Boo! Insecure Voting Machines are Scary

It's Hallowe'en, a chill is in the air; 'tis the season for scaring the bejabbers out of people. And while I've got no tales of the supernatural to scare you with, there is something sinister afoot in the state of California. Our most basic right in a democracy - that of our votes to be counted in the choosing of our representatives - has been under attack ever since the ironically-named Help America Vote Act required the purchase of electronic voting machines to replace the perfectly good paper ones that we've used for years and years, and which cannot vanish in an instant with a computer bug.

This is primarily a statewide issue, although we've seen a bit of this here in Yolo County as well, as I mentioned in an earlier post about glitches in Yolo County voting machines that County Clerk Freddie Oakley fortunately caught ahead of time. But even those machines are far more secure than the buggy Diebold lemons that Secretary of State Bruce MacPherson certified last year, that can be opened with a hotel minibar key, are vulnerable to hackers, break down constantly, and refuse to put in a verifiable paper trail so that we know they're working (which is maddeningly obnoxious, considering that Diebold makes most ATM machines that you use at the bank, all of which provide recipts. So you know they could do it, if they wanted to. But they don't).



So what to do? Throw up your hands in despair? Hardly. There is a candidate for Secretary of State who not only is in favor of reforming our voting system so that our right to vote is not infringed by either design or malfunction, but who has also been on the very forefront of the activism to do just that. State Senator Debra Bowen understands the issues, knows where the weaknesses lie, and has promised to do something about it, should she be elected next Tuesday. Corporate money is puring into this election to stymie real election reform, against Bowen, against prop. 89, millions of dollars into Yolo County from PG&E to stop measures H&I and hundreds of thousands from Target to push measure K. We need an advocate for regular people in this corrupt sstem, someone who will work to repair the very mechanics of our democracy.

Debra Bowen is the person to do just that. California deserves better than chintsy voting machines and elections bought by millionaires. It''s time to return the state to the will of the people.