Hacking Democracy—A Review

I just watched the documentary Hacking Democracy, and I feel indescribable—it’s a mixture of anger and sadness. Writer and grandmother, Bev Harris, who resides in Washington State, started asking questions in 2002 on why her county had purchased touch screen electronic voting machines for the elections. She was not satisfied with the answers that was told to her by election officials and, therefore set out on her own quest for the truth. During her research she finds an “online library” from the Diebold Corporation while surfing through the Internet; it is a website filled with codes on how to hack into the voting machines during elections.

This documentary shows proof on how an election can be compromised within seconds by hacking, and it can be done with a memory card that’s inserted into the machine. Did you know that 87% of our votes are cast with those electronic machines? In the 2000 elections, Gore’s votes were negative 16,022 votes in Volusia County, Florida. Then, of course, we can’t forget the 2004 elections when there were voting discrepancies in Ohio. Kerry was ready to fight back and demand a recount, but then conceded only 12 hours later. You know something isn’t right.

Along her grueling journey, Bev Harris, finds experts, such as computer scientists, politicians, and activists, to help her get to the truth. She feels that if she didn’t do this, then no one else would—how I wish we had more like her in the world, it is truly a rarity. I applaud her for her courage and steadfastness.

I won’t go further into detail and spoil it for you, but this is a must watch—especially this election year. I’m at a lost now at what to tell people when it comes to voting. There are organizations out there that emphasize the importance of voting, but it saddens me that the truth is our vote may not count or matter. The “man behind the curtain” has already determined who should be our leader.

One of the definitions for the word vote is the “expression of choice or opinion.” We are deprived of this right when those responsible engage in this type of fraud. It’s been said by Joseph Stalin, “Those who cast the votes, they decide nothing. Those who count the votes, they decide everything.” I am afraid that this statement is so true. I no longer recognize our nation as a Republic; it might as well be a dictatorship. According to Britannica Encyclopedia: “Modern dictators usually use force or fraud to gain power and then keep it through intimidation, terror, suppression of civil liberties, and control of the mass media”—fraud is definitely rampant in our political system. I wonder when they’ll use full out force to herd us in.