Believe it or not, your vote (and many others’) may not be accurately recorded in the upcoming presidential election.

Simply put, the machines, paper ballots and punch cards are easily misread (some purposely) due to voter error, erasures, smearing, miscounting, etc., and then there’s “hacking.”

For various reasons, our voting system is exposed, helpless and defenseless to rogue hackers who can view, filter, negate, substitute and modify votes at will.

Past hacking has been done from as far away as China and Iran. Such hacking is relatively cheap and easy to do and has been exposed, confirmed, duplicated and proven beyond all doubt by credible experienced experts like our CIA, Alex Halderman (computer science professor, University of Michigan), Ron Rivest (security guru), David Jefferson (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), David Dill (computer professor, Stanford University), Dan Wallach, of Rice, and Roger Johnston, Argonne National Laboratory.

Experts agree that honest vote methods can only be obtained when incorporating “VVPAT” (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail), and I maintain that VVPAT in our elections is as rare as “VVHUP” (Veracious, Veridical, Honest, Upright Politicians).

Inaction (fraud/ineptness) by partisan politicians guarantees that this acrimonious, contentious presidential “commedia dell’arte” will be hotly contested long after the closing of the polls.

What a dichotomy. Freedom to vote, but not from fraud.

“Every country has the government it deserves.” — Joseph De Maistre

Harvey Thibodeau

Pinehurst