"Vote the bastards out" has become a pipedream in the age of electronic voting machines."

[kpete]

Published on Monday, February 21, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Fighting the 5 Fascisms in Wisconsin and Ohio
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

In the wake of Citizens United, with the courts, media, Congress and presidency firmly in corporate control, we see no easy road to victory for working people.

"Vote the bastards out" has become a pipedream in the age of electronic voting machines. Especially in Ohio, a reliable electoral vote count is a thing of the past.

..........................

Ultimately, as Martin Luther King said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

But from time to time, it does break. If these uprisings in Wisconsin and Ohio fail, there will---literally---be hell to pay.

MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-8

[Peace Patriot]

1. They are so right! We must first fix the corporate-run, 'TRADE SECRET' voting system--

which is still a doable campaign--or all efforts at reform will likely fail. We cannot reform this country without transparent vote counting--and that is, of course, why we don't have transparent vote counting. The corpo-fascist/war profiteer establishment that is running things was many steps ahead of us on this.

The most vulnerable point of contact--AND the "deciders"--are right down the street from you, at your county registrar of voters' and county supervisor's houses or offices, or at your state legislature. Power over voting system decisions still resides at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have potential influence--and in big mobilized numbers, can change this--especially if it spreads from county to county, state to state, and becomes a national outcry. I don't mean that congress or the president will do anything. They will not. Believe me. The outcry is to each other--people to people--as we demand vote counting that everyone can SEE and understand, and oust local officials who will not provide it. The Scumbag Congress may act, at some point, to usurp local power over voting systems, but hopefully the movement will have gained too much momentum for them to prevail. Currently, there is NO federal law requiring corporate-run electronic voting. It was all done with corrupt lobbying and with a $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress (in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--Oct '02!), over a short period of time, 2002 to 2004, with the final capper recently, when the last hold-out--New York--finally caved in.

We now have a situation where one, private, far rightwing-connected corporation--ES&S, which bought out Diebold, last year--controls 80% of voting systems in the country, all run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code--code that the public is forbidden to review--with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Bad, bad, BAD situation. We MUST change this.