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3. Another Year of Distorted Elections and Coverage 4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In litical analysts have long counted on exit polls to be a reliable oO: December 13, 2003, President Bush, with little fanfare and predictor of actual vote counts. The unusual discrepancy no mainstream media coverage, signed into law the contro- between exit poll data and the actual vote count in the 2004 US versial Intelligence Authorization Act while most of America election challenges that reliability. However, despite evidence of toasted the victory of US forces in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's technological vulnerabilities in the voting system and a higher capture. None of the corporate press covered the signing of this incidence of irregularities in swing states, this discrepancy was not _ legislation, which increases the funding for intelligence agencies, scrutinised in the mainstream media. They simply parroted the dramatically expands the definition of surveillable financial insti- partisan declarations of "sour grapes" and "let's move on" instead of tutions and authorises the FBI to acquire private records of those providing any meaningful analysis of a highly controversial election. individuals suspected of criminal activity without a judicial The official vote count for the 2004 election showed that George W. _ review. American civil liberties are once again under attack. Bush won by three million votes. But exit polls projected a victory The "atmosphere of fear" generated by recent terrorist attacks, both margin of five million votes for John Kerry. This eight-million-vote foreign and domestic, provides administrations the support necessary discrepancy is much greater than the error margin. The overall margin _to adopt stringent new legislation. In response to the September 11 of error should statistically have been under one per cent. But the attacks, new agencies, programs and bureaucracies have been official result deviated from the poll projections by more than five per _created. cent—a statistical impossibility. The Total Information Office is a branch of the Edison Media Research and Mitofsky US Department of Defense's Defense Advanced International, the two companies hired to do the Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It has a polling for the Nation Election Pool (a consor- os mission to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, tium of the nation's five major broadcasters and The official vote count demonstrate and transition information technolo- the Associated Press), did not immediately pro- for the 2004 election gies, components and prototype, closed-loop, vide an explanation for how this could have information systems that will counter asymmet- occurred. They waited until January 19, the eve showed that George ric threats by achieving total information aware- f the ina ation. Also, th rt shows that ss". Another intelligence-gathering 2 : the discrepancy between the exit pollsand the | We Bush Won by | fiformation Awareness fice, has a mission official count was considerably greater in the three million votes. to gather as much information as possible about critical swing States. A everyone in a centralised location for easy In precincts that were at least 80 per cent for But exit polls perusal by the US Government. Bush, the average within-precinct error (WPE) projected a victory In November 2002, the New York Times as a whopping 10.0 cent—th . . ath ted that DARPA was developing 4 numerical difference between the exit poll margin of five million tracking system called “Total Information predictions au me onreial count. Abo in votes for John Kerry. Awareness a. intended to ferent ter- ush strongholds, Kerry received only + at ATH rorists through analysing troves of informa- about two-thirds of the votes predicted by This eight-million-vote tion. The system, developed under the exit polls. In Kerry strongholds, exit polls discrepancy is direction of John Poindexter, then director a statistical impossibility. matched the official count almost exactly of DARPA's Information Awareness (an average WPE of 0.3). This exit poll Office, was envisioned to give law enforce- data is a strong indicator of a corrupted ment access to private data without suspi- election. But the case grows stronger if cion of wrongdoing or a warrant. these exit poll discrepancies are interpreted The Total Information Awareness in the context of more than 100,000 offi- program's name was changed to "Terrorist cially logged reports of irregularities and Information Awareness" on May 20, 2003, possible fraud during Election Day 2004. ostensibly to clarify the program's intent to In Franklin County, Ohio, Columbus gather information on presumed terrorists voters faced one of the longest ballot lines in history. In many inner _ rather than compile dossiers on US citizens. Despite this name city precincts, voters sometimes had three-hour waits to get to the change, a Senate Defense Appropriations bill was passed poll before being required to cast ballots within five minutes, as unanimously on July 18, 2003, expressly denying any funding to demanded by the Republican-run Board of Elections. Seventy-seven —_ Terrorist Information Awareness research. of the county's 2,866 voting machines malfunctioned on Election In response, the Pentagon proposed the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Day. One machine registered 4,258 votes for Bush in a precinct Information Exchange (MATRIX), a program devised by long-time where only 638 people voted. At least 125 machines were held back — Bush family friend Hank Asher as a pilot effort to increase and at the opening of the polls, and another 68 were never deployed. enhance the exchange of sensitive terrorism and other criminal While voters were rushed through the process, 29 per cent of the activity information between local, State and Federal law precincts had fewer voting machines than in the 2000 election despite enforcement agencies. a 25 per cent increase in turnout. The MATRIX, as devised by the Pentagon, is a State-run These problems point to an election that requires scrutiny. Evenif information-generating tool, thereby circumventing Congress's the discrepancy between exit polls and actual vote counts is simply a concern regarding the appropriation of Federal funds for the fluke, other flaws and questionable practices in the voting process development of this controversial database. Although most states make one wonder whether or not the people's voice was actually have refused to adopt these Orwellian strategies, Ohio, Pennsylvania, heard and if we are truly a working democracy. Connecticut and Florida jumped on the TIA bandwagon. (Sources: In These Times, February 15, 2005, http://www. inthese- Yet somehow, after the apparent successful dismantling of TIA, times.com; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 26, 2005) the expressed concern by Representatives Mark Udall of Colorado, 4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In oO: December 13, 2003, President Bush, with little fanfare and no mainstream media coverage, signed into law the contro- versial Intelligence Authorization Act while most of America toasted the victory of US forces in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's capture. None of the corporate press covered the signing of this legislation, which increases the funding for intelligence agencies, dramatically expands the definition of surveillable financial insti- tutions and authorises the FBI to acquire private records of those individuals suspected of criminal activity without a judicial review. American civil liberties are once again under attack. The "atmosphere of fear" generated by recent terrorist attacks, both foreign and domestic, provides administrations the support necessary to adopt stringent new legislation. In response to the September 11 attacks, new agencies, programs and bureaucracies have been created. showed that George W. Bush won by three million votes. impossibility. NEXUS 13 for the 2004 election DECEMBER 2005 — JANUARY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com