Chavez controls your vote?
Riding into work this morning, listening to the local AM news on WSB, (turn it off before 8:30, or you get some nasty pus in your ear named Boortz…) and one of the stories they were “covering” was the rumor that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has a controlling interest in Smartmatic, a company making voting machines to be used in the upcoming election. The WSB guy scoffed, “just a big hoax” but vowed a followup on “how such a rumor got going”.
You can read a story on the tangled web of ownership that is Smartmatic here and decide for yourself if there is anything to the story.
But as important, ask yourself two things:
Why was the local radio host so quick to call it a hoax? Probably because either the concept of our precious democracy being open to fraud and gaming is so “It Can’t Happen Here” that they refuse to ponder the possibility, which is idiotic, or because they actually realize that the system is hosed, but don’t want to cop to it.
Secondly, why is it so difficult to determine who owns the companies that are making the machines on which our democracy rests? That, my friends, is idiotic. The people who set this system of electronic voting did so in a manner that isn’t verifiable, not transparent at all, and completely hackable. They did so on purpose.
One week to go. Here’s hoping we make it.
