It's HAMMERTIME (for evoting machines)

[kster]

The WinVote Shuffle: Vendors, Testers, Certifiers & the Creative Use of a Hammer

By Jim March and Bev Harris

A 52-year old carpenter from Arlington Virginia expressed frustration over losing his voting rights by taking a hammer to a voting machine. The WinVote machine succumbed to no less than an Estwing Supreme 22S, "the finest framing hammer known to mankind," according to Sabo. Arlington has been forcing its citizenry to vote on machines of questionable pedigree, which count votes in secret, prohibit citizen oversight and for added fun, feature wireless capability throughout Election Day.

This Sabo vs. WinVote episode has unraveled a veritable Conga line of finger-pointing vendors, testers and certifiers, all shuffling away from answering tough questions about how this machine came to be capturing votes on Election Day at all.

Sabo's act of outrage exposes the broken foundation of current electoral processes, and if history is any indicator, such incidents will get worse.

THE DAY THE HAMMER MET THE VOTING MACHINE

http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/3943

[Mist]

1. Solmetimes I fantasize about a lawn roller:

[kster]

3. The Politicians need to take a good look at this

and DO THE RIGHT THING, NOW!!!!!

[Peace Patriot]

2. A great article! Read about the "Battle of Athens"--in Tenn.--where WW II vets busted

election fraud in 1946! And what became of Anthony Sabo, the 52-year old carpenter from Arlington Virginia, who took an Estwing Supreme 22S hammer--"the finest framing hammer known to mankind," according to Sabo--to a WinVote voting machine on Nov. 7, 2006, in protest of being forced to vote on a paperless voting machine run on "trade secret" electronic code (code that no one--not even our secretaries of state--are permitted to review)?

Paul Letho (Landshark at DU) contributed to this article. It is VERY well written--clear, precise, with wry humor. "The ChaChaChaChaCha--KICK! ENTER THE FINGER-POINTING CONGA LINE" is very amusing--and appalling: how responsibility for even KNOWING if WinVote machines were ever "certified" at all, is kicked up the line of election officials, vendors and local and federal commissions, and the result is...nobody knows! Kind of like, Who wrote the list of US Attorneys to be fired? ("Well, it was a process....").

Upshot: These turkeys are running our election system the way they run FEMA, and the Dept. of Justice, and the US military. Not just badly, but with criminal negligence and scofflaw flair, and billions of taxpayer dollars mysteriously changing hands. "Fuck you guys!" they seem to be saying, "And your weeny liberal democracy!" And who are we to say that it isn't a farce, when we let them get away with shit like this?

Those WW II vets in Athens, Tenn., had the right attitude, as did Anthony Sabo--even if, as Eleanor Roosevelt said, we don't approve of the use of force. Democracy requires a spirited defense. It requires people WHO CARE, and who will NOT PUT UP with corruption!

Here's her full quote (from the OP):

"If a political machine does not allow the people free expression, then freedom-loving people lose their faith in the machinery under which their government functions.

"In this particular case Battle of Athens, a group of young veterans organized to oust the local machine and elect their own slate in the primary. We may deplore the use of force but we must also recognize the lesson which this incident points for us all. When the majority of the people know what they want, they will obtain it." – Eleanor Roosevelt

[kster]

4. The Politicians are a little SLOW, I guess,

Their secret vote counting party is OVER, and they need to decide, here and now, How it will be ended , because either way IT WILL BE ENDED.

:evilfrown: