Voting Fraud

Voting fraud is nothing new but there has been a lot of talk lately about the possibility that some kinds of electronic voting machines may make it easier to tweak the results without leaving evidence.  Whether it’s true or not, it’s been great material for humorists…

http://xkcd.com/463/

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/822256/

The question of whether corporations should be allowed to influence elections has to be considered in context.    Corporations, unions and non-profits are all in competition for government money and access to that money involves a lot of political maneuvering, lobbying and political advertising.   If one of those groups is allowed to use a tactic that is forbidden to the others it’s understandable that the others will cry “foul!”  For that matter, if one of them has access to so much money that the others are, effectively, silenced you might expect to hear a fair amount of grumbling.  After all, why should the most resources be directed toward those that already have the most?

Which would be more fair, to allow any group to participate to any degree or to limit political participation to voters only?  That’s a trick question, of course.   Our current system does not require going from one extreme to the other but, rather, to hunt around for some sort of balance that is acceptable to most (and I assume we’ll continue that search).  If a union is required to have the consent of all members before making a contribution should a corporation be required to get the consent of all stockholders?  (And does that allow you some choice in how the fund that controls your 401K votes?)  These are tricky questions and there aren’t any easy answers.