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the national (and Beltway) radar. And it will have important ramifications, whether the Diebold Congress passes it or not, and even given its rather big weaknesses (that it's "optional," and that the notorious "provisional" ballots can be pushed on voters instead).
Educational value is something. Putting it on the radar is something. Helping to weed out corrupt local/state election officials (who refuse to provide a paper ballot), if the bill passes, is something. All to the good. We are in a long and difficult battle for our democracy--which I believe will be fought out in the local/state jurisdictions, over the next several years. Your work on this (and on the entire issue) is invaluable to this grass roots election reform movement.
I tend to disbelieve Boxer's stated motives for it being "optional." "Big Brother"? Come on. They didn't have any problems with being Big Brother when they rammed this extremely insecure and insider hackable, Bushite-corporate controlled e-voting technology down our throats with the infamous "Help America Vote Act" (--which Boxer voted FOR). I think this was the price of Christopher Dodd's co-sponsorship. Dodd is trying to rehabilitate himself and disassociate himself from his criminal HAVA buds, Tom Delay and Bob Ney. The Abramoff bribes were passing over their desks at the same time HAVA was. Dodd was their chief ally among the Democrats. HAVA is a filthy, rotten, dirty, democracy-killing piece of legislation, no doubt cooked up in a Bilderberg back room, between Dodd and people like Howard Ahmanson--rightwing billionaire, the initial funder of ES&S--brethren to Diebold--who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals (among other things). And we know about Wally O'Dell (Diebold). These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in the 2004 (s)election, under a veil of corporate secrecy--thanks to Christopher Dodd.
And Dodd is running for president. He announced his exploratory campaign on the Al Franken Show a few weeks ago (with a substitute host). He said that Hillary is in trouble with "the anti-war crowd," and we don't want "losers" as the candidate (Gore, Kerry)--and that leaves HIM.
Dodd will never fool me. And I will never forgive him for HAVA. And I will make it my personal business to tag him with it for the rest of his life, if he intends to benefit from this Bush Junta/ Diebold bullshit and get (s)elected as president. But Boxer has to work with the realities of the Diebold Congress, and with the profound corruption of our election system and of much of the Democratic Party leadership (including Democratic election officials around the country) on this matter. (It's not just the Republicans!) And perhaps there is some shrewdness in her compromise with Diebold Dodd (if that's what happened). "Optional" does, indeed, put the onus on corrupt local/state election officials and legislators. Since local/state jurisdictions are the only place where we can hope to reverse this disaster (HAVA), we might be able to weed out the worst officials on their refusal to provide the paper ballot option. It could become a "litmus test." But that is a long term (NOT a November) strategy. It won't help the voters in the most corrupt counties and states this fall--because those officials will NOT provide the "option" of a paper ballot. They know the stakes in this (s)election. They will go all out for the Diebold II Congress, and Bush. (And if they have to face consequences after the (s)election, I'm sure the corporate rulers will provide them with a 'golden parachute'.)
The Absentee Ballot protest is the backup strategy to this--in case of failure of the bill, and in view of its "optional" provision, if it succeeds. Absentee Ballot voting avoids the e-voting machine "breakdowns." It skirts around the machines. Corrupt officials may fail to hand-count AB votes, and may merely scan them into the rigged electronics, but, with AB voting, they CANNOT prevent you from voting with selective machine "failures"!
In that sense, the AB voting protest is much better than this "optional" paper ballot. It is also better because it entirely avoids the OTHER strategy that corrupt officials will use: which is substituting a "provisional" ballot for a real ballot. These "provisional" ballots are notorious for being mis-used (in Ohio especially) to TOSS the votes of the poor and the black and other Democrats. As I understand it, the Boxer bill does NOT spell out that they may not substitute "provisional" ballots. How is this different from HAVA?
HAVA already requires a (worthless) "provisional" ballot. If election officials can STILL substitute a "provisional" ballot for a real paper ballot, with this bill, then how is this an improvement over HAVA (aside from providing some money for paper ballots, and some jawboning pressure--making it an issue, but not requiring it)?
Finally, the Absentee Ballot protest is a PROTEST AGAINST ALL ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES. It is an indigenous citizen rebellion against these rigged electronics. It is not a protest against the machines breaking down. It is not a protest against "paperless" voting. It is protest against the entire electronic voting system, which is run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by private corporations, who, in addition to being PRIVATE and SECRETIVE, have very close ties to the Bush regime.
The Democratic leadership appears to be engaged in a strategy to save the optiscans and central tabulators--that is, to preserve corporate control of the elections, by saying it's the touchscreens that are the problem, but the optiscans are okay--and they NEVER MENTION the central tabulators--all of it run on extremely insider hackable, TRADE SECRET vote tabulation software. Their motives? I don't know. They like Bush's war? That's part of it, I'm sure (for some of them). For others, it's the big government electronics contracts ($3.9 billion HAVA boondoggle--and OTHER electronics in government and the military). And some have bought into corporate privatization of everything, including our election system. And a final factor may be that ALL of our representatives in government--including most Democrats--are now beholden both to Diebold/ES&S and to the corrupt local/state election officials who purchased these crapass, hackable machines, and have furthermore adopted the "culture of secrecy" that these corporations have brought to our election system. These big contracts, and all the secrecy involved, have made local/state election officials much too powerful, and unaccountable to the public. They can make or break a politician, on how they count (or don't count) the votes.
