BBV-Congress Appropriating Money for Voting Machines- Contact Official Now

[RedEagle]

With the Senate rolling ahead and funding HAVA, states will be rushing to buy machines. But HAVA doesn't fix what went wrong in Florida.

The bruha over hanging chads was to cover up what was happening with the optical scan, either a la the negative 16,000 Gore votes, or what Palast found with systems that happened to perform correctly depending on which county (Dem-leaning, or not) they happened to be in. It also kept the voter roll purge off the front page.

The chads were important but their main use was to divert attention from the more insidious culprit. Later, they became the rallying cry for new voting systems, leading to Congress stampeding, once again without thinking, to backing unaccountable voting by providing money to the states for touch screen machines and research into Internet voting.

Revisiting 2000 is important for understanding what really went wrong and how the scenario has been twisted to the benefit of those who already benefitted from the 2000 fiasco.

It's not too late to fix this but we've got to get going and going NOW! Since Senator Dodd has seen fit to suddenly marshal through HAVA funds for machines, the states will be there, cash in hand, ready to buy voting systems that will "fix democracy" in 2004, by insuring voting that cannot be audited. Dodd has been a long time hobnobber with the wealthy corporate elite in Europe in their meetings every year- side by side with Chuck Hagel. Ditto for McAuliffe and his GOP counterpart.

McAuliffe needs to be jettisoned asap. Dodd is not friendly to democracy. Dems are going to have to wake up and identify their representatives in government who have been "doing good deeds" on one side while backing questionable activities on the other. Yes, that may be business as usual, but some of them are better at it.

Pay attention to how this game is played. Witness the recent statements by Senator Hagel against Bush. Keep in mind Bush's daddy sent him to Nebraska where he took over the voting machine company and then ran for office. Hagel wants to run for president. Hagel is in a position in congress where, due to others who can pick up the slack, he can occasionally vote in a manner that seems anit-administration. That can be done quite safely if the GOP knows they have enough votes in the bag to let him to that. Perhaps they are grooming Hagel to take over for Cheney in 2004.

We need people across the country yelling about vote theft. I have little doubt that Congress was rushed to act on funding HAVA because of the recent revelations about the voting machines. After all, the ITAA was supposed to "help" them in Congress. The rush is to get the compliant Secretaries of State to purchase such equipment before the cat is out of the bag entirely. The losers will be the voters and the states and counties who buy these things.

Everyone remind their state officials that HAVA money depends on compliance with 2002 standards. If they buy machines now that don't meet those standards, they are going to be faced with a hefty upgrade bill later on. The fight for HR 2239, which will require paper ballots, is far from over. And there are systems out there NOW that currently MEET those 2002 standards because they were designed to. They only need recertification, not redesigning and quick patches to make them 2002 compliant. Accupoll and Avante come to mind. They both produce a voter-verified paper ballot and the big three and vested interests are doing their best to keep them from gaining any of the market.

By the way, the quotes for outfitting current DRE's with a printer to handle voter-verified paper ballots is just outrageous. More skimming from the big vendors.

We can stop this, but it takes action and it needs to happen now.

Call Congress and demand an investigation into the voting industry. Demand a halt to all funds until this is done. Right off the top, they need to investigate The Election Center and its relationship to vendors, ITA's, NASS and NASED come to mind. Go back and investigate vendor/lobbyist influence on HAVA. And investigate the firing of an engineer who was about to blow the whistle on VoteHere DRE programming, just before a GAO investigation. Investigate the Election Task Force, backed by a bunch of defense/government contractors who admitted in a telephone conference that HAVA was created primarily to get Congress to spend money that benefitted them.

FLOOD Congress with this information and requests for congressional and independent investigations. FLOOD your state officials with the same. (There are a few states, I think N. Dakota comes to mind, who have backed off and are going with paper, I believe) Many Governors have the ability to not sign for HAVA funds. Push them to not sign until provisions are in place mandating voter-verified paper ballots and laws that mandate their use in recounts and audits, and that there is a good percentage of random audits of every election.

