Message to America: Why We Need A Voter's Bill of Rights

April 06, 2005

Why We Need A Voter's Bill of Rights - Part I

If youve never examined the history of voting rights in America, you might be surprised to learn that our beloved Constitution doesn't actually grant any of us the right to vote. Go ahead and read that last sentence again. Its true. Instead, Article II, Section 1 of our Constitution describes how "Electors" (who are chosen by the State Legislature) get to vote in elections, not ordinary citizens like you or me

Turns out that since the Founding Fathers couldn't agree on who deserved the right to vote, they removed themselves from the debate entirely, leaving it up to the states to decide for themselves. Thus started a 229 year odyssey during which time nearly every group of disenfranchised citizens have had to petition for their right to vote including: poor white men, white men who didn't own property, white men who weren't Catholic or Christian, black men, uneducated men, all women and finally, young people over the age of 21. During those 229 years of struggle, three Amendments were passed to forever alter our original Constitution, redefining who should be granted the right to vote: the 15th, the 19th, and the 26th Amendments.

Which brings us to today. Today, any American citizen who is at least eighteen years of age (and who isn't a convicted felon) is legally permitted to vote in any state regardless of race, sex, education, sexual orientation or financial status. We've come a long way, but the struggle for securing our voting rights is not over. Today, our votes are in danger of being forfeited because we have no legal rights to have our vote be properly counted and verified. Unlike the 15th, the 19th, and the 26th Amendments to the Constitution, there is no amendment which guarantees that your vote MUST count, MUST be verified, or MUST be accurate.

Now, if you think that sounds far-fetched, think again: unless your rights are spelled out specifically, they dont legally exist. And now, with the advent of electronic or computerized voting machines, your vote is in even greater danger of being ignored, altered, dropped, or outright changed. In fact, here are a few examples of why the vote you cast is already in grave danger:

80% of EVERY VOTE cast in the November 2004 election was counted by just two companies - Diebold and ES&S - which are owned by brothers with deep ties to the Republican party.

Diebold's voting machines continue to use software that is not verifiably safe from outside manipulation, also known as hacking.

Diebold was aware that its voting machines were open to hacking LONG BEFORE the November 2004 election and tried to hide that fact from the news, the public and the government.

ES&S was previously owned by Republican Chuck Hagel. After selling voting machines to the state of Nebraska, Hagel decided to run for Senator and won virtually EVERY demographic group, including many largely black communities that had never before voted Republican. In fact, Hagel was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska, nearly all on unauditable machines he had just sold the state.

During the November 2004 election, WIDESPREAD MALFUNCTIONS of electronic voting machines occurred in the states of: Ohio, Nebraska, New Mexico, Indiana, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, North Carolina, Washington, Florida, Nevada and Louisiana. That means that 26% of all the states in the entire nation that had voting machine breakdowns. For a full list of all of these documented irregularities, click here.

The good news is that many non-profit organizations have sprung up to address the very important topics of:

But it's not enough. At no time in our country's 229-year history has our democracy been so close to being undermined by a few people with power and access to technology. The time has come for the federal government to provide specific protections for our most basic democratic right: voting. In part two of this essay (due out next week), I'll propose what a decent "voter's bill of rights" might include along with actions that you, as citizens, can take to help support current legislation along these lines.

In the mean time: educate yourself. Here are two links to a rather disturbing 30-minute online documentary about how Diebold's security flaws were discovered. Watch from the comfort of your own office, living room or dorm room.