Imagine the Movie You Want to See About Election Fraud--

[petgoat]

and help us write the screenplay!

A poster named loudsue said she wanted a movie, and I said "let's
write it"! The idea is that the copyright and any potential revenues
will belong to DU.


I've been brainstorming on it and have some thoughts, but I'd like to
see other people's ideas rather than setting the direction myself.

loudsue suggested that we have a Deep Throat character.
I suggested we need at least one investigator character.

Any ideas for titles?

Any thoughts? Let's do it!

[PinkPantherChick]

1. I think that this is ingenious and I bet some big stars like Tim Robbins

and Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, etc. would love to get their teeth into it as well. I am a fairly decent writer but I am better at fleshing out things from a framework than I am at writing from scratch. I am in and willing to help if this really goes somewhere. I am so frightened at the EASE by which elections can be stolen in this country and the sheeple need to have an "in your face" vehicle like this to comprehend what the DU community already knows. I am staggered by the lack of knowledge and the unwillingness of people to research ANYTHING of importance regarding politics. You can pick up a brick and toss it up in the air and no matter where it falls down it will hit someone who knows NOTHING about what is really happening under their noses in this country, including election fraud. Yes, a movie is a terrific idea because people don't read anymore but they do go to movies. Let's do it.

[petgoat]

2. Thanks, Panther. If you have any thoughts at all, please share them.

I hope we can get the ball rolling and brainstorm a decent outline in a
couple of weeks.

It's good to imagine the people you'd like to star in it, too. Helps
you visualize how it's going to look.

[wli]

3. Stalinism in America: The Death of Democracy

How's that?

[petgoat]

4. "Stalinism in America: The Death of Democracy" sounds doable.

The academic tone would certainly stand out in list of Hollywood movie
titles.

Do you have any ideas for characters or for events?

Do you think it should be based on a local election--like Hackett's or
San Diego, or should it be about election fraud nationally?

I want all you election fraud obsessors to imagine--what would prove it
once and for all to Joe and Thelma? And then let's write it as if we've
got it! It's fiction. We're allowed!

[wli]

5. I'm pretty much clueless

I think my brain has gone to mush after all this Bush stuff.

I'm just want integrity in the government back, like I've never seen happen.

[petgoat]

6. Maybe If You Sleep On It, Something Will Come to You n/t

[NoBushSpokenHere]

7. Actually Sherole Eaton was contacted regarding

a movie. Not sure if anyone is still working on this or not, but someone wanted to turn her plight into a movie upon her firing from the Hocking County Board of Elections.

65 Year old lady with an aneurysm who stood up during the Ohio recount because she wanted the truth to come out about the possible fraudulent actions of a corporation that controls the tabulation of votes. Forced out on comp time, having carotid artery surgery while off work, returning to be fired for blowing the whistle just a few weeks before unnsuccessful brain surgery for the aneurysm. The strife of fund raising to have money to continue medical insurance to cover yet another surgery and legal fees (let alone groceries). Attending the Democrat meeting the evening she was released from the hospital from the brain surgery to hear resounding applause when the Democrat Board of Elections members were asked to resign (because they fired her). The admission of one member that "He does whatever the republicans want him to do." The frustration of being jobless and trying to make ends meet. The effort of concerned progressives to raise funds. Presidential candidate David Cobb donating money and volunteering to speak at future rallies in support of Sherole. The lack of a thorough investigation regarding the tabulators. The support of John Conyers and the Congressional Committee. Her upcoming aneurysm surgery.

Yes, it would make a good one, especially if you met this wonderful lady. Did you know she went miles from her home door to door to campaign for Hackett? She has worked almost her entire life for Democratic causes. She also knew she was taking a risk of her job by standing up, but chose to do it so that we may have a possibility of finding proof of the fraud.

[petgoat]

9. Thanks, NoBush. Sheryl Eaton is the kind of character a movie needs--

someone who stands up and challenges fate, takes risks and surmounts opposition.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

19. Fade from Clint Curtis to Sherole to Andy Stephenson

to the recount that wasn't (a recount) throughout the state. Mix in some images of people waiting in line all hours of the night to vote. Blackwell's directives, the withholding of machines in heavily Democratic precincts, back to Curtis, to Conyers, to Sherole. Mix in the lack of an adequate investigation, lack of media coverage, the grassroots efforts to uncover the fraud, to the quietness of the DLC, to David Cobb, back to Sherole being fired in front of 30-40 protestors (mostly senior citizens). Include her surgeries, etc.

Fade to actions by the boards of adopting machines based on "wine and cheese), possible illegal donations for voting Diebold, mix in rallies and protests and people who are trying to stop these actions (I am sleepy - can actually write better after rest, I hope)

End with a close up of uncounted ballots and echoes of quotes from all the key players.

[garybeck]

8. are you talking documentary or "fiction" ?

I'm not sure a fictional movie will help us now. we need a feature movie by Michael Moore that focuses on election fraud and e-voting. We need to present the cold hard facts to the public, not necessarily present a fictional story.

i'm patiently waiting for the full length version of Votergate to get released, which is supposed to happen this fall. But I have my doubts about how much exposure it will get in the theaters.

g

[petgoat]

10. documentary or "fiction"?

I'm just floating the notion and collecting ideas. It seems to me the
people who want to work on it should determine the direction of
it.

"I'm not sure a fictional movie will help us now.... We need to
present the cold hard facts to the public.... I'm patiently waiting
for...Votergate.... But I have my doubts about how much exposure it
will get in the theaters."

Well, do you want to wait and let the Votergate gang do the job, or do
you want to work on something? If people want to write a documentary
or assemble something in digital video I'm willing to do what I can to
help. But aren't documentaries normally written by the people who
produce them? Are you prepared to handle production or do you know
people who are?

[garybeck]

12. believe me, I am "working on something" :)

if you don't already have a copy of the CD, give me your address and I'll send you a free copy.

info is here
http://www.solarbus.org/election/cd/

peace out
gary

------------------------------------
the solar bus
ELECTION JUSTICE CENTER
your home for updated information on the fight for democracy in America
http://election.solarbus.org
------------------------------------

[petgoat]

13. "working on something"

Solarbus is a staple site. I used to visit it a lot. I honestly
thought that Republicans and Democrats together would repudiate
the Ohio shenanigans as unAmerican and absolutely unacceptable. I guess
I learned "honestly" and "Republicans" can't be used in the same
sentence. And when USCountVotes debunked the "chatty dems" explanation
for the exit poll discrepancy, I couldn't believe the media wouldn't
cover it.

The CD project is an inspiration, and a good way of distributing
information. I can't help thinking that Joe and Thelma need the
concepts a bit pre-digested for them, which is where Hollywood would
come in.

I haven't downloaded the CD images yet, but I need to. Congratulations
on your great work on that!