Find out who makes the purchasing decisions. It could be your county council members. I don't think HAVA is going to fund 100% of this, so public funds are on the line. Make them responsible for purchasing systems that can be audited, even if they cost more. (Optical scan does not) Remind them that Touch Screens (DRE's) are more than the up front price tag. Ongoing maintenance contracts and the projected life span won't make these things look any better then a paper system in the long run. If they say paper is more expensive, make them provide resources and statistics. Make them come up with the TOTAL cost and maintenance on the DRE's. Have them factor in the cost of lawsuits once candidates discover these systems can't perform a recount, can't be audited. Have them factor in the upgrade costs if they buy systems that are not 2002 certified.

Pick out the chapters of Bev's book that hit home the hardest about the realities of voting systems in our country, copy, and send them to legislators with a cover letter as to why and a request for action.

Sign petitions and send them in.

Write every paper in your area about the fallacy of voting that cannot be audited. Call in to every radio talk show you can and voice your concerns.

Make appointments with your state and federal legislators to inform and request they mandate verified, paper ballots.

I guarantee you that legislators who have to talk to at least 5 - 10 people a month- in person- are going to start paying attention. It goes without saying they should receive much more in the form of calls and letters.

Legislators are also not immune to public opinion and perception. Remind them of Bev's book and the growing public awareness and concern. Their political careers will depend on how they address that concern. I don't think the apparatus for "fixing" elections is quite working at full speed at local levels yet. These guys will have to pay attention to how the public perceives they are handling this matter. It's up to you to let them know the public and their constiuentcy is watching and their political career depends on upholding and defending democracy. Make them defend any argument that puts expense above democracy, expense above security and accuracy in voting. Make them provide resources when they tell you "experts" say the systems are safe without paper. Then hand them yours. (www.verifiedvoting.org list of over 900 computer scientists and security experts)

You have more tools at hand then you realize. Just USE them and do it NOW!

Democracy- for our kids sake.

We can rock this country!



:thumbsup: :yourock: :yourock: :yourock: :thumbsup:

[hedda_foil]

1. BBV'ers ... I need an answer to these questions about Holt's bill!!!

Guys, I just got this request from an activist who independently started up her own petition site for vvpb. (Actually, I emailed her to give her the correct wording, since she was asking for an auditable paper trail). Here's what she asked. I don't have the answers to these two questions but somebody here must.
-----

I'd like to thank you for your help. I've had 600 hits to my website. I hope some of the people took action!

I have changed the wording on my site to reflect the information you sent me.

Can you tell me one thing, please? Is someone lobbying Holt to change the wording in his bill? Do we have someone on the ground there who can make sure the proper wording gets in?

I hear the bill will be discussed on the floor on Wed. Does that mean the bill is out of committee?

[shance]

2. I have no idea.

I have wondered the same thing.

[leftchick]

3. Thanks Redeagle, Outstanding!

I had the same feelings about Hagel myself. Keep this kicked for Democracy!

:kick:

[JohnGideon]

4. I Don't Mean To Lessen The Urgency Of This At All

but as I stated in another discussion; just because the money was put into a bill in the Senate does not mean it will be in the final bill. There is still a real good chance, with the Repug record for appropriations bills, that they will cut this ammendment out of the final bill after it goes to conference. Remember, the bill isn't law until it goes back to conference, is re-written to combine the House and Senate versions, then goes back to the floors of both houses for final vote. Then Bush has to sign it.

Also remember that there is still no funding available, and no names nominated for the board that is supposed to oversee HAVA. The formation of this board may take some time as all 50 states have to nominate members. This one fact is keeping some legislators from getting involved. In my calls to members of the House, I was told by a couple that they are not even looking at HR-2239 until the board has been funded and is in place. That's not very far thinking and is really a cop-out but; there you go.

I guess what I am saying is that it MAY NOT be all an emergency. Yes, we need to be ready now. We need to treat it as an emergency, but with some luck we will have the time.

[hedda_foil]

5. kick

[althecat]

6. Looks like a worry to me John... Sen. Christopher Dodd

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101161,00.html

Friday, October 24, 2003

WASHINGTON — Intent on avoiding a repeat of the 2000 presidential election debacle, the Senate has added $1 billion to the president's request for funds to carry out improvements in the national voting system.

