Stealing the Count; Obama Plans to do an Internet Census

Those who count the vote decide nothing. Those who count the voters decide everything. --Attributed to Joseph Stalin. He's doing it agaaaiin!

It has been observed that it is more important to be able to count the votes than to win them; creative counting can overcome a sizable shortfall. That is why holding the position of Secretary of State in the individual states is so important; the Sec. controls the counting process. Elections have been stolen on numerous occasions by creative counting - just ask Richard Nixon. And overall, control of vote counting begins with control of counting in general. Every ten years, America must do a head count, which is a critical political tool. The Census apportions Congressional districts, and a state that loses population loses seats in the House. Furthermore, it establishes how those districts are going to be laid out, making it possible to strengthen or weaken a given party. Eldridge Gerry became famous for creative district boundaries; his method, now called gerrymandering, created long, serpentine districts that made for a politically safe seat. His was a bit over the top, but gerrymandering happens all the time, and it can be justified based on census data. Also, Federal dollars are spread around based on this data. As John Fund put it:

"Anything that threatens the integrity of the Census has profound implications. Not only is it the basis for congressional redistricting, it provides the raw data by which government spending is allocated on everything from roads to schools. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also uses the Census to prepare the economic data that so much of business relies upon. "If the original numbers aren't as hard as possible, the uses they're put to get fuzzier and fuzzier," says Bruce Chapman, who was director of the Census in the 1980s.

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Mr. Chapman worries about a revival of the effort led by minority groups after the 2000 Census to adjust the totals for states and cities using statistical sampling and computer models. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Department of Commerce v. U.S. House that sampling could not be used to reapportion congressional seats. But it left open the possibility that sampling could be used to redraw political boundaries within the states." Mr. Obama appointed a guy who advocated statistical sampling to run the Census Bureau just before the 2010 elections, but the scheme could not come to fruition. Well, Obama is at it again, this time with a scheme to use electronic gadgetry to complete the census. The scheme is to have people fill out census forms on the internet rather than filling out a physical copy. Why is this bad? Because it would be very easy to game this system. In the last election the electronic ballots were often voting for Democrats when the button for a Republican was pushed, and that was a supposedly secure machine. How does anyone know the same won't happen in an internet census? What is to stop people from claiming to be someone else? What is to prevent lying? Now the forms have to be filled out by hand, a tedious business that requires careful examination. But a digital census would allow anyone - even a computer program - to file the paperwork. How do you know what is coming in is real? We have seen how great the government runs internet-based systems; just look at healthcare.gov. You don't and that is why the Obama Administration is pursuing this. They want to game the census. There is little doubt that the Democrats cheat every election cycle, the question is by how much. As has been pointed out, there is generally a bias in electoral polling that favors the GOP. Why is that? Because the Democrats create votes, votes that cannot be counted in a poll because they are not actual voters. This is standard practice: "Vote early, Vote often." If you can say there are more voters than there really are, you will find it much easier to manufacture the margin of victory. Congress needs to stop Obama from doing this. But given the cowardice of the GOP they will probably ask him nicely, and when he laughs at them, they'll get tough and ask nicely again.