[garybeck]

15. thanks, again the offer

to mail you one is there anytime you want it. people are having varying success with the bit torrent download. I tried the FTP and got nothing. If we can't get something working well, we have a donor willing to pay for the extra bandwidth and webspace needed to make it available for download.

in regards to the Solarbus site, thanks for the kind words. However I'm the first to admit i'm getting behind in my work. I have a lot of articles I need to link to, and more "election paraphenalia" for the store. the CD project drew my attention from the site but I'm getting ready for a fairly major upgrade soon.

fyi, the trend is for the main page to be oriented towards newbies (hopefully some of whom will be "turned on" by the CD) and the "Articles" and other have the full shmorgasborg. but an upgrade is needed. stay tuned.

peaceout
g

[petgoat]

22. "the trend is for the main page to be oriented towards newbies"

That's wise. The sheer volume of the material can be pretty inhibiting
to newbies (or even those of us who've been following since
November--which is one reason I've been slow to download your CD.)
The Mark Crispin Miller article may have brought some new people into
the issue.

Frankly I got real discouraged when the USCountVotes report went Pffft.
I don't think even Olbermann covered it. I couldn't believe it! How
come nobody cares about democracy?

[garybeck]

33. "USCountVotes report went Pffft"

I don't think it went pfft. It just didn't get covered in the corporate media just like everything else. people like us are trying to hype it up all we can.

there are millions of people who WANT to be convinced the election was stolen. they just watch the corporate media too much and they have some barriers to overcome. the USCV report is a good antidote.

the report isn't going anywhere. let's un-pfft it.

[petgoat]

35. "It just didn't get covered in the corporate media"

I meant no disresepect to the USCountVotes report, and meant all the
blame to apply to the corporate media. But they refused to cover it.
Therefore it failed to produce the desired effect of inspiring
skepticism that Bush's election was legitimate.

"let's un-pfft it."

Great idea. The basic points (that the exit poll discrepancy is
statistically impossible, that exit polls in hand-counted paper ballot
precincts were virtually perfect, and that the "Chatty Dem" theory for
the discrepancy has been debunked by the fact that voters in Bush
strongholds participated in exit poll surveys more readily than voters
in Kerry strongholds did) are pretty simple.

A friend of mine in California said somebody was putting up orange
stickers that were printed to say "USCountVotes.org, Exit Polls Were Right".

[garybeck]

16. OK then, my idea would be to

emulate the facts as closely as possible within the context of a fictional story. I think they call that historical fiction?

but if you have a dopey president with a drawal up for re-election, and follow all the rest of the details closely, I think it would have a good impact because people would question and wonder how much of it is true.

I would have a whistleblower, but end the movie before he/she blows the whistle. leave the audience seeing how it's all in their hands to blow the whistle or not. I think this could have an affect on any potential real whistleblowers. I think that could be the real target of the movie. Anyone with knowledge would be reminded by the movie of their civic duty and responsibility to let the truth be known.

when does the movie open? I want a front seat :)

[petgoat]

24. "end the movie before he/she blows the whistle"

Wooooahh, gary! That's a very interesting idea. As fiction it would
be very interesting because a story is supposed to resolve and tie up
loose ends, and leaving it open is usually a no-no but here it might be
exactly the right thing to do.

"when does the movie open?"

Unless we're willing to take on production ourselves, that's an issue
outside of our control. I don't know. Given that surely people in DU
have contacts in the industry, it might be that we could hope to get
people in the industry considering the idea when our work here was still
at the outline stage. I don't have contacts in the industry, but if all
went well a target of October 2006 doesn't seem impossible--if we get
cracking on it right now!

[Land Shark]

11. Although a deep throat character would make good screenplay

I personally wouldn't want to imply, for purposes of 'reality', that one has to have such a deep throat before the case is made for changing the system.

intRO

For years the public accepted election results at face value, never needing to see the ballots or the counting for itself. then parts of corporate america influenced by criminal elements realized that there was an asset here (elections) with huge profit potential to be sold to the highest bidder. once negotiations were commenced with a given candidate, no candidate was clean, and the elections officials were compromised themselves by combinations of their desire to have the job appear flawlessly executed, their own naivete about computers, and in some instances bribes (part of the process of placing a contract with a given jurisdiction). What made it all the more perfect is that whoever would lose the bidding process for a given election (should they happen to complain about it) would be met by a chorus of 'conspiracy theorist' denunciations, backed by by the 38% of the public on the 'winning' side of the election (not to mention the risk of jail time for the candidate).

Never in the history of the united states of america had a criminal enterprise both wittingly and unwittingly had so many powerful elements allied in its favor, never in the history of the world had such a powerful political hijacking occurred: effective control of the world's sole superpower meant effective world control. And all it took to get into this game was a $10 million investment in defective 'software' then claimed as trade secret, defined as anything that gives a company a competitive profit edge that they make efforts to keep secret. And any politician or judge who thought they could take on such things had better be successful prior to their next re-election campaign, and that those who wanted to control a nation or the world wouldn't resort to other, less non-violent means, to preserve their control....

Purely fictional here, of course

[petgoat]

14. You brought up some interesting themes, Landshark--

the criminal connection of croooked voting, and the immense value of
the presidency to a global player.

As to the first, I recall that Daniel Hopsicker had some work on
Sequoia Systems in Louisiana, both in terms of their bribery ($10
million worth) of the election officials and their use of organized
crime guys who sometimes, if I remember right, would turn up dead.
Come to think of it, I think their connected guys came from Boston,
which is where a lot of connected guys seem to come from, these days.
Relatively low-level manipation of the process might be a colorful way
to handle the issue of electoral corruption--for instance the notion
that a "gaming" enterprise might be willing to pay a few million to
make a local referendum go their way on whether they can build a new
casino. By portraying the corruption in a small local election we
could imply corruption of the whole process.

And then there's the big picture. As you suggest, maybe as little as
$10 million could corrupt the process. Al Qaeda could give it a
hundred million. The Chinese or the Israelis could give it a hundred
million. So that could generate more of a "spy story" kind of thing.

Both of these approaches--the local criminal subversion and the
geopolitical subversion--would have the advantage of depoliticizing
the portrayal of the vulnerabilities of the system. If it's no longer
a Democrats v. Republican thing but a democracy v. subversion thing it
may find a wider audience.

Your last sentence suggests another character challenging fate: a
judge. Perhaps someone like the judge on the Snomhomish case which,
because it may have the potential to become precedent-setting, could
have effects far beyond the one county in which the case is being
tried. If the character were an "honest Republican" judge instead of
an activist liberal, we might see some of his friends in the country
club reveal their attitudes about the case. He could be a reluctant
hero with interesting conflicts.

Or a Secretary of State might defy the fraudsters--as Shelley did, and
recently McPherson did, in California.

Thank you.

[mirrera]

40. Exactly! IMHO

[mirrera]

17. Fiction or documentary?

I was just wondering, if the potential for mischief with computers could be made into a story like "network" with Sandra Bullock. We all know what secret software can do, but no one has come forward except Clint Curtis. It would be great to flesh out some possible scenarios in a block buster type movie. Like a last minute update sent out to election officials that screws with the vote so that NO dems win anywhere. Have it trickle down from Federal elections rapidly to local elections.

My little town in Maine just bought a scanner instead of keeping their hand counted paper ballots, so it is personal for me. (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x387942)

I just read a bunch of the diebold memos, and these characters are so human, who and where is the rogue programmer? The one that writes the code that resides deep in the GEMS program, the accu-basic program that gets down-loaded to the memory cards that get used in the optical scanners and the touch screens.

The scenario I see involves very few people, but they ARE programmers.

