"We Pretend to Vote, They Pretend to Get Elected"

[autorank]

link:: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00307.htm

Wednesday, 18 April 2007, 12:54 pm
Opinion: Michael Collins

"We Pretend to Vote, They Pretend to Get Elected"

Michael Collins
Scoop Independent News
Washington, D.C.

This is a big week for elections and voting rights advocates.

In addition to being a huge political event, the activity surrounding the Holt Bill, H.R. 811, is highly symbolic,. The symbolism is that of diversion and denial. Holt is the apotheosis of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA). That nihilistic effort was supposed to take care of the problems of Florida in 2000. Unfortunately, Congress missed the point. Instead of dealing with the 57,000 voters wrongfully removed from the state of Florida’s registration records (50% minority voters) and the 100,000 plus “spoiled” ballots in Florida which were spoiled along racial lines (predominantly black precincts), HAVA served up the new voter suppression and disenfranchisement through its emphasis on voting machines and centralized registration databases.

This is important to understand. Congress passed a bill that gave us lousy voting machines run by Republican companies and an emphasis on state based centralized voter registration, the same type of databases used by Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush to remove the 57,000 voters from the rolls in 2000. It did nothing about spoiled ballots in minority precincts, other than provide a new vehicle for spoilage, electronic voting machines. HAVA also ignored the potential for disenfranchisement via state based voter registration databases. What could they have been thinking? One wonders. But, they weren’t thinking very well.


Cesare, the Somnambulist

HAVA is the Somnambulist controlled by Dr. Caligari. The Holt Bill is the magic elixir that keeps the Somnambulist from ever waking from his dangerous and mindless sleepwalking journey that devastates the community. Quite an accomplishment!

I’m not questioning Holt’s motives. He introduced bills on voter intimidation and misleading election practices in the 109th Congress and he’s heading up the election contest brought by candidate Christine Jennings in Florida’s 13th congressional district. I fully expect his considerable intellect will not be able to tolerate that obvious miscarriage of justice.

Nevertheless, we need to wonder what kind of input Holt’s getting to produce such a flawed bill. It’s not all right to perpetuate electronic voting. At the very least, touch screens should be tossed in the nearest recycle bin immediately, if not sooner. It’s not all right to have election systems so complex that we need experts to decipher the election results. There will always be hired guns on one side or the other who make the case leading to endless controversy, litigation, and public distrust.

Can’t the Congressional faction get over it? They don’t get to control and manipulate with abandon using complexity and magic shows which they think continue to confuse and dazzle the public. People are well aware that
electronic voting is a joke

perpetuated by special interests; the interests who take but do not give and promise but never deliver.

Congress needs to provide a suitable election approach that speaks to the peoples’ need to know and understand. Instead, we have an expertise in diversion that focuses us on the machines while we avoid the real issue, the issue that’s been with us since the Compromise of 1876, the suppression and disenfranchisement of minority and poor voters.

Compounding the diversion is outright denial. It’s more than simply denying the real problem; that’s easy to see. It’s a denial of the original 1960’s Civil and Voting Rights legislation. In an excellent article in AlterNet, Steve Rosenfeld points out the following:

As election integrity activists focus their attention on pressuring the House Committee on Administration to ban electronic voting machines when Congress reconvenes next week, the question of whether voters can individually sue -- known as a private cause of action -- has received scant public attention. But that legal right, which was a cornerstone of the federal Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, is not in the panel's bill, H.R. 811. Instead, the bill says citizens can sue under other preexisting law. 13 April 2007.

Think about it. What would our history look like had citizens been denied the right to sue to gain their civil and voting rights?

In a previous article on the subject, Rosenfeld criticized election integrity activists for focusing on the negatives of the Holt bill while ignoring its implications. He suggests that H.R. 811 will effectively ban touch screens (DREs) and assure that optical scans with durable paper ballots are the standard. Should Holt pass, I hope that he’s right. He’s certainly a thorough analyst.

However, I disagree. It doesn’t matter if Holt passes. The regulatory arm of the federal government for voting rights is the Department of Justice with U.S. Attorneys fired for political reasons and replaced by political operatives The name of the game is voter fraud, the sham election crime wave that produced a grand total of 24 convictions between 2002 and 2005. Those attorneys will not likely enforce much of anything that Holt offers, unless it’s advantageous to the White House game plan for 2008, perhaps the most important election in our nation’s history given the stakes.

