...gave itself a mandate to "report to Congress." Its origins are murky (American University). It's headed by a guy who hangs out with neocons and pushed the Iraq war. It was stacked with electronic voting interests, and excluded other testimony--in the couple of poorly publicized "hearings" that it held in DC and Houston.
They call themselves "commissioners." They are nothing of the kind. There is nothing official about them, and Congress did not solicit this "report"--although the Bush Cartel probably did. Grand self-written title: "The Commission on Federal Election Reform"; "under the auspices of American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management."
For further info, see: DU's "2004 Election Results and Discussion Forum," where considerable work has been done on this private "commission" that sprang out of nowhere with James Baker co-chairing with Jimmy Carter. In particular, see today's notices at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x394051And see the web sites listed below.
James Baker is a snake in the grass--a major Bush Cartel player, who engineered coup I, in 2000. I'm still not sure what to think of Carter's role. He sometimes puts himself in pretty dicey situations to help warring parties reach a peaceful resolution. I'm not ruling out that he may be trying to do good. Just don't know. And I'm very, very, VERY suspicious of this group.
My major concern is that what is happening here is federalization of our elections under Bush Cartel (and Diebold and ES&S) control--in order to head off real reform in local/state venues, where the power over election systems still resides (as per the Constitution) and where ordinary people still have some influence.
The Voter ID is chilling and extremely scary. But what is equally scary is the call for uniform standards. I completely disagree with this. I think the variety we have in our states is our strength--because what's to stop this very terrible Congress from forbidding paper ballots (our best guarantee of all votes being counted) as "not uniform"? And what's to stop them from MANDATING paperless electronic voting, or half-assed "paper trail" voting, or even designating Bushite electronic voting machine companies as the only ones who "meet the uniform standards"?
They're doing it with Halliburton in New Orleans (as they did in Iraq)--only Halliburton was ready, only Halliburton was qualified, i.e., no-bid, no competition contracts, with profits guaranteed and no performance conditions.
As for Congress doing anything positive on this matter, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....
I'm sorry. It's just too funny. Bush "pod people" in Congress are the ones who set about deliberately to corrupt our election system forevermore, by appropriating $4 billion to the states--back in 2001-2002--for the purchase of electronic voting systems from major Bush donors and campaign chairs and far rightwing billionaires (Diebold and ES&S, mostly), with no ban on "trade secret" vote tabulation, no ban on corporate partisanship (like head of Diebold being Bush/Cheney campaign chair in Ohio), no auditing controls (Tom Delay blocked even the minimal accountability of a "paper trail"), and no controls on lavish lobbying and "revolving door" employment.
It was made to order for fraud.
What they created was a boondoggle, with these Bushite companies selling shoddy wares to the states--extremely unreliable, insecure, hackable computers, that no one in officialdom (let alone most voters) understood--with contracts that permitted SECRET, PROPRIETARY vote tabulation, and that hogtied the states to expensive, long term servicing contracts, which, among other evils, permits on-going access to voting machines and voting data by private company personnel, and even internal modems by which the company can access the voting machinery.
Absolutely, mind-bogglingly corrupt, in every way. And most of the Dem election officials fell for it, too--or loved that lavish lobbying!
Check out this hogfest at the Beverly Hilton this August--a week of fun, sun and high-end shopping for election officials from around the country, sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. It'll burn your eyeballs.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340Our former Repub Sec of State in Calif, Bill Jones, and his chief aide Alfie Charles, who authorized electronic voting systems including Sequoia systems in Calif, now work for Sequoia.
The man who succeeded him, Dem Kevin Shelley--a leader among the few honest Sec's of State in the country--was driven from office, on trivial, unproven charges of corruption, after he sued Diebold and decertified the worst of their election theft machines, and provided Californians with a paper ballot option, prior to the 2004 election. The corruption? He was accused of "misusing" HAVA funds. And what was that about (upon investigation)? He refused to release HAVA funds to county officials for the purchase of shoddy, unreliable, insecure electronic voting machines that could not produce a paper trail!
A total railroad, it was. I think black ops by the Bush Cartel.
One of the people who drove him from office was the Dem head of elections in Los Angeles, Connie McCormack, who is an advocate of Diebold and paperless voting, and whose best friend--who she wines and dines and vacations with--is Deborah Seiler, former chief salesperson for Diebold in Calif.
So, if you're wondering why Dems would be SO INSANE as to permit BUSHITE CORPORATIONS to get SECRET CONTROL over vote tabulation, this is why: corruption. (--and I think there are some other reasons, connected to the grass roots antiwar movement that elected John Kerry--some Dem powers did not want a prez who was beholden to the antiwar grass roots.)
