the vote. Voting rights worker for Martin Luther King, Alabama, 1965. 40 years a loyal Democratic Party voter, supporter and volunteer. And I started yelling about this on Nov. 3, 2004. Not yesterday.
So listen up. In 2002, the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney (both now indicted and resigned in disgrace), abetted by corporatist 'Democrat' Christopher Dodd, engineered the so-called "Help America Vote Act"--a bill that would result in Bushite electronic voting corporations gaining control of our elections by means of TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in all the electronic voting machines and central tabulators--and sold it to the Congress as reform. They then fast-tracked this horror with $3.9 billion in funding. The funding, the unregulated lavish lobbying, the ignorance of election officials about electronics, and all sorts of other factors--including the mind-boggling silence of our own Party leaders (fear? corruption?)--spread these new voting systems all over the country. The main two corporate beneficiaries are as follows:
DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and
ES&S: A 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, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.
These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy. That's how fast the HAVA funding worked to corrupt our voting system nationwide. It's even more entrenched now.
Also, SEQUOIA: The third major election theft industry player, which hired Republican Bill Jones, former Calif Secretary of State, and his chief aide, Alfie Charles, to peddle their machines--in an outstanding example of one of the highly corrupt practices fostered by HAVA-- "revolving door" employment.
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Trusting our elections to these corporations is INSANITY. It's like trusting logging corporations to protect fish and birds and water quality. Dumb beyond belief.
I won't go into the "paper trail" business. Suffice it to say that our elections have been rendered non-transparent and unverifiable, and, in many cases, not even recountable (should anyone have the moxy and the funds to try to get a recount.) Some states have NO audit requirement at all. The best--the best!--have a 1% audit--completely inadequate, in this high-speed, invisible, secretive, and highly manipulable environment.
Why vote in these conditions? 1) Because turnout CAN overcome the machine advantage to Bushites, warmongers and/or corporatists, in some cases. 2) Because over-stealing (flipping obvious Dem wins) might lose them their election theft capability for future purposes, so they might be cautious in some cases. 3) Because honest votes enable election analysts and reformers (many of whom are on the case this time) to FIND the "smoking gun"; And finally, 4)--and most importantly--because we should NEVER GIVE UP ON OUR RIGHT TO VOTE--NEVER!
Did I say that loudly enough?: *NEVER!* No matter what! WE. WILL. NOT. CONCEDE. OUR. RIGHT. TO. VOTE!
It is our birthright. It is the means by which we exercise our sovereignty as a people. Without it, we do not have a democracy. And recovering that right must be our first priority, while we still have the chance--which I think we still do--but it may be a short-lived window of opportunity.
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OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM, WHICH NOW INCLUDES DIEBOLD/ES&S'S ABILITY TO DICTATE ELECTION RESULTS
Before I talk about the current, in-progress rebellion that ordinary voters have started, against the rigged voting machines--the ABSENTEE BALLOT protest, which has grown huge--I want to discuss another probem, raised upthread: Why do Bushites bother with electioneering? --when it's all rigged in their favor?
Corporate fascists influencing our elections has been going on for some time. They didn't get direct control of the vote counting until recently--and after a long period of erosion of our political system, including lobbying and buying politicians, TV-izing our political life (at great profit to the 5 rightwing billionaire CEOS who control it all), and many other degradations of our political system. All that is still in place. It doesn't just go away because they can steal votes directly and invisibly. AND--importantly--a political hack has to get into position to be Diebolded into office. He/she has to have SOME support--and some real votes--to make it all look good. They can't just invent an election out of nothing (--not yet anyway; although the recent machine flipover of the 4 Ohio election reform initiatives--from predicted 60/40 wins to 60/40 LOSSES on election day--comes close to that kind of capability).
