Wake up call: Verifiable, transparent voting systems must be the law

Alvin Greene's mysterious candidacy and win in the Democratic primary in South Carolina, and his apparent mental problems are becoming the main story, when in fact, the real story here is the obvious vote tampering.

The fact DeMint would slaughter the Democratic nominee no matter who it was, seems to be obscuring the irregularities in the Premier Election Solutions electronic voting system (a Diebold-owned company, which in turn is owned by avowed Republicans) -- people seem to be thinking it just doesn't matter. But the loser, Vic Rawl, who has challenged the results, is correct in stating this is about the system.

We're lucky, in a way, that the tampering is so obvious. It should be a huge red flag. There is plenty of evidence to warrant a thorough investigation. And that investigation should result in a conviction of officials at Diebold, and the barring of the company from any further participation in vote-counting.

Further, the fallout from this scandal needs to spark changes in the law. Citizens must demand an open, fully transparent system, with a verifiable paper trail and regular, random audits.

Diebold and other companies have a sordid history when it comes to counting votes. There have been other equally suspicious results in the past. So far, we as a society have let them slide. We do so at the peril of our own democracy.

Sorry excuse for an election system

I was sorry to see Edwards bow out of the race, but sorrier still to see once again how our lousy election system plays out. Nine months before the election, and we're already down to basically three candidates -- two on the Democratic side, one on the Republican. And of course, no independents. And it's all because of the corrosive effects of big money.

Make no mistake, it is because of the huge piles of cash involved that states try so hard to jostle near the front of the line with their primary dates. Everyone knows the biggest pile of money gets thrown at the early states, for the reason we're seeing play out now -- candidates (and their backers) feel they cannot compete if they don't get some early victories.

For one thing, it shouldn't be a winner-takes-all approach for the delegates -- just like it shouldn't be for the electoral college in the general election. For another, and I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but we have GOT to get the big money out of our election system altogether. What we end up with every single time is candidates who serve their constituency alright, and very faithfully. Unfortunately, that constituency is not the voters, but the ones who helped them buy those votes with big ad campaigns -- their big money donors.

This is the underlying cause of ALL our problems, I feel. We cannot begin to address the real, underlying solutions to our myriad crises in this country without first addressing this one. Only when candidates feel a real need to do what the public wants will they begin to solve our problems. Health care, environment, military, corporate greed, the economy -- the reason these are SO screwed up is that our so-called 'leaders' have been led by the nose themselves, right to the feeding troughs of the very rich.

Primarily $$$

Who can deny our political system is dominated by big money? No one, but many differ on what the real impact is of all that cash.

Some say it's no big deal, that's just the culture we live in. Even the Supreme Court, years ago in a fateful decision that I believe has hampered real democracy in the USA, basically said that money equals speech, and therefore is protected by the free speech provisions in the Constitution.

Oh, sure, that makes sense. So Joe CEO gets one million dollars worth of "free speech" to every buck of mine. Hmph. That don't seem so fair to me.

Anyway, the grotesqueness of such a system is now on full display once again, and we're headed for yet another record-breaking election of lavish campaign spending. As the corporate-owned media decides for us whose voices are worth hearing, we will most probably get stuck again with Tweedledee vs. Tweedledum.

And whoever gets elected – Tweedledee or Tweedledum – they will be beholden to their constituents: the big-money donors who got them there, NOT us.

Until we can manage to fix this fatal flaw in our electoral system – as well as some other little details like making the voting system transparent and verifiable – we will continue on the inexorable slide we are on, the fast track to hell in a hand basket.