The reality is simple. If the Holt bill passes, it will be enforced by Alberto Gonzales or his replacement aided by one of those famous presidential signing statements where the laws passed by Congress are changed with the stroke of an autopen. And we’ll have voting machines, optical scan or touch screen, built, sold, and, in many cases, maintained by politicized corporations of a Republican kind.

Congress is doing a much better job on Iraq than it is on elections. At least we’ve got people willing to stand up and say that the war is a disaster. When will we get a major political figure to stand up and say that our election system is a disaster designed to maintain those in power in perpetuity; most often at the expense of the least powerful?

Until we have a thorough exposure of the various forms of election fraud, the situation will remain one where we pretend to vote and they pretend to get elected.

END

Permission to reprint granted with an attribution to the author and a link to this article in “Scoop” Independent News.

link:: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00307.htm

[Patsy Stone]

1. Iraqis also vote with more confidence than we do

I wouldn't mind a purple finger.

[autorank]

7. Voting and elections should return to citizen control.

We could do a better job than the federal, state or local authorities. Any random group of
20 citizens would be more sensible. We ought to try it.

:hi:

[Patsy Stone]

30. A man with a plan.

Yep. Precincts are not so huge. :eyes:

[crikkett]

2. Another great article, autorank!

thanks for posting!

[autorank]

8. Thanks for your kind words. It's great to post here!!!

[AuntPatsy]

3. Sounds about right concering the state of affairs on voting in today's

america.

[autorank]

9. Things need to change in a hurry.

One of the big barriers are the "experts" that get inserted into the process.

It's as though making it sufficiently complex keeps public scrutiny at bay.

We've had enough of this. I see some big changes after 2008, which will have
its share of problems.

We'll prevail!

[AuntPatsy]

10. Sometimes I wonder if the dems were allowed to win elections

in order to take more positions simply to devert attention away from voting tampering?

[lonestarnot]

25. Oh man, I have considered the same thing.

[autorank]

49. Not allowed, I don't think, but...

there was something strange going on from 9/28 and lasting for about a month.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00155.htm

These were all old stories but suddenly emerged just in time...

[AikidoSoul]

28. Not all top computer experts think computers are o.k. to use in some part of the voting process.

Rebecca Mercuri is a top expert on computer security issues. For years she has fought publicly with university based computer experts like Dan Wallach, David Dill, and Aviel Rubin against ANY computers being used in ANY PART of the voting process.

She fully realizes there are big computer / software companies that fund these guys' university departments. They have also been invested in voting companies like VoteHere. Mercuri believes these influences have warped the views of computer scientists like Wallach, Dill and Rubin. These guys can't afford to look like they're "anti-technology" to their funders and shareholders.

Here's a request from Dr. Mercuri to distribute her view on this topic (again) back in 08/23/06 ---

********************

Please distribute this comment to your email list.

Pull the Plug on Touchscreens

Forbes’ Magazine (9/4/6) included a commentary by Aviel Rubin where he complains about the “Help America Vote Act, which handed out $2.6 billion to spend on voting machines.” Avi’s recent recommendation is that voters cast only optically scanned ballots that will be randomly audited. But does he go so far as to suggest that voters be allowed to prepare these ballots by hand? Absolutely not. Although I have publicly recommended the adoption of only scanned paper systems since at least 2003, Avi continues to recommend electronic ballot preparation methods, such as described in his Forbes piece, that require all voters to “make their selections on a touchscreen machine.”

If humans are deemed capable enough to audit ballot counts, they should also be allowed to directly prepare their own ballots without the intervention of a computer. Most voters already do this, since some 60% of US counties and a steadily increasing number of mail-ins (such as in CA, FL and NJ where any voter can register as a permanent absentee) use hand-prepared paper ballots. Sure, modern technology must be available to provide assistance for voters who need or want it, but this does not necessarily have to be limited to “touchscreen machines.” Tactile ballots (endorsed by the United Nations, see

<http://www.electionaccess.org/Bp/Ballot_Templates.htm>) and mechanical devices (such as the Vote Pad <http://www.vote-pad.us/>) offer inexpensive alternatives that do not require electricity.

So, will this advice help America’s voters avoid the use of unreliable or insecure voting equipment in 2006, 2007, or even 2008? No, because purchases (costing in excess of $5B, including state allocations and associated long-term service contracts) are already in place. Avi’s change of heart (he’s previously supported vote-tabulating DREs, see

<http://avirubin.com/vote/eac2.pdf>)

now favoring optically scanned ballots is simply too little, too late, and his ongoing endorsement of touchscreen voting has made him part of the problem, not its solution.

