This is a most serious issue relating to our voting in this year's primaries and will be an even more serious issue in the general election in November.  It's pathetic that the Democratic Party could not muster enough votes to push the legislation mandating a voting system with paper trails, even though they are the majority party.  The question is what we the electorate can do to about it.  If it is already too late for 2008, should we not do something about it for the future elections, anyway? 

by Nathan Nahm (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 138 comments [60 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 11:48:26 AM

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The precise steps that we need to take in order to reform our voting system are laid out in my new book, LOSER TAKE ALL. It's an invaluable collection of 14 essays on BushCo's election fraud and vote suppression tactics since (and including) 2000, by some of the top activists and scholars in the election integrity movement. The book concludes with my "12 Steps to Save US Democracy," which concerns the mechanics of elections. (We also need to talk about proportional representation, clean money and other larger issues, but we must start by enabling citizens to vote, and having those votes counted.)

As to HOW, exactly, we might realize those steps, the field is still wide open, as the election integrity movement is dispersed and under-funded. However, the step that we must all take right away—and the only step that can eventually result in real reform—is to spread the word about all this. Badger your representatives, and the media, to pay attention to this all-important issue, and tell everyone you know what's going down. Also, become a regular visitor to Brad Friedman's blog, bradblog.com, and mine, at markcrispinmiller.com.  

by Mark Crispin Miller (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 12:02:38 PM

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MCM-   Everyone knows the "hotlines" are bogus-  where have you been, kiddo?   Jonah Goldman doesn't return his calls-   and he sits on top of the " activist" hotline-   Ring Ring Ring   -  Hello  ???  Click........  the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, Common Cause, PFAW- Bogus  Blog sites-  League of Women Voters-     all at issue-      Ring ring Click-    Are you calling Microsoft?  Click-  

The movement has been infiltrated-     help us professor-  .....  Brent Turner 

by Brent Turner (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 94 comments) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 2:24:30 PM

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Complaining and sending potential activists to a " for profit" blogsite does not a movement make-  And it plays right into the hands of Microsoft / Choicepoint/ Rove and Ashcroft-    But  that's obvious-    What is interesting about this complaining article is the unmentioned-  OPEN SOURCE-  We need to mobilize all activists to fight ther good fight against the secret software code that runs the electronic systems-  With open source code ( and complete paper ballots ) security is increased and costs are diminished. -  Anyone who talks about "paper trails' or fails to mention open source code is either ignorant or " in on it" -  This crime of omission is recurring within the " activist" ranks-  We do no know our devils from angels-   Brent Turner 

by Brent Turner (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 94 comments) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 2:17:18 PM

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by Munich (1 articles, 86 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 1125 comments [86 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 2:21:37 PM

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at markcrispinmiller.com.

by Mark Crispin Miller (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 7:11:21 PM

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I spoke with Crawley(?) who personally assured me that there were seven counters inside each black box so we won't be tricked. He didn't like my idea of a system that even an eighth grader could use to  count the ballots and come up with the same number every time. I'm sure other than some computer printout Mr. Crawley and Martin, county commissioners ,who were elected on the very same machines they brought and contracted the maintenance  for said machines cannot prove they actually won by less than 1000 some votes in a county of over 620,000 people. Take their win on faith.

Is this the democratic system we have squandered a million dead Iraq's, 4000+ G.I.s and a trillion or so dollars to export to the Middle East?

by tjb (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 255 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Apr 24, 2008 at 7:37:12 AM

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The talking heads at MSNBC have decided that 200,000 Obama votes are missing because Obama failed to use "street money" in Philadelphia to get out the black vote.  Philly, being the old style politico she is, just cannot get its black population to vote unless someone is paid fifty dollars on every block to organize a trip to the polls. 

Somebody wake me up! 

by W.M.L. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 537 comments [52 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 6:51:45 PM

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None of Obama's win are verifiable either. Corruption follows the money. How many elections has he bought? And how many people does he owe now?

by Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 990 comments [34 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:01:07 PM

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So far there's no evidence whatever—none—that Obama's campaign has engaged in machine fraud or vote suppression. And it would be a bit odd if they did, since they've demonstrably enjoyed majority support, as all the polls made clear. In other words, there was no need for them to cheat. (Moreover, Obama's victories in the caucuses ARE verifiable. It's the machine-counts in the primaries that can't be verified.)

On the other hand, most, if not all, of Clinton's victories have been marked by stark anomalies and rampant improprieties, right from the start. In New Hampshire, she won, by some 4%, where they counted ballots by machine, while Obama won, by roughly 6%, where they hand-counted the ballots: a victory that WAS verifiable (while hers was not).

This is not to say that he is not corrupt, or that he doesn't "owe" anybody anything. He's a successful politician in a system utterly corrupt, so he certainly inhabits many pockets. But there are no grounds for the mere assertion that his recent victories are dubious. 

by Mark Crispin Miller (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments) on Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:27:39 PM

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I think election reform has about as much chance of coming forward in our country as War Crimes trials.  It just ain't gonna happen.  Good reason might be that if there was election reform, there just might BE war crimes tirals.

by Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 465 comments [22 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Thursday, Apr 24, 2008 at 8:23:13 AM

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