Forget Iran, say NO to concealed vote counting in the US of A

As you decry the alleged election fraud in Iran, keep in mind that the majority of the nation's state election officials - like NH state election officials - have knowingly approved fraud-friendly and defective vote counting computers. Forget Iran; it's time to say "NO" to concealed vote counting here in America.

The New York Times has come out with yet another editorial in support of concealed vote counting in America, hyping it up as "trustworthy" computerized vote counting and encouraging Congress to pass yet another version of Congressman Rush Holt's (D-NJ) corporate-backed computerized voting bill.

My concise rebuttal to Mr. Holt's latest effort to reform our election systems right into complete corporate takeover can be read here.

The Holt Bill that the NYT is endorsing does nothing more than expand privatized, concealed, computerized vote counting in America's elections.

Computer operations are concealed from the human eye.

And concealed vote counting by computers is as un-American as having a bunch of henchmen collect your ballot boxes, duck into a back room, and emerge to announce the election results.

Oh, wait a minute, that's what they're saying happened in Iran, isn't it?

In fact, "surprising" election results from concealed vote counting abound about these days. And not just in Iran, of course. America's 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The 2002 Senate elections. Even local elections, like a multimillion dollar transportation bill in Pima County Arizona that voters - against all historical precedent - endorsed.

And now, America's corporate media has the nation whipped into a frenzy decrying alleged election fraud in Iran. But here at home, after beating their chests ad nauseum about Iran, the corporate media continues its complicity in the theft of our own democracy.

The title of the NYT piece alone tells it all: "How to Trust Electronic Voting".

The simple fact is: you can NOT trust electronic voting. No paper receipts, paper ballots, recounts (where, as we saw in NH's 2008 primary recount, ballot chain of custody is a joke and recounts are likely conducted with compromised ballots to validate a fraudulent computerized count), no statistically improbable audits (as proposed by Mr. Holt), can reverse the untrustworthy and completely unverifiable results of a privatized, computerized, non-public, concealed vote count

America's corporate media has long obliged elements - such as the Congress and their financial backers - seeking to replace the nation's formerly public elections with privatized election facades.

In America today 90% of our elections are run by corporate-controlled computers using trade secret software -- developed in large part by convicted felons -- for a concealed vote count.

Even if this was legal (IT'S NOT), it certainly ain't democracy.

And here in NH, with all to be said about our paper ballots, keep in mind that anywhere from 85-90% of those paper ballots are never even counted by NH's election officials.

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