[petgoat]

18. The scenario I see involves very few people, but they ARE programmers.

That is in line with Christopher Hitchens's essay about Ohio

"I had the chance to spend quality time with someone who came to me well
recommended, who did not believe that fraud had yet actually been
demonstrated, whose background was in the manufacture of the machines,
and who wanted to be anonymous. It certainly could be done, she said,
and only a very, very few people would have to be “in on it.” This is
because of the small number of firms engaged in the manufacturing and
the even smaller number of people, subject as they are to the hiring
practices of these firms, who understand the technology. “Machines were
put in place with no sampling to make sure they were ‘in control’ and no
comparison studies,” she explained. “The code of the machines is not
public knowledge, and none of these machines has since been impounded.”
In these circumstances, she continued, it’s possible to manipulate both
the count and the proportions of votes."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00121.htm



"who and where is the rogue programmer?"

Quite a pregnant question, I would say. It's occurred to me that if
software patches are distributed on those smart memory cards, that
somebody need only substitute an altered card for the master card--the
one they copy all the others from. And the janitor or the shipping
clerk could do that.

Diebold already showed their absolute disregard for security when they
left their source code out on the internet for any rogue hacker in the
world to see.

[tiptoe]

31. For ideas from a Programmer so hired, see Clint Curtis video (link)

...below: Testimony before the Conyers Hearing on Dec 13, 2004.

(Perhaps Clint Curtis can offer consultation: He's appeared and spoken publicly about his involvement with election fraud programming, with numerous interview commentaries on The Clint Curtis / Tom Feeney / Yang Enterprises Vote-Rigging Scandal (Key Articles in the Series)

In the video bwlow, he talks about code that can eat itself if designed in modules...thereby with ability to "disappear" after "the deed" is done...Important concepts that a programmer can implement to protect against exposure.

By the way, Curtis identifies Tom Feeney as the party who approached him in October 2000 to write a prototype program for electronic vote machine fraud. At the time, Tom Feeney was a Corporate attorney for Yang Enterprises, also Speaker of the House in Florida and also a lobbyist for the firm. Mr. Curtis adds that currently -- 2004 -- his title is Congressman Feeney.

What is not mentioned during the hearing is that in 1994, Tom Feeney was the gubernatorial running mate of Jeb Bush. That campaign failed for Jeb. (see Jeb Bush

[helderheid]

52. who was theguy who was murdered in a hotel room over this

write a murder mystery over covering up election fraud

[truckin]

20. I would like to see a movie based on the book Vote Scam

This book would make a great movie. The experiences of the Collier brothers over 25 years as rock promoters, the original owners of the Hawaiian Tropic company, being homeless in DC all while fighting election fraud. They performed major investigations in Florida and Ohio before 1992 and crossed paths with both Janet Reno and Justice Scalia while fighting an uphill battle against the status quo. The downside is that anyone who tried to make this movie would probably be mired in lawsuits but if someone could get it made the book has the potential to be a great movie.

[petgoat]

21. The book Vote Scam can be read online

(the first eight chapters anyway) here:

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

Why do you say people would be mired in lawsuits? Do you mean because
of libel or because of copyright? Surely those problems could be dealt
with. This sounds like a doable option to me.

All of these options sound doable. It's largely a question of: are the
people proposing them willing to work on them and are other people
willing to work on an option proposed by somebody else.

Is your vision a documentary or docudrama or a fiction work about
homeless voting activists?

[truckin]

23. I was thinking of a docudrama that shows the human side of

the Collier brothers while bringing to light all of the election fraud they uncovered. Oliver Stone would be the perfect director to tell this story.

As for the legal issues, because of some of the powerful people that are implicated in the book, I believe that there is a good chance that there would be multiple libel suits. However, I am not a lawyer and this might not be that big a problem if handled correctly. Also, anyone who seriously considers this project would probably have to clear it with Victoria Collier, who is the daughter of one of the brothers and is continuing their work. Both of the brothers have passed away.

[tommcintyre]

25. Watch "Silver City", It was all about Bushco

not the stolen election, but still a good watch.

[petgoat]

26. To Summarize our Progress Thus Far

(And I'm sorry this is a bit sloppy--I've been really pressed for time
lately, but I'll be working more on this, I promise)

loudsue suggested that we need a deep throat character; I suggested we
need an investigator.

#1 PinkPantherChick suggests Robbins, Sarandon, and Penn as stars.
And points out that we need to be "in your face" to people who don't
read anymore but do go to movies.

#3 wli suggests "Stalinism in America: The Death of Democracy" as a
title.

#7 NoBushSpokenHere suggests the Sherole Eaton story as a framework.
Ms. Eaton's courage in standing up despite health problems and
insecurity. The story weaves the progress of Ms. Eaton's health
problems with the election fraud events.

#19 NoBushSpokenHere contributes an outline of a documentary
presentation.
(Not clear on whether footage is to be taken from existing
film/video/digitial sources or re-created in a docudrama
format.)

#8 garybeck posits that non-fiction (cold hard facts) will be more
effective than fiction, suggests a Michael Moore presentation is
what's needed. Anticipates "Votergate" movie, but forecasts that it
will get limited distribution.

#16 garybeck suggests alternatively an "historical fiction" with a
dopey drawling president up for re-election, would like to see the
movie end with focus on a whistleblower but end before the whistle
blows, giving the audience the notion that more is to come and it's up
to us (and the whistleblowers) what happens.

#11 Land Shark implies that presenting a fictional "deep throat" or
"proof" may do injustice to the voting truth movement because it
implies that until we get actionable proof, we can't do anything. (So
perhaps the whole concept of seeking proof is wrong.)

He points out that being able to deliver elections is a service worth
a lot of money, that technologically naive election officials wishing
to appear to run perfect elections are easily manipulated by the
voting machine manufacturers even when they're not being bribed, and
that a few million dollars effectively deployed could potentially
swing an election.

He posits the "fictional" conceit that a criminal enterprise has
hijacked effective global domination.

#17 mirrera suggests "Network" as a model, suggests a
Clint-Curtis-type hack where a last-minute software update hijacks the
vote. Suggests the Diebold memos as a source of character detail
about rogue programmers.

#20 truckin suggests the book "Vote Scam" be the source text,
focussing on a character study as homeless ex-rock promoters fight
election fraud. Possible dangers: libel lawsuits, and the fact that
the movie rights would have to be negotiated.

#25 tommcintyre recommends the movie "Silver City"

[tommcintyre]

28. John Sayles et al. self-financed "Silver City" + more ideas:

This is a "must-rent" for all anti-Bush activists (IMO). If you watch the "Making of...", and the movie with the commentary on, you will learn much about the "whos" and the "hows" of making an anti-Bush theatrical release.

For example, Sayles and the producer were so motivated (after the 2nd Iraq invasion) that they self-financed (5+ mil) the movie to make sure it got out before the election. Also, all the actors worked very cheaply (a labor of love); so the cast of this movie is a good place to look for talent (Richard Dreyfus, Darrel Hannah, etc.).

Other ideas:

Look at the three pages of progressive movies on my web site for more leads, etc. (It hasn't been maintained since 11-2, but still is a good source for who is doing what - see some theatricals on page three - Yes Men, Team America.) If you go the documentary route, I can suggest some good groups that are more accessible, and have successfully made (and distributed) this type of doc.
http://www.independentmediasource.com/video.htm

Sony bought the movie rights to Richard Clark's book, "Against All Enemies", so there might be some interest from this studio.

