PROTECT YOUR ELECTION!

[Impolitico]

HKCG|Metropol (www.hkcgmetropol.com) is pleased to unveil its new t-shirt design on behalf of web-based polipundit Impolitico (www.impolitico.com).

The t-shirt, which depicts U.S. President George W. Bush with a Hitler moustache, was conceived as a protest statement articulating the strong sentiment among world citizens that the American president seeks to abolish diversity, revise American society as a neo-Christian theocracy, and streamroll world democracy and the will of the people.

“What’s happening right now in this country mirrors what happened at the dawn of the Nazi party in Germany,” said Impolitico author Louis Wotton. “Hitler used xenophobia and the specter of terrorism to create a cultural climate that nurtured fascism and ultimately the holocaust. Bush is using exactly the same methods to achieve his political goals. I wanted to make a statement about that, and I asked HKCG|Metropol to help me do it.”

Furthermore, HKCG|Metropol has decided to put its money where its mouth is by funding the effort to expose voter fraud in the 2004 presidential election.

“HKCG|Metropol is committed to fighting for democracy and clean elections. As such, we will donate 15% of every Impolitico product we sell to BlackBoxVoting.org (www.blackboxvoting.org),” said Creative Director Drioux Galvan. “We think it’s profoundly urgent that the true voice of the people is heard, and we’re pleased to have this opportunity to support the cause.”

Pre-orders are now being accepted for the shirt, which will begin shipping December 1. Buy the t-shirt online now at the HKCG|Metropol retail shop: http://store.hkcgmetropol.net/

Also available for pre-order are a mousepad and an office mug, each featuring the Bush montage. These will ship January 2.

PROTECT YOUR ELECTION!



(x-posted all over the place -- please x-post to other users & communities)

[Demit]

1. I'm not sure that people who loathe this man want to wear his face, or

look at it every day at their computer. Just a thought.

[Impolitico]

3. LOL

And a reasonable consideration.

I think the statement the visual makes outweighs (for me, at least) any ickies I might get from being plastered with a montage. It's an alarm call. I want to stimulate dialogue.

[ladjf]

2. There is only one way to guarantee that the election results

are valid:

In one way or another every vote must be recorded in a final voting log and must be accessible to the voters for self-verification. This means that every voter must have some unique identifying voting number
or ID, known only to the voter and have that number posted publicly
along with the vote results for the voter's ID.

The voter could (1) be given an assigned number a voter registration
(2) create his personal ID at registration or (3) personal ID could
be verified to voters SS# (that would never be made public).

Once the voter has his/her unique ID or number, he/she could verify the results of the votes either (a) on line (b) on a posted log at the polling site or (c) a local newspaper supplement (paid for by Federal Govt.) That supplement might be a long as 40 or 50 pages. But, the public publishing of the voting results is the key to the entire process.

There may be other ways to secure the election process. This one would work. As we now stand. DEMOCRACY IS OVER in the USA. Democracy is based upon honest elections. We all know that the elections were rigged.

The next question is how to get this or another good system implemented? The Republicans are more than satisfied with the abomination we have at present. It won't be easy.

One possibility is to get the system accepted one precinct at a time.
The people using it will be pleased with the results. No more worrying about fraud. You see your vote and the tally of your precinct votes. This would have to spread from the ground up rather than the other way around.

Another consideration is this. Almost 100% of Democrats are dissatisfied with the current system. And don't forget, not all Republicans are involved in voter fraud, only the leadership. There are millions of Republicans who are concerned about voting integrity.
Perhaps a combination of almost 100% of Democrats and say 50% of Republicans. That's a majority. That majority could pressure Congress to adopt a better voting system.

[Impolitico]

4. Maybe it can be RESURRECTED.

I think having any system of insight into the voting habits of specifically identified citizens is a bad idea, fraught with potential for misuse and disaster. We have a blind system for a reason.... But we do need to keep the blind system TRANSPARENT. That's the only way we can verify legitimacy. We have to have watchdogs. 'Democracy' cannot be just a word.

[ladjf]

5. Your comment:

"I think having any system of insight into the voting habits of specifically identified citizens is a bad idea, fraught with potential for misuse and disaster."


Why would we worry that possibly a system that connected the votes to a specific citizen could have the POTENTIAL for misuse and duster?
What we now have is already a total disaster which, at this point,
has totally stopped the Democratic process. We now have no Democracy.
There are ways to connect the voter to the vote without endangering
the privacy issue.

Every time I post my suggestions, I'm bombarded with rebuttals that say the same, "It's too dangerous to connect voter and votes."
I say that we already know that it's too dangerous not to connect the voter and votes.

Further, when we go to the polls to vote, the poll worker gives you
a voting card that has a unique number on it. What that does is allow
insiders to know what your number is and could track your vote, while
you the voter have no way to verify that your vote was cast as you wised for it to be. We don't have privacy now.

