Of cabal of 5 who had election rigged in Ohio, Verna has been murdered by Fitz. Do we have 4 more to be murdered? Or will they depart by suicide? Or live & tell the truth? Mellie is cozying up to Fitz. She is knifing Cyrus in the back, and he got a good one into her finally. Olivia stays down, way way down. Wait until she finds out Fitz has had her apartment bugged and so she is under surveillance by at least newcomer Jake

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  The brunt of Defiance and the rigging of the presidential election in Ohio still lies on your shoulders, James Novak, even though you refused to tell what you know - so far.   Whether you will have a change of heart remains to be seen. You protected your family by saying you knew nothing about a rigging in Defiance.   Can you live with that?   Permanently?   Do you want your daughter to know that her dad lied about such an important matter for the whole country and world?  

David Rosen, I am wondering if you, too, will have a change of heart and opt out of pursuing the "story of the century," as you once called the Defiance rigging. I sure hope not. You are really under the gun now, and your fear is palpable in ""Boom Goes the Dynamite," aired February 21.   To me it looks as if those who are involved in the rigging are after you - and big time, planting a knife in your hands and a dead body beside you in bed on the episode aired February 14.   Nice Valentine Day present!   Red blood everywhere for the color of the day.  

Of the cabal of five who had the election rigged in Ohio, Verna has been murdered by Fitz.   Do we have four more to be murdered?   Or will they depart by suicide?   Or live and tell the truth? Mellie is cozying up to Fitz. She is knifing Cyrus in the back, and he got a good one into her finally. Olivia stays down, way way down. Wait until she finds out Fitz has had her apartment bugged and so she is under surveillance by at least newcomer Jake (Scott Foley).

David and James - for courage on your journey on behalf of truth and justice, I thought perhaps you would both like to know some real life backstory problems with electronic voting machines over the years and also more about the solution.  

SOME PROBLEMS

Computer scientist Professor Edward W. Felten (Princeton University) reported in 2006 that his research on Diebold AccuVote-TS [touch-screen-] electronic voting machines showed that keys from hotel mini-bars, juke boxes, electronic equipment, an office furniture store key shop and those bought freely on the Internet could open these machines, leaving no trace.

Computer scientist Professor J. Alex Halderman (University of Michigan) and Ariel J. Feldman (Princeton University) reported in 2010 that to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Pac-Man, they "reprogrammed the AVC Edge to run Pac-Man."     The Sequoia AVC Edge is a touch-screen DRE electronic voting machine.   Without breaking any tamper-evident seals, they did this in three afternoons.  

Reporting in USA TODAY in 2011, Gregory Korte wrote that the Election Assistance Commission [an independent agency of the United States government] warned about errors during voting [emphasis mine] with ES&S DS200 IntElect optical scan electronic voting machines.   For example, Korte reports that this optical scan electronic voting machine "can freeze up without warning, fail to log errors and misread ballots." This machine was used in all or parts of Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, New York.

THE SOLUTION

In 2006, I observed in real time the hand-counting of three elections in two New England states.   The one I liked most was the general election on November 7, 2006 in Acton, Maine.   People came in at the end of the day to hand-count. Each team was composed of a Democrat and a Republican; there were six teams.   The teams hand-counted 944 ballots, with seven races and two initiatives, two times in four hours.  

In 2008, I did considerable research in New Hampshire about hand-counted paper ballots. On January 8, I observed in real time, the hand-counting of the US presidential primary election in Walpole, New Hampshire. Eleven teams of two people (a veteran and a new person) did the hand-counting.   There were 1,786 ballots -- Democrats 1,057 and Republicans 729.   The hand-counting was done in a timely manner.

Hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB) elections are the best possible assurance that our votes are counted as cast -   in secure, honest, accurate and transparent elections. Some necessary elements for hand-counted paper ballots elections can be found in Chapter XIV of my book WHILE WE STILL HAVE TIME: The Perils of Electronic Voting Machines and Democracy's Solution: Hand-Counted Paper Ballots (HCPB) Elections.   Here is a sneak peak: The hand-counting is videographed and livestreamed.   It is done twice. The hand-counting is done by all parties on the ballot, with the counters chosen by the parties themselves.   It is done for all races, not only federal.   The entire process can easily be understood by a fifth grade student. The ballot boxes will be clear plastic. There will be a clear chain of custody.   There will be public oversight of the entire process.    Hand-counting is done at the polling place, immediately after the polls close and the results are posted.

See also the book by Nancy Tobi, another pioneer for hand-counted paper ballots.

Hey, such a wonky paper.   Happy reading.

Authors Website: http://www.whilewestillhavetime.org

Authors Bio:

Sheila Parks, Ed.D., is a former college professor. She had a spiritual awakening many years ago and left her career to do peace and justice work full time.

She is the founder of the grassroots group On Behalf of Planet Earth (found on FB). The group vigiled at the Japanese Consulate/Boston in 2014, standing in solidarity with the people of Japan about the tragic and disastrous meltdown of nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, The group now focuses on closing all nuclear power plants now. We are also focusing now on boycotting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The entire country of Japan is radiated and is not a place where we should be sending our young athletes or anyone else.

Nuclear power plants are crimes against humanity, all living creatures, and our beautiful and so troubled planet Earth. They leave radioactive waste that lasts hundreds of thousands and even millions of years. They cause leukemia and other cancers. We stand in solidarity with all our sisters and brothers working to keep all fossil fuels in the ground, stop fracking, close all pipelines, halt the construction of new pipelines - that includes all the corporations that do this work for the oil and gas industries.

She spent many years in the struggle against nuclear weapons with the Catholic Left. Many of those years involved lots of non-violent civil disobedience against nuclear weapons and other evils of the USA society. She spent a year in prison for a Plowshares action against first strike nuclear weapons, Trident II.

Defending the abortion clinics with her body for many years was a part of her feminist activities.

Parks spent 13 years working for voting rights, against all electronic voting machines and for the solution of hand-counted paper ballots. She is the author of a book, published September 6, 2012: "WHILE WE STILL HAVE TIME: The Perils of Electronic Voting Machines and Democracy's Solution: Publicly Observed, Secure Hand-Counted Paper Ballots (HCPB)Elections" and the Founder of the Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots.

She lives in Watertown, MA, and is an ardent socialist feminist, internationalist, investigative journalist and peace & justice activist/organizer.