Woody Harrelson did a good interview with Howard Zinn (he's very dedicated; and, I believe, more accessible than most celebs).
"A Conversation with W. Harrelson & H. Zinn"
http://www.freespeech.org/fscm2/videoviewer.php?video_id=1172&search_text=Harrelson&searchmode=&page=0&content_type_id=

PM helderheid, I think she has at least one celebrity contact (Bono?); it may lead to more.

Finally, distribution: If you wind up making this as a "grass roots" project (out of this forum, etc.); archive.org will probably host it. Also,you can "vlog" it.
http://www.straughan.com/vlog/
Also, ck this for more low-cost web-based ideas (using torrent technology):
"Full screen video for web sites"
http://p2pnet.net/story/4961

Final thought: You could make this on an absolute "shoe-string" by doing video-conferencing interviews with key individuals. It would look crude, but getting the info out there is more important than waiting for a more elaborate production to be put together. If you go this route, the members of this forum can hook you up with the right people to interview; and help you with structuring the script, etc.

[Time for change]

42. I like this theme involving Clint Curtis and Raymond Lemme:

Clint Curtis, a computer programmer working in Florida prior to the 2004 election, in testimony before Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee (http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001047.htm ), said that he was requested in 2000 by Tom Feeney, then Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, to “develop a prototype of a voting program that could alter the vote tabulation in an election and be undetectable”. He did develop the program, after telling Feeney, however, that he could not make the program so that it would be undetectable if the source program were to be inspected.

Was that or a similar program used in the 2004 election? A study of reports from the national Election Incidence Reporting System (EIRS) suggest that indeed it was (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2020121 .) This study defined an electronic “vote switching” incident as one where a voter tried to vote for one candidate but the machine registered the vote for the other candidate, sometimes even after repeated attempts. The study came up with two major findings: First, of the 94 vote switching reports, the ratio of incidents that favored Bush outnumbered those that favored Kerry by a ratio of 12 to 1. And secondly, the incidents that favored Bush were 9 times as common in the heavily contested “swing states” than in non-swing states.

An investigation by the Washington Post into reports of this nature in Mahoning County, Ohio, demonstrated that the number of incidents reported to EIRS was only the tip of the iceberg. There were only 8 individual incidents in Mahoning County that were reported to EIRS. Yet, the Post investigation identified 25 electronic voting machines in Youngstown, Mahoning County, EACH of which transferred an unknown number of votes from Kerry to Bush on election day. (http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1032 ).

If the tendency of these voting machines to favor Bush was not accidental, that means that someone programmed them to act this way. Depending on the magnitude of this phenomenon, that could have compromised the integrity of the election. This is especially true given high proportion of vote switches from Kerry to Bush in Florida and Ohio, two states which were absolutely critical to Bush’s chances of winning the election.

And what became of the investigation into Clint Curtis’ allegations? Raymond Lemme, the investigator from the Florida Inspector General’s Office who was assigned to the case, was found dead in a hotel room in the midst of his investigation. His death was ruled a “suicide”. But an investigation into this case described on the Brad Blog (http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001243.htm ) strongly suggested that the finding of “suicide” was in error. What would be the motive for killing Lemme? In his 2004 affidavit, Curtis describes a 2003 meeting with Lemme in which Lemme told him he "had tracked the corruption all the way to the top”.

[petgoat]

43. The Clint Curtis/Ray Lemme Story Could Make a Very Interesting Movie;

the angle that springs to mind could be that it's told from the point of
view of the Curtis charcater's girlfriend, who loves him in spite of his
"crazy" rants about electronic voting. I see them with an uneasy truce
in which they agree not to discuss the subject, and then when his dog is
killed she accuses him of doing the dirty deed himself to try to impress
her. Seeking comfort, she contacts Ray Lemme's widow and learns enough
really crazy shite to convince her that Clint knows what he's talking
about.

As to the nuts and bolts, what Curtis described as "vote switching"
was a secret inside-the-machine operation and not the same as what you
described. The "I voted Kerry but the machine said I voted Bush"
experience with the touchscreen machines was a result of the "ballot
definitions" file that is written new for every election. This file
presents the picture that shows all the candidates' names on the
screen and also divides the screen's real estate up in terms of the
touchscreen reactivity.

So if you have a screen that says in the top half BUSH and in the
bottom half KERRY, but the reactivity program specifies that touching
80% of the screen will result in a Bush vote and only 20% of the
screen results in a Kerry vote, that explains the anomalies reported.

[mod mom]

27. I have been contacted by independent film producers from London

(Votergate, Outfoxed) about an area of Ohio (election investigation) I am working on. I will certainly make them aware of the important work and devoted activists at ER +D. We need to get our story out!

[tommcintyre]

29. I hope somebody runs with this, even if it's a "desktop job"

See my suggestion above for doing it "on the cheap".

[petgoat]

30. Some basic questions:

documentary or fiction?

Who is the target audience? Activist or mainstream?

Is the strategy to rally the troops, to persuade with facts, or to plant
a seed in the uninitiated?

Should the scope be the whole enchilada of the 2004 election, or perhaps
just a piece of it--such as limited to New Mexico or to Sherole Eaton or
to the Colliers brothers, and using that microcosm as a metaphor for the
whole?

[truckin]

32. Vote Scam Movie

If I could make a movie about the Collier brothers, it would mirror the book and show what they experienced from 1970 - 1992. At the end of the movie there would be short written summaries about what happened in the 2000 and 2004 elections.

I really believe that a movie about the Collier brothers could have commercial success because of all of the wild events that they experienced throughout their lives and because of what they sacrificed to find out the truth about how elections are run in this country. The movie could appeal to moviegoers because of the interesting story about the Collier brothers while exposing the election fraud issue to many who otherwise would not pay attention.

[petgoat]

37. I'll read what's online here

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

and get back to you on this. Maybe taking the whole election fraud
issue out of the technical questions of 2004 is a smart
strategy--depoliticizes it in a way. Maybe discussing it indirectly in
the 1970-92 context is the only way a movie about election fraud could
be made.

I see a lot of apparent resurgence of 60's culture--a lot of tie die and
long hair on men and I hear loud car stereos blaring The Doors, Dylan,
the Mamas and the Papas, and Jefferson Airplane. So maybe combining the
election fraud issue with the context of rock & roll and the seventies
would be an effective approach.

[truckin]

38. Yes, that is what I am talking about

It could be a fast moving picture (think JFK by Oliver Stone) that captures the mood of the times while following the adventures of the Collier brothers as they fight election fraud. BTW, the title of the movie could be "And That Was That". Once you read the book the title will make more sense.

[mirrera]

39. 2 problems with Vote Scam...

Awesome book by the way...but you NEVER find out what Janet Reno says to that Lawyer that completely spooks him an causes him to drop the Collier's Brothers like a hot cake after being their champion. The impression I got was it is the answer to everything and if we knew what she said we might know why we get the suspicious blank stares from certain people on the Democrat side of the aisle. The second problem is that the Colliers proved that the EXIT POLLS themselves were rigged. they were never able to find that anyone had actually been polled as said by the news consortium that sponsored it.

