Join me in good old-fashioned DU smack-down of a TN Rethug election official who still defends DREs

[Fly by night]

Lordy, can you believe that -- here in 2009 -- anyone would not know that unverifiable voting machines are indefensible. Well, it's true. Just take a quick cyberspace trip down the Mississippi to Memphis (our state's largest city and a major pillar of our Democratic party) to see for yourself.

This week, in that city's excellent Memphis Flyer op-ed page, the recently appointed Republican election administrator (yes, you heard me right) was given just enough room to show himself (and his party's position) for what it is re: free, fair and verifiable elections. This election official presented an ignorantly uninformed yet no less sinister diatribe on why we should not implement our Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (which mandates paper ballots/opscan/random manual recount/audits) before our very pivotal 2010 election cycle.

Implementing the TVCA by 2010 is something that our legislature has affirmed and reaffirmed. It is also something that our new (Republican) Secretary of State (beginning to see a pattern here?) is refusing to do.

Thus, the op-ed piece. And ........ the response.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/gyrobase/rethink-the-vca/Content?oid=1752426&sort=desc&show=comments

What this poor pachyderm official didn't realize was what a poop-storm he would start on the Memphis Flyer web-site. As of this moment, the posts are going 10 to 1 against this Rethug numb-nuts. That's why I'm here (and posting in ER for the first time in ages).

Just for old time's sake, I'd like this particular Memphis web-site to go viral in the election integrity community so that, within a matter of days, the comments are running not 10 to 1 but 100 to 1 against any public official who still doesn't get it. Believe me, this will be fun (and educational too.)

So go to the link and join in. For a little taste, below is just one stupid sentence from the Rethug election official's op-ed and my (not so polite) response. I would really love to read what (as many of you as want to pile on as possible) have to say on this topic, here in the fall of 2009 when everyone should know better.

After all, this does remain the most important issue of our time -- obtaining an accurate and honest measure of the "consent of the governed". It always will be.

So come join us at this Memphis election integrity smack-down to show just how far we've come in "growing" our legion of election integrity activists and our understanding, awareness and determination to insure trustworthy and true elections. Now here's that little taste.

Fly by night (Bernie Ellis in another universe)

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From Memphis election official's op-ed: "We are currently using the most accurate, secure and state-of-the-art voting system in Shelby County."

My response: Well, no. Shelby county was the only TN county whose election officials were stupid (or corrupt) enough to purchase their DREs from Diebold. That "state-of-the-art" voting machine company has undergone three name changes since 2006 and was cut loose from its parent company (whose main business is making ATMs) because the failures of its voting equipment were dragging the parent company's stock into the basement. Diebold (or Premier or whatever they are calling themselves this week) cannot now sell its DREs to anyone, even though they have dropped the cost from over $3,000 per machine to around $500. Wonder why?

If Shelby County's three year old DREs are so state-of-the-art, why do they now have a resale value of $0? Maybe it is because Fortune magazine (hardly a left-leaning media outlet) selected DREs as the worst new technology of 2003. Here we are six years later and yet that fact still hasn't sunk into the consciousness of some of our Republican leaders. (I say "some" because I know there are many Republicans who -- like their Democratic, Libertarian, Green, and Independent neighbors -- support verifiable elections in Tennessee and elsewhere. I know, because I used to be one of them.)

Bottom line: there is only one real reason why some Republicans are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep our elections unsafe and unverifiable in Tennessee and that is because DREs are giving them the results they want. In a state where 8% more voters identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans, I don't blame them (though I would certainly prosecute them). After all, they know who (or what) their real "base" is, and how important it is to maintain an easily hackable system if their illegitimate stranglehold on our state's political institutions is to be maintained. All my Republican neighbors are unafraid to compete on a level playing field when it comes to accurately measuring the consent of the governed. Of course, neither Holden, Hargett nor any of the other sock-puppets for unsafe elections live near me.

