Privatizing Your Voter Identity

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
- William Shakespeare

by Glynn Wilson

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 8 - For all the sound and fury over the Alabama voter database being played out on the inside pages of the state's newspapers and incomprehensible little blurbs on television news, there may be a more sinister story behind the story that goes far beyond mere partisan politics. And it's no conspiracy theory.

Get this. There is a master plan that is ongoing to privatize every aspect of voting in the United States and tie voting lists to crime networks, terror watch lists, even so-called "eco-terror" watch lists. Do you believe in a clean environment? You may be a suspect - and disenfranchised from voting.

Do you worry about the Bush administration's NSA spying on you? What about the prospect of identity theft?

Well, here's another worry to add to your list.

And this information does not come from just any left wing pundit or blogger.

Alabama's very own elected Secretary of State Nancy Worley, who has been under fire in public of late in a controversy over the deadline to implement the Bush administration's Help America Vote act, says the Republicans taking control of the state voting list is just the tip of the iceberg about to break off and sink American democracy.

"There is a grand scheme on the part of corporate America to take over the whole system of elections in this country," Ms. Worley said.

And she said some states have already begun tying the voter list to crime network databases and terror watch lists, making the issue of simply registering to vote a matter of concern for those who are worried about personal privacy.

Columnist Greg Palast has written about this trend.

"In response to the ugly racial purge of voters in 2000, George Bush signed the Help America Vote Act - which requires every state to create a centralized voter database just like the one that made the mass purge of voters in Florida possible," Palast wrote. "This Orwellian transformation of voter protection into voter predation, coupled with the new laws requiring voter I.D. cards and data base checks means that the 2006 and 2008 elections may already be over. But you'll have to wait until then to find out whom the data-meisters have chosen for you."

Spies and Lies: Steal Your Data, Steal Your Vote

"Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing," Palast writes. "You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration."

The Spies Who Shag Us

The issue is about to come out into the open right here in Alabama.

For starters, due to the way the state doles out contracts for voting systems, a company called Election Systems and Software (ES&S for short) already has contracts to provide the voting machines used in Jefferson County and much of the state. The company also has the contract to print the ballots.

And, the company has the contract to train all the poll workers in the state - a job that heretofore was overseen by the probate judges in each county, handled by the elected country registrar and ultimately surpervised by the elected secretary of state. No more.

For all the sound and fury from Republicans about less government and lower taxes, it seems a bit odd that tax payer money would be funneled to private corporations on something as fundamental to government as every aspect of voting itself.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, a Birmingham Democrat, has written U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez a letter complaining about the blatant partisanship in having a court hand over control of the voter list in Alabama to Republican Gov. Bob Riley on the eve of the 2006 elections.

"It is impossible to ignore the partisan colorations of the court's intervention," Davis said. "To the voters all over the state this has a partisan look to it."

District Judge Keith Watkins recently named Riley as a so-called "special master" to oversee the creation of a statewide voter registration database by Aug. 31, 2007. At a special hearing last week, Watkins, a Bush appointee, denied requests from the Alabama Democratic Party and the mostly black Alabama Democratic Conference to intervene in the case.

Rep. Davis Writes AG Gonzalez, Says Riley's Partisanship Showed in Voter Database Fight

If you value your right to vote in America, you might want to engage on this issue and let your voice be heard in Montgomery and in Washington, D.C.

The concern should not just be that one party now controls almost every branch of government. The concern should be that this one party, the Republican Party, is farming out control of your voting identity to a mega-corporation that has only greed and control as its goal: Profiting from your vote and keeping in power those politicians who share their greed.

Photo by Glynn Wilson

Secretary of State Nancy Worley, one of the most popular elected officials in Alabama, continues working in spite of the public controversy over the voting database.