Reply #6: The columnist, Thomas Elias, is quite knowledgeable. He mentions many of

[Peace Patriot]

the problems that we election reformists know about it, and what Bowen has pledged to do to remedy them. One interesting and VERY IMPORTANT matter--which I am so glad to see Bowen working on--the cost and difficulty of recounts.

"The new elections chief also will be going to the Legislature with a plan to make recounts easier in close races or where there have been machine problems. Today, the preliminary loser in any vote must pledge to pay all costs if a recount doesn't overturn the preliminary conclusion. This can cost upward of $50,000 in a congressional race, and most candidates don't have that much money left after Election Day. So there have been no recounts in California since the state set a requirement for voting machines to produce recountable paper trails at all elections.

"Bowen recognizes that a paper trail is worthless unless it's usable. 'I think $50,000 to do a recount where it might be merited is a tiny price to pay for democracy and to keep people from saying "forget about the election, they'll never count our votes anyway." So she'll support at least a partial public subsidy of recounts, where they appear justified."

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We have a fairly decent paper trail requirement in California. What's important are audits and recounts.

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Never mentioned in corporate news monopoly articles--and not in this one: The machines are run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by far rightwing Bushite corporations. In this circumstance, a 100% audit should have been required from the beginning, and should be required now--or at least, say, the 55% audit that Venezuela does of all electronic voting machine results. Know how much we do in California? 1%! And that's the highest in the country. This is OUTRAGEOUS! And many states have ZERO audit!

Absentee Ballot voters, raise the flag! Demand hand-counting of Absentee Ballot votes (50% of the votes in CA!), and it will spread. Don't pay Diebold to count your votes--pay your mother! (There's a slogan!)

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It is absolutely wonderful to have a smart woman like Debra Bowen on the case! I don't agree with her on some policy matters, but one thing I do know--she has been a strong advocate of open government her entire career, and she is FOR the voter, not the corporate vote counter. That is an enormous change for the better! Like night and day!