Why did the Democrats in Congress ignore our endless pleas about evoting?

[in_cog_ni_to]

After the 2002 Midterm election and seeing the Chuck Hagel and Max Cleland evoting stories, I emailed Congress people and warned them about evoting and the importance of the machines being audit-able. I know MANY DU members did the same and we have all sent reminders over the years. Those people had to receive hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of letters/emails about the dangers of these machines. They IGNORED us. I know Russ Holt tried to get a paper trail to no avail. Why didn't our Democratic Congress people go on strike or revolt or close down the government over this issue? Why did they let this whole plan go forward? Why did they vote in the Protect American Voters Act (?)? What the hell were they thinking?

Was it a matter of OUR hacker will be better than your hacker?

Was it pure STUPIDITY on the part of Democrats that they actually TRUSTED Repukes to do the right thing?

Did the Dems think they could overcome it if we had a HUGE voter turnout?

Did the Congress people think WE, the activists, were just overreacting?

Did the Congress people think we were stupid and had no idea what we were talking about? Congress knows best, you know.

Do the Congress people know what we know?? Do they know all 4 evoting machine companies are owned by repukes who donate to the repuke party?

Do they know that one owner is a re-constructionist/Dominionist who is connected to The Carlyle Group and the BFEE and donates solely to the repuke party?

Do they know any of this? Do they know and ignorantly thought they could beat them at their own game? OR are they in on the whole damn scam?

[w13rd0]

1. There are some...

...that payed attention. Problem of course is that both now and in 2003, the GOP had control of the exexutive, the legislative and the judicial...

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. Why didn't they shut down the government then?

What issue could be more important than the right to vote in a FAIR election? Why didn't they shut down the government and take to the airwaves and explain to the American people the dangers of voting on these machines? :shrug:

[w13rd0]

9. Well, some of those...

...were members of the House (the body that challenged the results in 2000 and had not ONE senator stand by them, if you recall). Others were unsuccessful candidates during the primaries. They couldn't shut down the government.

[kdmorris]

Wexler paid attention

But he was fighting a losing battle. Jebbie owns Florida and unfortunately, Wexler got no where.

But, he's still my hero for TRYING, for not giving up.

[FullCountNotRecount]

2. Good riddance to Tom Daschle. It is his fault...

This should have been the number one priority when the Dems controlled the Senate. He could have been a hero in losing this year...instead he is just a loser.

[Eric J in MN]

5. I called Daschle's office, and the aide just insisted that

everything would be fixed by 2006 so there was no need to do anything.

[Eric J in MN]

3. House Democratst listened to us. But most Senate

Democrats igonored us, including

John Kerry- co-sponsored ZERO BBV bills

John Edwards- co-sponsored a lousy Hillary-Clinton alternative which doesn't ban BBV, but just vaguely calls for accurate technology.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. OK. WHY? Why did they (the Senate) basically ignore what we told them?

What we warned them about has happened. WHY did they not care more? There has to be a reason. They could have shut the government down over this issue and chose not to.

[Eric J in MN]

17. An aide to Tom Daschle told me that

Bill Frist won't allow a vote anyway, so Daschle won't bother co-sponsoring.

[SmokingJacket]

7. Psychologically invested in The System

My theory: if these senators and congress people were to admit to themselves that BBV might not be a conspiracy theory, they'd also have to admit the system they've done SO well for themselves in is possibly corrupt.

They must believe -- wholly, with every fiber of their being -- that the electoral system is absolutely solid. If you win, you WIN. They won their elections, right? This system got them where they are. It MUST be good!

Just trying to figure out why no one up high paid attention to this before, when it just seemed like good common sense.

[salvorhardin]

10. "Psychologically invested"

That's much kinder than my views which are that the Dems as they exist today are part of the problem.

[genius]

8. I've been screaming about this for a long time.

[ladjf]

11. Great question with one obvious, terrible answer.

[NJCher]

12. Tom Delay and Hastert are to blame

The Dems did take action through Russ Holt's bill. The bill received the necessary amount of support but Hastert and Delay prevented it from ever getting to the floor.


Cher

[yurbud]

13. who signs the checks?

The sad fact is, most democrats have a lot of overlap in donor base with the GOP or want to. They don't want to piss off the fat cats who could make or break their careers if they draw too far outside the lines.

We need to remind them that they represent US first, not big business.

I was frustrated watching Kerry in the debates talk about health care because he left out some obvious truths: unrestricted profit-taking by insurance companies by jacking up premiums and withholding service they were contracted to provide. Even minimal regualtion would go along way toward fixing this without resorting to single payer (which I would prefer nonetheless).

Likewise, he couldn't hammer hard enough on corporate crime, energy policy, or how contracts are awarded in Iraq.

Early in the primaries, I think it was moneyrace.org had a comparison of percentage of candidates money that came from small donors, a good indication of where their loyalties would lie, and Howard Dean was head and shoulders above the rest.

We need someone like him who tells it straight, and doesn't apologize for or try to hide New Deal priorities.

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Maybe the DEMS just wanted to give the REPS

just enough rope to hang themselves?

[in_cog_ni_to]

15. That was another thought/hope I have.

:hi: Maybe they're trying to take down the entire party? We can hope.

Ignoring the evoting issue makes NO sense.

[Eloriel]

18. Please don't fall for that

I'm seeing a lot of wishful thinking this afternoon, and it's both breaking my heart and pissing me off.

WE ARE (or must beomce) THE LEADERS WE WERE HOPING FOR. "They" aren't going to save us -- not now and probably not ever. Not even the best of them (who might like to but don't individually have the power, and CERTAINLY don't have enough back up on our own side).

They are fucking clueless. They have carefully honed avoidance skills which enable them to simply tune out when their constituents (the penniless ones) bring urgent concerns to them. And some of them may be complicit.

Go look at Steny Hoyer, for example. The whole Help America Vote Act was his baby -- and he has rather actively fought ANY new legislative initiatives to amend it along with dissing all BBV concerns ever since -- and he's had some "friends" helping in laying obstructions and obfuscations in our paths. I've never taken the time to actually go do so myself, but I'll bet you a LOT of money (and I'm not a betting woman), that his list of political contributors over the years would be very revealing.

Even those legislators whose attention some of the activists HAVE gotten (Dennis Kucinich, Jan Shakowski, Dick Durbin, others) have been disturbingly and frustratingly silent on this. I DO somewhat except those three Congressmen (Conyers and 2 others) who asked GAO to take a look, but frankly even that isn't enough IMO. SOMEbody needs to lead a revolt on Capital Hill -- not just write impressive requests to GAO for "studies."

[LisaL]

16. Well, they better wake up, or they will be gone with the wind.

Republicans will win everything because the votes are counted on Diebold electronic voting machines.