frustrated post that I made back in August. It should be clear to many more folks now what is going on in our country regarding electronic voting machines. This post was in response to another poster that expressed the opinion that a general strike and "surgical" boycott would cause undue economic harm.
It is my humble opinion that when forces of totalitarian repression reach a certain level of control, they can no longer be effectively challenged through normal democratic legal processes, and that using other methods of asserting the will of the People are necessary in order for a subject population to battle the forces that oppress them.
If we do not find a way to put a permanent end to all forms of electronic voting, the United States will never again be a Democracy.-----------
....boycott, the country will not be able to fire on all cylinders. We could conduct a mass email campaign among Democrats. Our internet media sources could publicize it. Perhaps an organization like Moveon could support it. We could present the facts about the electronic voting issue to the media prior to the strike, and blast our legislators with letters, faxes, phone calls and emails describing why we are striking and boycotting.
We have been ignored and discounted, despite our presentations of the massive evidence which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the American people do not have confidence in electronic voting, because results from these machines are demonstrably not reasonably verifiable, and that the machines themselves have been proven to be riddled with technical problems making them unacceptable for use in any election in the United States. Etc.
This could be our one demand:
In the interests of a verifiable, fully auditable, and honest democratic election, all electronic voting in the US will be suspended for the November elections, and all voting precincts that plan to use electronic voting machines must substitute paper and pen ballots based on the Canadian model.
We are the People. We are supposed to be the Government. Our "Government" is refusing to listen to us.
From the Declaration of Independence:
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
We are confronted with an imminent threat to our democracy. If we are not reasonably guaranteed a free and fair election, and because it has become clear that many republican legislators have refused to listen to our requests and take legislative action in the interests of the people, and are directly supporting methods of election fraud for the purposes of a creating a one party despotism, then we are no longer a democracy. It is our right, and our duty, to preserve our democratic processes. Electronic voting machines must not be used in the November elections under any circumstances. We must force them take acceptable legislative action, through every non-violent legal method necessary, to provide us with the means of conducting a transparently fair, honest, and verifiable election process.
What would happen if 5 or 10 million people got the Black Box flu and did not show up for work or buy anything for one week? Would it have enough effect for the media to have no choice but to bring the electronic voting issue into every living room, and in the face of every legislator?
The time has come for us to collectively realize the FACT that our legislators are NOT going to take the necessary steps to pass these bills unless they are forced into it by direct economic action by the People.
I am very aware of the Holt bill and the Graham bill.
Here is a letter from Howard Dean to Chairman Ney regarding a paper trail, which was accompanied by a petition signed by over 120,000 American citizens:
To the Honorable Robert Ney and the Congress of the United States:
We must act now to ensure that our voting systems produce accurate and verifiable results. Some states are planning to use machines that will not allow voters to verify their choices. This means that any flaws in the machine or software will never be caught – and no recount will be possible.
And the head of the largest e-voting machine company – who is a major contributor to George Bush and has promised to deliver Ohio to him – asks that we just trust him.
Today we call on you to require any electronic voting machine used in this election to produce a paper trail – one that allows voters to verify their choices and officials to conduct recounts.
Signed,
S/Howard Dean
http://www.house.gov/cha/deanlettertext.htm Here is the Chairman of the Committee on House Administration Ney's ( a republican) total BULLSHIT response to this letter from Howard Dean regarding our petition for a paper trail. (IMO, a must read):
Dear Governor Dean,
I am in receipt of your letter dated June 22, 2004 and the accompanying petition you indicate has been signed by 127,469 persons. I note your website continues to solicit signatures for the petition (along with contributions to your organization).
Left-wing groups like yours and America Coming Together that are exploiting this issue to inflame your supporters and raise money for yourselves are recklessly making claims that are unsupported by the facts. You should realize that if your demands to retrofit all electronic voting machines with printers before November 2004 were met, it would ensure an electoral meltdown that would make our last presidential election look orderly by comparison. In calling for nationwide deployment of a voting system that has never been used successfully in a single election in this country, you are doing a great disservice to the voting public you purport to defend.
