Stalin once said it's not the votes that count but who counts the votes.
So here we are in a presidential election year and there is genuine concern about "who counts the votes." Can there be a more compelling question in a democracy?
One person, one vote sounds so reasonable and -- dare I say it -- democratic. But the voting process in America is anything but fair and balanced. When members of a certain party concoct various devious schemes to suppress votes, purposely misinform potential voters, spread vile untrue filth about certain candidates, play the race, gender and religious cards, and literally tamper with vote tallies, then we are not a truly representative government! Are we?
In 2004 I was at a small reception for John Kerry in Robert Altman's office and future senator Al Franken expressed deep concern about the Diebold voting machines and the potential for widespread vote tampering. He asked Senator Kerry if he was concerned about it. The senator said he was aware and would do something about it. In fact, there was a 25 million dollar voter fraud fund that could be used to investigate such claims, but alas, Kerry did nothing about it after losing a profoundly suspect election. An election in which -- instead of the Supreme Court bailing out Bush -- Ohio and Florida became cesspools of shady vote-counting and un-counting.
So we must not only ask who counts the votes, but actually find out!
See you at the polls?