On the day after the 2006 election....

[demodonkey]

...how will you decide whether the election was fair and fraud-free?


Good question, posed to me recently from someone organizing a panel discussion.

OK I have given this a LOT of thought and have my own ideas formed up pretty well, but I would like to hear what "y'all" think before I post my own.

MB

[hobbit709]

1. If the Democrats win

It will be a fair election. if the repukes win with big margins it will be a crooked election.

[unblock]

2. it will be rigged regardless

if the democrats win, it will be because the rigging wasn't enough to overcome the voting.

[dweller]

3. as long as the machines are involved

there will NOT be a fair election.

dp

[MasonJar]

4. If we insist that there must be a paper trail!

[sam sarrha]

5. have a backpack with food and water, we will be in the streets for a long

time.. bring your own toilet paper. and the stuff that neutralizes tear gas from your eyes, have extra for friends in eyedropper bottles. hope and pray the police take our side.. we already know the National Guard will..!!

have some little cameras... we will have to work out a list, and go with a buddy so one person doesn't have to carry all the stuff.

we might have to invest in some arm sport guards to block police batons, bike helmets.. the neosporin , bandages and shaving sticks to stop cuts from bleeding, so we can stay in the field till we win. if we lose we will all become slaves.

[mahina]

13. I'd like to reccommend a video to you called

"A Force More Powerful" It is outstanding and will lift your heart. We will not fail.

[sam sarrha]

6. we need to start a campaign with toilet paper ballots, that is what your

vote will be worth if we dont get a paper trail by then...

sell rolls of toilet paper with the first few sheets printed like a ballot to fund the mission... and give them to our friends and family, have them for sale EVERYWHERE, to advertize the problem..

we need to start now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the sheet would have several box's with an x voting for paper trail and democracy verifiable elections

the voting laws require a method that can be recounted..

[helderheid]

8. BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!

May I pass this on?? I LOVE IT!

[garybeck]

12. paper trail no better than toilet paper

please hear me out. even if they give us a paper trail, it does nothing. it's not worth the paper it's printed on. paper trail only means you can do a recount. paper trail doesn't change the way DRE machines function in any way. there is still secret vote counting. there is still secret software. still, no one knows what happened to your vote. virtually NOTHING changes with a paper trail.

we need paper ballots, not paper trail.

and more than anything, we need transparent elections, from beginning to end. no secret software code anywere. every step must be observable.

And Diebold has to go. They have convicted felons writing the secret software code that counts our votes.

Anyone writing election software should have to go through rigid scrutiny and background checks.

If convicted felons can't vote, they shouldn't be able to write the vote counting software either.

paper trails are worthless. check this out:

http://www.solarbus.org/election/articles/0313-ballots.shtml

[kster]

18. Yep,couldn't agree more

Paper ballots hand counted and recorded by the people.Then scanned and tabulated for accuracy.In that order!

[Blue Shark]

7. I sincerely hope...

...That the Dems get with the program, play hard-ball, and out hack the competition. This game can be played by both sides and now that we have ceded three elections to fraud it is time go get real!

[kansasblue]

9. it will be tougher

We had it easy this time. Next time the clues will be buried even deeper.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

10. With Bush at 40% approval, I would expect a Dem sweep so

if anything other than that happens, we know the fix is in. Wait, what am I saying, I've been on this board and have seen the research. THE fix IS in!! Unless we have hand counted paper ballots in 2006, we can all kiss democracy as we know it goodbye.

[garybeck]

11. It depends on who is counting the votes. Period.

If there are transparent elections with observers who can actually observe the vote counting.

If Diebold is counting the votes, forget it. I don't care who wins. I don't care if they have the stupid paper printers on their DREs.

It all depends on who is counting the votes and if it is observable.

Secret vote counting?

Not in my democracy, thank you.

[kster]

19. Your on a roll

let them have their machines, so that they can op-tiscan and or direct record electronically to their tabulators from one prison cell to the other.Because thats where their all headed. Their gig is up!

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. I can tell you now and in advance in case I am not here.

There will be fraud and another election WILL be stolen. If yall aren't oout in the streets at that point...there is no hope for our country.

[demodonkey]

15. Dammit Andy, cut that out... you will be here!

But what you say is part of what I'm thinking too...

[adolfo]

16. Simple

As long as this map remains the same, the election here will not be fair.

Regardless of who wins.

[Andy_Stephenson]

17. Yup

you're right.