Do the people who run our elections believe in democracy?

Nobody has yet explained why the machinery of our elections must be privatized. But if private enterprise must provide the equipment, we have a right to demand that the owners of those companies share a bedrock belief in democracy.

Guess what? They don't.

There are only a few large providers of voting equipment, and the ownership of these companies is incestuous. Perhaps the largest of these firms is ES&S, previously known as American Information Systems, which was owned by Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., heir to a savings and loan fortune. Ahmanson is not just a right-wing Christian, not just a fundamentalist -- he is a believer in Dominionism, or Christian Reconstruction.

These are fancy ways of saying he believes in theocracy. As Howard himself once put it: "My purpose is total integration of Biblical law into our lives."

Those unconvinced of Biblical inerrancy may not want a man who thinks this way counting our votes.

The Ahmanson family (who all apparently buy into the let-Jesus-run-everything theory of governance) has a sneaky habit of hiding their ownership. Some years back, Howard sold his shares to an investment firm called the McCarthy group and the World Herald Co. (Both those names carry interesting connotations, if you mull them over.) One of the listed owners and directors of the McCarthy Group was Nebraskan Chuck Hagel, who just happened to win an upset victory in the 1996 Senate race. I need not tell you which firm counted the votes.

But did the theocratic Ahmanson family truly leave the ES&S picture?

Nope. The majority of stock is owned by Robert Ahmanson, nephew to paterfamilias Howard Ahmanson Sr., to whom he was closer than most nephews.

He lived in Hancock Park with his Uncle Howard, who, he says, "became like a brother to me." In 1947 Howard began Home Savings of America which would grow into a leading lending institution; in 1952 the Ahmanson Foundation was born.

Ahmanson was a part of the family business from the beginning, and later served as director and officer of the company for many years. Carrying on the family commitment, Ahmanson took leadership of the foundation in 1974.

I think it is fair to suspect that Robert shares the family preference for a Christian theocracy.

And now you see why private firms should not provide election equipment.