Nine-Eleven May Come On 11/ 02 This Year

Nine-eleven may come on 11/ 02 this year

Commentary by Gene Messick (9/11/04)

While everyone will be looking to the skies, at borders and abroad on Election Day, fearing a terrorist attack as warned by Tom Ridge, the greatest threat to our security may be lurking in our ballot boxes. Or rather, in our computerized voting machines.

No, it's not HOW you cast your vote, as Dick Cheney this week tried to frighten you into believing. It's in how the votes themselves are tabulated, by computers that have continually failed reliability tests, and have no protection from hackers, much less from manipulation by the manufacturers and installers. The machines are rigged in favor of the house.

We all know the problems of 4 years ago. Any fool should be able to fix this problem in 4 years, right?

Wrong! If you think the mess last time was a total waste of time and money, just you wait! You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Now, you'd think, from past experience, honest people in charge would want to assure all Americans that under no circumstances could anything go wrong with the count this time, wouldn't you? I mean, you might think that a caring, intelligent, compassionate, competent President would want to make certain that every vote was counted accurately, so nobody would have anything to complaint about this time.

So where is the Bush promise? Where is our President's guarantee? Has he EVER expressed any concern?

The probability of fraud in the tabulator computer system has been discussed continually for 4 years, and studied by some very sophisticated examiners. The result? They have no idea. They cannot even give a statistical probability of accuracy.

The one thing that screamed out needing a Priority One solution 4 years ago apparently doesn't matter to this President or to any of his folks. They've been skillfully running out the clock. So, what do they know that we don't?

Maybe it doesn't matter how Americans vote, because the tally is already determined. That certainly would explain the Bush behavior. Why make promises if you know that most touch-screen voting machines are built by one of your largest political contributors? After all, how little do you have to shift, or drop, or add, on the tabulating computers to sway a close election?

And suppose not all the American voters are fooled by this scam. After all, the Kerry folks are recruiting lawyers to watch the polls. This time there will be no Supreme Court decision at the 11th hour. Who could make a determination if there are no ballots to recount?

So what comes next? A new election? Not likely. Six months until we figure out how to choose the next President? Not with a war going on! Wholesale overthrow of civil liberties? Declaration of Martial Law? How best to craft a plan to get rid of the most troubling aspect of democracy for those in power -- the vote of those pesky, unruly citizens.

Sound absurd? I thought so, too. Until I started reading and thinking.

When did our President solemnly promise: "I intend to guarantee to every American citizen that our next Presidential election shall be the most honest and accurate that's humanly possible, so help me God!"

Or did he even say, "Gee, wouldn't it'd be nice if we did it right this time?"

If the result is already predetermined, he has no need to make promises.

The next 9 / 11 may already be in your ballot box, waiting. Can anyone do anything to fix it this late in the game?

Or are we woefully ignorant of the most critical security breach facing America since September 10, 2001?

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