♪ jackson,ichael r courier dispatch. i'm on my way to the grand opening of what i consider to be .he greatest show on earth it's the first time it has played in 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. a man i wrote about in a series of new stories did. my beat is the county courthouse and if you know anything about county courthouses, that is democracy possible showplace.

i do not 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 that this is going to be a flag-waving production. 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 is curtains time. ♪ >> here is not necessarily star

in this particular show. you like to say he is, but it wouldn't be quite true in this case. this 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 can legislate yourself all the laws you want about the right to vote, but whether or not you have an active electorate cannot comes down like everything else of consequence, through a matter of action on the part of a very few men and what kind of arrangements they make. in your community, it might be another official like your councilman. in hours, it's the councils who have the assignment of seeing there's a means for every american to run his country between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on the first tuesday in november.

voting machines are 60 years old and being used by half the voters in america. to do that here. they got me on their team when commissioner will miller told us about the ease and speed of working with machines over paper ballots. when the voter is properly qualified, the attending election official admits to the machine, the citizen moves the operating lever to the right which locks out the world. for the first time, the secret ballot is really secret and their are over 19 and a half centuries invested in achieving just that. the voters flex the candidates by turning the pointers directly above the names of his

candidate. then he records and counts his own though 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 human hands or mines. that is a long step up from tyranny. the ballot is right at the eye level of the voter and easily read. sameandidates are at the level. no candidate suffers from being placed in an unfavorable position. serviceher one over clubs by reminding them of the large number of voters who are disenfranchised every year at the paper ballot polls by making mistakes.

busy people make checkmarks on the ballot in states where exes are required. they might as well have stayed home. at vote is a no vote and doesn't count. it is illegal. many find at the last minute they have accidentally voted for the wrong man or they have changed their mind. it doesn't count. you know election pencils. good try, sir, but this ballot will be thrown out. or, in the multiple-choice offices, errors are frequent. he is entitled to choose five state representatives.

but as mark six. this is a no vote. but out ofake, yes, every 1000 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, war or fear. it can happen here. not for well-intentioned ends -- but well-intentioned mistakes in the age of the voting machine, which cannot make a check mark instead of a next, which does let you change your mind by simply pushing the pointer backup, which has no pencil to break or paper to tear, which will not let you vote for more then you are allowed.

questions and issues are placed at the top of the ballot. they are mark yes and no more the machine will not let you spoil your ballot by voting both ways. and, when you are satisfied with your vote, a new privilege waits. you will register and count your own vote by returning this handle. walk away knowing your ballot cannot be disqualified, thrown out or miscounted. it is counted the moment you leave. can the machine make a mistake -- nor can the machine make a

mistake. it cannot be opened except by a key which halts all voting on that machine for the day. it looks complex, but it's not a complex mechanical action. because of the large number of voting units in it. each voting assembly has a straight linkage and rugged action like this. voting machines are not a new idea. their use has steadily increased since last year. about half of our american voters voted by machine.

why? the first answer was it is fast and easy. just three simple steps. red operatinge handle to the right. your candidate to count and record your own vote. why else machine voting?

absolute secret balloting. about thato trouble in this county, but we don't want that either. the commissioner understood about fear and it's a very subtle thing. voters opinion is in the machine, not any piece of paper which passes from hand to hand. machine question mark the automatic voting machine eliminates the disenfranchisement which comes from mistakes, ballot relations, checks instead of exes, erasures for voting for too many candidates. every vote that is cast is

counted. the count is mechanically accurate. and of interest to me and 170 billion others is after the last voter, the election results are available. these cannot be exposed during the voting day. exposure locks the machine against further voting. once open, the result is available right now. resultr can get the which means they can get the results hours earlier. just read the figures off the counters and then check the recorded figures back against the counters, announce the results in five to 10 minutes. about the good old days?

ifnting was a five hour job things went smoothly. well, then it was five

days. but the mechanical counters cannot get tired, cannot get cranky, cannot forget. why voting machines? money. voting machines vote more people much faster, therefore, you can consolidate your precinct. sometimes even 241. cut in half your need for hard to find election work. example,wisconsin, for illuminated 170 election workers by a day's pay70 , you see what kind of savings we are talking about. plus accounting takes a quarter

of an hour as opposed to three to six hours. fewer people, fewer hours equals fewer dollars. not always, but in our type count, yes. then, take your printing costs. paper ballots require one ballot for every voter. voting machines, one printed ballot per machine. and of course, they have just won a countywide recount and your machines are nearly home free. money was not chiefly on the commissioner's mind. something else -- the man who took the lead is a seasoned professional career politician, unemotional. that is why he knew democracy as an idea and practice had to

compete in this county like everything else for the attention of our people pressing the clock hard every day. it has to compete against speed and motion, regrettably, even against america's second cup of coffee. everything else competes hard for the citizens increasingly valuable time. our churches were modernizing with parking lot you can get into fast. our marketplaces were automating to compete for its time and dollar. schools modernized to command and respect the tax dollar. the tools which every citizen uses every day in his job of fantasticallye automatic and fast as industry moves through automation.

and even his home life is automatic and modern. but the one place where the average citizen participates in a political system that made it all possible, no change. democracy is the foundation, the heart of that democracy is the poll, which is still being run in our county the way they were when we held inauguration day on march the fourth, so the president would have three months to ride his horse to washington. the driving question on the commissioner's mind -- can democracy compete with its right hand tied to a hitching post?

♪ his answer? in our county, and what i consider the greatest show on earth, it is bringing out the people. as the commissioner likes to say, we have really become one of the freedom curtain counties. ♪ >> tired of following 2016 campaign news? this election even election night, american history tv will travel back in time with our series "road to the white house rewind." archivalring you

presidential coverage including victory and concession speeches and campaign films from 1956 campaign of dwight eisenhower through the 2000 election between al gore and george w. bush. monday and tuesday at 8 p.m. eastern time on c-span3. providing context for today's public affairs issues. library of congress packer campus preserves and provides access to the library's vast collection of films, and sound programs recordings. american history tv visited the packer campus to learned about the earliest public affairs films, including u.s. presidents, the spanish-american war, world war i, and the first ever political ad created in 1912 by the democratic party. >> my