Who Creates Your Vote?

When I lived in California I drafted a lawsuit against the California Secretary of State asking the Court to require a voter-verifiable paper trail in all elections. A Press Release regarding that litigation is here:

http://KevinCraig.US/vote-pr.htm

If you're not familiar with the controversy over "touch-screen" voting, start with that press release.

As a result of pressure created by this lawsuit, touch-screen voting machines were de-certified by the Secretary of State. Then, after pressure let up, they were re-certified again. Over the last 5 years I've lost track of the progress (or regress) in California.

I confess I don't know what kind of voting machines will be used in November by those who will be choosing between me and the incumbent, Roy Blunt.

James Bovard, one of my favorite writers, has an article on voting that explains why Roy Blunt is not concerned about voting irregularities. Bovard starts off:

Politicians strive to make Americans view elections as sacrosanct. Challenges to election results are portrayed as heresies that threaten to destroy the entire republic. After the 2004 presidential election, many Democrats went on the warpath over alleged voter fraud and manipulation in Ohio and elsewhere. The Constitution requires Congress to certify the Electoral College voters for each state before a president is officially elected. A handful of Democratic members of Congress formally challenged the seating of the Ohio electors when Congress reconvened in early January 2005. Though the debate in the House of Representatives lasted barely two hours, many Republicans feared that raising the topic had derailed the nation and the march of history….

Bovard quotes a few Republicans who denounced the Democratic efforts to question Ohio's election results, on the grounds that merely asking questions subverts the entire process. Bovard says this about my opponent:

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the House majority whip, declared, “We also need to understand that every time we attack the process, we cast that doubt on that fabric of democracy that is so important.” Blunt did not specify if the “fabric” was a cover sheet. He sought to put the entire government above questioning:

It is the greatest democracy in the history of the world and it is run by people who step forward and make a system work in ways that nobody would believe until they see it produce the result of what people want to have happen on Election Day.

And anyone who doubted the result was an enemy of democracy.

Such blather should not be dismissed as merely self-serving emissions. These comments go to the heart of how politicians think about government and their own power — and about citizens’ duty to accept unquestioningly whatever election results the politicians proclaim. Citizens are supposed to believe in that magical moment of uplift that occurs when election results are officially certified — expunging all the verbal flim-flams of the campaign itself. The Republicans’ comments sounded as if there is a grave danger in letting people even start to think about how the whole process works — as if Republicans were terrified of any questions or challenges that would decrease people’s submissiveness to the government.

The “debate” in Congress illustrated how elections are now about consecration, rather than representation. Elections have become something for rulers to shroud themselves in, rather than leashes used by the people. Politicians are obsessed with maintaining the imagined dignity of their class, not in resolving doubts about honest vote counting.

The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections

Congress gave special interests $3.5 billion to dress-up American voting, a nearly complete waste of money. Voting which is verified by the People -- rather than the politicians -- is certainly not the goal of the politicians. Perpetual re-election is their goal.

There are exceptions, of course. Congressman Ron Paul is one of them.

Since 1982 I have only voted twice, and never for myself. I don't believe voting changes much of anything (letters to elected representatives are far more effective), and now with computer voting, there's no way to know if your vote is even heard at all. As a candidate, I run into more people who don't vote than those who do. When I meet a non-voter, I'm almost embarrassed to admit "I'm a candidate." I sympathize with those who do not take the election process seriously. But deep-down I'm the "True Believer" type, and I respect those who are patriotic and believe their vote counts. That's the way they have been conditioned. Obviously I would like voters to vote for me, and non-voters to get registered and vote for me. But only if this represents a token, a symbol of commitment to do much, much more than just vote every four years.

In 2002 I did not vote -- even though I was the Libertarian Party Candidate for Congress in California's 41st District! They say "Bad Publicity is Better than No Publicity At All." My little protest got me some reasonably good publicity, which is, of course, even better than bad publicity. I don't know if I'll make a similar protest this year. Any comments?