Taking Home the Ballot Box

After Hackwell and his Republican cohorts at Diebold and ES&S test-marketed how to destroy democracy in the November 2005 election in Ohio, the company and its machines are working to destroy the republic nationwide. Predictably, more than 100 voting machines failed today in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania – foreseeable because that’s where Pittsburgh, a Democratic enclave, is located. The Pennsylvania primary may go down as one of the great unnatural disasters in voting history. In Philadelphia, hundreds of ES&S machines melted down. The only highlight of the day is the report that right-wing Senator Rick Santorum was locked out of a polling place and unable to cast a ballot in the morning. We don’t know whether or not he’ll blame this on gay activists, or men who prefer to have sex with dogs.

Meanwhile, back in Franklin County, in Ohio, a $750,000 contract for ES&S voting machine storage carts is now being investigated by a Franklin County Commissioner, Paula Brooks. She asked the obvious questions: “Were the carts even needed?” But as we’ve written before, the real problem is the bipartisan collusion to steal contracts and elections in Ohio. Whether it’s Republican Party Chair Robert Bennett in Cuyahoga County pulling Michael Vu, the Democratic BOE director’s strings, or the big old bepartisan hug-a-thon in Franklin County, we cannot trust the unethical political hacks that occupy the election boards throughout Ohio.

Again, a nonpartisan professional board must govern our elections. One that understands the meaning of paper ballots.

Also, I received a call today from a rural county in Pennsylvania, where a woman complained that the local election officials got to take their machines home with them. This is the equivalent of taking the ballot box home to stuff. At some point, the corporate media will even get it.