When computer expert Kim Alexander--who runs a public education web site on electronics in government--challenged McCormack's faith in these electronic systems, McCormack's reply was, "She's not a professional."
So that's what it comes down to. A snobbish elite of lavishly lobbied election officials lording and ladying it--with the esoteric gobble-de-gook of electronic voting--over the dumb voters who haven't a clue any more how their votes are counted. And unless you're "one of them" (bought and paid for), you're not "a professional."
Connie McCormack was a featured speaker at the hogfest at the Beverly Hilton. (One of the things she said about Shelley, in a CA leg meeting, was she wanted to "bulldoze" his office, to get at that HAVA loot..ahem, to get him to release the funds for the election theft machines...)
This phony report, assembled by this phony private "commission," says nothing about the secret, proprietary programming code owned and controlled by Bushite corporations, according to the news reports. Nor did the recent DNC report (written by pre-Deaners, the people who threw the election).
I mean, WHAT ELSE IS THERE to talk about? Phony election, "tabulated" by Busites behind closed doors. Phony commission, with phony, official-sounding name. Phony reports. Phony Democrats. Thieving, murdering Republicans, and rampant fascism, with the poor and the weak and the black left to rot and die.
It's not that there were PROBLEMS in the 2004 election (as this phony private "commission" is apparently saying). It's that the election SYSTEM itself was FRAUDULENT going in. It was non-transparent, and unverifiable, and the Bushites obviously used that non-transparency--intentionally set up beforehand--to steal another election.
What will happen when Bush's "pod people" in Congress gets its hands on this report, is that they will use it to require a uniform Voter ID across the country, by which they will centralize voter data and purge large numbers of Democrats from the voting rolls. A few good Dems may squawk, to no avail. And that will be the end of our democracy.
They don't even have to do anything further. But they probably will go further, and lock the thing up hard and fast, by requiring electronic voting and eliminating paper ballots, in all states. And that will be the end of hope for our election reform movement. The only remedy then will be secession from the union.
Theoretically, the Constitution protects the states' right to control elections. But this Congress is capable of, literally, anything--and might just ignore that provision, too (along with the Bill of Rights, and the balance of powers--and laws against torture and preemptive war). Some Sec's of State might object--it's their bailiwick, after all. And, in that case, they might try to do it under the "uniform standards" banner--claiming that they are not changing the Constitution.
I fear the worst.
I am not surprised by it, though. This report was as expected. Some on the DU elections thread thinks it's hopeful that they're even talking about a "paper trail"--because that wasn't in anyone's consciousness a year ago. And the call for non-partisan election administration is good. Yeah, well. They'll cherry pick this report--just as they did Iraq intel--and take the bad (Voter ID) and ignore the good.
It could be said that our democracy ended on Nov. 2, 2004. If so, the moment of its ending occurred late that day, when the TV networks, acting in concert, FALSIFIED their own exit polls (which Kerry won) to "fit" the "official result" derived from Diebold's and ES&S's SECRET, PROPRIETARY formulae (Bush won)--thus denying the American people major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation.
The war profiteering corporate news monopolies had never breathed a word about the secret programming or who now owns and controls our elections. They could hardly be bothered even to notice massive violations of the Voting Rights Act in Ohio. Nor did the Democratic leadership. There was a conspiracy to keep the Bush Cartel in power for more looting by the very rich, is all I can figure.
The election system failed us.
The Democrats failed us.
Journalism failed us.
What is left of our democracy?
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But it's not over yet, and never will be, as long as the dream of democracy is alive in some hearts. For those who want to help restore our right to vote, here are two good web sites for information and action suggestions:
USCountVotes.org: They have a plan to monitor the 2006 elections, and be ready with statistical info to help challenge any questionable results. They need donations!
VotersUnite.org: (Note: .org NOT .com). They publish an excellent pamphlet called "Myth Breakers," which simply and clearly explains the problems with electronic voting, and how to fix them. They urge you to send this pamphlet to all election officials and other reps.
Freepress.org, Bradblog.com and Solarbus.org are also excellent sites for election information.
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We need...
Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)
or, at the least...
Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% automatic recount, very strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code! (...jeez!).
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You know what the difference is between Venezuela and the United States? Venezuela also has electronic voting, but they have OPEN SOURCE CODE--so that anyone may inspect how the votes are tabulated.
Open source code = good president.
Secret, proprietary source code = bad president.
It's pretty simple, really.
(Transparent elections are a no-brainer--and if they'd wanted a transparent election in 2004, why didn't we have one?)
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Note: The difference between a "paper trail" and a "paper ballot" is that a "paper ballot" has legal standing in any recounts or audits. It takes precedence over any electronic results. A "paper trail" has no such standing, and can be discarded in favor of the "results" produced by the secret electronic programming code.
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