How our votes are "counted," and by whom, is WHY we can't stop this war.

[Peace Patriot]

It's staring us in the face. The fascist coup of October 2002 was not the Iraq War Resolution, and all of its attendant lies, collusion, illegality and horror. It was the OTHER thing that happened that month: The "Help America Vote for Bush Act" of 2002 (aka HAVA)--engineered by the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, and abetted by corporatist/war Democrats like Christopher Dodd and Terry McAuliffe--which provided a $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle, to fast-track voting machines across the country, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations. And they are...

DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy. And they are STILL "counting" our votes.

It appears to me that, in 2006, the people outvoted the machines in many cases, to try to get themselves a half-decent Congress. But the voters are suffering under a severe handicap. SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of the American people oppose the Iraq War and want it ended, and yet we could only achieve a 50/50 Congress. Why? This is way out of sinc with public sentiment. It's my guestimate that these rightwing Bushite corporations are putting a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites, warmongers and corporatists--in the primaries as well as the general elections. They have this capability. It is virtually undetectable, the way Delay, Ney, Dodd and others set it up. No paper trail, no audit, in many states. A measly 1% audit in the best states (very manipulable). Rules, laws, making recounts next to impossible. Secret industry "testing" of the machines.

This is not the only thing wrong with our election system, but it is the one thing that is patently absurd. Rightwing Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes under a veil of corporate secrecy. And nobody talking about it, except we citizens who know about it.

If you review the known information about the FL-13 race in '06, you can see very plainly what the problem is: It's the secret code.

This was an election in which 18,000 votes for Congress in Democratic precincts were 'disappeared' by ES&S voting machines, in an election decided by some 300 votes. When the lawyers for the "losing" candidate (and it's always a Democrat who is harmed by these "anomalies"--red flag?) took the matter to court, they requested to see ES&S's 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, to try to figure out what happened to those 18,000 Democratic votes. ES&S refused to disclose its code, and maintained that its "right" to PROFIT from our election system trumps the right of voters to know how their votes were counted (or not counted). And the judge--who must either have been a coward, or a Jeb/George Bush appointee--agreed! A corporation's "right" to keep the code by which votes are "counted" a SECRET, for the purpose of draining the public coffers of billions of dollars for their crapass machines (their "profit"), prevails over the public's right to voting information, even in a high-stink election like this one.

What is wrong with this picture?

A letter has now been discovered that ES&S supposedly sent to "FL Users" (public election officials) warning of a "glitch" in its software that caused their machines to fail to record a voter's vote unless the button was pushed hard and repeatedly. The letter explained that ES&S discovered this "glitch" at its private corporate headquarters, as a result of complaints about the machines. They promised that ES&S would submit the code "patch" for "state certification" (also secret), and advised that election officials post a sign warning voters. In this way, ES&S was trying to cover its ass and blame the "anomalies" on election officials. And the election officials in FL-13 may well have been derelict, or criminal. But why should the integrity of our elections depend upon a private Bushite corporation "discovering" a problem at their private Bushite corporate headquarters--a problem CREATED BY their private corporate technicians--and sending a last minute warning letter to public officials?

The situation is this--and it is pervasive around the country: The public is obliged to prove who didn't get elected, rather than election officials having to prove who did.

That is backwards. And that is wrong. It's the opposite of the way it should be.

So, how many members of Congress were REALLY elected? We can't know. And that suits Bushites, warmongers and corporatists just fine. We have 75% of the American people against the war, and--at best--50% of Congress, in a Democratic win that includes about 40 "Blue Dog" Democrats who want to cut everything in the budget EXCEPT military spending. Fascist Democrats.

There was another glaring problem in the '06 elections--besides the filthy influence of money--but it was unfixable. Only 1/3 of the Senate was up for reelection this time (one of the negative gifts of our Founding Fathers--six year terms for senators). So there are still many Bushite/warmonger dinosaurs in that body. But IF we had had TRANSPARENT elections, it's my belief that, a) more antiwar Democrats would have won, and b) the Democrats would have won about 50 House seats, rather than 30, and the REAL representatives of the people in the House would therefore be in a much stronger position in dealing with the dinosaur-ridden Senate, and with Bush.