I am suggesting a system in which no one would know your ID code except you and you use that ID to verify that vote was properly recorded. What's so dangerous about that?

The big problem is not whether this system or any other good system would work but how can be get any reformed system in place when the Republicans are delighted with the fraud potentials of the current system?

[Impolitico]

6. Re:

So far as I'm aware any number or identifying information on your voter card is not on the ballot you fill out. At least, there was nothing of the kind here in Massachusetts.

For one thing, making the technical standard for balloting consistent across the board would probably help with all the mismanagement and counting anomalies..... Though I think in the case of this election (and definitely the last one), the help provided by consistent balloting would be pretty minimal as there are larger problems....

If you connect the vote to the voter, you open the door to voter intimidation. What happens when the the Republican company you work for gets ahold of your voting record through a black market purchase and uses your job to coerce your vote? Think it can't happen? It already has, to a degree; there were numerous reports leading up to the elections of heavily conservative companies trying to coerce their employees into voting republican - I'm sure I even heard of one company asking employees to sign a petition committing to the Republican party, though I don't have the information in front of me and can't link you to it. Point is -- it happens, it has happened, it continues to happen.

And that's just the stuff that's 'officialized'. How many people in 'the red states' are afraid to be outed at work as 'liberals' or democrats because of the hostile conservative climate encouraged either by management or simply their co-workers. I've heard from more than one person (friends and family members) that, for them, politics are carefully avoided in their professional life for fear of dire professional repercussions. (Would those repercussions be illegal? Of course. Doesn't mean it won't happen. Try to take comfort in the fact that your termination for political reasons was illegal when you can't pay the rent....)

[ladjf]

7. I understand exactly what your valid point is.

Perhaps I haven't thought through enough to devise a method that would be secure against the types of abuses that you have pointed out.


Consider this scenario.

The voter goes to the polls to vote as it is now.

The voter gets his electronic voting card as now.

But, prior to casting the vote, the voter, either through keypad
or voice enter his/her personal ID code, then votes.

Since there aren't any unique connections between the voter and the card, the only one who would know the ID is the user. Any list of the voting results would include all of the unique ID's, which would be of no use for the fraud doers.

Let me state once again the principle for valid results. The voter needs to have a way to verify after the fact that his vote was properly recorded. And it needs to be a method that the voter is the only one who can verify the validity of the vote.

That leaves only one possibility for fraud, which is that the voter could sell his vote and verify it to the purchaser. To get around this it might be necessary for the voter to confirm to vote in person
and alone at the designated voting place.

Help me here. What we now have is already a disaster.

Another thing is for sure. We can't keep allowing the heads of the voting operations by state to be appointed by partisans, i.e. the Kath Harris or Blackwell scams.

[Impolitico]

9. Re:

Well part of the problem with that is the assumption that every voter is going to be concerned enough about tampering to actually revisit their vote after the fact and verify that it was tallied correctly. I think that may be unrealistic.

I suppose you could have a blind database of voter IDs not attached to real identities- a voter ID that only the voter herself knows and can use to verify her vote after the fact, but in that case you could have two people insisting the same voter ID is theirs- each with opposing votes. How do you solve it if the ID database is blind? Who do you believe?

If it's NOT blind, then we're back to square one with the issue of voter identification and its consequences.

[ladjf]

10. Impolitico:

I didn't have in mind the idea that ALL of the voters would verify.
The power of the idea would be that since the potential was there
to self verify, irregularities could be corrected whether from fraud or errors. In situations like we are seeing in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and other places, it would alert the voters to check their votes.

Your question about the blind ID is technically valid in that there could be a situation with two voters claiming the same blind ID but with differing votes. First, I'm assuming that the software wouldn't have allowed for duplicate ID's therefore if two are claiming the same ID one of them is lying. This suggests the need for an ID receipt
printed and presented to the voter right after the vote was cast.
This does open a door for vote selling. But, could that be widespread enough to make a significant difference. And votes could be bought now
but not verified to the purchaser.

What is your suggestion for the best plan to stop voter fraud?

Let's work on yours for awhile.

[Wapsie B]

8. That's a very good idea.

Something's got to change.

[ladjf]

11. As Impolitico has pointed out, there are some risk involved

with a system that matches voter to the votes. But, I believe
that they could be solved. Just about anything is better than what we now have.

[miss_kitty]

12. Here's a link to a telling shot

I'd post it here, but it'll change-miss_kitty

http://www.hypocrites.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&thold=-1&mode=flat&order=1&sid=14873#10521

[Impolitico]

15. Heh heh...

I dunno why I didn't see this the other day....

Yeah, that's amusing LOL Seems like theres a lot of shots like that floating around, he seems to be fond of the gesture.

I especially love this shot of him at the Clinton Library trying to wedge past Clinton going through the front door. Once a putz, always a putz.

[FatwaMorgana]

13. Cool

Cool image, and I understand your message.

[Impolitico]

14. Re:

Hopefully the message will stick.

Cheers!