A House Without DoorsrnVote Fraud in Americarnby James J. Condit, Jr.rnor decades now CBS, ABC, and NBC have pretended on Computerized FraudrnJ- election night to be in hot competition to project thern”winner” and “loser.” We know the act well: Dan, Peter, orrnTom comes on the air and solemnly intones, “We can now projectrnthat President X is the winner in Florida.”rnAs a viewer, I imagined bespectacled analysts sweating inrnback rooms, perhaps 30 accountants nervously crunching numbersrn—all in an attempt to get their anchorman on the air firstrnwith the projected winner. But now we know it was all a hoax.rnFor all of the networks (CNN included) have been getting thernexact same numbers, at the exact same time, from the exactrnsame source—from a compan’ that the networks appear tornown jointly; Voter News Service (VNS).rnHow reliable is VNS? In the Iowa Caucuses, VNS workedrnwith lightning speed, ostensibH assembling the results of overrn2,000 caucus gatherings, analyzing the data, and turning themrnover to the Associated Press, which announced the winner exactlyrnone minute after the caucuses had opened and clearly heforerneven one vote had been cast! VNS employees are eitherrnprophets, or the whole process smells like the anchovies on lastrnweek’s pizza.rnThough VNS has changed its name regularly, its headquartersrnare still at 225 W. 34th St., New York City, and it has beenrnthe exit polling arm of the big T networks since at least 1972.rnOne of the few mentions in the mainstream media of this little-rnknown organization was in the March 2,1992, issue of Timernmagazine, where a box on page 22 entitled “The Morning After”rnconfirmed that all of the major TV networks are using thisrnsame exit polling source.rnSo, if the major media are willing to pretend to be competingrnon election night when in reality they are cooperating inrntotal harmony, what other shenanigans could be afoot?rn]ames /. Condit, jr., is the director of the Cincinnatus PohticalrnAction Committee and Precinct Project Institute in Cincinnati,rnOhio. He has studied and battled vote fraud since J 979.rnOnce upon a time, Americans voted by paper ballot. At thernend of the day after the polls had closed, neighborhood peoplern—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—worked togetherrnto count the votes in their polling place before the ballots leftrntheir precinct. The count was then posted at the precinctrnpolling place for all to see. This is the only way to ensure a verifiablernelection. Variations of method are possible, but the basicrncounting of paper ballots in public view, with the resultsrnposted at the polling place before the ballots leave each neighborhoodrnprecinct, are essential to ensure a fair and honestrncount.rnTo rig an election with the above safeguards built in, onernwould have to bribe many hundreds of people, including keyrnDemocrats and Republicans in each precinct being rigged. Butrnthe people bribed at each precinct would nevertheless have accessrnonly to a tiny fraction of the vote. There would be no hopernof throwing an election from a central location with the push ofrna button or the flick of a switch.rnHowever, the election process has changed in most venues tornmake it impossible for either citizen or candidate to monitor orrncheck anything on election night, and concern over how thernvotes are counted seems to have vanished altogether. The averagernAmerican voting in 1996 is predisposed to believe the resultsrnannounced on election night. Skeptics are asked, “Canrn’0u prove there was computer fraud? If you can’t prove it, nobody’srngoing to listen.”rnFirst of all, whether a citizen can prove vote fraud is not thernquestion. The question is whether the Board of Elections officialsrncan prove that they are running a verifiable election, withrna paper trail and checks and balances. After all, these administratorsrnare supposed to be servants of the people. Instead, mostrnof them now act as if the business of elections is their specialty,rnif not their rightful monopoly. In fact, any attempt by anyrnAmerican citizen or candidate to monitor an election today willrn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn