Nearly all agree: A “fiasco” it was, “confusion” reigned and “technical glitches” explain the strangeness of election night results from New Brunswick’s “vote tabulation system.” Or, rather, from voting machines developed and serviced by Dominion Voting Systems Corporation, a Denver, Colorado-based, self-described “election partner.” Is it just me, or does “election partner” not sound sinister? No one on network television news wanted to go there. After all, suggestions of conspiracy and election rigging are too far Out There. Television talking heads insisted that New Brunswick’s vote tabulation system is “secure,” and kept repeating it, so as to make it true.
Election integrity activist Marta Steele has studied the history of electronic voting in the U.S., and concluded that the principal purpose of electronic voting machines is to “steal elections.” Writing in 2008, she noted that – in recognition of the folly and danger of using corporate-owned and operated voting machines – Ireland banned them outright and that Germany, Japan, Canada and Switzerland were all – then – using paper ballots.
In a fit of stupidity, if not serious mischief, it was decided that New Brunswick would become Canada’s vanguard “test case” in employing a veiled, black box system in a province-wide election. Not good. If we wish to have election integrity, we need to return to the old fashioned way of counting votes. After all, when paper ballots are used, they can be counted in public… then counted again, if need be. Electronic voting machines are anathema and a threat to democracy.
More on Election Integrity movement here.
Gary Heathcote is a member of the NB Media Co-op.