So if we are going to deal with this election and future elections, we would either have to continue the Collier brothers investigation, or follow Lyn Landes's theory about the Exit polls also being rigged, which people around here do not seem to want to even consider!!!

I think sticking to what we DO know, which is that the computerized vote count is hackable in many ways, and things like corrupt and partisan Sec. Of States can and do allocate machines unevenly, they do count in secret when they have fake Terrorist threats, etc. All of that could be made into a "fictional" blockbuster that will get people thinking when the Ukraine didn't.

We have to make the average citizen understand what is possible before they will ever question how /and by whom our elections are run. If they can't imagine it, they wont see it.

[petgoat]

44. Your First Problem I Could See As an Asset;

if it was played up in the script, it could generate discussion, even
provide a tag line to the movie--"What Did She Say?" The fact that
the issue is non-partisan strikes me as another plus.

As to the exit poll veracity issue, I guess I'd have to see the
evidence the Colliers have gathered.

"If they can't imagine it, they wont see it."


That's a good way of putting it, and a cogent argument for explaining
through fiction instead of through the charts and graphs and
statistical and computer scientific arguments that have so far had so
little penetration into the body electorate.

My own thinking has been that "Silkwood" and "The China Syndrome" did
a lot more to change people's thinking about nuclear power than any
number of statements about half-life and any amount of actuarial
data.

[truckin]

46. What do you think of this sequence to start the movie?

Start out the movie with the infamous Doors concert in New Haven, CT. Then move to Florida the next day as the brothers commiserate about the losses they took on the show and how they decide to have Ken run for congress to write a book about the process. Then weave the events that take place in their lives and what they find out about election fraud into a compelling story for the remainder of the movie. The 1970 election itself is extremely interesting, especially the fact that they had a book deal and a publisher that actually advanced them money before the project, but once they found evidence of election fraud the deal was off and no other publisher would touch the project.

On a side note, Katharine Graham and the Washington Post come under scrutiny in this book and the authors go after media personalities and politicians from both sides of the aisle with equal tenacity.

[petgoat]

47. I wanted to read all the eight chapters of Vote Scam available before

responding. I'm sorry that life has been frantic the last week or so.

The opening sounds pretty compelling to me, focussing on the brothers.
Whether we want to ally this effort with the tie-dye culture is a basic
question. I can see pluses and minuses.

My first reaction to the suggestion in Vote Scam that the 1998
election was stolen through computers was incredulity--how tin-foil
hat can you get? As far as I knew, computerized vote-theft started in
1998 with Chuck Hagel's stunning upset victory in Nebraska.

How come I never heard of the "Shouptronic" machine in New Hampshire
and Gov. Sununu?

"A) In 1988, ex-CIA Director George Bush snr. was elected President. As is well-known, the New Hampshire primary is a crucial forerunner for any presidential candidate. Senator Robert Dole was the clear favorite for the Republicans - but Bush snr. won unexpectedly. How come? The Governor of New Hampshire was one John Sununu, a computer engineer, and the computer voting machine being used was a 'Shouptronic' Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine, supplied by Ransom Shoup, who "had been twice convicted of vote fraud in Philadelphia.".. "It completely lacked an 'audit trail,' an independent record that could be checked in case the machine 'broke down' or its results were challenged."... "A source close to Gov. Sununu insists that Sununu knew from his perspective as a politician, and his expertise as a computer engineer, that the Shouptronic was prime for tampering. The concept is clear, simple and it works. Computerized voting gives the power of selection, without fear of discovery, to whomever controls the computer." On becoming president, Bush appointed Sununu Chief of Staff in his administration. <13>"

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/286128.html

[petgoat]

48. That's a good fast-paced opening.

Following is my rough summary of the first eight chapters. I guess
I'll have to try the used book stores to get a copy and see how it all
turns out. Does it go as far as the 1988 New Hampshire primary?


After their rock club is shut down, the Collier brothers decide to
write a book about working through the system. Dell gives them an
advance and Ken runs for Congress--the garbage incident and the
political breakfast incident are colorful.

After the computer breaks down in the vote count (and Ken loses the
election) they start investigating the canvass sheets, stealing some
from the political science professor who has them. identifies the
computer programmer. They ask the programmer why the election
projections seem to be based on results from one magic machine out of
600, and why they're exactly right. He says "You'll never prove it.
Now get out!"

They contact the FBI. They're told the League of Women Voters does
the ballot counting; when they visit its representative she weeps.
"I don't want to get caught in this thing."

They learn their Dell contract is cancelled.

8/72 Their article on election fraud appears in the Miami Beach
Reporter. At the voting machines warehouse, the caretaker shows them
how decals on the counters could fool the inspectors, and shows them
how to shave a counter's plastic gear wheel so it counts funny.

They visit a lawyer named Ellis Rubin. At their second visit to the
voting machine warehouse they steal some more documents. They meet
with the Justice Dept, and are told "these things take time." In
September in the primary election, once again the computer breaks
down.

Rubin is appointed ombudsman.

They steal canvass sheets from the county, telephoning two sheriff's
deputies to tell what they've done, but they're not arrested.

One handwriting expert says the signatures of the election officials
on the canvass sheets are genuine, two say they're forgeries. Mike
Wallace, the FBI, and a Dade County organized crime unit are
interested.

After their lawyer, Ellis Rubin, has a press conference major
newspapers run stories on the forgeries. The election supervisor
resigns, and the weepy League of Women Voters representative takes his
place.

The voting machines are upgraded. Precinct workers no longer read the
numbers--they turn a crank and a paper spits out with the numbers on
it. But one of the brothers grabs a sheet and- finds it's preprinted.
The precinct workers all walk out. Police and firemen take over the
vote count.

MASSIVE VOTE FRAUD CHARGED IN DADE ELECTION, Miami Herald says.
Ellis Rubin visits the assistant State Attorney, Janet Reno, then
faces the TV cameras to report that she says the statute of
limitations has passed. Rubin starts to drive away in his antique red
convertible. Ken jumps up on running board to talk.

"What did he say?" Jim asks Ken.

"Nothing. He just looked straight ahead."

"What was his expression?" Jim asks.

"Fear"

The brothers' wives are both tired of hearing about the vote scams.
The brothers decide to fight on. Rubin won't take their phone calls.
Newly divorced, they move to a jungle on the beach and write a rock
opera. Rock-n-roll and a bean sprouts business and a 98-page comic
book based on their rock opera will absorb their energies for ten
years. They produce rock concerts at the Grand Canyon and on the roof
of the WTC.




In the summer of '82 they call up a candidate for Dade Metro
Commissioner to warn her about election fraud. They get in a hassle
with her father, and go to visit him at the newspaper of which he is
Managing Editor, and get jobs as reporters.

In 10/82 they are inspired by a $5000 reward offered by the RNC to
take up the vote fraud issue again. They've read about new blackbox
card-counting computers, and they've been told that the Leage of Women
voters has a team punching holes in the cards before they're counted.
They're told that observing the count is not allowed.

They decide to take a Miami Herald reporter along when they try.
At the Herald they give a presentation about their three
investigations: The Blank-Backed Canvass Sheets; The Forgeries and
The Printomatic. They put it all up on a blackboard. They can also
show the 3" file they got from their 1979 FOIA request, and point out
a memo showing that an investigation of their charges was requested by
Assistant Attorney General Henry E. Petersen, who'd been involved in
the Watergate investigations.

