Refresh   Tag(s): ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Add to My Group
August 31, 2007 at 10:03:03

View Ratings | Rate It

EAC for Dummies: How the White House has designs on your elections

FACEBOOK
submit to twitter
submit to reddit
submit to digg

Tell A Friend

By Nancy Tobi (about the author)     Page 1 of 3 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

For OpEdNews: Nancy Tobi - Writer

A republic is a form of government maintained by a state or country whose sovereignty is based on consent of the governed and whose governance is based on popular representation. Rule of law is an essential feature of a republic.

-Wikipedia

The American Republic lives or dies on the ability of the people to control the government. The Framers of the Constitution gave control of our elections (the lockbox of the Republic) to the individual States and not to the United States, to ensure that the dispersed power of citizens as represented by their state governments could check and balance the centralized power of the federal government.

The general public, and most particularly many in the election integrity movement, are blissfully unaware of the dangers posed to our American Republic by a little known entity called the Election Assistance Commission.

This White House Agency was slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in a late night, behind closed doors meeting, by the architects of that law: Congressman Bob Ney (now a convicted criminal), Congressman Steny Hoyer, Senator Mitch McConnell, and Senator Chris Dodd (now a presidential candidate).

We can only guess at their motivations for creating an Executive agency composed of four White House appointees with the power to control the nation’s elections.

Whatever prompted the HAVA architects to do this – against their own legal counsel’s advice – they certainly didn’t consult the wisdom of the Founders.

Founding father Alexander Hamilton:

"Suppose an article had been introduced into the Constitution, empowering the United States to regulate the elections for the particular States, would any man have hesitated to condemn it, both as an unwarrantable transposition of power, and as a premeditated engine for the destruction of the State governments?" --- Federalist No. 59, 1788

The architects of HAVA are not alone in their disdain for the wisdom of the founders. Several contemporary Congressional and Senatorial leaders are furiously trying to pass legislation to expand the powers of the Election Assistance Commission. The most infamous of the proposed bills are HR811 (the "Holt Bill") in the House, and SB1487 (the "Feinstein Bill") in the Senate.

Congressman Rush Holt, in a July 2007 "town meeting" with constituents:

There should be -- and there has not been -- a federal commission that oversees elections. The Help America Vote Act created one, it has not worked well -- so we, could say, well, that each state could do what they want... You know, you know, a lot of people get nervous at the mention of name [Ken] Blackwell -- in Ohio. He was the Secretary of State... he was also a candidate for office at the same time. He was also the chair of the re-election committee for a Presidential candidate. Even while he was supposed to be the impartial overseer of the elections.

So if we leave it to the states, it's not so good. So what I prefer to do is strengthen the EAC... but it remains to be seen whether we can do that.

The historical imperative to resist granting control over our elections to the federal government might convince subscribers to Mr. Holt's articulated goal of the error of their ways. Common sense alone belies the utter absurdity of handing control of the electoral mechanism itself to those who will subsequently be elected by it. And handing control to the White House is beyond absurdity.

Unfortunately, most American citizens don't even know this coups d'etat has occurred, and is being irrevocably cemented into place. They are unaware that the very foundation of the American Republic is being ripped out and replaced with an entirely new system of governance. Free, fair, and open public elections controlled by The People are being replaced with costly, high tech, complex, opaque, computerized, corporately-owned electoral theatre controlled by the White House, the Legislature, and the Judiciary.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

 

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
It's time to abolish the EAC

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

www.democracyfornewhampshire.com

Nancy Tobi is co-founder, former Chair, and website editor for Democracy for New Hampshire (DFNH). She is also a founder and Chair of the NH Fair Elections Committee. Nancy is the author of numerous articles on election integrity, including "The (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.

Contact Author Contact Editor View Authors' Articles

 

Book Recommendations for "Corporations Voting Machine"
Analysis of error correction by majority voting (Research Report RJ. International Business Machines Corporation. Research Division)
by Nicholas Pippenger


Number of pages: 28
Publisher: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Shouptronic facts for Shelby County, Tennessee
by Robert J Boram


Number of pages:
Publisher: R.F. Shoup Corporation

View All Book Recommendations

Share this page: (what's this?)                   Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

FACEBOOK      DIGG THIS      Add This Page to Mr Wong!           NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      NETSCAPE      My Web      Tag!RawSugar      Blink List     (More...)

Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
11 comments
To view all comments:
Expand Comments
 

Posted it on DIGG.com by Fritson on Friday, Aug 31, 2007 at 9:48:42 PM
Nancy by John R Moffett on Saturday, Sep 1, 2007 at 9:34:18 AM
aren't you the guy who by john de herrera on Saturday, Sep 1, 2007 at 10:25:54 PM
Me? by John R Moffett on Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 at 7:38:51 AM
Here is a solution by Nancy Tobi on Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 at 9:24:57 AM
NIST corrupted already by Guitar Chris on Monday, Sep 3, 2007 at 1:28:13 AM
Mandate Hand Counts by Guitar Chris on Monday, Sep 3, 2007 at 1:16:44 AM
Well you should ask, John R. by Chuck Garner on Saturday, Sep 1, 2007 at 12:48:07 PM
This doesn't answer my question by John R Moffett on Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 at 7:37:38 AM
Federally controlled elections aren't all bad per sec by Andris on Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 at 3:28:12 AM
The "Gold standard" exists... by Chuck Garner on Sunday, Sep 2, 2007 at 3:08:03 PM

 

 

 

Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

Copyright © 2002-2010, OpEdNews

Powered by Populum