Voting

Voting 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unveriﬁable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes. Diebold’s new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a “high degree of sophistication” to evade detection over a period of 2 years. Voter Turnout: Over the last 40 years, voter turnout has been steadily declining in the established democracies.[|[47]] This trend has been most strongly felt in the United States, and has been significant in Western Europe, Japan and Latin America. It has been a matter of concern and controversy among political scientists for several decades. During this same period, other forms of political participation have also declined, such as voluntary participation in political parties and the attendance of observers at town meetings. The decline in voting has also accompanied a general decline in civic participation, such as church attendance, membership in professional, fraternal, and student societies, youth groups, and parent-teacher associations.[|[48]] At the same time, some forms of participation have increased. People have become far more likely to participate in [|boycotts], [|demonstrations] , and to donate to political campaigns.
 *  [|Russia] || || 61% ||||  ||
 *  [|India] || || 58% ||||  ||
 *  [|United States] || || 54% ||||  ||
 *  [|Switzerland] || || 54% ||||  ||
 *  [|Canada] || |||| 76% ||||  ||
 *  [|France] || |||| 76% ||||  ||
 *  [|United Kingdom] || |||| 76% ||||  ||
 *  [|Australia]* || |||||||| 95% ||   ||
 *  [|Australia]* || |||||||| 95% ||   ||