ARE EXTREMELY INSECURE, AND INSIDER-HACKABLE, AND ARE RUN ON 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY PROGRAMMING CODE, OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY BUSHITE CORPORATIONS!
Why do we HAVE this extremely insecure, and insider-hackable, voting system with SECRET vote tabulation, owned by Bushites?
Hm-m-m. Good question. Follow the money. Diebold: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004." ES&S: spinoff of Diebold--similar computer architecture--initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals. Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.
These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes (including votes for Congress) in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy. You wonder why Halliburton--Dick Cheney's retirement fund--got a 600% increase in Bushite contracts this year? You wonder how Donald Rumsfeld can "lose" a billion+ dollars in Iraq and not go to jail? You wonder how Congress can kill the Voting Rights Act and pass a flag-burning amendment in the same breath? You wonder why you can't afford to live any more?
Our voting system has been thoroughly corrupted, that's why--quite deliberately, engineered by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney (abetted by Bilderberg 'Democrat' Christopher Dodd), with their so-called "Help America Vote Act" ($4 billion boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S, who, in return, "count" all our votes with secret programming).
Transparent elections are NOT difficult. People vote, and you count the votes in public view.
There is NO NEED for all this difficulty--all these hackable machines, all this esoteric gobble-de-gook of electronic voting systems, all these arguments about inadequate audits, all these struggles even to get a paper trail (let alone a real paper ballot backup). Why is this happening?
BECAUSE OUR VOTING SYSTEM HAS BEEN GRAVELY COMPROMISED BY CORRUPT BUSHITE POLITICIANS--using the esoterica of electronic voting to obscure the bald crime of TRADE SECRET VOTE COUNTING.
Non-transparent elections are NOT elections. They are tyranny. That's what we have. And the method of this tyranny is ELECTRONIC VOTING.
And the Diebold Congress is going to "fix" it? Right.
Jonathan Simon is the man who gave early warning on the 2004 stolen election. It is because of him that we know what they did with their "trade secret" vote tabulation. This second warning from him should be heeded: Our loss of our right to vote is about to be cemented into federal law.
You can always tell fake election reformers--Common Cause, the Brennan institute--because they NEVER MENTION trade secret vote tabulation. Oh, they'll mention everything else--how the machines need to be made "more secure"; how we really ought to have a "paper trail" (I mean, how silly of Tom Delay to forget that); how "top scientists" have reviewed the whole situation, and they think some kind of half-assed audit might do the trick (fool all of the people all of the time). Etc. Etc. I've been wondering why the war profiteering corporate news monopolies have permitted a few election fraud stories--and "grave warnings" about election security problems--to leak out to the public. Now I know. They're going to codify corporate "trade secrets" into our election system, to kill democracy once and for all, starting with killing the election reform movement. Then they will proceed with centralized voter purges. Your name will be wiped off the rolls, and you will have to go all the way to Washington DC to try to get back your right to vote. All done electronically, with the efficiency of the SS.
You will register electronically. You will vote electronically (if you vote the right way and don't get purged). And it'll all be run from the White House.
And they've got us in such a desperate plight that we hunger for a mere "voter verified paper audit trail" in the HOPE that election officials corrupted by that $4 billion boondoggle MIGHT do an honest audit of 1% or 2% of our so-called "votes."
They've got us fighting over security measures and paper trails and audits--and they are laughing all the way to the bank.
I repeat my question from many previous posts: Is our Democratic leadership insane? Do you know they all VOTED for HAVA--for electronic "trade secret" vote tabulation with no paper trail? (--with two surprising exceptions--Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, the ONLY Democratic Senators in the Anthrax Congress who voted against HAVA!)
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Here is the brief rundown on HR 550, that I've been posting here at DU:
Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550 (many DUers support the bill):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967To sign the HR 550 petition:
http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)
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And here's what I think about it now: I think the ban on secret software will never make it out of committee. That makes the bill almost worthless. And the trade-off of getting a real paper ballot backup will be smothered in the loss of sovereignty by the states--the federalization of our elections--which will make it nearly impossible to get rid of the secret software and the corporate control of our election results (AND our voter rolls!), by pressure in state/local venues, where ordinary people still have some influence. There is also the clear danger of SOMETHING WORSE being put IN the bill by junta operatives in the Diebold Congress. HR 550 already promotes electronic voting and centralized power. What if it MANDATES electronic voting--takes away the state/county power to revert to paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (the only truly transparent, verifiable method of voting)?
I know that activists in the states that have been 100% Diebolded (touchscreen voting with no paper record at all) are desperate for a "voter verified paper ballot" or "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPB or VVPAT). But I have to ask them: Is it worth it, to lose your sovereignty? What happens when you get rigged results EVEN WITH a paper record? How do you get rid of the machines if they are mandated by Congress? What are you going to do when you discover that it's the central electronic tabulators, also run on trade secret code, where the fraud actually takes place? VVPBs and VVPATs merely allow you to POSSIBLY discover fraud--IF you can get a decent audit, or IF you can get a (much rarer) recount--in a highly riggable system? You think you will have a chance in Bush-appointed courts to get justice on any of these matters? A VVPB or VVPAT are not justice, in and of themselves--when the system is run on trade secret programming. You have to PROVE the fraud, against hostile, secretive election officials, and in unfriendly courts, with a great deal of trouble and expense. VVPBs and VVPATs have some deterrent power, and that's about all. If the (s)election is important enough to the powers-that-be, they'll just go ahead and rig it, and take their chances in their bought and paid for court system.
We've seen this Diebold Congress commit outrage after outrage. Do you really think that they are going to give us back our right to vote? Do you really think they WANT transparent elections? And if your answer is "No"--the only reasonable answer, given their record--is it not very foolish, indeed, to push them on this issue? And do you really trust our own Democratic representatives in Congress, who have been utterly negligent on our right to vote up until now? What are THEIR motives? How much stock do THEY have in electronics in government? How dependent are THEY on (s)election by Diebold/ES&S? How blackmailed are THEY? How bribed are THEY? How many of THEM really believe in democracy? And even the good ones, who do, have been unable to stem the fascist tide on any other issue. What makes anyone think they can prevent a "fate worse than HAVA"? Electronic voting is the fascists' lock on power forever more. It was DESIGNED by them for this purpose. They are NOT going to give it up. And I think I can just about guarantee you that NOTHING that comes out of THIS Congress is going to break corporate control over election results, and they will more than likely SOLIDIFY corporate control.
Why not simply support Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704--to get a VVPAT--and not risk the codification of electronic (corporate trade secret) voting, mandated by the worst Congress this country has ever seen?