Today, in company with Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) there will be an announcement about the filing of a lawsuit against Snohomish Co., WA and Sequoia Voting System. Below is information that will be made available at this meeting and it is available at:
http://www.votersunite.org/info/outsourcedemocracyno.aspThe following is the strong and longstanding public policy of the state of Washington as well as our democracy.
RCW 42.30.010
Legislative declaration.
The legislature finds and declares that all public commissions, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, departments, divisions, offices, and all other public agencies of this state and subdivisions thereof exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of this chapter that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.
The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.
<1971 ex.s. c 250 § 1.> (Revised Code of Washington State)
Although the people and voters of this country have always insisted on retaining control of the instruments they create, and that ultimately all power is granted from the people, and even though elections have long been required to be free, equal, and open to all observers, electronic voting has made the counting of our vote secret. It has been made secret because the electronic voting companies claim that their counting software is a proprietary trade secret and they will not allow anyone to study the computer code or test their machines in any way the voting machine companies do not approve.
The people of the state of Washington and the United States have literally never agreed to have their votes counted in secret. We have always insisted on having observers from any interested party present to observe and monitor the counting of the vote. Because corporations — sometimes multinational corporations — now count our votes in secret, we believe it is completely accurate to say that our democracy is being outsourced. This should never occur, because no government official or government body has the authority to destroy the integrity of our democratic vote counting.
Consequently, a lawsuit will be filed in the public interest pointing out that such contracts allowing for trade-secret vote counting are invalid and requesting that the companies either stipulate to utter transparency and verification of the vote count or leave the public sector and return to the private sector, where they are free to keep secrets if they wish.
The suit cannot be compromised, because to do so would substitute private gain for the restoration of our democracy and constitutional rights. Therefore, all damages (if any) will go to charity, and all attorney fees will as well. Any funds raised for the suit will only be used to fund out-of-pocket expenses and costs, and if those are ultimately reimbursed by a settlement or judgment they will also go to charity. In this way, the lawsuit intends to insist that it is the people who hold the power in this country, not the government, and not corporations.
... government of the people,
by the people, for the people shall not perish ...
~ Abraham Lincoln
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(492 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
