Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Our Voting System is Not Secure

by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., excerpted from Rolling Stone, July 1, 2006

The issue of what happened in 2004 is not an academic one. For the second election in a row, the president of the United States was selected not by the uncontested will of the people but under a cloud of dirty tricks. Given the scope of the GOP machinations, we simply cannot be certain that the right man now occupies the Oval Office – which means, in effect, that we have been deprived of our faith in democracy itself.

American history is littered with vote fraud – but rather than learning from our shameful past and cleaning up the system, we have allowed the problem to grow even worse.

If the last two elections have taught us anything, it is this: The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system.

If people lose faith that their votes are accurately and faithfully recorded, they will abandon the ballot box. Nothing less is at stake here than the entire idea of a government by the people.

Voting, as Thomas Paine said, "is the right upon which all other rights depend." Unless we ensure that right, everything else we hold dear is in jeopardy.