Elections In America
Assume Crooks Are In Control
by Lynn Landes
Dissident Voice
September 17, 2002
Don't blame the poll workers in Florida. The facts,
supported by voting machine experts and numerous newspaper articles, have made
it clear. Computerized voting machines that were certified by the state of
Florida, caused most of the problems in Florida's primary election. In the
absence of paper ballots, the damage is now irreversible.
This was no accident. It's not new. And Florida is not
alone.
"The concept is clear, simple, and it works.
Computerized voting gives the power of selection, without fear of discovery, to
whomever controls the computer," wrote the authors of VoteScam
(1992), James & Kenneth Collier (both now deceased). It's a 'must read'
book about how elections have been electronically and mechanically rigged in
the United States for decades, and with the knowing and sometimes unknowing
support of media giants and government officials, including... ironically...
Janet Reno.
Only a few companies dominate the market for computer
voting machines. Alarmingly, under U.S. federal law, no background checks are
required on these companies or their employees. Felons and foreigners can, and
do, own computer voting machine companies. Voting machine companies demand that
clients sign 'proprietary' contracts to protect their trade secrets, which
prohibits a thorough inspection of voting machines by outsiders. And,
unbelievably, it appears that most election officials don't require paper
ballots to back up or audit electronic election results. So far, lawsuits to
allow complete access to inspect voting machines, or to require paper ballots
so that recounts are possible...have failed.
As far as we know, some guy from Russia could be
controlling the outcome of computerized elections in the United States.
In fact, Vikant Corp., a Chicago-area company owned by Alex
Kantarovick, formerly of Minsk, Belorussia (also known as White Russia,
formerly U.S.S.R.), supplies the all-important 'control cards' to Election
Systems & Software (ES&S), the world's largest election management
company, writes reporter Christopher Bollyn.
According to ES&S, they have "handled more than 40,000 of the
world's most important events and elections. ES&S systems have counted
approximately 60% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential
elections. In the U.S. 2000 general election, ES&S systems counted over 100
million ballots."
Getting back to Kantarovich, he would not disclose where
the control cards are made, except they aren't made in America, writes Bollyn.
Nor would he discuss his previous employment. Bollyn says he got some
not-too-thinly-veiled threats from Kantarovich.
Kantarovich sounds more like the Russian mafia, than a
legitimate businessman.
But the really big deal is this....all of ES&S's touch
screen machines contain modems, "allowing them to communicate—and be
communicated with—while they are in operation," reports Bollyn. That
communication capability includes satellites. "Even computers not connected
to modems or an electronic network can still be manipulated offsite, not during
the election, but certainly before or after," says voting systems expert
Dr. Rebecca Mercuri.
ES&S supplied the touch screens for Miami-Dade and
Broward counties where the worst machine failures occurred. But the debacle was
nothing new for ES&S. Associated Press (AP) reporter Jessica
Fargen wrote in June 2000, "Venezuela's president and the head of the
nation's election board accused ES&S of trying to destabilize the country's
electoral process. In the United States, four states have reported problems
with equipment supplied by the company. Faulty ES&S machines used in
Hawaii's 1998 elections forced that state's first-ever recount."
Sequoia is another voting systems company that sends a cold
chill down my spine. "Mob ties, bribery, felony convictions, and threats
of coercion are visible in the public record of the election services
company," according to investigative journalist and filmmaker Daniel Hopsicker,
and reported in Spotlight.com. Hopsicker says that Pasquale "Rocco"
Ricci, a 65-year-old senior executive with Sequoia, and the firm's Louisiana
representative, recently pled guilty to passing out as much as $10 million
dollars in bribes over the course of almost an entire decade." According
to American Law Education Rights & Taxation (ALERT), Ricci is the president
of Sequoia International, which also manufactures casino slot machines.
That's just great. Now, we could possibly have both the
Russian mafia and the U.S. mafia involved in our elections.
In May 2002 Sequoia was bought by De La Rue, based in
England. By their own estimate, De La Rue is "the world's largest
commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over
150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as
travelers checks and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people across 31
countries, (De La Rue) is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment
and software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide." And they develop
technology for secure passports, identity cards, and driver's licenses.
Okay, add Dr. Evil to the mix and be on the look-out for
international money launderers, drug kingpins, and Nazis.
The Shoup Voting Solutions of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, has
a reputation for rigging elections, wrote the late co-author of VoteScam,
Jim Collier. According to Collier, in 1979, Ransom Shoup II, the president of
the firm, was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice stemming from
an FBI investigation of a vote-fixing scam involving the old-fashioned lever
machines in Philadelphia."
These reports are just the tip of the iceberg. The numerous
instances of U.S. voting systems error and fraud are documented in a 1988
report for the U.S. Commerce Department entitled, "Accuracy, Integrity,
and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying" by Roy G. Saltman, a computer
consultant for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Computer
Systems Laboratory. Many other experts and observers have been warning and
complaining about these problems for decades.
But complaints, warnings, reports, and books like VoteScam,
haven't deterred government officials like Pinellas County (Florida)
Commissioners Calvin Harris and County Judge Patrick Caddell. They told the St.
Petersburg Times in October 2001 that they were aware that all of the voting
machine companies had "problems in their pasts." But, Harris said, "We have to look at
this objectively and not get tied up into the emotions of, 'Some guy might be a
crook."
Dear Commissioner Harris...when it comes to elections in
America...assume crooks are in control...and then act accordingly.
Lynn
Landes is a freelance journalist specializing in
environmental issues. She writes a weekly column which is published on her
website www.EcoTalk.org and
reports environmental news for DUTV in Philadelphia, PA. Lynn's been a radio
show host and a regular commentator for a BBC radio program.
Links:
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0805-07.htm