Simple & legal civil disobedience in regards to massive election fraud

[stellanoir]

Okay I was just listening to Mark Crispin Miller author of "Fooled Again. . .how the right stole the 2004 election and they'll steal the next one unless we stop them" is on the replay of yesterday's Ring of Fire and my blood started to boil again though I've been well aware of voting fraud since '00 if not far longer.

I am reminded of a simply act of civil disobedience that I thought of about a year and a half ago.

I had gone to the drive through at the bank and was waiting for my transaction to be completed and found myself idly staring at the equipment that transferred my statement or deposit or whatever to the teller inside. I was sort of spacing out like many do while waiting.

Without really thinking, I noticed my gaze was transfixed on the totally unimaginative Diebold logo. Having written countless letters to media outlets and politicians about the hackablility and insecurity of their voting machines for many years to no avail, the thought occured to me to do something really simple.

While waiting at the bank that day I had an overwhelmingly devious urge to place a piece of masking tape under the Diebold label and writing on the tape "steals elections" or " One Nation Under Fraud."

Since the midterms are not far away and since our representatives our powerless to enact legislation to ameliorate our electoral system, and there is a total corporate media blackout on this issue, I thought I'd post this idea again to get the word out.

This mission, should you choose to embark on it then please bare in mind that surveillance camera's are always fixed on these machines. Stealth, head attire, shades, gloves, agility, the dead of night, and a lawyer on speed dial are most definitely or may be required.

> "The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all
> other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to
> slavery." Thomas Paine

It's worth a shot though. Along the lines of the philosophy of the freeway blogger. "People will see it until someone takes it down." Don't do any permanent property damage though a la graffiti. Masking tape does no permanent damage on outdoor paint.

Good luck. We're gonna need it.

[villager]

1. one could print out labels saying this que no?

Just thinkin' out loud, strictly for entertainment purposes only...

[Wilms]

2. The one problem with that...

...it isn't complete.

Everyone screams Diebold stole the election when, in fact, Diebold equipment probably played only a small roll.

Right now, Diebold is so on the ropes that it wouldn't surprise me to see them get out of the election business. I hope that happens. But I hope such news is received with perspective.

A DUer, giddy with joy, reported that their county had rejected using Diebold and chose ES&S instead. That's reason for celebration? :shrug:

Traitors steal elections. Diebold is just one of them.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Thanks, Wilms! How stupid can they get, thinking that ES&S is better.

ES&S may in fact be worse! (--closer to Howard Ahmanson's Chalcedon Foundation--he directly funded ES&S, which was a spinoff of Diebold).

I don't agree that Diebold played a small roll. They controlled many of the central tabulators, and Diebold and ES&S together counted 80% of the vote. And it was Diebold touchscreens that were changing Kerry votes to Bush votes.

It's not just the voting machines themselves, it's the central tabulators. And it's not just touchscreens (DREs), it's also optiscans. And it's not just Diebold, it's ES&S, Sequoia and a couple of others. ALL of it is run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code. All of it represents private corporate control of our vote counts under a veil of secrecy.

Wilms, I think I understand people shouting about a victory over Diebold. They should be proud of any such victory. We have to get the ball rolling. People know this name. There is so much amunition against Diebold--their felon programmers, their ties to Bush, their machines' many failed tests--they can't help but use it. And Diebold touchscreens are, indeed, the worst pieces of crap American industry ever came up with (I'll bet their manufactured in Malaysia, too--or China). It's a strategy error not to go for the main principles of non-transparent elections, and to fail to note, in the whoops of a particular victory, how far we yet have to go. But as I said, it's understandable. And, in this very, very oppressive situation, we are forced to look for "hooks"--or, for some way to pull at the threads, to unravel this tapestry of deception and corruption. A big effort on Diebold, say--as just occured (and is on-going) in California--was prompted by McPherson's effort to RE-certify Diebold, after Shelley had de-certified them. So people gravitated to that effort, to stop it. But in the PROCESS, more and more people are getting educated on the issue, and we now have a new candidate for Sec of State (Debra Bowen) who understands the issue thoroughly, and is running on a transparency platform.

Good to issue a warning, though. (I've issued such warnings myself--for instance, on federalization of our election systems, under the guise of reform, and all the evils that could lead to. They might still do this--say, require a 'paper trail' but keep "trade secret" programming, and require all electronic elections--which could well make things far WORSE, in the end.)

[stellanoir]

5. I agree with you.

When I was totally paralyzed after seeing the multilevel systematic disenfranchisement of the will of the people was perpetrated on late Nov. 2nd, '04 . . .I thought, "If only the reconstruction of Iraq was enacted with such efficiency."

It certainly isn't just Diebold but I don't see a whole lot of ES &S or Sequoia logos around in plain view.

Still think it would be great fun.

[Peace Patriot]

3. How about "Help outvote the fraud!" --so as not to discourage people

from voting. I do think this may be one of the reasons Dem Party leaders have been silent about rightwing Bushite nutcases (Chalcedon Foundation-ers) counting all our votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls.

I mean, what can we expect from such a fraudulent, non-transparent election system? It seems a no-brainer to me, yet our leaders have kept their lips zipped. Some are corrupt; some are complicit; some are afraid; some may be ignorant; and some maybe don't want to lower voter turnout and kill any chance we have of overcoming the fraud.

Keep this in mind in limited information campaigns, where you can only communicate a line or two--bumper stickers, tape-on's, whatever.

Help outvote the fraud!

[stellanoir]

6. We have nare but a

glimmer of democracy left.

What to do. . .what to do. . .?

[DemReadingDU]

7. K&R