At the counting house they bluff their way in, finding that all the
League Women have pencils for no apparent reason, and a man has a
fast-food bag full of seals for the ballot boxes--just in case, he
explains, any of the seals were broken. They see that only one
punchcard reading machine is in use, being operated by a technician
who, after being videotaped moving a ballot from the counted pile to
the uncounted pile, denies that he is the person his name tage says he
is--the man identified as the Herald as the "god of elections", the
programmer Joe Malone.

They're ordered to leave. The Miami Herald reporter who stays later
confirms that the Leage of Women Voters had a blizzard of chads on
their table, but the Herald declined to print the story about that or
about the ejection of the Collier brothers from the counting house.


-----------------------------------

I'm pretty enthusiastic about this material. My one reservation is
that if we're trying to reach Joe and Thelma in the midwest, a couple
of hippies might not be the most sympathetic characters (to them) for
illustrating the subject. I hope the issue of an election-fraud
screenplay is important enough to enough people here at DU that
eventually we'll get an argument about that issue from somebody.

[truckin]

49. I hear what you are saying about reaching Joe and Thelma

This is how I would approach that problem. The rock promotion aspect would be mentioned a couple times along with the sun screen company that they gave away which later became Hawaiian Tropic, and the ups and downs of their personal lives. This provides interesting background about the brothers and also shows what they sacrificed in their pursuit of uncovering election fraud. One way to promote the movie would be to emphasize all the brothers gave up to fight for democracy.

That being said, there is a large % of the population that will dismiss a movie like this because it alleges election fraud. If this movie ever got made and became popular, a big portion of the media would tear it apart and label it a total fabrication and many would mindlessly believe. The movie won't reach everyone, but if it is compelling enough, it could reach many relatively open minded people who have not considered election fraud. Also, if a movie like this ever becam popular enough to spur real discussion about this issue, a documentary focusing on 2000 and 2004 would be much more successful and the ball could really start rolling.

Aren't copies of Vote Scam available at their website? If not, let me know, I have a copy of the book and I can get you the remainder of the it. The book does cover 1988 and ends in 1992 when the brothers are stunned that Janet Reno is appointed Attorney General by Clinton.

[Amaryllis]

34. i could see West Wing doing a segment on electronic elections. Jeb

exposes the hidden agendas of the corporations behind the voting systems companies...

[petgoat]

36. West Wing

I'm not familiar with the "West Wing" series, but I had the impression
that Martin Sheen plays a fictional liberal president. Please elaborate
on this idea. Do you see Jeb as a whistle-blower, selling out his
brother to the opposition to save his own skin?

[WHAT]

41. I'd start with the media...

opening shot: 40's maybe, girl reporter...close-up legs encased in contraband silk, crooked seams...personality jaded, insecure...fragile like Cameron Diaz and tough like Angelina Jolie. maybe making a deal to present a story vital to self-promotion via connection with a love interest. OK cut to slick technocracy where the great grandchildren acting as reporters are sitting in front of screens ..."voting"... on election night while the plebes wait in the rain for the chance of marking their life with a decision irrelevant to the moneyed screens of personal interest...maybe TIA (total information awareness) set-up like DoD with a Mother screen viewing all

I'd do it all in metaphor to make it salient and palatable with the reality of science fiction because it's coherent so that if you assume the truth of the story line, you've already accepted the initiating premise...

It could also be like a subtle joke...turning schwatzenager genre on its head.

Of course, Nicholas Cage and Brad Pitt would have to be in it. Billy Bob Thorton could be waiting in the rain to vote...for Bush...he has small children.

This is turning into a good movie...I need to visualize it some more...

[petgoat]

45. You Have Some Strong Images

The notion of doing it as science fiction is a new one. It would
certainly allow more scope for your metaphorical portrayal of the
situation.

Sounds good. Do tell more.

[petgoat]

50. I just saw a thread about Clint Curtis. He's written a book.

Perhaps that would make a reasonable armature for a screenplay.
Perhaps the Collier brothers story should be combined with the Clint
Curtis story to make a movie?

[NoBushSpokenHere]

51. To reach the people who don't believe

Use veterans, Mr. and Mrs. Religion, soccer moms and Nascar fans.....and of course, the shots have to show them receiving govt handouts of Kool-aid lol

[petgoat]

53. I've tracked down a copy of Votescam; my uncle is mailing it to me n/t

[truckin]

54. Excellent!

I think that you will find the second half of the book very interesting.

[petgoat]

57. The Second Part of the Book is Very Interesting.

The first part has a lot of momentum as the brothers discover a lot of
vote fraud evidence.

The second part escalates these activities in that their tape in
Cincinatti gets shown on TV and the elections supervisor resigns, Ken
testifies against Scalia at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing,
they get Geraldo's guy to the door of the NES office, and Janet Reno
gets Jim arrested for stealing evidence of ballot counterfeiting
from a print shop. But these activities are scattered, and the
final chapters start jumping around in time, and there's a whole lot
of exposition about the Colliers' foes in the second half, and I'm
not confident that I know how to make a cohesive drama out of this
climax material.

If you want to present a "portrait of an activist" kind of thing and
potray their personal sacrifices we're going to have to find out a
whole lot more about these guys (I haven't even been able to find pictures).

I suppose the supersummary is:

Two underground reporters investigate vote fraud and write about it in
their newspaper. They lose the paper. They involve others in their
quest and get attention from tv news organizations and on the radio;
they file lawsuits that tend to prove their points but win them
nothing. They write a book about their experiences but are forced to
publish it themselves. When they attack their old foe Janet Reno
doors slam closed everywhere.

[truckin]

58. The next step would be to contact Victoria Collier and see what

she thinks about this project and to find out more about her father and uncle.

[petgoat]

59. That's one possible next step, and if you want to do it that way, go for

it.

I'd be inclined to prepare for the interview a bit first by

1.) writing an outline based on what we have now so we have something
written to show

2.) consulting with some professional screenwriters (there must be
some here on DU) about how to handle the fact that we're not going to
pay for movie rights to the book. My understanding is that producers
want the rights to be in hand before they even consider buying a
script--I suppose because writers engaging in a speculative project
are in a better negotiating position than is a producer who's
considering developing an existing script.

3.) Dealing with the focus of the script--the brothers' biographies
(such that the votescam issues are just background) or the votescam
issues (and how do we clearly portray that)?

4.) Preparing to discuss how much the material is to be fictionalized.
If the brothers' sacrifices are the focus of the script, surely the
failures of their marriages are part of that theme. How much trouble
can the ex-wives make if they don't like their portrayals?

5.) Recognizing that a biographical-type fact-based approach is likely
to require travel to look at papers and interview informants--or at
the least a lot of long distance phone calls. With a more fictional
approach we can use the book as a springboard and invent what we don't
know.

6.) Do we espouse or do we gloss over the several important and
rather inconvenient political considerations in the material?

1. Allegation that the League of Women Voters is corrupt
2. Allegation that Janet Reno covered up vote fraud
3. Allegation that exit polls are faked by the news media
4. Allegation that the news media count the ballots and do it crookedly

These four allegations are pretty much out of synch with the
prevailing thinking in the electoral integrity movement today. Do we
espouse them, pretend they're not a problem, or pretend they don't
exist?