So it's kind of a naive or simplistic question--why do they bother? Not far into the future, they may not have to bother. It will all be invented by TV and electronic voting machines with SECRET programming. But right now--our current window of opportunity to change it--we have an election system still composed of many elements, including Bushite-controlled electronic voting machines. Money still counts. Volunteers still count. Speeches, debates, rallies. All the forms of democracy must be maintained. Bear in mind also that Hitler himself needed to APPEAR to be adhering to legal forms and evidences of popular support in his rise to power. Everything was TECHNICALLY legal. It's the "boiling frogs" scenario of gradual takeover. If you turn the heat up slowly, the "frogs" don't notice. (I'm not sure if we're looking at a Nazi plot, or a Corporate Plot--I tend to believe it's the latter, not the former, for whatever comfort that gives.) Anyway, the APPEARANCE of democracy is what we are looking at, when Bushites in particular campaign.
They WANT us to give up. To not field candidates at all. To not raise sufficient money. To dissolve into jelly on the issues. To be intimidated by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. To fall for the illusion that we are the minority. To not be vigilant at the polling places. To not protect our black brothers and sisters and others from vote suppression tactics. To not add up the numbers afterwards, and analyze it as well as we can. To not find the "smoking guns." To not challenge suspicious results. And to STOP VOTING.
That's the best reason of all to vote. The fascists don't want you to!
And when we lose to their rigged machines, they want us to give in to powerlessness and demoralization. And that's the chief reason that we must be honest with people and tell them to truth about this election system. Everybody thinks somebody ELSE must be voting for war, for torture, for mass murder and grand theft by this Junta. They DON'T KNOW the reason these things are happening--why there is no balance, how things can have gotten this far. They think OTHER Americans are nuts. They think democracy has gone wacko.
It's better to know the truth. You can't fix it, if you don't know what's broken.
I think we are looking at all this--our political system, recent past elections, and the fix we're in--from the wrong end of the telescope. For instance, when Karl Rove arranges for an issue, say, gay marriage, the purpose is not so much to convince anyone on that issue as it is to have a "talking point" for AFTER the election, to "explain" how they "won." He's placed these little newsurds into the newsstream all along the way--gay marriage, brown immigrants, Zarqawi getting whacked, etc., and, a very important one to pay attention to, their get-out-the-vote campaign "in the churches." These are all part of the pre-written narrative for post-election "explanations." In 2004, there was zero evidence of any Republican success at INCREASED voter turnout 'in the churches." In fact, all the evidence goes the other way. For instance, the Democratic grass roots effort resulted in a blowout success for the Dems in new voter registration, by nearly 60/40, in 2004. But if you have war profiteering corporate news monopolies willing to repeat YOUR "talking points" after the election, and not interested in investigating the facts, you can get away with statements like Rove's after 2004 (--it was their "invisible" get-out-the-vote campaign "in the churches"). They recently laid this one down again (I think it was Rove, maybe Cheney).
So, with Bush & Co., the lies never stop coming. And they invent them way in advance. This doesn't explain how they win, but it does explain how Bush and Cheney, with a 30% to 40% approval rating (--and one in that range for two years now) could be confidently predicting victory in November. Some people think they're out of touch with reality. I don't. I think they just know that their buds at Diebold and ES&S are working hard in their favor.
Whether Diebold and ES&S can overcome the vast discontent in this country--or will risk their future control by obvious thefts--I really don't know. But that they have that capability, and that the Bushites have more than a little motive, are without question.
It is essential that we face these facts. And that we don't give up, no matter what happens Nov. 7.
They may steal it outright, in which case, as in 2004, we must recover our spirits and fight on. They do NOT have the majority in this country. We MUST remember that. And election reform--still doable at the state/local level--must be our first priority.
They may steal it partially--say, put together a combo of Bushite Democrats (like the ones who voted for torture and suspension of habeas corpus) and outright Bushites, with a slight edge to the Democrats, to make it look like a Dem victory but which really is not a Dem majority. The real Dems--the representatives of the real majority--will continue to be outvoted. (I don't think they'll risk the committee chair changes, but they might--say, in one house.) In that case--an apparent Dem victory, but a lingering Bushite majority, we must be very savvy, and CONTINUE to work on election reform, as a first priority. There shouldn't be ANY Bushite Democrats. The sentiment in the country--going way back to before the war on Iraq--is anti-Iraq-war (with a whopping 84% opposed to any US participation in a widened Mideast war), anti-torture (63%! --May '04), and anti-Bush everything, in big numbers, over a long period of time. How could there be a pro-Bush Repub/Dem majority in Congress after all this? You tell me. Election reform is a MUST. Priority #1.
