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re: "At least the last elections didn't appear fixed."
azstrummer — (archived)

There's one real tool against election fixing that renders the fears moot essentially and that's an overwhelming mandate. Cheating works only when things are close and it's clear in the last election that wasn't the case. I think it's premature to declare the last elections fair. I heard plenty of stories of alleged impropriety during the vote counting last time but, in most cases, the "victim" still won with a wide margin and thus the cases were quickly forgotten in the media. What's interesting though is the claims of election fraud I heard were almost always from the Democratic side even though they ended up the winners. One would think, if the fraud were being committed by both sides that it would have been the Republicans this time doing the bulk of the complaining.

There is still a case pending in Florida where allegedly thousands of votes mysteriously disappeared from electronic machines. If the charges are true, it would more than likely overturn the results. Problem is the electronic method is this black hole. The only "proof" one can have of impropriety is clearly circumstantial evidence such as exit polling that varies hugely from results, voter testimonials of oddities in the process, large opposite political swings in demographically partisan areas, or leaks from whistle-blowers. Hard proof is almost impossible to come by if the system has no paper trail built into it.

I don't know if the electronic machines have been used to manipulate elections but I think it's essential that the question has to be able to be answered. Democracy only works if all parties involved implicitly trust the electoral system.

Art

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