The arguments of “paper trail” proponents like yourself can be boiled down to one central assertion, i.e., that paper ballots are the only way to ensure an accurate election. You should recall that the ballots cast in Florida in November 2000 were cast on paper. Furthermore, every documented episode of election fraud in our nation’s history has been perpetrated through the manipulation of paper ballots.
snip------
The issues surrounding the security of electronic voting are currently being reviewed by the Election Assistance Commission, in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. I am confident the experts at these organizations are fully capable of determining the extent to which problems may exist with these systems, and if they do exist, making recommendations about how to address them. That is the appropriate way to handle this issue, not by making uninformed and premature legislative decisions based on misinformation and hysteria.
http://www.house.gov/cha/neyresponsetext.htm Ney just basically told us all to fuck off in this response. Obviously, the wishes of 120,000 plus "peasants" mean nothing to Ney. He is an arrogant, fascist asshole. How does that feel to you? Do you get the sense that republicans are going to act on these bills?
Let's strike and boycott and force assholes like Robert Ney to deal with electronic voting. His corporate masters will force him to take action if we cut their profits.
Here is a petition I signed, what was it, seems like a year or more ago? (Anyone that hasn't signed it yet, please do)
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm?i... These bills are being held up by republican dominated committees, and republican legislators are refusing to sign on to them. Do you honestly believe that republicans are going to allow these bills to go through committee?
Bill status:
H.R.2239
Title: To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Holt, Rush D. (introduced 5/22/2003) Cosponsors (149)
Related Bills: S.1980
Latest Major Action: 5/22/2003 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
S.1980
Title: A bill to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Graham, Bob (introduced 12/9/2003) Cosponsors (5)
Related Bills: H.R.2239
Latest Major Action: 12/9/2003 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.
If Bu$h steals the election, it will already be too late to do anything about it. Republicans have already placed themselves above the law and the will of the people. No legal redress, no matter how valid, will be considered. We should have learned that by now from the results of the 2000 election and the subsequent actions over the past 3+ of our republican controlled government and judiciary.
I am really glad that all those nice folks that fought tooth and nail to found this nation did not consider temporary (and rapidly declining) economic comfort and security to be more of a priority than creating a democracy.
At least, thanks to them, we got to enjoy about 220 years of relative democracy before it ended.
We have little more than 2 months left before the election. If a strike and a boycott sound like extreme measures, then I suggest extreme measures are called for. Jefferson was called an extremist also. Fortunately, most of the people in America at that time were not yet comfortably numb, and realized that all the talk in the world was not going to get them what they wanted. They had to take action, and the action they took made them all extremely uncomfortable. I guess that they thought that living in an independent democracy was worth their temporary extreme discomfort.
Approximately one third of all voters in the US are going to use non-auditable electronic voting devices in the elections this November.
I guess it is just best to sit back and relax on the couch, sip a latte, turn on a "Sex and the City" rerun, and hope that Bu$h and the republicans do not use electronic voting machines to steal the November election.
And I do not at all mean to disparage the efforts all the folks that have been so committed, and have been working so hard for so long on this issue for all of us. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
But it's getting awfully late. Are we going to win if we do not take another course of action as well?
It's up to y'all. I've been striking and boycotting and working against Bu$h since the day the Supreme Court selected Bu$h. I don't know what else to do.
If someone has a better, more effective way of stopping electronic voting from taking place in November, count me in.
Nothing, no people, no business, no nada, is unrelated to this issue. Bu$h gets selected by BBV, and we all go down. You get a one party fascist totalitarian state. We, the People, lose. Lose. Forever.
What is so damn difficult to understand?:
We, the People, want paper ballots. Paper and pen. Paper and pen. Ballots we can actually see, and count, and recount. Like Canada does so efficiently. Ballots that you and I can count. God dammit, what the heck is so difficult to understand about this?
UNDUE economic harm? I repeat, UNDUE economic harm?
You want to trade your microwavable snacks and your lattes and your lame RW TV shows and your SUV paid for on credit for your democracy?
If you do, then you can kiss my red blooded America loving ass.
