|
We need to pressure election officials to, a) HAND COUNT the AB votes, and b) POST the results BEFORE any electronics are involved.
With the huge number of people who have switched to Absentee Ballot voting, if we can get those two things--hand count of AB votes, and posting the results before electronic entry--we will have a paper ballot system BY DEFAULT.
The big increase in AB voting--it's up to 50% and 60% of the vote in some places, and it's big all over the nation--is being "spun" by the corporate media as voters choosing "convenience." Several articles (NYT, AP, Sacto Bee, WJS) over the last two weeks, with similar wording. I think that's bullshit. I think people are onto the electronic rigging and DON'T TRUST the machines. The corporate articles don't even mention this as a possibility! ('Lord above us, people wouldn't distrust secret corporate vote counting, would they?!'). Absentee Ballot voting, of course, has increased in direct proportion to the cancerous spread of the corporate-controlled electronic voting machines.
With this huge constituency for transparent vote counting, indicated by the huge AB vote, we have some clout--at least (or is it at best?) in the LOCAL jurisdictions, where election officials can be pressured. And if we can't get them to throw these machines into 'Boston Harbor' (and disentangle from the billions of dollars in e-voting contracts), or force them to provide a real ballot when the goddamned things "crash"--I think we CAN succeed with this simple demand: COUNT THE AB VOTES PROPERLY.
And if we can start winning that point, with local officials, yet MORE people will start voting AB, because that will be the only way to get your vote counted.
We have so far had no STRATEGY for achieving transparent vote counts. We've had a campaign--and many exposes, lawsuits, alarmed scientific reports, GAO reports, news articles, groups formed, movies, etc., etc. But no strategy.
The big AB vote--accomplished by individual voters, trying to get around the rigged electronics--has given us a strategy, on a silver platter.
The strategy can be used NOW. Pressure NOW to count the AB votes by hand, and post the results immediately. But it's also--and mostly--a long term strategy for '08. We get these AB voters organized, and start pressuring election officials to guarantee the kind of vote counting that the AB voters want.
The strategy is currently limited to the 30 states that permit AB voting. Hopefully, pressure in those states for proper counting will lead to demands for AB voting in other states.
This BACKDOOR strategy to achieve transparent vote counts circumvents the sluggish national policy--which long, long ago should have fixed this mess. And we know why they didn't. They created it on purpose. It also circumvents the very significant problem of corruption among both Dem and Repub election officials and legislators. We are not saying get rid of the machines or the contracts. We're only saying, COUNT the AB votes PROPERLY. Also, if this strategy succeeds, our long term action plan could include demand for the proper counting of optiscan votes--HAND COUNT the ballots, POST the results BEFORE any electronics are used.
Instant transparency, almost everywhere. Nobody but idiots will vote on the touchscreens, if we can achieve transparency in the AB votes and optiscans.
I think the powers-that-be will resist us on the optiscan ballot counting. So we go with AB voting, and get THOSE votes properly counted--a more modest demand. Then a whole bunch more people will start voting by Absentee Ballot, in addition to the big numbers already.
Believe me, this is a huge VOTERS REVOLT. The WSJ whines and complains that it is "disruptive." (Ha!) It is the revolt we've all been waiting for, and hoping for. And we need to get out ahead of it, focus it on ACTION, and lead it.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
