Check this out! GIs made sure votes counted in 'Battle of Athens'

[Melissa G]

GIs made sure votes counted in 'Battle of Athens'
By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press
August 1, 2006


ATHENS, Tenn. - If video of U.S. soldiers fighting in the name of democracy a world away isn't enough to inspire voters in an election year, Harold Powers thinks they should know about the day when GIs just back from war took up arms at home to make their votes count.
The "Battle of Athens" began Aug. 1, 1946, when veterans in the GI Non-Partisan League opened fire on the local jail to stop a courthouse ring from stealing an election.


The GI rallying cry: "Why fight overseas for freedom and come home and be denied the right to have your ballot counted?"

Felix Harrod, 84, was a 25-year-old poll watcher at the courthouse during the shootout between GIs - some using weapons seized from an armory - and law officers, including one with a machine gun.

At the time, Harrod said, it was common for incumbents in the county about 45 miles northeast of Chattanooga to "take the ballot boxes to the jail and stuff them with pre-marked ballots."

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_4884588,00.html

[autorank]

1. Great story...these guys were serious...

Look at this from later in the story. Lesson from story: don't mess with vets voting!

"The shooting continued until the pre-dawn of Aug. 2 when the former soldiers tossed dynamite at the jail, prompting deputies and a sheriff candidate holed up with ballot boxes to surrender. The day of the uprising left one man with a bullet wound and sent a deputy to prison."

[Melissa G]

2. Hope our vets from IRAQ get serious about FL disenfranchising

them while they were overseas fighting.. Hope they take the fight straight to the Governor's mansion!

[Kurovski]

3. "Some folks just had had all they could take. They just lost it,"

Cable TEEVEE and other diversions kinda takes the edge off these days. More's the pity.

K&R!

[kster]

4. I believe we are going to have to take their "TOYS" away from them

they think they got it going on, but they "WILL LEARN" real soon what we think about their election theft scam, they have come to the point, now, that the SCOTUS, will not be able to save them.

[Fly by night]

5. The past is prologue.

Why do I think we're heading for a similar show-down soon in this country. At least we have the Mexican people demonstrating what it will take to protect a democracy (in addition to showing us every day what hard workers really look like.)

Thanks for this post. It will be emailed across Tennessee all day today.

[Melissa G]

6. Thanks for your work Fly by night! n/t

[autorank]

7. Hey buddy....good to hear from you. Mexico is where it's at!

They're an inspiration to us all and they know how to make a point. 1.5 million people in the capitol there is like 3.0 million her given they're less than 1/2 our population. It's not about wealth or education, it's about commitment to a basic human right, which they are demonstrating.

[pauldp]

8. Now they don't have to take the ballot boxes to the jail for stuffing.

Diebold, ES&S etc. do the same thing. Now we are essentially
letting private corporations take the ballot boxes (the machines)
to their corporate headquarters for counting behind the locked doors
of proprietary software.

[Melissa G]

9. They don't even need to take the ballots anywhere anymore

They can preinstall the code to steal the election ahead of time and cover their tracks right after.
We have handed our votes to the corporations and EVEN PAID them to steal them. Such a Deal!(for them)

[pauldp]

10. Exactly.

The theft happens right under our noses. Imagine if a private corporation
was allowed to take paper ballots back to their offices for counting behind
closed doors. Then we were handed a list of totals and then told we just have to trust the
results. Now imagine if it was a corporation with ties to the left.... Republicans
would FREAK! It's absurd beyond belief, but paperless voting machines with proprietary code are
the exact same thing happening RIGHT IN FRONT OF US at the polling place.

[Land Shark]

11. technology and systems similar to those in KY where I'm helping

folks there sue, as well.

and, the lead plaintiff is Dewayne Bunch, now in Iraq, but not before getting his nomination in the Republican primary stolen from him. So, he's fighting a two continent battle for democracy.

I don't believe that I agree with Dewayne 100% on all his positions, but I do support his right not to have the election stolen from him 100%.