Electronic Voting Machines

Letter to the editor, Doylestown Intelligencer

The democratic process is under assault from all directions. Our candidates are increasingly not elected, but rather "selected." Ballot access becomes ever more restricted to the two major parties, which themselves present the voter with candidates who are hand-picked by leadership committees. Barriers to ballot access for independents and minor parties are built ever-higher.

Electronic machines now threaten even the integrity of this "selection" process. Such systems are extremely vulnerable to tampering, and are acceptable (in any system that is even nominally a democracy) only for the handicapped-- and only with duplicate paper receipts. Our local "Coalition for Voting Integrity" has done a comprehensive study of this issue, and is actively challenging the County's rush to change voting systems.

How many taxpayers are aware of the real cost of these machines? Touch screen systems will cost tens of thousands of dollars per precinct, and they last for only an average of five years. But the sticker price may not be the greatest expense. How many taxpayers are aware that these machines must be kept in climate controlled storage? They have to be heated in the winter and cooled and dehumidified in the summer. This luxury given to machines is not affordable to many of the citizens who have to pay for them.

With the coming winter featuring heating costs that have increased 50 to 100 per cent, many local citizens will be wondering why they have to live in the cold while our selected officials are using our tax money to give themselves pay raises, and purchase expensive, corruptible machines that must be housed in comfy climates.

The people of New Orleans are not the only Americans whose well-being is ignored by government.