In a functioning democracy, the process of elections is even more important than the outcome.

After Obama won, I remember hearing people question how could Obama have won only by 6 or 7% over "Keating Five" McCain in this economic client and after an unpopular and seemingly endless war in Iraq. Racism explains part of it, but massive GOP election fraud also played a role in keeping the election as close as it was.

It may also be that election fraud was the causal agent in the "victory" of Proposition 8 in California. From Marc Crispin Miller 11/14/08:

As we think about the possibility that Prop 8 was not really passed by California’s voters, let’s note something that the press, and others, won’t discuss: i.e., that the entire apparatus of computerized voting in this country–the e-voting machines and op-scans and central tabulators, etc.–is largely owned by members of the
Christianist far right.

Diebold and ES&S were both begun by Bob and Todd Urosevich, two ardent Oklahoma theocrats, while Triad, which makes the central vote tabulators used in Ohio in 2004, is owned by the Rapp family. SmartTech, the company that helped Bush/Cheney steal that state, is owned by evangelical Jeff Averbeck; and his associate Mike Connell, owner of GovTech Solutions, which also helped to steal Ohio, among other races, was motivated to such work by his desire “to save the babies,” according to Stephen Spoonamore.

Why are there so many Christianists among the owners of those companies? Because the rigging of elections is the only way that that fringe movement ever could impose its theocratic program on the rest of us. As Paul Weyrich used to say out loud, the Christianists despise democracy. After all, that system, if allowed to stand, would put the sinful secular majority in charge–and that can’t be allowed.

And so, whether or not it turns out that Prop 8 was rigged to pass, we need to take a good hard look at those machines, and at the companies that own them–and keep them out of our elections.

Meanwhile, let’s all stop assuming that last week’s outcome was legitimate, and look closely at the evidence around Prop 8.

This analysis is disturbing enough. Yet, there is another way that elections can be stolen with these machines: outside hacking.

Ars technica has an article on how easily these electronic voting machines can be hacked by someone with tech skills. There are plenty of Christian extremists who would be more than happy to do something like this. They would be stupid enough to think that this kind of dishonest behavior would get them into heaven.

Voting rights issues have become critically important to anyone challenging the agenda of the Christian Taliban.