Lendle

CODE RED is about what has happened to American elections, American politics, and America since computers took over the vote counting just a few short years ago. It identifies the red flags--including the glaring one now waving over our most recent election, E2014--and provides accessible examinations of why those flags are red. It is a disturbing and provocative call to action. It is about saving our democracy and our country. Now, before it's all gone.

Free and fair elections are the bedrock of a democracy. America, which considers itself the beacon of democracy, has turned to computerized counting for virtually all of its public elections. Several other advanced democracies—including Germany, The Netherlands, and Ireland—have moved away from the computerized tabulation they initially embraced, having recognized the manifest security risks it entails. But America has continued to entrust its elections to privatized and concealed vote counting despite mounting and voluminous evidence that the vulnerabilities to manipulation are not merely hypothetical but are actually being exploited, with profound political consequences.

CODE RED shows how America has come to adopt and embrace such a system and why America is so collectively resistant to any serious reconsideration of its safety and appropriateness. We examine the role of election administrators, politicians, and the media in stifling investigation of the validity of suspect American elections and, more generally, of the safety and rationality of a system proven by experts to be easily corrupted. We also examine the nexus between computerized elections and the veer of American politics over the past few years since the computers took over the counting.

Finally, CODE RED urges possible ways out of this mess, and evaluates the prospects for reform and resolution by various tactics. The conclusion is that time is running short for a political (i.e., non-revolutionary) resolution, and that restoration of electoral legitimacy and political balance will depend on an exercise of public will not witnessed in America within living memory.

CODE RED combines analysis and advocacy and concludes with a powerful call to action: "We need only to break a spell that has been cast on us--a spell of convenience, passivity, helplessness. We need only remember that democracy is not something that we watch, it is something that we do."

CODE RED author, Jonathan D. Simon, is a co-founder and the current Executive Director of Election Defense Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 to restore observable vote counting and electoral integrity as the foundation of American democracy. His expertise in polling and statistical analysis derives from his former employment as a political survey research analyst in Washington, DC.

Dr. Simon has authored, both individually and in collaboration, numerous papers related to various aspects of election integrity. He has appeared in several election integrity-related films and as an interviewee on several dozen live programs. He has collaborated with a large number of election integrity colleagues and organizations and has been active in election integrity efforts since 2001. He invites those readers interested in exchanging views to contact him through LinkedIn or the CODE RED website, www.CODERED2014.com.

Dr. Simon is a graduate of Harvard College (’78), New York University School of Law (’86), and New York Chiropractic College (’90). He is admitted to the Bar of Massachusetts and since 1993 has operated an interdisciplinary healthcare facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts.