Voting Machines Violate Constitution - Who Will Launch Legal Challenge?

by Lynn Landes 4-14-03

Wanted - one or more constitutional lawyers. Why? Voting machines. They violate the Constitution and threaten what's left of American democracy like no terrorist ever could. Only a handful of private companies sell and service the machines that register and tabulate votes in U.S. elections. And it's all done in complete secrecy. And if this isn't fascism, I don't know what else to call it.

We've lost control of our election process.

--snip

Some people think that voting machines can be made 'secure' by incorporating technical safeguards and standards, but that misses the point in law. Once the machine is in the polling booth critical parts of the voting process become unobservable and, therefore, violate Articles I & 2 of the Constitution as well as the Voting Rights Act.

Incredibly, no individual or organization has challenged the constitutionality of voting machines. Although plenty of distraught candidates have gone to court accusing the voting machines of miscounting their votes, but to little avail.

--snip

Neither distraught candidates nor voting rights groups, such as the NAACP, ACLU or Common Cause, have challenged the right of voting machines to be involved in the election process. But that's what needs to be done, because when machines are in the voting booth three violations of federal law take place:

1. inability to observe if voting machines properly register votes
2. inability to observe if voting machines properly count votes
3. inability to enforce the Voting Rights Act, because of the inability to observe if voting machines are properly registering or counting votes

Read Article