Congressional election. But how do you get it?
I think that, if the Democratic Party leadership was TELLING the American people that we DON'T HAVE transparent elections, but that massive turnout can overcome the potential fraud--and INVOLVE people in overcoming the fraud--we could generate the turnout we need. Tell them the truth. They all know it in their hearts. That's why half of them don't vote--and even when they DO vote, as they did in huge numbers in 2004, the result is more fascism.
So we have a very big handicap as to voter turnout--the SILENCE of the Democratic Party leadership. Those who aren't collusive with Diebold and ES&S and the war machine are either fearful of speaking out, or are lying to people (by their silence) out of fear that, if they tell people the truth, they won't vote (and won't donate). I think just the opposite will happen. People are HUNGRY for the truth--and they want to know how to help. Think of all those ornery people who know it's rigged and won't vote, and haven't been voting for a long time, because of past disillusionments. Imagine awakening all those ornery cusses with a plan to overpower these newfangled, even worse election systems--by sheer numbers.
But without the Democratic Party breaking its silence on this, some people are just going to figure it's business as usual, and we won't get our fraud-busting edge. (We almost got it in 2004, with an historic turnout, and with the great majority of independent voters, new voters and former Nader voters voting for Kerry; he won by (my est.) 4%-5%, but it wasn't enough to overcome the electronic tweak combined with the brutal vote suppression in Ohio, voter purges in Florida, and other fraud. He needed a 6%-10% margin of victory, just to win.)
What incentive do all those new Democratic and pro-Democratic independent voters, and former Nader voters, have now--considering not only the quick foldup of the Democrats on election night in '04, and their continued silence, denial, fear, collusion or whatever it is, about Bushites counting all the votes behind a veil of secrecy? Not much! They need INCENTIVE--and overcoming the fraud is a good one.
We have to break this syndrome of the disillusioned voter. They go to the trouble to vote, and nothing changes. The war profiteering corporate news monopolies then paint the Democrats/leftists/progressives as "losers," and voters lose hope that their kind of candidates can win. They become demoralized and disempowered. Even if they keep voting, they can't budge auntie or grandpa or their friends at work to go and vote. People say, "What's the use? It's all rigged." And they are correct, BUT.... in fact, we CAN overcome the fraud with numbers, in some cases anyway, and if only they knew this, they would have an incentive to vote, and the voters who urge others to vote would have something to say to the non-voters to motivate them.
ALSO, and VERY IMPORTANT: WHEN we lose--and I think that is very likely in '06, given the electronic voting circumstances--people will KNOW WHY, and this will, a) keep them from being demoralized and disempowered (because knowing the reasons for things DOES help--it gets your mind working on SOLUTIONS); and b) create a constituency for getting rid of these machines and restoring transparent elections.
I worry about Americans. I think many are depressed--and not enough have gotten the word as to WHY the country is going downhill so fast. They NEED to know why--and that it is fixable, or, at least, the first step toward fixing things is very specific and doable. Americans HATE problems that are not fixable. We are a very practical, get-it-done kind of people. Throw a malaise at them--or corporate-created illusions of masses of rightwing nutso, Bush-worshipping, so-called "christians"--and many just throw up their hands. What can they do--if their fellow Americans have gone insane? Or, what can they do, if the Bush fascists have all the power?
But give them a SEEABLE, DOABLE project--proving the voting machines can be beaten--and just watch them go to it. They will! And there is also nothing like a game aimed at "beating the odds" to interest many Americans.
I'm even sitting here fantasizing a gambling game--at post-election parties (as the returns come in, through the Diebold-ES&S/AP/Edison-Mitofsky/local news affiliate filter), where people bet on what the Bushite candidate's Diebold percentage is going to be, vs, say, the pre-election polls (or the exit polls if they are trustworthy--that is, non-Edison/Mitofsky). And as they laugh at the Bushites--who can't win honest elections--they plan their campaign against Diebold/ES&S.
After 2004, I had great fantasies of Michael Moore leading a band of "Indians" to Boston Harbor and dumping some of these !@#$% machines into the water--with cameras rolling. I sent the idea to him. No response--very, very disappointing. But that's what's needed--that spirit, the spirit of rebellion, the spirit of mischief, the spirit of "the game's afoot!" and we're all in this together, this great majority of good Americans who can't get their votes counted or their will enforced.
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That's one problem. The other is a potential plague of Ohio's--voters purged from the rolls, forced to vote provisionally, shorted on precincts and voting machines, and subjected to other vote suppression and intimidation. Greg Palast estimated that one million black voters were purged from the voting rolls in 2004. And, once again, the Democratic Party's failure of leadership on this matter is a huge handicap. The party snubbed the Congressional Black Caucus challenge of Ohio, and has basically ignored the Conyers report--and the GAO report--and all the evidence. How can we prepare for more Bushite vote suppression, if the Dem Party isn't on it--and really hot under the collar about it, with lawyers ready?
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One BIG NEED--and something the Democratic Party can do, if they won't do anything else to insure our right to vote--is INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Badly, badly needed. Edison-Mitofksy is corrupt--and pulled the dirtiest journalistic crime ever, in 2004 (FALSIFYING the exit poll numbers on election night 2004). We desperately need SOME way to verify these elections.
At the least, we must be set up to gather evidence. I will never agree that our democracy ends in November 2006--or that all hope for transparent elections is gone at that point--no matter what happens. As long as the states/counties hold Constitutional power over election systems, there is still hope. It may be a long slog--but this is an historic fight for American democracy, and it must continue. We will suffer setbacks and lose battles, but we must and will win in the end.
So we need number crunchers, people who will retrieve vote tabulation evidence, people who will closely monitor, take notes and photograph/video polling place activities, the machines and central tabulators, and the behavior of election officials. Edison-Mitofsky has promised never to let us see their real exit poll numbers again--but there may be other exit pollsters out there in '06, whose feeds to news channels need to monitored and images captured. UScountvotes.org is setting up to do some of this work.
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Well, I'm tired for now--but I will come back here. I think we really need to face this problem of highly riggable Bushite controlled vote tabulation--for '06 and beyond. We haven't been able to fix it yet--on the whole. The election reform movement--for all its successes--is still in its infancy. So we really, in all good faith as citizens, need to warn people and we need to get them involved in overcoming it and fixing it.
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Some resources:
www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors).
http://www.rushholt.com/petition.htmlwww.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
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)
Also of interest:
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!)
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
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Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!
:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:
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