A really good read on why voting machine fraud is not only relevant but should be a major concern by former Vermont State-Senator Ben Ptashnik. Here’s an excerpt:

As a former state senator, I can offer this insight. Politicians won’t touch the issue of election-rigging, foremost to avoid being labeled “conspiracy theorists” in the corporate press. But more pointedly, I believe the silence of the Democrats is rooted in a deeper fear. Most politicians, and political aspirants, live in - and profit by - the unquestioned paradigm of American exceptionalism - the idea that we are the “greatest democracy on earth.” Democracy is what we Americans “export.” Questioning the fundamental integrity of our elections may be our right under the First Amendment, but in politics it’s the equivalent of openly supporting the Constitutional right to burn the American flag. Good luck running for dogcatcher afterward!

Democrats - who have the most to lose from a voting machine industry that is increasingly dominated by right-wingers - have therefore stuck their heads in the sand, fearing political suicide. Additionally, some Democrats clearly fear that voters will stay home if the truth is exposed about how unsafe our system has become. But I find this excuse wanting. Not only is there no evidence to support this conclusion - in fact, voters are often rallied to the breach - but also the American people are not children: They deserve to know the truth.

So we find ourselves in a desperate Catch-22. If political leaders won’t speak the truth, neither will the press. And if the press does not report the truth - or worse, attacks whistleblowers as “nut cases,” then politicians won’t speak out.

This is how Karl Rove got to power, as an anti-abortion NeoCon computer nerd, and this is why so many question the 2000 and 2004 elections (Hacking Democracy, a Diebold documentary) and it’s also why I question the 2008 (ACORN, dead voters, disenfranchisement) and why I will question the 2012 election (Diebold again, dead voters again). 

Still think your participation in the system matters to them?