In a time when we are committing billions of dollars in federal resources to build democracies around the world, we simply cannot afford to shortchange our own," said Sen. Christopher Dodd (search), D-Conn., before the Senate voted 63-31 Thursday to waive budget caps and increase funds for election reform in fiscal year 2004 from $500 million to $1.5 billion.

Joining Dodd was Sen. Mitch McConnell (search) of Kentucky, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, who said he found himself "in an extremely awkward position" in contesting the budget figure proposed by the president and agreed to by the Senate Appropriations Committee (search). "This, however, is that very rare instance which I believe warrants providing funding above that provided in the budget."

In all, 19 Republicans supported the increased funding, added to a $90 billion spending bill for Transportation and Treasury Department programs in the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Dodd and McConnell were lead Senate sponsors of the Help America Vote Act (search) that President Bush signed into law last October. The measure approved the spending of $3.86 billion through 2005 to help states modernize voting technology, ensure that no eligible voter is turned away at the polls and reduce fraud.

MORE..

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101161,00.html

[JohnGideon]

7. Kia Ora, althecat

My statement still stands. The appropriation for HAVA was added as an ammendment to the Senates version of the Treasury, Transportation, HHS Appropriations bill. It may very well be that with Dodd and McConnell behind the Senate version and the funding for HAVA that it will endup in the mark-up. McConnell is a card carrying member of the PNAC so Delay probably won't screw with this; but recent past history is that any Dem. name on an ammendment on an appropriations bill spells the end for that ammendment.

[RedEagle]

8. Dodd AND McConnell?

John,

Maybe you're right, but we need to take action now. The auditors and counties need to know the information about 2002 standards anyway.

I would not depend on the lack of committees stopping the money. Everything since HAVA was enacted has been, uh, well, backwards. Nothing that has been done has made any sense. The deadlines are prompting states to jump before the rest is in place. They cannot wait for the committees AND meet the deadlines set. Even putting if off until 2006 means buying something in 2005- not so far away.

I really don't like the looks of Dodd and McConnell working on this. And I find it really curious that when it looks like Touch Screens might have to aquire printers for voter verified paper ballots, all of a sudden the rush to fund HAVA. And the 2004 election right around the corner.

I think this one is suspicious.

[JohnGideon]

9. Agree That We Need To Move Forward

I need to do something to kick Eickmeyer and Haigh but they don't answer emails. Next is phone and if that doesn't work next week; then I will drive to Olympia and see them in person.

You know that status with my County Auditor. I'll know more about her stance next month.

I guess I will see you and Bev in Seattle on 5 Nov??

[RedEagle]

10. Hey, Ya Commin'?

Should be interesting.

[althecat]

11. I am suspicious that this is being brought forward in part...

... as a counter to the work we have been doing.

And if the state of Denmark is as rotten as it looks then this will be passed in the dead of the night without notice and quick pronto. Which is ironic given that cutbacks are the order of the day everywhere else.

Hell I know the parlour is empty. But can we please have $1.5 billion now to properly screw up the democratic process before any more senators and congresscritters grow a spine..... yeah sure.

From the perspective of the BBV pushers it is much easier for them to do this now, while the critics are still pushing uphill, than it will be once the rest of America finally wakes up.

al

[JohnGideon]

12. Believe Me, I Understand

I didn't mean to bring it up and slow anything down. We certainly need to go all out no matter what happens.

[althecat]

13. John.... your assistance in explaining what is actually going on...

is invaluable...

:)

[RedEagle]

14. Congress Doesn't Want to Deal With HAVA Again

I've been told that several times. That it might be legislation engineered to end the final vestiges of democracy isn't important enough, I guess, to revisit that field.

Tough! Just the dealings in the background behind HAVA should be fully investigated. The ITAA said it was pushed to fill the coffers of vested interests, not to fix the ills of chads.

Time congress quit letting themselves be led around by the nose with legislation that "sounds" good but is a wolf in sheeps clothing.

I'd like to know which companies have been hobnobbing with Dodd recently.