My LTTE of WaPo re: Major Problems At Polls Feared

[GuvWurld]

Sent to: [e-mail]

9/17/06
Re: Major Problems At Polls Feared (9/17/06, p.A1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600885_pf.html

Dear Editor:

The same September 17, 2006 issue with the front page headline "Major Problems at Polls Feared" also reported on the complications with Maryland's Primary Election and the ongoing series of electoral "train wrecks" nationwide this year. Poll problems are not just feared, they have begun. Your "Feared" article is reminiscent of stories prior to the November 2004 election in which the public was told to expect lawsuits and delayed vote counting. Yet immediately after that election, citizens were vilified for trying to spotlight the very problems we were told to expect.

This November, more than one third of the votes will be cast on paperless electronic machines that cannot be recounted. At least an equal number of votes will be counted on optical scanners using secret proprietary computer programming. In a recent survey, Zogby International found 92% of Americans believe we have a right to know and see how our votes are counted. But by design, we cannot know or see how our votes are counted. The problems the Washington Post says we should fear do not stem from results yet to be reported, but rather from the very election conditions that are already in place. Listen closely and you'll hear Americans saying "We Do Not Consent" to secret vote counting that requires blind trust and provides no basis for confidence in the results reported.

Dave Berman
Eureka, CA

[ninkasi]

1. Excellent letter

Your very clearly pointed out some of the problems we have been discussing here at DU for the last several years. As long as there is no way to verify voting results, there will be no way to know who actually is the winner. In very close races, it may be impossible, and whoever loses will almost surely claim that the vote was rigged.

Congratulations, for bringing all of the dangers of non-verifiable voting to the reader's attention. I hope that it will help, and that others will send letters to their own papers.

[GuvWurld]

2. Thanks ninkasi

We've been discussing these problems at DU and many other places. Have you seen my book? It is called We Do Not Consent and you can download a free .pdf version here: http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2

[ninkasi]

5. Will do, thanks!

That's a great title, too. And we definitely do NOT consent.

[texpatriot2004]

3. Very good nm

[kster]

4. KR..nt

[Febble]

6. Perfect

Short and perfectly to the point. Hope it gets published.

[Land Shark]

7. Outstanding LTTE, wish I could be so concise (sometimes) : ) K&R

[intheflow]

10. Exactly what I thought.

This is a very concise piece of writing. :kick:

[autorank]

8. A lesson from Mexico (one of many) - be prepared to have it stolen

Be prepared if it's stolen...What's your strategy? How do you approach the media, legal and governmental authorities? How do you keep the troops motivated?

These are all items we need to face now, not later.

Nice one Guvnor, spot of Green Tea :evilgrin:

[BeFree]

9. Good question

What do we do when the truth falls like a tree across the road?

Will the Dem party heads do anything? What will the media say?

My county will do an audit, gawd willing. So, I asked myself what will happen if the audit shows the machines to be totally messed up? Of course a hand count will ensue, but what will happen in places that no audit has taken place?

7 weeks. It is time. We've come so far, but there is till a ways to go, eh?

[GuvWurld]

11. Thanks to everybody for the kind words. I posted this at dKos too

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/17/165438/883

Only two comments so far. One is:

Should be a template for a letter to every editor who has run a story on the topic.

[BeFree]

12. "No basis for confidence"

That shuts down the naysayers everytime. They can't help but realize that they can't form a basis for confidence after they realize what is going down.

I think we have just about all of DU questioning their own personal idea of the amount of confidence they have in elections. Today, DU, tomorrow the world! Good work, Dave.

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Great post! When you read something like this, what a terrible

sinking feeling you get, as you realise, that these days, the very the meaning of the word "enormity" seems to have all but vanished, its very currency devalued beyond recognition.

How can the word, "enormity", retain much of its intrinsic meaning and power, when it seems to have become applicable to the ROUTINE totally inordinate malfeasance of the very dignitaries who are supposed to be the fountainhead of legality, idealism, progressiveness, all that could be expected of good citizenship? Dignitaries, did I say?

I just had a flashback of Bush senior vomiting in a foreign dignitary's lap. So what's new? Just the victims, it seems.