A visit from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to my humble home (just now) ....

Fly by night

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Tue Jun-23-09 05:52 PM
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A visit from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to my humble home (just now) ....

Preface: I have been working for the past four years to do away with non-verifiable voting machines in Tennessee and to move to paper ballots (counted by optical scan machines, with mandatory random manual audits to verify the accuracy of the opscans). It has been a tough fight, but last Thursday, with strong support by Senate Democrats and a lone honorable Republican, we have beaten back (for now) an effort by our Rethugligan Secretary of State to delay implementing the TN Voter Confidence Act and to gut its audit procedures. Here's a link to the tribute I wrote for Senator Tim Burchett, the lone Republican who voted last Thursday to save our democracy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5880690

The fight is not over, as my visit by two TBI agents this afternoon illustrates. So read how my afternoon has gone (so far). I just sent out this email to the Governor, six state Senators, six state Representatives, everyone I know in the Tennessee media and about 100 election integrity activists around the state and nation.
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To all:

Well, things are getting interesting. I was just visited by two officers of the TBI, investigating a complaint they had received from the Secretary of State's office (complainant unnamed), saying that I had recently sent an email directly to the Tennessee Secretary of State's office, threatening violence against that office by invoking the memory of the Battle of Athens (TN). They were here to investigate my "terrorist threat against a government official".

Well, I've never sent any emails to this SoS's office on any subject, now or at any other time. However, I told the TBI agents that I have several times invoked the Battle of Athens (TN) in my writings as the only alternative available to the citizenry if the sanctity of the ballot box cannot be assured. (If you don't know about the Battle of Athens, read this link:

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1985/2/1985_2_72.shtml

The agents said they had to Google it before they came out, and that it was a pretty impressive story.)

We had a good conversation on my front porch and I explained the nature of the people who might have made this complaint against me. I also mentioned that one of them had issued a not-so-veiled threat against one of our other election integrity activists two weeks ago at Legislative Plaza. Before they left, I printed out my last letter to the state Senators that I sent the day they voted to protect the Voter Confidence Act, as well as a copy of my recent effusive tribute of Senator Tim Burchett. (See the DU thread above.)

I also asked the two TBI agents to deliver a message from me to whoever had caused them to have to drive to my farm today. Before they left, the lead agent repeated my message verbatim to make sure he had it right:

"Mr. Ellis would like whoever issued the complaint against him to grow a pair of balls, 'man up' (the agent's words) and call him at any time to discuss any concerns they may have with him or with anything Mr. Ellis has ever said."

The agent looked to me like he is going to be happy to deliver that message personally.

BTW, the lead agent said he called my sheriff and several others before coming out and was told that I was a reasonable man who could sit down and talk to anyone at any time about anything. Wouldn't it be nice if we had government officials in our Secretary of State's office who could do the same thing? Maybe one day, when we start counting ballots the way they're cast.

So, how is your day going today? Not as interesting as mine, I hope.

If we never stop fighting, we will not lose.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.

FBN