In old Superman comic books, the hero would sometimes enter a place called The Bizarro World in which everything was opposite.
In 2000, Al Gore and George W. Bush finished so close in the first count of the votes in Florida, that the state's recount law went into effect.
James Baker, however, stopped Florida's recount law for close elections from being carried out.
Would you want James Baker on a Voting Rights panel?Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) refused to cosponsor the "Voter Confidence Act" to require paper ballots.
Would you want Tom Daschle on a Voting Rights panel?The company VoteHere opposes elections in which votes are verified with paper ballots stored at the polling place. It says, we'll give you a code-number receipt to walk away with instead, just TRUST US (more in
Notes section).
Would you want the Chairman of the Board of VoteHere on a Voting Rights panel?Apparently, someone does.
James Baker, Tom Daschle, and VoteHere chairman Ralph Munro are all being paid to participate in a Voting Rights commission "announced Thursday by American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management" ("
Daschle to sit on voting reform board" AP via Rapid City Journal of South Dakota, Mar. 28, 2005.)
The panel will develop ways to "restore full confidence of the American people in the inclusiveness and integrity of the U.S. electoral system" in the words of Ralph Munro.
The only person I admire on this Voting Rights panel is Jimmy Carter. Other members of the panel are "Reps. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Robert Mosbacher, the first President Bush's secretary of commerce."
The AP article says the members of the commission will be paid through "privately funded" channels.
Who is providing the funding?
Did American University choose this bizarre list of people? Did the secret(?) funders choose this list?
The AP article doesn't say.
Since
transparency is one of the biggest issues for Voting Rights activists, if the source of the funding is secret and remains so, that won't add to the credibility of the commission.
Then again, with James Baker, Tom Daschle, and VoteHere chairman Ralph Munro on the panel, maybe the panel is beyond credibility either way.
I like Tom Daschle and he has credibility. Just not on the issue of Voting Rights. He did nothing on this issue from the passage of the horrible "Help America Vote Act of 2002" until he was defeated for re-election last year.
NotesVoteHere uses the terms "transparent" and "verification" in the same Orwellian way that George W. Bush uses "Clear Skies Initiative" for his plan to dirty the air. This is how VoteHere describes their machine, the VHTi:
Election Verification With VHTi
VHTi enables a meaningful and transparent audit trail that lets anyone independently verify the election results down to a single vote, without the cost and hassles of VVPAT and other paper ballot systems.
Code numbers are the opposite of transparency. VoteHere is a sham.
George W. Bush talks of Clear Skies in an attempt to con environmentalists; VoteHere refers to "transparent" "verification" in an attempt to con Voting Rights activists, while denying the public a
Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail.Citizens who use the VoteHere walk off with a receipt, instead of verifying a ballot which stays at the precinct for possible recounts.
VoteHere makes meaningful recounts impossible.
Above from my blog at http://MOVELEFT.COM
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