The Undemocracy: A Look Inside the American Vote

     When we think of voting machines, whether they be electronic touch screens or punch cards, they're considered mostly to be infallible, a cornerstone of democracy. The public votes, the votes are tallied, and the winners announced. But what really goes on during this process? It turns out that when you do a little digging in the American voting system, the very word 'vote' starts to crumble.
When the Presidential election voting days are over, all electronic votes and all punch card votes are saved and eventually are put through a “master computer”. This computer counts the total number of votes and announces the winning candidates.  There are occasionally recounts but usually they are just for show, and provide inaccurate results.  The surprising side of this is that the software the computers use to calculate the votes is a total secret to all but a few people. Not even the purchasers of the software are allowed to look at the coding, which creates a pretty big question: do these electronic voting machines truly work?


  The answer to this question turned out to be a pretty big no. Bev Harris, the founder of blackboxvoting.org, proved that Diebold Election Systems (now called Premier Election Systems) voting machines are easily hacked. Premier Election Systems voting machines and voting software are widely used across the United States. She discovered and was able to download GEMS source code on an obscure website page, and went on to demonstrate how easy it is to hack into the GEMS central tabulating software on national television in 2005.  Yet, despite this evidence which seems rock solid, there were little repercussions.  The software was tested and apparently "updated" by selected computer programmers, though even further inspection resulted in that no changes had been made to the original software at all.


  In her documentary, Hacking Democracy, Bev and her companions found many bags full of original audit records in the trash at a Volusia County warehouse, and more behind the elections office in the trash. These original records proved to be incomplete, and many more of the audit records were not found. This proved that the vast majority of the American voting system is a flawed and fraudulent one, though many representatives and politicians turned a blind eye to this striking evidence.  One example of the absurd ways the American voting system works is the 2000 Presidential election.  George W. Bush scored a very close win, with 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266. There is still much suspicion regarding whether or not Bush was voted as President by the American people or through secrecy and illegal tampering with the voting machines.  To public disappointment, Al Gore did not challenge the vote count like he had said he would prior to the election, and instead congratulated his opponent on the win. Was he bought out by George Bush, or did he simply decide not to pursue the issue? We may never know what changes could have been made for the better of the American people if Al Gore had fought against the final vote count.  This broken wheel of pretended democracy will continue to spin unless American citizens step up and demand change for their nation.