On the other hand, if Ms. Collier will just veto the notion from the
start, then such preparation is a waste of time. And her own
positions on some of these issues would presumably dictate the
approach. So if you want to dive right in and make the call, go right
ahead.

On second thought, googling "Victoria Collier" indicates she is an
electoral reform activist in her own right. It might be a good idea
to get an idea of what her positions are before approaching her.

[petgoat]

65. Extension to the Collier Story?

It appears that Jim Collier the son of James M. Collier has been an
election activist too. This web page http://www.votefraud.org/News/2000/11/111300.html
indicates that he believed that the problems with the hanging chads in
the Florida recount in 2000 came from an attempt to substitute
counterfeit machine-punched ballots for the actual vote ballots.

That suggests a way to extend your scenario out beyond the deaths of Ken
and James to the 2000 election at least.

This page http://www.votefraud.org/election2000_scam.htm says that the
2000 election was sabotaged by the news networks, which engineered the
chad problems, continuing the ideas put forth by Ken and James.

[truckin]

68. I'm still here. It has been hard to find time to respond because

I have been working in the state of CT to try to convince the state not to purchase DREs.

I believe that it is Jim Condit, the son of an Ohio resident also named Jim Condit, that is the voting activist that you refer to in the referenced articles. The senior Jim Condit contacted the Collier brothers to investigate elections in Ohio and his son would be an interesting person to talk to. I wish I could contribute more to the development of this project but there just aren't eneough hours in a day.

[petgoat]

69. "there just aren't eneough hours in a day"

You can say that again, truckin. The stuff is flyin' fast 'n' furious!

[petgoat]

67. So, truckin, are you still with us?

Haven't heard from you in a week.

[Amaryllis]

72. Entire Votescam book at this link:

here:

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

[Gordon25]

55. A Screenplay to Donate

I began work on the issue of the voting machines back prior to the 2002 midterm elections. Chaired a committee for the local Dem party investigating the issue and wrote a report that was forwarded to all relevant party, state, federal, and media people. Nothing came of it. We documented that the local 2003 city election was run on uncertified Diebold software and that the Dem candidate for mayor was out polling the existing Rep by six points up until election eve. Then the Repub won in a "come from behind victory." The Dem candidate refused to challenge the results or join us in working on the issue. After the 2004 presidential election and Kerry's refusal to pursue this issue (I personally know he was fully informed on the issue), and having done enough research to have a pretty good idea what it would take to correct things (including legislative reform in all 38 states where Rep's have rigged the vote counting laws) I pretty much figured trying to get anything accomplished through traditional reform means was a lost cause.

At that point I bowed out of my activist roles and decided if I couldn't fix things, at least I could document what happened in America. Back in the eighties, I spent a few years in Hollywood doing script rewriting for a couple producers and critiques for a literary agency, so I spent the next three months writing a screenplay on the subject called AMERICAN REQUIEM. It is a feature film, and I've been told by a couple of my few remaining Hollywood contacts that it could be made for somewhere in the vicinity of five hundred to six hundred thousand dollars. I have had no luck generating any interest in it through my own contacts and have been considering just putting it up on the net and offering it to anyone who wanted to get it made.

The idea of a DU film is an exciting one, and I would be willing to offer my screenplay as a starting point if it seems to accomplish your intentions. I have it in a PDF file format and would be willing to send a copy to anyone interested. It is not a happy film, nor does it have a particularly happy ending. But I believe it is visually and emotionally powerful and would have the capacity to move people to some sort of action. I would offer it as a donation to DU with the only caveat being that I would like to have credit for the original screenplay with other writing credits as appropriate for anyone involved in the inevitable rewriting.

Anyone interested, just drop me a line and I'll forward a copy of the file.

Gordon25

[petgoat]

56. Gordon, That's an Extremely Generous Offer

I'd suggest the title alone makes it a tough sell.

I've never written a screenplay myself, though what I've learned in
reading books about it has helped me to write fiction. As it stands,
the project with the most momentum on this thread is based on the
Collier brothers' book "VoteScam," despite the fact that we haven't
even inquired about getting the rights. The legal risk of further
work on that is that we'll waste our time working on material we can't
get.

I'm certainly curious to see your script, but I'm sure you're aware of
the reasons that Hollywood will not read unsolicited material. With
your professional background you surely have a better view of how we
can work around those issues than I do.

[Bill Bored]

60. Are you out of your mind?

"The idea is that the copyright and any potential revenues
will belong to DU."

In case you haven't noticed, DU has been pooh-poohing the notion that the election was stolen by making this very forum practically invisible.

Why should they derive revenue from anything based on that topic?

Anyone who's in this for the money needs to find something better to do with their time.

If you want to make a movie, make one. But at least give the profits to someone who still actually believes the election was stolen or at least that it could have been.

That said, DU is still a great place to find like-minded people on this issue and to debate it. I'm just not sure that "the management" buys the theory. My 2 cents.

[petgoat]

62. I've Noticed that DU Appears to have Banned TruthIsAll

who is the one who brought me to this forum.

I don't think anyone who proposes to work on a screenplay for free is
in it for the money.

"If you want to make a movie, make one."

That takes capital. Internet Intellectual Property takes only time.
The idea is to write something provocative enough that it has
commercial Hollywood potential. Like "Silkwood" or "The China
Syndrome." If I remember right, Syd Field said the script for "The
China Syndrome" came out of a screenwriting workshop where they were
just brainstorming for pedagogical purposes. I thought it was worth a
try to do something like that here. Unfortunately most of us seem to
be operating on separate pages.

"at least give the profits to someone who still actually believes the
election was stolen"

I'm not naive enough to believe that the profits go to the writers (or
the writers' proxies) anyway, and I'm grateful that DU has provided
this forum for the ERD board and the 9/11 board--even if some policies
are not the way I would have them.

In my view, by doing the project at DU we have access to people and
contacts (like Gordon25) that as individuals we would not have access
to. Since the important thing is to get the message out, by working
on the script we are seeking to develop our skills and serve progress.

[Bill Bored]

63. OK. How about this:

The movie opens the day after the election. The President-elect and his adviser are sitting around watching an episode of Seinfeld. It's one of the episodes in which George Costanza is making up some BS story about being an "architect" to impress some lady. (Whenever George tries to impress someone he pretends he's an architect.)

So the two characters in our movie are laughing it up like a couple of frat boys and they look at each other with knowing smiles and the President-elect says, "You know Karl, with me winning this election and all, I guess that makes YOU an architect!" And Karl says, "Yeah, I'm about as much of an architect as George Costanza!"

You see these guys are Seinfeld fans and on Seinfeld, architect = fraud. It's one of the code words the two of them share when they hang out together.

Then the President-elect gives a speech in which he thanks Karl, or whatever his name will be in the movie, and publicly refers to him as "the architect." But no one thinks twice about this reference because it's their little secret. And that wouldn't be a bad name for the movie either -- "The Architect."

After that, it gets serious: flashbacks to how this all came about.

