• "Stealing America: Vote by Vote" A new film produced by Emmy Award winning, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, Dorothy Fadiman. She brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from Election 2004. Interviewees include voters who experienced hardships, poll workers, computer experts, nationally recognized journalists, as well as others concerned about the Presidential election of Nov. 2, 2004 and democracy in the United States. For more information or to arrange a screening, please visit http://www.stealingamerica.org
I don't care who you are: die-hard Republican, skeptical independent, disappointed Democrat, outspoken non-voter or somewhere in between. Don't kid yourself. This affects YOU! I've mentioned before that I had a bumper sticker hanging in my kitchen that said "Wake me up when it's over." The sad truth is that we can't wait it out and hope that when we emerge, things will have changed. If they have, trust me, it won't be for the better. If we have candidates who are 'elected' fraudulently and elections that are based on faulty vote-counting, then what we have is no longer the democracy Americans have fought and died for. We should all be in total agreement on that. A system which inadvertently or purposefully disenfranchises a good portion of its citizens is simply not a system to either defend or export.
Brent Budowsky wrote a great guest editorial today which I'd like to quote at length and finish with.
"The danger is so severe, it is beyond a simple description, but the common sense of the solution is within our power to control, if we use every means at our disposal to wage the fight, with a determination to win that exceeds anything we have seen in 2000, 2002, and 2004.
Thomas Paine championed the notion that the cause of America was the cause of the world. Nothing is more important to America, to our cause, to our country, to our world, than the right of a free people to vote in free and fair elections. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Without that right, all others are endangered.
This is not 2000, 2002, 2004, and America this November must not be like the election in Maryland, this September. It must be the America that our founding fathers envisioned with elections that belong to us all, one person, one vote, one democracy.
Joan Brunwasser is the Voting Integrity Editor for OpEdNews. She runs the "Invisible Ballots" lending library project which has, in a year's time, distributed copies of the documentary to almost 2,000 individuals and groups in 37 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico and five foreign countries. Contact her at joan@opednews.com and support her work by making a donation to InternationalHumanities Center, a nonprofit organization under Section 501 (c)(3) of the IRS code. http://ihcenter.org/groups/citizensforelectionreform.html
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. We aim to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Electronic (computerized) voting systems are simply antithetical to democratic principles.
CER set up a lending library to achieve the widespread distribution of the DVD Invisible Ballots: A temptation for electronic vote fraud. Within eighteen months, the project had distributed over 3200 copies across the country and beyond. CER now concentrates on group showings, OpEd pieces, articles, reviews, interviews, discussion sessions, networking, conferences, anything that promotes awareness of this critical problem. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005.
to our democratic process than the integrity of vote counting. Bev Harris at Blackboxvoting.com has, for a very long time, labored in the fight against these insidious voting machines. We see, almost weekly, new information about the ease of altering our votes yet there is little to nothing in the news on this subject.
I have emailed my Senators and Congressperson repeatedly about the possibility of our votes being hacked and altered, forwarding articles which deliniate the ease of doing exactly that. I am wondering if it is possible to bring suit against the state election board to enjoin them from using these machines?
Should we not be up in arms about voting integrity issues, should we not be furious at the mere thought of our votes being stolen? I realy begin to wonder at my fellow Americans......
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 5:07:06 PM
Here's the Bill Calling for Emergency Paper Ballots at Every Polling
Place in America this November!
Posted By _Brad_ On 20th September 2006 @ 12:44 In _Election Reform_,
_Election 2006_ | _11 Comments_
Yesterday I called on Congress ^[1] to
pass an emergency measure to require Emergency Paper Ballots be made
available at the polls during this November's general election. I
spelled out several reasons for this last-ditch, "Hail Mary" attempt to
try and mitigate just some of the myriad problems and disenfranchisment
that will occur at polling places this year thanks to new, poorly
designed, malfunctioning, unsecure electronic voting machines now
deployed across the nation.
Never mind the electronic voting machine fraud that is likely to occur.
Never mind the proven inaccuracies of these god-awful machines. Never
mind the ease at which they are now proven to be hackable. My concern
right now - this late in the game - is simply to assure that voters who
show up at the polls and are legally registered to vote, may /actually/
be able to /cast/ a vote at all!
In primary after primary this year, voters have been told to "come back
later" or, at best, given a provisional ballot (which may or may not
ever be counted) when voting machines either failed to work or,
frequently, weren't even present by the time voters showed up to vote.
/That/ is voter disenfranchisement, pure and simple, and it affects
voters of any and all political stripes.
