Nationalize Voting Machines

     1- There is nothing more important to a democracy than the honest counting of votes.

    2- Electronic touch screen voting machines dominate the latest chapter in America’s history of electoral fraud.

    Ergo- To guarantee an honest election count, the voting machine industry must be nationalized.

     Right now, where is the touch screen voting machine you will be using on November 4? Most likely, it’s stored in your local election commission’s warehouse with little, if any, security to prevent tampering.

     More troubling yet, because of the voting machines’ proprietary technology, only the manufacturer, such as Deibold or Carson, can legally access them. Whether purchased or leased, local election officials are prohibited from independently verifying their machines’ integrity.

     Given the overwhelming probability of voting machine fraud, to leave private industry in control of determining our elections is more than indefensible; by undermining faith in the electoral process, it threatens the fabric of American democracy.

      A federal government monopoly would manufacture voting machines with the same degree of security enforced by the Treasury to print currency.

     To further guard against tampering, the voting machines would be shipped under security to election commissions around the country. In between elections, their integrity would be safeguarded by storage in a secure federal facility.

     The 2002 Help America Vote Act funds states to purchase or lease voting machines from private companies. The government would offer honest voting machines at little, or no cost. By furnishing all polling places with sufficient machines, people no longer will be forced to wait hours in line to vote. To minimize the inevitable delay causing glitches, the contract could provide for a standby technician on election day.

    1- Because of the very reasonable doubt that voting machines will truthfully count their votes, in this election many people will not bother to go to the polls.

    2- In a show of disrespect that does not go unfelt by those already alienated by the campaign, neither candidate has even mentioned, never mind offered a solution for, this widespread legitimate concern.

    Ergo- A credible promise by Obama to nationalize voting machines - assuring the disillusioned that they will never cast in doubt another election - might well be the election issue to win over more than a few of those still undecided voters.