One of the realities we have to face is that almost ALL Democratic politicians are now Diebold/ES&S (s)elections--whether by default (they didn't rig the count) or by directly fabricating the result (which is VERY EASY for them to do). And Boxer herself is an interesting case. Boxer retained her Senate seat by a 20% margin in California. Kerry won the state by only a 10% margin--which might be explainable by her incumbency, except that the difference between them is to be found almost entirely in the Republican counties--meaning that a whole lot of people voted for Boxer...and Bush? Not likely. More likely, they voted for Kerry and their votes were changed, to help the Bush Junta manufacture Bush's national popular majority. And they left Boxer alone possibly because her Republican opposition was Bill Jones, a potential Schwarz rival (if he'd done well against Boxer). So even Boxer, who is very popular with California voters, and would have been elected anyway, may owe her seat to Dieobld/ES&S because they chose NOT to rig her election (for their own reasons).
Boxer also has to deal with a highly corrupt state party on the matter of electronic voting. The new state Democratic legislative leadership (with a 2 to 1 majority in the state senate, and a 3 to 2 majority in the assembly) colluded with the Bushites on the ouster of our good Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (who sued Diebold, demanded to see their source code, decertified their touchscreens, and provided Californian voters with paper ballot choice at the polls, prior to the 2004 election), and they colluded further in the Schwarz APPOINTMENT of Diebold shill Bruce McPherson* to that office (who has now ILLEGALLY re-certified Diebold touchscreens and made the Diebold lawsuit go away). Most of the highly corrupt county election officials are Republicans, but not all. In fact, their leader (in the campaign against Shelley) was Connie McCormack, head of elections in Los Angeles, whose best friend is the former chief salesperson for Diebold in California, and who, along with Cathy Cox (Georgia's SoS) actually does brochures for Diebold. In rebellion against this corruption, 50% of Los Angeles voters are now voting by Absentee Ballot.
The "swift-boating" of Kevin Shelley (on entirely bogus corruption charges) is the ugliest thing I have ever seen in California politics. Some of the Dems hid under their desks. Some got strongarmed (by their own leaders). And others outright colluded with the Dark Lords. The Dieboldization of California is big on the fascists' agenda. And bear in mind that, in California, we already have a strong paper trail requirement (thanks to Shelley), so, preventing a paper ballot (or VVPAT) is NOT the most crucial item in electronic vote rigging. (It just makes it easier.) The most crucial item is the TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code (present in the optiscans and the central tabulators, as well as the touchscreens, and which can EASILY be used to overcome the existence of a paper record of the vote--by rigged or inadequate auditing, and high speed election "calls" that make recounts difficult, other restrictions on recounts, and secrecy--obstacles to election information).
All of this is to say that I believe that Boxer is treading in dangerous waters on election reform. Her "Big Brother" explanation (for permitting corrupt local/state election officials to deny voters a paper ballot) doesn't make sense (and sounds made up). Dodd is no friend of democracy, and is likely the one who demanded this "optional" provision. The motives of Dodd and some other Democratic leaders may be merely "cover" for their support of a rigged, corporate-controlled voting system. They are well aware that the rank and file are up in arms about this. Their solution: a feckless, toothless bill, that will provide voters with a paper ballot only in those jurisdictions where election officials would be inclined to provide one anyway. Dodd brought the Bushite requirement to the table--make it "optional"--and he won. That's my read on it.
If the bill passes, it will be a feather in these Democrats' hats (the corporatists like Dodd), and it will do nothing to remedy the real problem (rigged electronics)--except for the long term, educational/pressure value. Dodd & co. will no doubt try to use it to keep the rigged system in place. (What it means is that people in highly corrupt voting jurisdictions will still have to fight like the slaves and cannon fodder that we all have become, just to get a paper ballot. The bill gives them just a tiny boost, but doesn't really ease their struggle.)
In SOME places, people will get a real ballot when the machines "malfunction" (most likely in places that already would do that--they'll just have a bit of money for it). But in the worst places, they won't--they'll get a "provisional" ballot (tossable), or no ballot. Those races will be the most riggable (by direct secret programming, or by selective "breakdowns" of the machines). All in all, I don't think this "optional" (to officials) paper ballot (with a "provisional" ballot as a permitted substitute) will make a lot of difference in Stolen Election III. But it might make a difference (educational value, nailing corrupt officials) for our long term battle in local/state jurisdictions.
It's ALWAYS worth it to TRY. ALWAYS! And for that, KUDOS and LAUREL WREATHS to Brad and to everyone who is working on this! And I urge immediate, emergency support for this bill, whatever its weaknesses! If it will insure even some voters' right to vote, it's worth it! If it will help--even a little bit--in the long term struggle, it's worth it.
But don't be lulled. Get your ABSENTEE BALLOT before the deadlines run out. And, if possible, hand-deliver it to your polling place on election day.
Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot this fall!
If everyone who despises the Bush Junta (60% to 70% of the American people) votes by Absentee Ballot (or by other paper ballot options--boycotting ALL of the election theft machines), the reign of these diabolical machines will be OVER!
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