There is a third possibility--that a real split has occurred between the Bushites and the Corporatists and we are about to see the return of Corporate Rule sans the outright fascism of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. (--could be that the Corporatists are working with our more loyal members of the military and intelligence communities to reign this gang in; now that they've looted us blind and put us in our place, the Bushites are really, really bad for global free trade; they've alienated all of So. America, for instance). And this is the only scenario in which Diebold/ES&S might back off in most races, and let the people speak--on war, on torture, on spying, and lack of financial accountability. They figure we'll be grateful for mere Corporate Rule after all this. And that's where our Party was at, back in 2000 and before: the Party of global free piracy. I don't see it changing much, unless we can restore transparent elections sometime soon. Diebold/ES&S (s)elects Democrats too, you know. They control ALL election results (except in NY, ORE and a few other places.)
In this third scenario...you got it! ELECTION REFORM! The one MUST-DO! If we don't have transparent elections, we don't have a democracy.
And ANY elections that include private corporations "counting" the votes with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code are NOT elections. They are tyranny!
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THE ABSENTEE BALLOT PROTEST
This is the one strategy by which we can get rid of these rigged voting machines quickly and peacefully. DON'T VOTE ON THEM!
Simple as that. BOYCOTT the machines. How can state/local election officials defend these expensive, insecure, extremely insider hackable, electronic voting machines, if NOBODY WILL VOTE ON THEM?
It's been building up since 2002 (the onset of the rigged machines)--doubling and tripling of the Absentee Ballot vote, the choice of ordinary citizens and voters. Now it's a flood--it's up to 50% to 60% of the vote in some places.
Read about how the Boston Tea Party happened, and be inspired. It was ORDINARY PEOPLE who started it--by BOYCOTTING the tea, because King George was giving an unfair advantage to the East India Company! THEN Samuel Adams got involved. (Samuel, where are you?)
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/E/teaparty/bostonxx.htmPeople DON'T TRUST THE MACHINES. They want a PAPER BALLOT, HAND-COUNTED. This is their wish. This is their message. And they only need some leadership with some P.R. skills--say, leadership from the election reform movement--to AMPLIFY their message to election officials. To focus it. To make news media SEE it. And to USE it to put pressure on election officials, and FORCE them to reform this system, or resign.
There are other reasons to vote by Absentee Ballot. It is the ONLY guarantee that you will be able to cast a vote in this election. Voting machne "breakdowns"--whether by accident or design--have become pandemic. People show up to vote. The machines are "down." And they can't vote. And many states have no provision for this. You go home, disenfranchised. Other states--for instance, California, where elections are now run by Diebold shill and Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson--have given permission to corrupt county officials to supply 'PROVISIONAL' ballots, not real paper ballots, when the machines "break down" or when (as we are supposed to have the right to do in Calif) people request a paper ballot.
"Provisional" ballots were designed by the crooks who wrote the "Help America Vote Act" (Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Christopher Dodd) TO BE TOSSED. We saw this pervasive abuse of "provisional" ballots in Ohio. It's how George Bush got to stay in the White House (--or the final dirty trick of many).
DO NOT COUNT on being able to vote on election day. Get your Absentee Ballot NOW--if you still can.
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**In Calif., the deadline for REQUESTING an Absentee Ballot is OCTOBER 31. Still plenty of time. (The Calif. deadline for registering to vote is Oct. 23, one week earlier.) Check local rules for other states. Most states have some form of AB voting. If not, do what you can to vote on paper--and protest loudly at non-transparent vote counting and lack of a choice.**
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TURN-OUT: To those who say, "it's all rigged--why vote?", we should be saying, "Join the PROTEST to UN-rig the system! Help us bust the machines--vote by Absentee Ballot!" No more excuse not to vote.
Absentee Ballot voting, to help UN-rig the system, takes the passivity out of voting--that feeling of hope against hope that maybe this time it will come out better--and turns voting into a positive PROTEST.
It won't get us accurate vote counts this time--nothing can--but it may save the future.