Raise fucking "awareness" all you want. Now, this is a good thing. I try to do it every day. The sad fact is, it is too little, too late. There are only little more than 2 months before the election.
Unless someone has some information that will miraculously change the fact that one third of all US voters are going to vote in the fairyland of manipulable, inauditable cyberspace in November.
I work my ass off everyday to get people to register to vote for John Kerry.
What good is it going to do if their votes are not counted correctly?
What good is it going to do if they vote for John Kerry, and their vote for Kerry is not counted, or goes to Bu$h?
The thing is, Pat, I guess I'm just not very good at telling people that Bu$h is a genuine, bonafide, certifiable fascist, and that the republicans are going to use electronic voting devices to steal the election in 2004 and create a one party totalitarian state. I have this tendency to be overly frank and candid. Maybe I'm just too extreme.
But it does not seem to me that "moderates" have done a whole lot of good relative to the BBV issue. Only the "extremist", activists have. Activists. ACTIVE.
Well, I guess it really does come down to what I need to do. I guess I'm hoping that the underground can be the springboard for an active campaign to make "our" government listen to us, and take steps to to provide the means for a genuine transparently verifiable democratic election.
I need to kick every comfortably numb semi-concerned American ass into effective action. Like I tried to do in 2000 about our election being stolen, when no one would listen, when I was screaming bloody murder about how Bu$h would be a war mongering, civil liberty stealing corrupt fascist, because they were too GD concerned with their mini-me economic security, lattes, and their favorite TV shows. AAAArgh!
Wake the fuck up!
"I think I'll just continue to try to hedge my bets for the next election by raising awareness of the issues surrounding the use of this technology and enlisting the help of anyone I can get to actually register and vote or, better yet, get out there and act as poll watchers."
Well, good fucking luck, amigo. (Personally, I'm not a gambler, and don't take risks unless I've got a 90% plus sure thing. And we have a little more than 2 months left. You get Bu$h, you lose everything. You stop electronic voting, Kerry wins, Dem Senate, and you hit the jackpot.) I do all the "socially and politically acceptable" things also, in a different environment. I am arranging it so that American citizens who will vote against Bu$h, and who live in Mexico, will get absentee ballots so that they will vote. I have offered to drive people, at no cost to them whatsoever, thousands of miles to their local polling stations in the US in order for them to cast their ballot against Bu$h.
But I reiterate: Our government is, almost completely, compromised by RW corporate interests. If you can't recognize this fact, then I can say with full confidence that you don't know jack shit about what is going on in this country. Once Bu$h is selected, all legal challenges will be moot. No exit polls, and no proof that you present about voter fraud, will overturn a Bu$h selection. I'm not saying don't go full on and try everything possible, I'm just saying that, when it comes down to the bottom line of the Supreme Court, they are going to select Bu$h. Because 5 conservative Supreme Court Justices have already proven that they are compromised, and do not make decisions according to law and fairness, but according to their partisan, republican bias.
I may be wrong. I hope that I am. But I have very little past evidence that would make me doubt the accuracy of my statements. The SCOTUS decision regarding the 2000 election and the Florida recount weighs heavily upon my mind. 5 justices of the SCOTUS were provably wrong at that time, and they damn well knew that their decision was wrong at the time that they made it.
So, what will poll watchers do? Complain about irregularities? Do you really expect your right wing republican government and your biased right wing SCOTUS to overturn a fraudulent election in which their puppet was elected?
Give me a break. The time for action is before the election, not after. Can anyone guarantee me, an American citizen, an honest, transparently verifiable election in which electronic voting devices that provide no individually or publicly-observable physical evidence are used?
No, you can't, because it is a physical impossibility. If I am wrong, prove it. I challenge you.
We, the People, MUST have an honest election. It is up to us, and only us, to make this come about.
Our "government" is REFUSING to allow an honest, verifiable election.
If you believe I am in error, then prove me wrong, with documentable facts.
I dare you.
(Well, that's the end of the post. I plan to head for South America soon and probably won't be posting at DU for awhile after that.)
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