The Fix Is In From Virginia.

On October 29th, 2002 Congress passed The Help America Vote Act, which encouraged every state in the union to purchase electronic voting machines. In 2002 Virginia voters were told that this would be the last year in which they would be voting on the mechanical machines that they have used for decades, with little problem.

For this reason, many Virginia voters opted to vote via absentee ballot in the 2004 election, myself being one of them. The process was simple and straight forward: go to the voter registration office at the DMV, fill out an application, receive your paper ballot, and vote. The bonus being that you could vote and have a paper trail.

Fast forward to September 2006 when I received a letter in the mail from my Congressman representing the 11th district of Virginia, Republican Tom Davis:



Confused? Why would a Republican incumbent encourage anyone to vote via absentee ballot, “to make sure your vote is counted”, when overwhelming evidence has shown that “errors” in electronic voting machines have always favored Republicans?

I found out the answer to that question today when I cast my absentee ballot. Virginians who opt to vote absentee this year will not be able to vote using a paper ballot, but will cast their vote using the same electronic voting machines used on Election Day.