What the hell is wrong with our country? Or, maybe I should say, what the hell is wrong with our vote counting systems and voter registration systems?
Well, I'll tell you what I think is wrong with them, and I've been saying it since 2004. These systems have been PRIVATIZED--in the plague of expensive, insecure e-voting systems that was quickly spread across the entire country between 2002 and 2004. The vote tabulation is run on 'TRADE SECRET' code--code that we are forbidden by law to review, because it belongs to, and is controlled by, a handful of PRIVATE corporations--at least one of which (ES&S, which bought out Diebold) has far rightwing connections.
The voter databases are also run by private companies, as are many aspects of the voting process all over the USA, with the total of these private fingers in our voting system creating many, many entry points for fraud, and with about half the systems doing no audit at all (comparison of ballots with electronic results) and the other half doing miserably inadequate audits. Even mail-in ballots are vulnerable because they are run through scanners and tabulated by 'TRADE SECRET' code, and most of the votes--95% to 99% of them--are tossed into the recycler and never seen by human eyes, or touched by human hands, or counted by human beings.
I figured this would be used to continue the corporate and war profiteer looting of our country and our people, after it was used to keep round 1 going for a second term: the Bush junta. And I believe that it has continued, to create a nutball rightwing Congress that represents no one (8% approval rating!) and to put the same into governorships and state legislatures all over this land, wherever whoever is doing it thinks they can get away with it. This is where all the weirdness and insanity in our political system is coming from, adding on to the Citizens United billion dollar slush funds, to put the last nails in the coffin of our democracy.
So you figure it out from here...
And I will just add this: There is no remedy on the horizon for this primary and GE. But I DO think that turnout can overwhelm the machines or at least making rigging very difficult and dicey. So, believe me, I'm not saying don't vote. DO VOTE! Outsized turnout is the only chance we have to nominate and elect the best presidential candidate who has ever run for this office.
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