Who can prove me wrong? The CONDITIONS for transparent elections were NOT PRESENT.

Extensive analysis has been done of the 2004 election, pointing strongly to a wrong outcome, including the discrepancy between the exit polls (Kerry won) and the "official" Diebold/ES&S result (Bush won). The problem was not just in Ohio. The discrepancy covers all the swing states, and other states, and appears to have gone like a wave from the east coast (the most vote stealing--earliest "results") to the west.* Combined with other stats--such as the Democrats' blowout success in new voter registration in 2004 (nearly 60/40)--the evidence is that we have the wrong president and vice president, and, more than likely, a number of wrong senators.

And what has changed in the voting system since 2004? Virtually nothing. Rightwing Bushites corporations are STILL "counting" all our votes in secret.

Voter consciousness is greater. The antiwar movement has swept the country. And many more voters are onto the rigged electronics, evidenced by the huge increase in Absentee Ballot voting in '06 (a grass roots voter boycott of the machines, and an effort to get around the rigged electronics). I think this AB voting group is the key to restoring transparent vote counting. We need to organize at the state/local level and demand that AB votes be counted by hand, and the results posted BEFORE any electronics are involved--rather than what most election officials do now, merely "scan" the AB votes right into the rigged electronic system. These voters WANT a hand-counted paper ballot--and it is a big constituency--half of the voters in many places. If we can get the AB votes hand-counted--regardless of what machines are being used--it will snowball. This strategy gets around the vast (and bipartisan) corruption that the $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle inflicted on our election system (and that is also evident in state legislatures and Congress).

Congress is not going to fix this--and, like the recent gift to Bush/Cheney of another ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS to play with in Iraq--it is more evidence that this Congress is not even close to being representative of the American people, although it most certainly is an improvement. They appropriated a lot of money for injured soldiers--whom the Bushites couldn't care less about-- but failed to staunch the bleeding in Iraq, in which yet more US soldiers' lives will be destroyed by permanent injury, to feed war profiteers and political egos. They have also initiated many investigations of the most criminal regime in our history--a refreshing change. But on the core issues of Constitutional government and war, they do not have the strength to implement the will of the people.

What the Democrats in this Congress may do about the election system (may do!) is...how can I describe this? It's very like the $100 billion for more war. It rewards the rightwing Bushite voting corporations with billions more of our hard-earned dollars to "fix" the election system that they deliberately broke, by providing a "paper trail" and a meager, stinking 2% audit.** A 2% audit is just what it sounds like. On a transparency scale of 1 to 100, it is a 2. 98% of the votes will not be counted. And these measures are EXPENSIVE, requiring NEW CONTRACTS for printers, for more software "patches," for replacing and upgrading computers, for long term maintenance, for auditing programs, and for secret industry "testing" of the machines, overseen by a Commission appointed by the President! And--worst of all--it leaves the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code in place, in the central tabulators and the voting machines. Even with these so-called reform measures, our elections will still be wide open to fraud, especially insider, private, secret, corporate fraud.

The "Iron Curtain" over election fraud news--so evident just after the 2004 election (and enforced by Democratic Party leaders, as well as by Bushites and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies)--has been somewhat lifted. But not on this issue. Not on the 'TRADE SECRET' code. This WAS the fascist coup. And it is still very much in place.

We must do this ourselves. We must restore transparent vote counting and democracy in this country ourselves. Nobody is going to do it for us--least of all the coalition of Bushites and rightwing/corporatist/war Democrats in Congress. They are benefiting from this secret vote "counting" system. And they will block--and are blocking--any real reform. The only positive item of significance in the Holt bill is a "paper trail" for states that have none at all, and it may not even be a real paper ballot. On a transparency scale of 1 to 100, this is a 1. Bottom-line of transparency. Bottom-line of democracy. (In other words, in many states of the US right now, there is NO democracy AT ALL. FL-13 is the rule. The voters have NO rights vs. corporate secrecy. And it's not much better anywhere else.)

