Unfortunately today many
young people don't know the moral of a pig in a poke, so please let
me explain. Years ago it was common, particularly in the South, for
people to take a sack with them to carry things in. If they bought or
found something they wanted, they would poke it into the sack. Thus
the term poke sack or just poke for short. Now a swindler might try
to sell someone a pig in a poke. They would show the poke with
something moving about inside it. They would say that they can't open
the sack to show the pig because it might escape and run away. No one
in their right mind would buy the pig in the swindler's poke sack.
The sack might contain a snake, a squirrel or another small animal.
If it did contain a pig, it might be a runt, deformed or diseased.
The moral is to know what you're buying, not a pig in a poke.
Let's apply this to
voting. If we told our vote to someone on the other side of a
curtain, would we believe that the other person recorded our vote
correctly without viewing it? The effect is the same with voting machines. We can't see how our votes are recorded. It is the equivalent of buying a pig in
a poke. (The gist of this illustration is from the documentary
“Absolute Interference.”)
If the vote
counting/tallying does not have transparent/verifiable observation by
independent judges, then it is a pig in a poke. If voting machines
and the software that operates them cannot be inspected by
independent computer forensic experts, then they are a pig in a poke.
We must demand independent verifiable audits. Don't buy a pig in a
poke!
