(December 1, 2003) I hope you caught the news about a computer virus infecting ATMs made by Diebold in November. (Okay, so technically it was a 'worm' not a virus, but either way it was unpleasant and brought the cash machines to their electronic knees.) Diebold? Yes, the same company making voting machines for Maryland, representing that all of their products are safe, reliable and proof against inappropriate tampering.

When researchers warned earlier this year how exposed is the technology to manipulation, administrators circled the wagons and defended their newfound Diebold buds in hearings and reports. (Associated Press quoted state budget secretary Chip DiPaula: "We remain very confident in this voting system.") The subsequent report of cyberthugs having their way with Diebold in spite of official pronouncements of security came hard on the heels of the Ehrlich administration reaffirming its support of the state's purchase, an expenditure of over $50 million on the company's products.

One of America's most colorful politicians, Huey Long (the 'Kingfish') was elected governor of Louisiana in 1928 when the trend was to replace paper ballots with mechanical voting machines. Huey opposed the conversion until he knew enough about how the machines worked, then supported them enthusiastically. Once he learned how to manipulate them, he even put them in the state legislature, to make skewing votes easier there. Before he was assassinated in 1935, Long's machine packed government with his cronies, and, by what biographers politely call "single minded use of power" was well on his way to "confiscat[ing] wealth of the nation's rich and privileged."