Reforming this election system must be our Priority No. 1. We can complain and protest all we want, about the war and the funding of the war, and other fascist policies, but the hands of the REAL Democrats in Congress--the ones who truly represent us--are tied. They don't have the power--the votes--to implement the will of the people. And I am convinced that this is why.


----------


*(See www.TruthIsAll.net.)

**(In Venezuela, they hand-count 55% of the ballots, as a check on machine fraud--and that is in an OPEN-source code system (anyone may review the code by which the votes are counted). 55%! Congress is talking about--at best--2%. This is outrageous. These Bushite-controlled voting systems should NEVER have been put in place without a 100% audit--a full handcount as a check on machine fraud--at least in the first several elections. That they weren't is, in itself, evidence of fraud. Secret vote counting IS fraud. The 55% handcount in Venezuela is why they have a president who represents the interests of the majority, and is using some of Venezuela's oil profits to help the poor and to foster the notion of Latin American self-determination, and our 0% to 1% audit is why we have a psychotic doofus as president, who serves only the interests of the super-rich, and is destroying our country and our democracy--and too many legislators willing to fund his psychosis and his incompetence with hundreds of billions of dollars of OUR money.)

[Lars39]

1. Recommended!

:kick:

[Stevepol]

2. Right on, PP. Ron Baimon supports your guesstimates.

He says that the thumb on the scales amounted to a greater tilt than in 04, just not great enough to counteract the huge tsunami that went Dem, partly due to late events like the Foley scandal. The programs have to be finished about a month ahead of the election in order to be in place when the election rolls around.

Baimon analyzes this I think on:

www.electiondefensealliance.org

[bleever]

4. Good analysis by Ron Baimon.

From your link:

The Edison-Mitofsky media Exit Poll, posted Election Night on CNN.com, had a sample base of more than 10,000 voters, and showed Democratic House candidates winning over Republicans by an 11.5 percent margin.

The reported vote count showed Democrats winning by a 7.6 margin, 3.9 percent less than the Exit Poll and far outside the poll’s +/-1% margin of error. This discrepancy entailed at least 3,000,000 votes.

The Exit Poll was then adjusted, by a process known as “forcing,” to match reported election vote totals. The final result, posted at 1:00 p.m. November 8, showed Democrats winning by a 7.6 percent margin, exactly mirroring the reported vote totals.

One objective yardstick was the proportion of respondents who indicated they had voted for Bush or Kerry in 2004. The sample in the already weighted Election Night Exit Poll had 47 percent Bush voters and 45 percent Kerry voters, a valid sample given the very conservative assumption that Republicans and Democrats turned out with equal enthusiasm in 2006. However, after the forcing process, the sample contained 49 percent Bush voters and only 43 percent Kerry supporters. This 6 percent gap is more than twice the size of the 2004 Bush win of 2.8 percent. It indicates a significant over-sampling of Republican voters in the adjusted 2006 Exit Poll. Bush and Congressional approval ratings were among the additional yardsticks confirming this conclusion.

Such a gross oversample of Republicans was necessary to match the actual vote counts, which therefore could not have been an accurate count of the actual electorate. Had the intended votes been accurately tallied, this election would have produced a Democratic landslide of epic proportions.

Right on!

[tom_paine]

3. k & R -- let's keep this KICKED!

:kick:

[starmaker]

5. Why Can't We Count ?

We can see the effects of media control
and how the conversation and discussions
are diverted away from the mass's attention.

I came on to post It's the vote count stupid
just because it wanted to be said

Elections are an illusion without a count
and even then the system doesn't change.
The amero is not by chance.

From now on i will probably be an undervote

[Peace Patriot]

6. No, no! You mustn't do that! We must never, never give up on our right to vote!

NEVER! Do you hear me? NEVER!!!

