No `verify,' no trust

[kpete]

Stephen Goldstein
No `verify,' no trust
Published May 10, 2006


Wake up, Florida voters: Because of our history of hitches, glitches, pitches and switches at the polls, your ballot may still be ditched this fall. We were bushwhacked in 2000 and in 2004. And it may be déjà vu all over again in 2006, unless you help implement the single most important way to restore trust in our elections.

Proof that voting in Florida is in free-fall is everywhere. Go to www.voteprotect.org, click on Maps/Research, then on Election 2004, for the tip of the iceberg: 1,118 voter horror stories in Broward (the most in the state), 712 in Palm Beach County, 1,115 in Miami-Dade, and others around the state.

Then, digest these disheartening regurgitations from a report of The National Research Commission on Elections and Voting, A Project of the Social Science Research Council (http://elections.ssrc.org/ research/FinalReport030105.pdf):

more at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-sgcol10may10,0,5162832.column

[Peace Patriot]

1. Elections in Florida and EVERYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY have become

NON-TRANSPARENT and UNVERIFIABLE, due to Tom Delay's and Bob Ney's most crooked piece of crapass legislation: the so-called "Help America Vote Act" (aka the "Hack America's Vote Act," or the "Help Americans Vote for Bush Act"--a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle by which two Bushite corporations gained control of the tabulation of our votes, with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls.

Those who deny the theft of the 2004 election, or who give you blank stares when you ask why our elections are no longer transparent and are controlled with secret code owned by Bushite corporations, are in some way in debt to private, secret vote counters, corrupt election officials and/or Bush junta war profiteers--and we should just plain spit in their eye at this point. THERE. IS. NO. EXCUSE. FOR. NON-TRANSPARENT. ELECTIONS. None! Why did our party let this happen? Why the SCREAMING SILENCE about it?

No verification; no trust. Are they all a bunch of crooks? I dunno, but when the Democratic Party loses a 70% advantage this fall, will they THEN question Bushite corporate vote counts, and demand transparent elections?

...after the horse of a $10 TRILLION boondoggle federal debt for the rich, for war profiteers, for oil conglomerates and for global corporate predators is out of the barn?!!

Okay, I'm not just going to rant. I am making a specific challenge to the Democratic Party and Howard Dean. I want the Democratic Party to fund INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS for all Congressional elections this fall.

Independent exit polls (independent of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies) are the best way to verify elections and check for fraud. They are used worldwide for this purpose. In 2004, the war profiteering corporate news monopolies DOCTORED their exit polls to FIT the NON-TRANSPARENT 'official results' of Diebold/ES&S's secret vote tabulation formulae. The pristine, undoctored exit poll data shows a Kerry win. They tweaked the data--in impossible ways--to force it to match an unverifiable Bush win. This is the exact opposite of what they should have done. Exit polls are a VERIFICATION and fraud detection tool everywhere else in the world. Not here.

Another possible scenario: This spring, the rightwing nuts at Diebold/ES&S will choose the corporate/war Democrats in our primary elections, and, in the fall, they will choose between those corporate/war Democrats and Bushites, for who will rule over us. Ergo: even if we win, we lose. It will likely be in Diebold/ES&S's interest to let a few Bushites fall by the wayside, in order to protect their vote stealing capability for later (to prevent an outcry, and big demand to get rid of these election theft machines--to stop the burgeoning election reform movement). The corporate/war Democrats whom Diebold/ES&S install in Congress' will not impeach Bush--they will not even seriously investigate massive Bush junta lawbreaking and theft--they will not stop the war, and they will not reverse the massive looting of the poor by the rich. But it will LOOK LIKE a victory--and thus smother the leftist revolution that is building in this country, parallel to the leftist revolution that is sweeping Latin America.

If it is NOT the program of the Democratic Party to collude with war profiteers and the rich, and if it is NOT to the benefit of corporate/war Democrats to have NON-TRANSPARENT, UNVERIFIABLE elections controlled by rightwing Bushites, then the Democratic Party WILL conduct independent exit polls, to verify the election results and help build the case against these machines.

And if our party does NOT conduct independent exit polls, then we will know what we are dealing with: a party leadership that PREFERS non-transparent elections, that TRUSTS secret Bushite vote counting, and that has no interest in VERIFYING the votes of the leftist majority in the party and in the country.

That's what we're looking at now: NO INTEREST, WITHIN OUR PARTY LEADERSHIP, IN VERIFYING ELECTIONS.

There are some exceptions.* That is the overall picture.

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*Debra Bowen, running for Sec of State in Calif., and John Bonifaz in Mass.--both on strong election reform platforms. Boffo grass roots Dem groups, pushing for election reform. And Howard Dean made some off-hand, casual remarks, recently, regarding his concern about the machines (no indication that he will sponsor independent exit polls, though).

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SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

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More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)

(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

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). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[kster]

2. Conduct independent exit polls? They already have

more than enough evidence about the vote stealing machines right now, and they REMAIN SILENT!

I know what your after with the independent exit polls, but what good will it do if the honest Dem's and Repugs REMAIN SILENT with the evidence they have right NOW about these machines?

Our Government "the whole lot of them" and the media on both sides are in on these election thefts, thats the only reason they choose to REMAIN SILENT.

The Dem's better SMARTEN UP because they are going to get the brunt of the blame for these machines, mainly because of the INTERNET the elections have been manipulated for 30 plus years at the central tabulators, past 5 or 10 years they have been getting manipulated locally via these vote stealing machines.

Enter the INTERNET these vote stealing machines will get taken out because information between the people is moving around the country rapidly, we know whats going on and its only a matter of time.

If the honest Dem's and Repugs want to keep their make believe election machines going, so be it. They will be the ones to suffer because of the INTERNET.

[lyonn]

3. No wonder Kathy Harris is still running for the Senate

Polls don't know her real advantage - a win, win situation.

[Kurovski]

4. Kick to top.(nt)

[roseBudd]

5. No verify, no trust, me likey, that is a great slogan