The Urosevich Bros. sell Worldwide Election Systems to some Diebold-like company to give their junk e-votin' machines an air of respectability, etc. Maybe they sell it for only $1.00 because they're not in this for the money really. It's about the power to influence the electoral outcomes -- a labor of love! The real money comes after that.

Hey, this thing practically writes itself! Just change the names to protect the guilty.

[petgoat]

64. Bill, I like the inside joke that becomes a nickname. "The Architect" to

me invokes the spectre of Albert Speer, and resonates with the elaborate
choreography of Bush's appearances.

It seems you're proposing sort of a fictional biography of the Urosevich
brothers, "the technicians" is you will.

That sounds like an interesting approach. Or would you like to do it in
non-fiction?

Certainly the story is an interesting one: how two brothers started
a voting machine company that with the help of financing from a
lovable right-wing religious fanatic overcame obstacles and became two
voting machine companies and went on in just twenty short years to
control 80% of the vote.

My recollection was that the Urosevich brothers were immigrants, but
perhaps I'm getting them mixed up with Alex Kantoravich, a Russian
immigrant who, according to this web page,
http://www.votefraud.org/News/2000/11/111400.html is responsible for
creating black boxes in the ES&S machines. Christopher Bollyn started
investigating this and received a message he believes came from Mr. K:
"I don't want anything to happen to my company, to you, or to me."

So what kind of tone do you want? Satirical? Dramatic? Documentary?
Docu-drama?

[Bill Bored]

66. I would say dramatic, but based on "possible" events!

"So what kind of tone do you want? Satirical? Dramatic? Documentary?
Docu-drama?"

The Seinfeld part a lot of people won't get right away, but it doesn't matter, as long as the characters get it. They'll explain it to those who never saw the show. Meanwhile, anyone who is familiar with Bush and Rove will know straight away that this is about THEM.

And as for the rest, I'd say we'd tell the story according to the tin foil hat version that's out there, whether it stands up to real scrutiny or not. I don't know the full Urosevich story, or the Ahmanson story either. I don't care. The machines are designed poorly enough that it doesn't matter to me who funded them.

As far as the movie version though, of course we'd want to make it as close to the "conspiracy theory" as possible without using real names. So change Urosevich to Some-other-vich or whatever.

The other thing is that you have to include something about HAVA, because without HAVA there wouldn't be any federal money for the states to buy this junk. So you need to find a way to justify spending millions on potentially fraudulent voting machines. The FL hanging chad stuff is what really happened so might as well use that. Maybe some scenes of MSM types downplaying coverage of the bogus felons list and voter suppression and focusing instead on the "chad story." Show some MSM complicity in all this.

Now if you want to work peak oil into the story as the real motivation for doing away with democracy, go for it, but that might be too much. You could have a hero though who points out that democracy predated the industrial revolution and so there's no reason to get rid of it now, just because we're about to descend into a third world culture due to lack of cheap energy.

Well, that's about it for now. It's hard work!

[petgoat]

70. "It's hard work!"

Hey Flipper, in 63 you said it would write itself! :> )

So what do you see as the first scene after the prologue?

The one where they sell their company? The Uroseviches sold 68% of Data
Mark to the Ahmanson family in 1984; Global Election Systems was sold to
Diebold in 2002 for $25 million--what Tom Hanks gets for one movie.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/175280p-152629c.html

Obviously the voting machine business is a labor of love--there's just
not a lot of legitimate money in it.

I have been able to find out little about the Uroseviches. Todd
reportedly got a BS in Business Administration from the University of
Northern Colorado and began installing election systems in 1976 in
Buchanan County MO.

There's some material here on ES&S personnel:

http://votewatch.us/forums/votingEquipment/511988020619

[petgoat]

61. Second Summary of Progress So Far

tommcintyre again recommends "Silver City" and offers links to
trailers and some complete movies, and thoughts on indy production.

Time for change suggests the Clint Curtis/Ray Lemme story, and cites
evidence of "vote switching" from the EIRS and a WaPo article
indicating 20 to 30 machines in Ohio that were improperly calibrated.

mod mom has contacts with the producers of "Votergate" and "Outfoxed"
and indicates she is working on the Ohio irregularities.

truckin reiterates his or her vision of a movie entitled "And That was
That" based on "Votescam" telling the story of the Collier brothers'
struggle for honest elections. He or she points out that the
Collierses had many interesting incidents in their lives, and lays out
a fast-moving compelling opening, and suggests closing with
information about the 2000 and 2004 elections. truckin proposes to
contact Victoria Collier, the publisher of "VoteScam" about the
project.

mirrera points out that the Collierses' belief that the exit polls are
rigged is outside of the current mainstream, and suggests Lyn
Landes's work as a research aid. She also points out that we never
know what Janet Reno said to Ellis Rubin to make him drop the
investigation of rigged lever action voting machines.

Amaryllis suggests a West Wing episode on electronic voting.
"Jeb exposes the hidden agendas of the corporations behind
the voting systems companies..."

WHAT suggests the angle of the news reporters in a family (dynasty?)
context, shifting from a 1940s female reporter to the great-grandchildren
subverting the vote electronically.

NoBushSpokenHere suggests that the characters be veterans,
religious, soccer moms and NASCAR fans, and proposes that the
"kool-aid" be presented (presumably in such a way that the audience
comes to understand it's a lie.)

Gordon25 indicates that he has investigated vote fraud (in Arizona?)
and wrote a screenplay about it, that he has contacts and experience
in the industry and has been told it can be filmed for less than a
million dollars. He very generously offers this group his screenplay
as a starting point.

[petgoat]

71. Third Summary of Progress so Far

The Big Picture: lots of people were willing to share their ideas,
but only a few put any work into developing them. No one but me was
willing to work on any one else's vision.

This is not what I expected. I thought we'd soon settle in on a
consensus armature, and soon start some bitter debates about which way
it should go, and then splinter off into alternate versions.

My own vision was something along these lines:

It's a vacation period in early 2005 in some podunk midwestern
college--a between-semester reading period or perhaps Spring vacation
in the far north. Over-worked and under-compensated academics are
preparing for the new session--informally dressed. It's kind of a
"Big Chill" scene. They get to talking about the election. The
statistician is seriously disturbed about the exit poll discrepancy.
The computer scientists is concerned about the voting machines. The
sociologist is concerned about the voter suppression. The historian
is concerned about the Bushites' fascist agenda.

A couple of them who went to the same college get to talking and one
says, "what ever happened to what's his name, Rodney's room-mate at
Wilson Hall. That computer genius? Didn't he go to work for one of
the voting machine companies?"

So they share a few stories about this guys's exploits--
phone-phreaking and hacking and how he was this close to being
indicted. His philosophy was "If you can hack it you should hack it."

So the other guy, (or the other guy's wife) makes a few phone calls
and finds out that yes, he did go to work for the voting machine
companies.

So somebody takes a vacation and goes to visit the guy. Finds out
he's disappeared. Keeps on the trail and finds where he's hiding out.
Talks to him. Why's he hiding? The geek says he didn't hack the
system, but he knows who did. It was the janitor--switched the master
memory card from which all the other memory cards were copied.

It was something like that. I've got my notes on another computer.

I haven't heard from anyone in a while, so I'm guessing we're through with this.

[petgoat]

73. "The F-Word"-- That Was My Preferred Title n/t