That is the whole ballgame! With transparent vote counting, we have a chance. Without it, we cannot reform ANYTHING. It all starts with transparent vote counting. But, CLEARLY, they can't steal EVERY vote. PLEASE READ MY POST AGAIN. The American people rose up, in '06, and outvoted the machines! Doesn't that inspire your loyalty and support? Doesn't that make you want to re-empower and re-enfranchise this wonderful country and its wonderful people, where the great progressive majority has WEATHERED relentless, 24/7 propaganda for six years and more? Where 56% of the people knew the war was crap to begin with? Where 63% of the people oppose torture "under any circumstances"? Where some 75% of the people now oppose the war and want it ended, and can't get their will enforced, and are bewildered as to why?

It makes me want to help. It makes me want to work every day, as I do, to spread the word on transparent vote counting. It makes me want to help INCREASE the vote, to overwhelm the machines and give them the lie.

You are getting the wrong message from my post. And I apologize for anything in it that may have misled you. I believe that we have to face reality. We have to know the bald truth. We cannot strategize effectively without it.

And if you feel defeated or depressed, think about Nelson Mandela, 30 years in prison--to finally emerge and become the first black president of South Africa. Think of Rosa Parks and her lonely ride in that segregated bus, and her lonely and dangerous protest of sitting down at the front of the bus. Think of all of our black citizens who died, or were beaten, over their right to vote. Think of South America, and the decades and centuries of brutal oppression those people have suffered, and the awesome democracy movement that is sweeping that continent now--because of their long hard work on TRANSPARENT elections, and grass roots organization. They are showing us the way. Take heed! Take heed! Loss of our right to vote can still be reversed, but it's not going to be easy and it's not going to happen overnight. And, let me tell you, it does make a difference, and it IS worth fighting for. Ask Venezuelans, ask Bolivians, ask Ecudorans, ask Argentinians, ask Brazilians, ask Chileans, ask Uruguayans, ask Nicaraguans, about the value of voting, even when you fear that the odds are hopelessly stacked against the people. They now have leftist (majorityist) governments, every one of them, because of their perseverance against the odds and their tenacious work on election systems and grass roots organization.

Transparent vote counting is just step no. 1 in the recovery of our democracy, but it is an essential step. worth every effort of our time and energy. And we must meanwhile continue trying to outvote the machines. We have proven that we can do it. Now we must do it some more. And, no matter what happens, we must never, never give up our faith and belief in democracy and democratic change. That is our heritage. That is the gift of all those who went before us, in many a difficult struggle, and many a dark night of the soul. And it is the gift that we must pass along to the future.

We have to get over the idea that, as North Americans, we somehow don't have to fight for our democracy. It should be handed to us by our rulers. Not going to happen. We really need to learn this--that WE are now the "Banana Republic"--that our corporate rulers have no loyalty to us, or respect for our institutions. They are at war with us. But, on the other hand, we also must realize that, as North Americans, our vote is very powerful--more powerful than any vote on earth. We have the theoretical power, as a sovereign people, to reign in these global corporate predators who are harming everyone, and destroying the very planet we live on. They know this. That is WHY they took our right to vote away. We are theoretically a great power for good, and yet we are slaves, unable to get our government to do our will.

And when you resign yourself to defeat, and say you may stop voting, you are doing exactly what they want you to do. Please don't spread that defeatism around. Go do something else--something creative, something renewing. Take a break! The struggle for our democracy is not up to you alone. It is--and has to be--a collective effort. Take a vacation, if you can. Maybe go to Venezuela and ask the people there how important voting is. Really. It feels like you need to get out from under the Bush Junta cloud.

[Festivito]

7. The rigging INCREASES, there before, there now. They fight, will we?

Our voting has always been rigged. ONLY some few areas actually have a good voting system.

Not mine.

I started voting on machines where I pulled a toggle switch. But, behind the machine, I had no idea if my vote registered. In fact, some of those machines had SHAVED votes, carefully shaved mechanical parts would allow the machine to ignore SOME of the votes.

I was born into bad voting systems.

THEY, the CONs, the BFEE, the MilitaryIndComplex, FIGHT to keep us from voting against their business interests. Our Dems get support to run from some of these interests because we REFUSE to fund elections. Do we really care enough?

WILL WE FIGHT BACK?