Common sense (one would think) would dictate that State and County
Election Directors would mandate Emergency Paper Ballots for voters to
use in the event of machine unavailability. Though the Secretaries of
State in several states so far this year (Texas, Arkansas, etc.) have
issued emergency orders for such Emergency Paper Ballots, remarkably,
many states and counties didn't bother and thousands of legally
registered voting citizens were sent home in the bargain.
The legislation required by Congress to mandate Emergency Paper Ballots
(I call it the "LET AMERICA VOTE ACT") is incredibly simple. In
yesterday's article, I included a three-sentence piece of legislation.
Below, is a more fully-formed draft legislation based on those three
sentences as sent to me orginally by Bob Wilson of the Illinois Ballot
Integrity Project ^[2] .
Along with additional tweaks by myself and a few others, my complete
suggested legislation can be read - in it's entirety - in about 30
seconds. It's posted in full below.
If Congress cares (and if you help them to do so!), I'm quite certain
that this measure can be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by
George W. Bush with Terri Schiavo-like speed.
I'd think our democracy is worth at least as much. And I know it's
certainly worth trying for!
Some have responded to my call for this LAVA legislation ("Let democracy
flow!") by pointing out that the method of counting and/or auditing
these Emergency Paper Ballots must be included in the legislation. My
answer to them is that I agree with their point! /However/, at this late
in the game (/with only some 5 or 6 legislative days left before
Congress recesses prior to the election/) I don't want to give /any/
Congress member /any/ reason to oppose this act!
In other words, with the time we have left, if all we can do is /assure/
that /at least/ there will be a piece of paper on which a registered
voter may cast a vote this November - if they bother to show up - then
we will be doing a service to democracy. It's an incredible fact, but
even something as simple has that has not been the case in many places
this year. Last week's Maryland primary, were thousands were forced to
go without voting at all when the machines failed to work, was a prime
example!
Some have said there is no time to get this bill passed. I don't care.
Let's get it passed anyway. If it fails, at least we will have a "paper
trail" to point back to on November 8th when everyone else is wondering
what went wrong and if anybody had tried to do anything about it while
there was still time. Those of us who give a damn will have done
everything we could.
I continue to speak to folks in Congress about sponsorship of this bill,
and I urge /all/ American citizens to contact their Congress Members -
as well as their state and local officials - to demand that
non-provisional Emergency Paper Ballots be made available at the polls
this year!
You can contact your Congress person here
^[3] (and you can contact local
media here ^[4] .)
Let's get to work! This effort is about all we have left legislatively
at this point! Please spread the word /everywhere/. My complete
suggested language for the *LET AMERICA VOTE ACT* is posted below...
*_LET AMERICA VOTE ACT_
/(EMERGENCY PAPER BALLOT MANDATE OF 2006)/*
*WHEREAS* significant failures of electronic voting machines have
occurred in various jurisdictions during primary elections held in
Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Maryland and other states during 2006, and
*WHEREAS* such failures have forced legitimate, registered voters to
have been turned away from the polls by the thousands so far in 2006
primary elections simply because neither voting machines nor paper
ballots were available for use when the voters arrived at their polling
place, and
*WHEREAS* the probability exists that such failures will continue and
the adverse results of such failures will be multiplied and increased in
magnitude by the additional number of voters participating in the
November 7, 2006 General Election, and
*WHEREAS* the potential exists for massive disenfranchisement of
American voters in the November 7, 2006 General Election, by such
failures of electronic voting machines,
*NOW THEREFORE* be it enacted that:
*A.* For the November 7, 2006, General Election, each election
jurisdiction shall be required to prepare and print Emergency Paper
Ballots of the proper ballot style for all races and propositions which
shall be contested in that jurisdiction.
*B.* Such Emergency Paper Ballots shall be printed in sufficient
quantity to guarantee that every voter who requests the use of such an
Emergency Paper Ballot shall be able to receive such an Emergency Paper
Ballot.
*C.* As with all provisional ballots, such Emergency Paper Ballots shall
be printed in all languages specified for ballots in that jurisdiction.
*D.* Any voter eligible to vote in the jurisdiction in which he or she
requests an Emergency Paper Ballot shall be entitled to receive and cast
such Emergency Paper Ballot, regardless of the type of ballot that shall
have been specifiied in that jurisdiction through operation of law,
without further qualification, request, proof or furnishing of reason
for such request.
*E.* Such Emergency Paper Ballots shall be official ballots for purposes
of casting, tabulating, audits, redundant counts and recounts, and shall
not be considered provisional ballots.
*F.* Emergency Paper Ballots shall be cast and tabulated in the same
manner as all other ballots cast on November 7, 2006.
*G.* The associated costs to states for this mandate will be reimbursed
out of Help America Vote Act funding.
*H.* This Act shall terminate and cease to have effect on February 28, 2007.
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