U.S. election observers praise Venezuela's election system

[Peace Patriot]

"Surprising lessons from Venezuela's 2004 (sic, 2008*) election

"By Larry Hildes and Karen Weill

"Special to The Seattle Times 12/23/08

"We recently joined more than 130 observers from around the world in Venezuela to monitor state and local elections Nov. 23. What we saw there contradicts the Bush administration's portrayal of Venezuela. We witnessed a vocal, uncensored media unrestrained in its criticism of the Chávez government. Opposition candidates campaigned without impediment, giving speeches and holding rallies.

"We saw an open democratic election that allowed fair voting for all parties. We also found an electoral system designed to encourage voting and ensure that anyone who wishes to vote can do so.

"Believe it or not, we found a system far more transparent, inclusive and accountable than what we observed in the past as monitors in the U.S. Unlike in Florida in 2004, we saw a process in Venezuela where no one tried to deny voters their voice. The polls stayed open hours later than planned to accommodate long lines and an unexpectedly high turnout for a regional election."

MORE

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008553815_opin24hildes.html
---------

*(I believe the headline contains a typo. As the article reveals, the writers were observers of Venezuela's 2008 local elections, not its 2004 presidential recall election.)

-----------------------------

My comment: The writers note some of the same things that I have noted, about Venezuela's elections--including its whopping 55% handcount, as a check on machine fraud or error. (Know how much we handcount? ZERO percent in half the systems in the U.S., and a grossly inadequate 1% even in the best of states.) But they leave out the clincher, as to the vast superiority of Venezuela's election system, compared to our own: Venezuela uses OPEN SOURCE CODE programming in its electronic voting system. Anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated. Here, we now have 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in all of our voting systems (except New York), owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

This is why we live in an upside down, inside out, backwards "Alice in Wonderland" country, and Venezuelans live in a country where the government evicted Exxon Mobil, the World Bank, the IMF, the U.S. "war on drugs," and the CIA--and even evicted the U.S. ambassador after the Bushwhacks tried to mount a coup in Bolivia. A country whose government renegotiated the oil contracts with multinationals to achieve a 60/40 split of the oil profits to be used for social programs. A country that now provides universal health care. A country that has poured resources into bootstrapping the poor, and local infrastructure and manufacturing development. A country with a serious land reform program. A country that has led the successful and amazing drive for a Latin American 'Common Market' with goals of social justice, regional cooperation and independence from the U.S. A country that has transformed Latin American politics for the better.

Transparent vote counting--the key to everything!

Open source code! 55% handcount! Then, and only then, will we be out of Iraq, and on our way to real reform and real democracy here--believe me.

[Judi Lynn]

1. You're right! The headline editor wasn't paying close attention. It is 2008.

It almost seems the writer has read your writing at some point over the last year or two or more, doesn't it? Most surely supports what you have been saying for a very long time!

From the article:

Believe it or not, we found a system far more transparent, inclusive and accountable than what we observed in the past as monitors in the U.S. Unlike in Florida in 2004, we saw a process in Venezuela where no one tried to deny voters their voice. The polls stayed open hours later than planned to accommodate long lines and an unexpectedly high turnout for a regional election.

For months beforehand, Venezuela's electoral council held an educational campaign explaining how to use the new polling machines and demonstrated how the voting system worked. The council ensured the vote results could be checked through a process in which electronic machines produce a paper trail voters can compare with the machine and change if necessary. Finally, audits were made to 55 percent of the paper ballots before the results were announced — four to five times the amount needed statistically to rule out fraud.

The electoral council under the controversial Chávez has worked tirelessly to prove to the Venezuelan electorate, and to the world, that it has eliminated fraud. The new voting machines are a response to the blatant ballot-box stuffing of the 1990s. The paper trail is a response to flawed voting machines in the U.S. and elsewhere.

After last year's referendum, the National Lawyer's Guild concluded that, amid intense scrutiny, "{Venezuela} has developed one of the most advanced electoral systems in the region, if not the world." U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in a 2006 hearing on Venezuela, remarked "Florida is not even doing that with a paper trail. So maybe Venezuela will teach Florida something."

The very idea the government made arrangements to conduct an educational campaign to make sure citizens had an even chance of understanding how the voting machines function was AMAZING. That's a universe away from anything concocted in this country. Far from it. In fact, the right wing had a picnic ridiculing people it was told goofed trying to fill out their voting forms in Florida, made fun of them, like the great charitable Christians they pretend to be.

Thanks for the article. I bookmarked it even before I had finished reading it. Really good information. Well worth sharing again and again.