Reply #53: What we needed to do, right after Nov. 2, 2004, was to move fast and [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

get loud in exposing the Tom Delay/Bob Ney designed election system, that had been fast-tracked during the 2002-2004 period with a nearly $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle, resulting in Bushite corporations gaining control of vote tabulation, nationwide, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Kos impeded that effort by placing an "Iron Curtain" over the subject of election fraud, as did the entire Democratic Party leadership. Why these people took the course of MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE in the face of EGREGIOUSLY NON-TRANSPARENT vote counting and the BLATANT AND ASTONISHING corruption of our election system, we may never know. But that's what they did. For Kos to come on now, all depressed about our prospects, is just a little hard to take. We have lost all sorts of elections, including the big one, to Diebold and ES&S, over the last four years. And we are going to lose again--or make only modest gains--in the face of the THE most criminal and THE most despised regime in our country's history. There are no parallels to this junta's criminality in our history. You have to reach across the waters and back in time to Hitler's Germany to find anything comparable. And there are no parallels to the American peoples' disapproval of this regime and its heinous war, and its lack of effect on the regime. When disapproval of LBJ and the Vietnam War reached these levels, he effectively resigned (didn't run for reelection). 56% of the American disapproved of this war way back in Feb. '03, before the invasion. 63% oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May '04), despite 24/7 fearmongering and propaganda. EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT disapprove of any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war (a recent poll posted here at DU). And when you look back over all approval and issue polls over the last several years, you find that Americans strongly disapprove of every Bush policy, foreign and domestic.*

If you want to conduct a horribly unjust and illegal war, in a democracy, and if you want, in addition, to loot the public treasury, lard the super-rich, and burn the Constitution, with impunity, you must rig the vote. That's what they did. THAT was the coup.

They did it deliberately and with malice aforethought. They went about deliberately creating a NON-TRANSPARENT, UNVERIFIABLE, UNRECOUNTABLE, UNAUDITABLE voting system, with extremely insecure and insider hackable voting machines, precisely TO rig the election results, so that they can conduct criminal activities that the great majority of Americans would never approve of.

The two main beneficiaries of this nearly $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle are as follows:

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

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.

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

This was not incompetence. This was not a mistake. This was not INADVERTENT. They did it on purpose.

And, so, yes, we are going to lose--or, if they're smart, they'll throw us a few sops this November, to preserve this fraudulent election SYSTEM for '08--but it won't be even close to reflecting the anti-war, anti-Bush MAJORITY of the American people, which has been apparent since early 2003 in all polls--approval polls, issue polls, exit polls, corporate or independent, and in all other indicators--EXCEPT FOR the non-transparent, unverifiable results of Diebold/ES&S's secret formulae!

But it doesn't help at all to get all gloomy and depressed, and start hedging your bets. ('Gee, maybe we'll lose.')

It's time to face this reality square in the face and do something about it--NOW.

We have to RESTORE transparent elections!

How to do that?

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THE ABSENT BALLOT PROTEST

Election reform activists have many activities for people to join--vigilant monitoring of the election results this fall, documentation of voting and other election day events, statistical analysis, challenges of suspicious results, election lawsuits, public education, lobbying, challenges to election officials purchase of these election theft machines, etc. I will provide a list of resources below.

But the best idea that has come along for immediate and massive impact is the ABSENTEE BALLOT PROTEST. The idea is massive voter BOYCOTT of the electronic voting machines this fall. FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of paper AB votes, and create sufficient panic and crisis in the election theft industry to FORCE reform NOW--and thus save the '08 primaries and general election from NON-TRANSPARENT, BUSHITE corporate vote counting.

AB votes are not particularly "safe"**--and will NOT insure accurate vote counts this fall (that is impossible)--but, if enough people vote AB (and many are--it's up to 50% in Los Angeles), we CAN generate a huge citizen "vote of no confidence" in secret, unverifiable voting counting. Reform is still feasible at the state/local level. This will jump-start reform.

AB voting is easy. Everybody can do it. (Most states have some form of AB voting.) It will also HELP turnout. To those who say "it's all rigged" and don't want to vote, we can say: But this is a PROTEST, aimed at UN-rigging the system. No excuse not to vote. Further, it turns voting into an active PROTEST, rather than a passive act of despair and hoping against hope for a good outcome. It is a a CITIZEN REBELLION!

The machines can be beaten by big turnout, in some cases. This is the key to turnout: Give people hope! Give them a way to express their discontent. Encourage this revolt--and if it's big enough, we can beat the machines right into "Boston Harbor" where they belong. No more secret vote counting!

Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot this November!

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*(About these two poll stats that people keep descrying--that about 50% of Americans believe that Saddam had WMDs and/or that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Has it not occurred to these posters that the American people, while many may have these items of disinformation rattling around in their heads, STILL DESPISE BUSH AND HIS WAR? So what do these stats mean in combination with all other stats showing overwhelming and persistent disapproval of Bush and his war? They mean that these Americans don't approve of Bush's INTERPRETATION of these two items, and don't approve of his METHODS of dealing with them. Saddam may have had WMDs, but war was not the solution! Saddam may have had "something" to do with 9/11, but it was probably minor, and bombing innocent people and destroying their country isn't the solution to that either. Do you see the thinking and the discrimination that these Americans are showing? I think it's marvelous! We are the most heavily propagandized people on earth, outside of Uzbekistan and North Korea. And some Americans have succumbed to BITS AND PIECES of the propaganda, but have retained their common sense, and native distrust of Bush ANYWAY. 'Yeah, Saddam had some WMDs--so what?' --is the overall picture. If you take those two bits of disinformation in isolation, these Americans seem stupid. But if you look at the whole picture--huge disapproval of Bush's actions DESPITE many believing in the WMDs or the 9/11 connection--you realize that these Americans are not stupid; they are ETHICAL, they are maintaining a standard of ethical and lawful behavior in the face of fear and threat. Stats like the 63% opposed to torture ("under any circumstances"!) confirm this. So stop with the "sheeple" talk, and start showing some admiration for your fellow Americans, disinformed though they may be.)

**(Fill your Absentee Ballot out carefully so it can't be disqualified. Photocopy your Absentee Ballot after you fill it out, keep a copy, and hand-deliver the Ballot, or send it registered mail/return receipt requested, or Fed Ex. Additional measures: Send a separate letter to election officials demanding vote counting that all can SEE and understand. Tell them you want a paper ballot, hand-counted at the precinct level, with results posted before any electronics are involved. Also insist on publicly observable counting of AB votes, and counting those votes first not last. If possible, on election day, monitor AB voting counting at the registrar's office. AB votes are no more secure than optiscan votes if all they do is scan them into the electronic (secret vote counting) system. The difference is that, if you vote AB, YOU ARE REFUSING TO COOPERATE WITH THE RIGGED ELECTRONIC SYSTEM. You will not vote on the machines. You will not touch them. You want them to be sent to the landfill. And if enough people do this--refuse to touch these diabolical machines--we have American Revolution II.)