Reply #16: I would like to know when it became acceptable to privatize the election

[AndyA]

process. Who said this was a good idea, and when was it decided? The process of voting in this country is a fundamental right that goes to the very core of our democracy. Who had the brilliant idea that it was OK to privatize this process, and allow corporations to build equipment with secret technology to track and report the votes?

The voting process must be completely removed from the control of private interests, and brought back into a government or state function, with transparency, mandatory random audits, and a bipartisan panel to oversee the process.

No wonder our elections are such a joke. We have equipment that we can't control, doing who the hell knows what with our votes, because the technology is privileged information. We have state election officials heading up campaigns, or serving as party officials. Can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

This is just another example of our government controlling us, instead of representing us. The American people need to put their foot down and tell them enough is enough. And then vote those out who don't do as we want. Of course, with the voting process we have now, we can never be sure that's an option, since we can't trust what the machines are doing.

I appreciate any action that moves our voting process away from private corporations and gives it more transparency. We just all have to recognize how very important this issue really is.

And for the record, I don't believe Alien Autopsy was real, but I do believe our elections are being manipulated. Not all of them, but some of the important ones are certainly worthy of further scrutiny. You can't have the CEO of Diebold go on record as promising to deliver the win to the GOP without questioning why he would say such a thing.