Reply #1: Here's my suggestion: 100% handcount of optiscan ballots, to check for fraud or error,

[Peace Patriot]

over the next four major elections (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016) and if the machines are accurate, reduce to 55% (Venezuela's standard), and possibly an eventual further reduction to 10%, the minimum needed to detect fraud (according to statistical experts whom I respect), if the machines continue to produce accurate results. That will give us time to purge most of the felons, thieves, warmongers, torturers, mass murderers, congenital liars, servants of global corporate predators, shredders of the Constitution, privatizers, hijackers of our military for corporate resource wars, plunderers, looters and other corpo/fascists from our political system, while we re-develop the skills to return to handcounted paper ballots, or develop an "open source" code system, if the people decide to dump these extremely expensive electronic systems, which require on-going maintenance and expensive testing and monitoring--as well as upgrades, "patches," and replacement of parts and entire systems--basically forever--a corporate boondoggle.

We need a plan for when we can't pry these high-end vendor contracts from the white-knuckled fingers of corrupt, power-drunk election officials. The sheer amount of money they dispense to corporate profiteers attracts the wrong people to the job, and corrupts the entire system. It was also, in my opinion, the means used TO corrupt the entire system, so that 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY vote tabulation could be installed everywhere, in a very short period of time, before the general public caught on. The Anthrax Congress flooded the country with $3.9 billion for e-voting systems, with no requirements for auditing; that is how these non-transparent systems were fast-tracked all over the country during the 2002 and 2004 period. Money!

The purpose was to keep Bush-Cheney in office, keep their horrible war going and loot the American people unto the 7th generation, the final looting just having been accomplished (the Bushwhacks' recent Financial 9/11). The method--'TRADE SECRET' vote counting--is so obvious now, it makes you want to cry. And the bill that did it--the "Help America Vote (for Bush) Act"--was passed in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution (Oct 02). The IWR guaranteed unjust war and continued looting, and HAVA provided the means to shove the unjust war and continued looting down the throats of the American people.

You look at this, and the mind boggles. HOW COULD LOCAL/ELECTION OFFICIALS, STATE LEGISLATORS AND DEMOCRATIC OFFICE HOLDERS have all bought into unaudited 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting? As Deep Throat said, "Follow the money." When I read about the week of fun, sun and high-end shopping at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, in August 2005, for election officials from around the country, sponored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, then I knew. I had been puzzling since November 2, 2004, on how our Democrats could have let this happen. What were they thinking? How could they be so stupid? No audit requirement? 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines? Diebold CEO a Bush-Cheney campaign chair? ES&S funded by a reclusive, far rightwing billionaire who gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals--among other things)? Are they nuts? Really, I asked myself this question. Had the anthrax got to their brains?

Nope, it was money. Some were collusive. Some were afraid. Many were corrupt. The election system was already corrupt. Add more money to it, and it turns outright fascist, which is what occurred. But now you have all of these election officials, county supervisors, state legislators and congress critters, tied to this highly corrupt, expensive voting system--tied by the contracts, tied by lobbyists, tied by career ambitions, tied by the power of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia programmers to steal their next election and remove them from office. The money changing hands has become the obstacle to reform.

How to un-corrupt the system as quickly as possible? Stop trying to throw these election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' (where they belong), and instead demand the 100% hand-count that should have been required in the first place. That is the only transparent test of these machines. Verify their count vs. the paper ballot count. A full handcount audit is easier to achieve than dumping the lucrative machines. It helps to sidestep the money motive. And we should demand 100%, with the 10% minimum needed as our fallback position. Even with just a 10% audit, we can start electing real representatives of the people. And then we have much work to do, to improve transparency, start cleansing our political system of private money and elect more of them.

GuvWurld, you and your team are deserving of Congressional Medals of Honor for what you have done so far. (Some day!) Truly, you are the Paul Reveres and Tom Paines of American Revolution II. I urge you to add the recommendation of a 100% handcount for the next several elections, no matter whether Diebold is dumped for another company or not. They all use 'TRADE SECRET' machines. The paper ballot audit of these machines is clearly, obviously inadequate. CA law provides for a mere 1% audit, and only in cases of extremely close results--within 0.05%--is a larger audit triggered. We need that larger audit (10%) for all elections in the near future. And if we demand 100%, maybe we can get 10%.

Meanwhile, we all re-learn how to count.