really is.

Please do keep us updated about the voting process in Texas in the upcoming elections. It should be a very interesting, instructive account.

Terry,
I was in Kiev last month, which is the reason I joined this forum. I believe that Ukraine is in a unique position between east and west. They can be either a bridge, or a divide.
Normally, I would agree with your comparison of US and Ukrainian democracy. But, currently there is a crisis in American democracy that obscures the differences in the accountability of politicians you allude to. The last such crisis was during the Nixon reign. The key difference between then and now was that democrats controlled both houses of Congress in the early '70s. Now, republicans control both houses, as well as the judiciary. In Texas, we have been in such a one-party state since the mid-90s. Since 2000, this condition has extended to the federal government. Party discipline now trumps the checks and balances designed into the system. Tom Delay, known as 'the hammer' was the enforcer of party discipline. His 'hammer' was financial. Campaign finance laws now concentrate contributions through the party. Politicians are graded on their correctness in voting records and funds are disbursed accordingly.
Under the current model, it is highly unlikely that the Bush administration will be held accountable for their obvious crimes. The latest scandal involving domestic spying is a test to determine if the president is subject to legal restraints, or has immunity similar to Ukrainian legislators. Since the 'unitary president' has much greater relative power than legislators, I would say that, if Bush is successful, the flaw in the Ukrainian democratic model would be dwarfed by that in the American one. And the flaw will be passed on to the next president. Caesar will have ended the republic and inaugurated the imperium.
Joe Kozak

http://eng.maidanua.org/blog seems to be the starting point, so a link to there is all that's needed I guess.