I may be tolerant on most issues, but on this one, I am not. That puts me in some pretty good company. Tom Paine once said "The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery. For slavery consists in being subject to the will of another. And he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case." (First Principles of Government, 1795). If he were here today, Mr. Paine (known affectionately during the American Revolution as "Common Sense") might update one of his other famous quotes to read "It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government (and from self-serving, sinister, stupid, (s)elected election officials)."

Who did your voting machine vote for? If Holden and the other sock-puppets have their way, you will never know. Keep the TVCA intact and on-track for 2010.
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Again, that was just a little taste. OK, DUers, help us here in the Orange State demonstrate that, in 2009, we will not brook this "vapor trails" bull-shit any longer. In a few words or many, post your thoughts at this web-site. Then post this thread and this request to any other EI email list, listserv or chat room you're part of. (Really.)

It will greatly help us here because -- on Thursday -- we go before a Nashville judge to petition that he order the Secretary of State to implement the TVCA by 2010. Thus, your words at this Memphis web-site might carry weight that you might not imagine at this critical time in our state.

Thanks in advance, all y'all. We are (still) the ones we've been waiting for.

And we're tired of waiting.

[annabanana]

1. magnificent!. . great work . . . n/t

[HowHasItComeToThis]

4. IT IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE THAT WE CAN'T TRUST OUR ELECTION MACHINERY

[demodonkey]

2. A quick K& R and off to the Greatest with 'ya, FBN...

...more later. (Here in PA, there are still PLENTY of officials -- many if not most of them Democrats -- who have no problem at all defending unverifiable DRE voting machines.)

:yourock:

[Stevepol]

3. THis is a really great post! I only wish every state had a Fly By Night.

Texas is another state that, if the elections were truly fair and verifiable (that is, not counted by electronic voting machines), would be Dem. I would bet money on it.

[Fly by night]

5. Thanks, Stevepol. I agree with you about other seemingly-red Southern states.

I think several of the Southern states with rabid (and irrational) far-reich-wing Rethugs in control are in that shape because of DREs. I would include Mississippi in that category also. Most of my moderate Republican friends don't know how some of the knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who "represent" their party here are getting elected either.

Only the black box knows. And it ain't talking.

[Fly by night]

6. Now running 13 to 1 against. Here's another (good) post

In response to the Memphis Rethug election administrator's protestations that the machines are hunky-dorry, one of our activists posted this (Shannon, for those of you who came to the National Election Reform Conference (Nashville, April 2005 -- a long, long time ago (or a minute))).

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No security problems with the machines? Oh really.

Memphis: Candidates in Memphis asked Black Box Voting for help securing public records from the Aug. 3, 2006 election. Black Box Voting recommended getting a copy of the Diebold GEMS database, along with the Windows event log. What we found shocked us: The sheer number of legal and security violations in the event log were horrifying, and it also showed that Shelby County — or someone — was accessing the file during the middle of a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting this.

- A remote access program called PC Anywhere was found resident in the system

- Evidence of insertion of an encrypted Lexar Jump Drive was present

- Evidence of attempts to alter or write HTML files (used to report results) was present

- Apparently without a firewall, the GEMS system was opened up to the County Network

- A prohibited program, Microsoft Access, which makes editing the election chimpanzee-easy, was installed on the system AND USED shortly after the election.

To read more about Memphis, click here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1…

No, Mr. Republican happy-talk man, there have never been any problems in Memphis!

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. has the EAC audited Tennessee's HAVA funds?

because if you recall, the EAC has audited a few states and this resulted
in further investigations of SOS, including in New Mexico.

Tennessee is sitting on millions of HAVA funds, and considering that HAVA passed in 2002,
something is happening with that money.

Where's the interest going?

Does TN have the money or can they account for what they are supposed to have?

I also wish something was done about Florida SOS sitting on all of that HAVA money
while counties struggle to pay for their voting equipment.

[Fly by night]

8. I don't know. Right now, I'm trying to get the Justice Department involved here.

We no longer call the (dis)loyal opposition here the TN/GOP. They are now the TN/RICO. Much better description of what we're dealing with.