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When former CA Sec of State Kevin Shelley was elected in 2002, he found a situation of utterly compromised election integrity--wrought by the previous Sec of State, Repub Bill Jones and his chief aid Alfie Charles, the two reprobates who authorized these election theft machines in Calif, then jumped from "public service" into working for Sequoia, one of the three main election theft corporations. One of the first things Shelley did was to provide Californians with a PAPER BALLOT OPTION. The WHOLE POINT of this law was to respond to citizen concerns about electronic voting systems! Corrupt county election officials like those in Riverside defied the law by denying voters paper ballots, lying that none were available, forcing voters to vote on provisional ballots, and other tactics, reported in 2004.
Shelley is also responsible for Calif's early insistence on a "voter verified paper ballot" for all voting. But that is not all he did. He went after this whole corrupt scene of dirty deals between county election officials and Diebold for purchase of the worst of Diebold's election theft machines, the touchscreens (DREs). Diebold lied to Shelly about the security and certification status of these machines. He sued Diebold for their lies, and de-certified the touchscreens prior to the 2004 election (in March). He also demanded to see their source code (part of the lawsuit). He further withheld the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) federal money from the counties for purchase of these election theft machines. This was money from the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle appropriated by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, for the purpose of larding Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S, and corrupting election officials from one end of this land to the other. Shelley thus created havoc among the local crooks in Riverside and other counties, who couldn't make their payoff's to Diebold. They were furious. Led by Diebold shill Connie McCormack, head of Los Angeles elections--who testified to the state legislature that she wanted to "drive a bulldozer" into the Sec of State's office to get her blood money for Diebold--a group of these miscreant county officials (including Riverside) sued Shelley to get the money. That suit died of its own stupidity.
Calif proceeded with the 2004 election without Diebold touchscreens for the easy flipping of votes from Kerry to Bush (as reported in Ohio). Kerry won the state by a 10% margin*. But the criminals in Riverside, Los Angeles and several other counties were not done with Shelley--nor was the Bush junta. Charges of corruption against Shelley first surfaced just prior to 2004 election--in the crappiest newspaper in the state (and perhaps the world), the SF Chronicle. They seemed substanceless. And they seemed to go away. But then they resurfaced after the election. Chief among them was the charge that Shelley had "misused HAVA funds." This turned out merely to be Shelley's denial of Diebold's blood money to the corrupt county officials--his perfect right as Sec of State. It was a smear campaign--a "swiftboating." A "swiftboating" is where the guy who is honest gets shafted, and the dirtbags win--all done by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies by means of their draconian control of the newsstream. Another charge was that he used HAVA money to send personnel to partisan meetings. That turned out to be bogus as well. A third had to do with campaign corruption, which, it turns out, he was completely innocent of (as he was of all these "yellow journalism" charges). But a big stink was stirred up in the state legislature by Connie McCormack and her gang of election thieves--and by this time the other war profiteering corporate news monopolies were chiming in--the Sacto Bee, the L.A. Times--all repeating the bogus charges day after day. Hearings were held. Shelley was raked over the coals. The new state Dem leadership (the old guard had just retired) completely abandoned him. The Dems, with a 2 to 1 majority, hid under their desks, and some outright colluded with the corrupt county officials. The few who wanted to defend Shelley were strongarmed not to.**
The Tom Delay-created, Bush-appointed, federal Election Assistance Commission (implementer of the "Help America Vote for Bush Act") started making noises about a "thorough" investigation of Shelley and his "misuse of HAVA funds." Shelley had no personal money for his legal defense (--tells you something about Shelley). His mother died in the middle of all this, and he gave up and resigned (in Feb. '05). The state Dems then let Schwarz APPOINT a Republican as Sec of State, Diebold shill Bruce McPherson, who has now illegally RE-certified Diebold touchscreens.
In summary, Riverside county election officials SUCK, and it should be no surprise that they are messing with peoples' paper ballot votes. Scanning them into DREs! I mean, re-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-eally!
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*(Kerry won California by 10%, statewide. Barbara Boxer, far to the left of Kerry, retained her US Senate seat by 20%, statewide. That might be explained by incumbency or other causes, except that the difference between these two margins of victory is entirely to be found in Republican counties. Go figure. A significant number of voters in Republican-controlled counties voted for Bush...and Boxer? What likely happened--since this weirdness does not seem to be related to voting machines--is that votes were switched from Kerry to Bush in the central electronic tabulators, and the counties chosen for this switch were the ones with the most corrupt and criminal county election officials, who could be counted on to look the other way--the Republican-controlled counties, like Riverside.)
**(The Dems were working deals with Schwarzenegger, and, basically, sold off our right to vote for whatever porkbarrel they were negotiating. They're doing the same thing with the recently introduced Bush-Cheney impeachment resolution--sidelining it for porkbarrel deals with Schwarz. The introducer of the impeachment resolution--which a state can submit directly to Congress as a privileged resolution (it has been discovered--Jefferson's Rules)--said as much, on the Randi Rhodes show. Why a 2 to 1 Dem majority in the Calif state legislature has to compromise with this illegitimately elected Bush Oil Cartel governor, whose disapproval rating rivals Bush's, is beyond me.)
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HOPE. Yes, the "thing with feathers," as Emily Dickinson wrote. There is hope. Although Schwarz and McPherson both face elections this fall (McPherson, first election; Schwarz, first real election), and apparently badly need the Diebold touchscreens to win, McPherson has a very strong challenger for Sec of State, DEBRA BOWEN, an expert on electronics in government and a veteran advocate of open government, who has seriously questioned the integrity of electronic voting systems, and who held state senate hearings on McPherson's crimes for Diebold. Bowen won support from 80% of the rank and file Dems at the state convention (against an Hispanic rival, with expertise on health care--but clueless or corrupt on electronic voting). And Bowen is a fighter. She won't take a stolen election lying down. Or at least I hope she won't. (Who knows about Dems these days?) She sure SEEMS like a fighter--and a brilliant woman. We couldn't have a better candidate.
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