Behind the Freedom Curtain (1957)

[Music] I'm Michael R Jackson Courier dispatch I'm on my way to the grand opening of what I consider to be the greatest show on Earth first time it's played our County but we think when the curtain closes tonight this will be quite a different place to live I had a little something to do with it that is a man I wrote about in a series of news stories did my Beats the county courthouse and if you know anything about County cour houses well that's democracy Showplace I don't have any free press passes for you but you can get good seats if your credentials say USA that probably gives it away but we announce without apology this is going to be a flag waving production if that be naive let the sophisticates make the most of it if there had been more of it lately this show would play to standing room only however there are plenty of seats but it's curtain time he's not necessarily the star in this particular show like to say he is but wouldn't be quite true in this case the stage of this show is that voting machine right there and the theme getting them installed in this County it didn't just happen you see you can legislate yourself all the laws you want about the right to vote but whether you actually have an active electorate or not comes down like everything else of consequence to a matter of action on the part of a very few men and what kind of arrangements they make in your community it may be some other official like your councilman in ours it's the County Commissioners who carry the assignment of seeing that there is a way and a means for every American to run his country between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on that first Tuesday in November now although voting machines are over 60 years old and are already being used by about half the voters in America our commissioners still had to sell the idea here a lot of work but they felt worth doing they got me on their team to do my series of Articles when commissioner Miller told me about the ease and speed need an economy of voting with machines over paper ballots when the voter is properly qualified the attending election official admits him to the machine Mr citizen moves the operating lever to the right which unlocks the machine and locks out the world for the first time the secret ballot is really secret and there are over 19 and 1/2 centuries that I know of invested in achieving just that the voter selects his candidates by turning down the voting pointers directly above the names of his candidates then he records and counts his own vote by returning the operating handle to the left that's all there is to it he does not hand any papers to any human beings his vote is made and cast Untouched by other human hands or minds and that's a long step up from tyranny the ballot is right at the voter's eye level easily read and all offices and all candidates are at the same eye level no candidate suffers by being placed in an unfavorable position the commissioner won over service clubs all over the county whenever he addressed them by reminding them of the large number of Voters who are disenfranchised every year at the paper ballot type polls by making mistakes busy people often by habit make check marks on the ballot in states where X's are required they might as well have stayed home that vote is a no vote doesn't count illegal other voters find that at the last minute they have accidentally voted for the wrong man or they change their mind don't lady uh-uh it doesn't count or you know election pencils good try sir but this ballot will be thrown out or in the multiple choice offices errors are frequent she's entitled to choose five state representatives but she's Mark six this is a no vote simple mistakes yes but out of every thousand people some hurried some nervous some uninformed how many do you think do it perfectly the commissioner figured there's some excuse for being disenfranchised by tyranny or war or fear oh yes it can happen here but not for well-intentioned mistakes not in this age of the voting machine which cannot make a check mark instead of an X which does let you change your mind by simply pushing the pointer back up which has no pencil to break or paper to tear which will not let you vote for more than you're allowed the pointer will not turn if you've cast all your votes questions and issues if any are placed up here on the top of the ballot the pointers are marked yes and no or for and against the machine won't let you spoil your ballot by voting both ways and when you're satisfied with your vote a new privilege awaits you you will register and count your own vote by returning this handle walk away knowing your ballot cannot be disqualified thrown out nor miscounted it's already counted the moment you leave nor can the machine make a mistake first off it cannot be opened except by a key after sealing the machine which halts all voting on that machine for the day it looks complex but it's not a complex mechanical action it looks so because of the large number of voting units in it but actually each voting assembly has a straight mechanical linkage and a rugged action like this and of course voting machines are not a new idea many new functions have been added of course but basically they're 12 years older than the automobile 1892 their use has steadily increased until last year in 35 States in territory of Hawaii about half of our American voters voted by Machine why why well newspapers went after answers so did the commissioner and the first answer was it's so fast and so easy just three simple steps first move the red operating handle to the right second select your candidates third throw the red handle to the left to count and record your own vat why else machine [Music] boating [Music] absolute secret bading we've had no trouble about that in this County but we don't want any either the Commissioners understood about fear that it's a very very subtle thing this voter's opinion is in the machine not on any piece of paper which passes from hand to [Music] hand why else voting machines the automatic voting machine absolutely eliminates the disenfranchisement which comes from mistakes ballot mutilations checks instead of x's erasers are voting for too many candidates on machines every vote that's cast is counted the count is mechanically accurate and of course of interest to me and well 170 million others I guess is the fact that immediately after the last voter the election results are available these counters cannot be exposed during the voting day exposure automatically locks the machine against further voting but once opened the result is available right now my paper can get the results which means the people and the candidates and the radio and TV stations can get the results hours earlier just read the figures off the counters to the recorders then check the recorded figures back against the counters announce the results in 5 to 10 minutes how about the good old days how about the good old days well counting was a 5H hour job if things went smoothly [Music] la [Music] if [Music] not well then it was 5 days but the mechanical counter cannot get tired cannot get cranky cannot [Music] forget why voting machines well money voting machines vote more people much faster therefore you can consolidate your precincts sometimes even two for one Cuts in half your need for hard- defined election workers Madison Wisconsin for example eliminated 170 election workers and multiply 170 by a day's pay and you see what kind of savings we're talking about plus the counting takes a quarter of an hour as opposed to 3 to 6 hours fewer people fewer hours equals fewer dollars not always of course but in our type count yes then take your printing costs paper ballots require at least one ballot for every voter voting machines one printed ballot per machine and of course save just one old style countywide recount and your machines are nearly home free but money wasn't chiefly on the commissioner's mind something else the man who took the lead in it is a seasoned professional career politician realistic tough even unemotional but that's why he knew that democracy as an idea and a practice had to compete in this County like everything else for the respect and attention of our people who are pressing the clock hard every day it has to compete against speed in motion regrettably even against America's second cup of coffee everything else in the county competes hard for the citizens increasingly valuable time our churches were modernizing with parking lots he could get into faster our marketplaces were automating to compete for his time and his dollar our schools modernized to command his respect and his tax dollar the tools which are average citizen uses every day in his job of work has become fantastically automatic and fast as industry moves to Automation and even his home life is automatic modern but the one place where the average citizen participated in the political system which made it all possible no change democracy is the foundation the heart of that democracy is the polls which were still being run in our County the way they were when we held Inauguration Day on March the 4th so the new president would have three months to ride his horse to Washington the driving question question on the commissioner's mind can democracy compete with its right hand tied to a Hitching [Music] Post his answer in our county is what I consider The Greatest Show on Earth it's bringing out the people as the commissioner likes to say we've really become one of the freedom curtain [Music] counties