Rebecca Mercuri

[autorank]

48. Thanks for posting this.

I hadn't seen this. Mercuri has been around for the duration and she's got a lot
of guts to speak out like this. Good for her and thank you!

[Solly Mack]

4. and by doing so, America pretends there is nothing wrong

America pretends. Period.

[autorank]

11. Right but now the denial is mainly in Washington and state capitols.

They don't realize or will not accept that the public is at an end with electronic voting
and all these ridiculous outcomes.

When confidence goes, things change.

The politicians need to prove that they were in fact elected with a majority of votes.
If they wonder why there is such skepticism about government, they need look no further
than the charade they participate in by not allowing full access by the public to voting
and vote counting.

If one major politician will take up the issue, we'll be in better shape. The public is
already where it needs to be.

[whatelseisnew]

5. K&R

[blm]

6. It's easy to understand why so many believe that BushInc and Clintons have come to an agreement

and that electronic voting machines have been part of the plan.

April 2004 - Historian Douglas Brinkley spekaing at Depauw:


http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

Whom does the biographer think his subject will pick as a running mate? Not Hillary Rodham Clinton. "There's really two different Democratic parties right now: there's the Clintons and Terry McAuliffe and the DNC and then there's the Kerry upstarts. John Kerry had one of the great advantages in life by being considered to get the nomination in December. He watched every Democrat in the country flee from him, and the Clintons really stick the knife in his back a bunch of times, so he's able to really see who was loyal to him and who wasn't. That's a very useful thing in life."
>>>

[rumpel]

12. bulls eye, autorank

thanks.

for something as important as elections, which should be a reflection of our collective voice, "effectively banning" DRE's leaves the bill's implementation open to interpretation by those who do not have our best interests in mind.

k&r

[autorank]

36. They make something that should be simple overly complex.

I don't think that they layer on the complexity to prevent citizen understanding and participation; but I do think that citizen understanding and participation is restricted by the complexity of the bills, regulations, e-voting equipment, and centralized registration databases.

Everybody knows this but we continue to have elections that are incomprehensible to 99.9% of Americans; faith based voting.

Congress is skating on thin ice. It's no longer possible to rely on business as usual.

[bonito]

13. K&R n/t

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread autorank

[autorank]

37. Hey Uncle Joe, you're welcome.

I've been watching Gonzo closely and I think that your buddies are pretty closely on target.

Cheers!

[bvar22]

15. Bread & Circuses

...only not so much bread anymore, fewer "trickle down" crumbs every Election Cycle.

The Circus is doing well.
Phony elections to fool the People into thinking they have a choice.
Two Corporate sponsored candidates, one from each Party, hyped to the max by the Corporate Owned Media. :party:

I have come to despise the Circus.
Where do I get my bread?....
Oh Yeah, that is handed out only to loyal Circus attendees.
You can go to jail for criticizing the Circus.
My bad.

Question: WHY has the Democratic Party REFUSED to acknowledge the problems with BBV?

Anwer: Because BBV is an essential part of The Circus!


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[nicknameless]

16. Excellent!

Also, re: disenfranchisement, people should remember the 58,000 absentee ballots that never showed up in Broward Co., FL in 2004

Don't look to voting by mail to solve rethuglican dirty tricks.

K&R

[Skidmore]

17. Ah....yes. K&R

[kster]

18. Then they (the politicians) pretend to make laws to prevent themselves from

manipulating the vote count, and then there is a group at the DU that pretend thst the bill is A-OK with a few mior changes added. Its a never ending cycle of pretend. B-)


K&R...

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Gee, Michael, you come up with things that are so nightmarish - most of all

in the deliberate unwillingness of officialdom to look at and into them... to respond to them.

They're like a Jonathon Swift satires, but immeasurably darker and more horrifying.

[autorank]

27. Glad you enjoyed Cesare... Ahoy!

Thank you for the kind words!

The horror we face is entirely unnecessary. People in power just don't listen and
pretend that the real public is that reflected by Corporate Media, which is of course one of
their inventions.

If the leadership of either party (naturally I'd prefer it was mine) ever proposed something serious,
like citizen control of hand counting or simultaneous hand and optical scan counting (like the Faulkner plan in Florida), the people would choose it unanimously.

