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December 16, 2008 at 21:01:49

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Promoted to Headline (H3) on 12/16/08:

If you like sending cash through the mail, you'll LOVE vote by mail!

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By Paul Lehto (about the author)     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

For OpEdNews: Paul Lehto - Writer

I hope the line "If you like sending cash through the mail, you'll LOVE vote by mail!" becomes a rallying call to defeat the total privatization of voting that IS what vote by mail constitutes.  It's bad enough that we have privatized secret vote counting on corporate computers....

Snopes has a new article up, complete with video by a postal inspector, that helps support this point. While it is not illegal to send cash through the mail, the postal inspector who has busted postal employees for stealing cash from the mail says you should never send cash through the mail. He cites one case where there was only a small handful of complaints but the postal employee had stolen over hundred cards with cash in them.

  See the video near the bottom of this link:
  http://www.snopes.com/legal/postal/sendcash.asp

To add injury to injury and insult, a 2004 Oregon study (which has
100% vote by mail) showed that one half one percent of people
specifically reported that their vote or votes changed as a result of
pressure from someone nearby when they were voting.  This is the
clearest possible evidence of 1/2 of one percent rate of election
fraud.  THe problem will only get worse as more people catch on to the
problem and as the system spreads to jurisdictions with more of a
history of political shenanigans like Florida and Ohio.

Vote by mail ends the secret ballot, results in actual votes being
changed through pressure and intimidation, is nothing less than the
complete privatization of what is supposed to be a public process, and
then ballots sit around for a long time for things to happen to them
like getting "lost" altered, or damaged.


If you like sending cash through the mail, you'll love vote by mail.

 

Paul Lehto practiced law in Washington State for 12 years in business law and consumer fraud, including most recently several years in election law, and is now a clean elections advocate. His forthcoming book is tentatively titled DEFENDING (more...)
 

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

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OK Paul, I'll bite by Charlie L on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:00:02 AM
Oh, and seriously off-topic by Charlie L on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:05:20 AM
For continuing information on MN and other election topics by Paul Lehto on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:21:27 AM
THe similarity between touchscreen DREs and optical scans by Paul Lehto on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:20:27 AM
OK. So far. by Charlie L on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:35:57 AM
Yes, Freeman wrote it up on pp 75-79 but the study's mine by Paul Lehto on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 11:51:40 AM
I should have known. by Charlie L on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:58:55 PM
Vote by mail, Democracy will fail by Edip Yuksel on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:46:07 AM
Good suggestion, may I use it? by Paul Lehto on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:14:12 AM
Of course, Paul by Edip Yuksel on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 8:34:13 PM
I DO Vote By Mail by Theresa "Darklady" Reed on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:35:45 PM
The more I consider it by Charlie L on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:36:50 PM
I like our system by Ginger Hastings Chapman on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:16:57 PM
As Harry Truman said, if efficiency/convenience is your goal by Paul Lehto on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 8:50:30 PM
Look at what other countries do! by Roger on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 at 2:35:44 PM

 
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