Enough of the "experts" and more of the people

[Joe Chi Minh]

33. Don't you mean Taosheach, matey! Though I could get used to Cesare, alright...

I'm not responding substantively to the election points you make, since in my whole-hearted concurrence, I fear I couldn't control my language.

[autorank]

41. We need to trade our legislature for the Irish Dáil Éireann ;)

Then we'd be in great shape. The "troubles" are now ours and the much more peaceful Irish nation
could teach us a great deal. Maybe Mr. Trump can arrange that. Or perhaps Mr. Tony bLiar when
he gets his warmed seat on the Carlyle Baord;)

Nice to see you!

[Joe Chi Minh]

50. You need to! I like that....! Maybe we could become a second and third State

of a United States of Denmark! See you, bud

[autorank]

51. Denmark will be a world power w/global warming.

They'll finally have Greenland as a meaningful territory. Can you imagine? Denmark...

[Kurovski]

20. K&R

"2008, perhaps the most important election in our nation’s history given the stakes."

I can never find my house on any of those maps.

Run, Al Gore, run!

[puebloknot]

21. K&R "Nothing's riding on this except the first amendment to the Constitution..."

...freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country."
~~~Ben Bradlee, Washington Post Editor
From All the President's Men

And I would add...every other freedom guaranteed to We the People by the Constitution of the United States of America.

I, Citizen Judy Barrett, am tired of being played for a fool every time an election rolls around.

[autorank]

38. I join you in your lack of patience.

This is not rocket science. Create a structure for fully transparent, citizen run elections with
full observation before elections and full access to "the evidence," ballots, after. Make recounts
much easier and make them official.

Nothing like that has occurred and it's nly by neglect that it hasn't.

We pretend to vote, they pretend to be elected is the outcome of all this obfuscation.

:hi:

[althecat]

22. Hear hear...

Spot on Autorank.... bullseye...

[autorank]

39. Thanks!!! and kudos to "Scoop" for being our news source for election truth!!! n/t

[Kurovski]

23. Kick. (nt)

[AikidoSoul]

24. This is THE MOST important issue of all. What should we do?

Many of us have already contacted Holt and his staff.

What do you suggest? Is there a strategic plan for activists that we can plug into?

[Blue_Tires]

26. yet another rec nt

[texpatriot2004]

29. An American Charade it is eh nm

[autorank]

40. It's time to open up voting, get out of Iraq, face reality on climate change...

...etc. etc.

We're in for a lot of changes. "The elect" better get used to it.

:hi:

[texpatriot2004]

42. You said it my friend, I agree on all counts

:hi:

nice to see you

[live love laugh]

31. All is not lost. You can always vote for an American Idol.

:sarcasm:

[KoKo]

32. Yep that's the "Reality" as the Bushies "Write It."

Gotta keep on WORKING no matter how we are ignored. :shrug:

[autorank]

43. We've moved from being mocked to attempts at ignoring the messsage.

That's a sort of progress. The real irony is that the public is more than open to the
messages of free and fair elections, the need for citizen involvement, and the potential
for elections fraud. There is no voice to mobilize them with a clear message and plan.

Wonder why? The Voting Rights legislation was supported by a majority of white Southerners
when it was passed. The concept of updated, comprehensive voting rights is much less
controversial now, in fact it's not controversial at all.

What are the politicians waiting for? Maybe an insider will "break the code of silence."

[bagrman]

34. VOTE BY MAIL-VOTE BY MAIL- VOTE BY MAIL - Change now before next election.

Then we have the highschool juniors count them and the seniors watch over them. That way we're training our next generation to be involved.

Latr

[Ellipsis]

35. Excellent work autorank!

K&R

[autorank]

44. Ola btmlndfrmr

Gracias!

[diva77]

45. It's such a catch-22 trying to get "elected" officials to do anything about

the "pretend" elections cuz they know it's not up to them...it's up to these guys-possibly the new faces of mt. rushmore:



Seen here are (from left) Alfie Charles, vice president of business development at Sequoia Voting Systems; William F. Welsh, a board member of Election Systems & Software Inc.; Kevin Chung, founder and CEO of Avante International Technology Inc.; Mark Radke, director of marketing at Diebold Election Systems; and Neil McClure, general manager of Hart Intercivic Inc.

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92973,00.html

[autorank]

46. As I looked at the pic, I was reminded of the tobacco execs who testified

...and lied about knowing that nicotine was addictive.

Wouldn't want to invest my money in anything run by this crew.

[diva77]

47. our tax dollars already invested in them for us

:mad: