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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 DEMOCRACY. In the past, I co-founded but am no longer an active participant in the San-Diego focused election rights organization Psephos, but I nonetheless recommend their work and reference their site here.
(15 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 16, 2008 If you like sending cash through the mail, you'll LOVE vote by mail!
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.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 30, 2008 Anatomy of the Murder of Democracy
By killing off transparency and openness in favor of corporate private intellectual property interests called "trade secrets" our government,of both political parties, has murdered the heart of democracy behind closed doors of secrecy.You can never really and truly kill off democracy;at best they can only hide it,because democracy is just too popular to ever be killed openly.Thus,simply applying reason to the prevarications
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, October 17, 2008 US Sup. Ct. Rules on Ohio 2008: Wants to See Vote Counts before Final Ruling
Today's stay merely means that the law and facts are not sufficiently clear that a court would be justified in issuing injunctive relief like a TRO at this juncture, just prior to the election. It preserves the status quo, but the Republicans are poised to challenge the Ohio election and have votes thrown out as illegal votes wherever possible. Will we see Ohio's votes thrown out, as happened to Florida in 2000?
(12 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 28, 2008 "Insulating Main Street from Wall Street" Means America's Keys in Wall Street's Pocket
The modified bailout plan, purporting to "insulate" America from Wall Street's crisis, actually puts Wall Street in control of its own reform and bailout, and removes any chance of taxpayer accountability while claiming to create an "Oversight" Board, in a way much worse than the original proposal, all sold to the American people as a protection of their interests. A permanent chill for American democracy.
SHARE Monday, October 1, 2007 Election machines are no friend of democracy
The only party without conflicts of interest is the public,but the public needs transparency to provide checks and balances.Secrecy invites corruption.Secret vote counts by insiders represent a form of unaccountable,absolute power where the public can't remove politicians from office if an insider is willing to cheat.Secrecy insures we'll never know cheating occurs.Whatever happens openly,what happens under secrecy is worse.
SHARE Wednesday, August 1, 2007 Why all California's electronic voting systems should be decertified
Please decertify the non-transparent, secret vote counting software from all vendors as it completely prevents and defeats the required democratic accountability of elections.Whenever the private power exceeds the government power,as FDR specifically noted,we have met the definition of fascism.To approve any of these systems is to accept that private power of corporations is greater than the public interest in transparency...
(13 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 4, 2007 Defending the Freedoms of July 4, 1776: America's Hope for the World
Restating the history and importance of the American Revolution and applying it to the situation today, all Americans are presented with an incredible opportunity to come to the aid of their country that we can all feel good about. Let's give America a birthday present this July 4, 2007 and every day thereafter.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, May 25, 2007 Are Hand Counted Paper Ballots a Realistic Solution for 2008? Doesn't Democracy Deserve a Debate?
Given one of the most important bills in the history of democracy,it is odd to me that not only is there not a "Democracy Impact Statement",not only are there no "white papers" in the impacts of each statutory change,not only is there a refusal of Congress to discuss the more observable and transparent voting systems in favor of voting itself secret vote counts in their very own elections ...
SHARE Tuesday, May 22, 2007 FOX tv Expose of E-Voting Official Corruption!!
We Present to you this 10 minute feature expose' on FOX TV in San Diego,to honor your corruption of the recounts in the 2004 presidential election,to give tribute to your secret vote counting software,to indict the entire electoral process in Ohio,to indict the entire electoral process in San Diego,to remember that thousands did not receive their ballots in Ohio,to condemn the loss of voter registrations,and to mamn sure...
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, May 21, 2007 Ultimate Nightmare for Democracy: High Confidence Yet Total Fraud
Paper ballot/trails create the gold standard for voter-verified FRAUD AND MAKE IT ALL SEEM LIKE IT'S A LEGITIMATE ELECTION . The riggers are then laughing their butts off with delight at this state of affairs, knowing that while perhaps at most 10% of errors get caught, 90% are voter approved and therefore legitimated.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 17, 2007 You Have 2 Weeks to Restore Your Right to Kick the Bums Out of Office
If you feel as I feel,if you wish as I wish,that America will never become a banana republic with an out of control government,then talk to your fellow rulers,your fellow citizens,spread the word far and wide, and make the House,the Senate,and your state legislatures hear Freedom's bell,so they know what it sounds like.We are not the Slaves,we are in charge.We are watching.We demand control of our elections, will never give up
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 30, 2007 ELECTIONS HACK TEST: Counter-Challenging Elections Officials on the Truth
Responding to a "hack challenge" by Riverside Supervisor Jeff Stone that mimicked "voter fraud" conditions, a counter-challenge is issued that is more realistic: INSIDER election fraud. The real conditions to mimic the power and access of elections officials are identified, the counter-challenge is issued.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 21, 2007 The "All or Nothing Approach:" Should It Apply To Democracy?
this article applies to vote counting and voting systems the legal and political perspective of democratic rights. It shows that almost all of your meaningful rights in the area of voting and vote counting have been taken away, and Congress instead of correcting that is about to institutionalize it.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, March 16, 2007 New York City Change To Optical Scan Elections: Not the answer, but getting closer
New York City's decision to dispense with DREs and go with optical scan systems "with paper ballots" is a marginal contingent improvement, but is being celebrated as a Hallelujah moment by some. False confidence, though, is the very best place to grow a fraud.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 3, 2007 Idealism: The Soul of America
the mere mention of "realism" often causes people to sell out their ideals, usually for absolutely nothing. In such a case, "realism" is in fact a fraud and a rip-off in which one hands over one's most precious ideals, whatever those may be, and exchanges them for precisely nothing. In some cases, these ideals come straight out of the Constitution or Declaration of Independence...
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 28, 2006 Facing Activist Burnout Head-On
How should we react when an experienced activist appears to burn out? It
can be disconcerting to see respected activists step back and take a
breather or even drop out at least for a time, but this shouldn't lead to
too much alarm. In fact, it's a great learning experience, if approached
correctly.
SHARE Sunday, December 3, 2006 E-Voting Gives Election Cheaters and Conspiracies a Free Hand
If you are contemplating committing an act of election fraud, I'd advise
you that it would be illegal. It's not really my job as an attorney, but
it seems to me you'd be very unlikely to get caught, since even conspiracies pretty much have a free hand to run amok in our elections, so long as they have any kind of insider connections.
SHARE Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Idealism: The Soul of America
This magic is on behalf of all humanity, and it's for all time. It's
power for human rights, which are then maximized to create Freedom, which in
turn spawns Possibilities, leading to more Faith in the Future, breeding new
Optimism, fueling the processes of Change, pushing toward historic Progress,and knowing no bounds, continually expanding the sphere of human rights...
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 11, 2006 Exit polls showing Dems did better than election results show
Anybody that thinks the elections were "just fine" because Dems won fairly big isn't recognizing how big they really should have won, and is also a likely target for you to open up a money-changing business because every time they are entitled to a dollar, they will gladly accept 95 cents in change, because hey, they don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth or be "negative" or "conspiratorial."
SHARE Tuesday, November 7, 2006 Democratic Ballots/Paper Ballots Being Subjected to Discriminatory "Separate but Equal" Treatment
This brief concerns an emergency appeal filed in the CACourt of Appeals, seeking to ensure that all votes are counted equally under the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. The Registrar of Voters in San Diego County, while making emergency paper ballots available as required by the CA SOS in addition to Diebold touchscreens,has announced an intention to not even start to count said ballots until at least Thursday.
SHARE Tuesday, November 7, 2006 Who is Winning; Is there Hacking or Rigging?
Remember the casino metaphor: it's not that the gamblers never win at a casino rigged game, if that occurred the game would die out and little money would be made by the house.
A rigged game is instead a systematically underperforming game that features both outright losses as well as muted gains. Thus 4 senate seats can be bigtime fraud in a 5 or 6 seat margin.
Don't jump to concede.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 18, 2006 America is No Longer Free
On October 17, 2006 freedom died in the United States of America. We now live in a dictatorship. We live in a dictatorship even if you think George W. Bush will be a wise and beneficient king or dictator. It is defined as the possession of absolute power as opposed to checks and balances.
SHARE Sunday, October 15, 2006 Reflections on Dorothy Fadiman's "Stealing America, Vote By Vote"
We can't "throw the bums out" if the bums control the machinery of voting. If we can't throw the bums out,and they have absolute power so immense that they claim devilish powers of torture and claim that they may ignore even the most just cause pleaded in our nation's courts for habeas corpus, then what we will have created is a system of absolute power commonly known as military dictatorship...
SHARE Tuesday, October 3, 2006 Update from Paul Lehto at the WeCount2006 Conference
Cong. Kucinich wows Cleveland We Count conference with fantastic speech, introduces bill for Hand counted paper ballots with precinct posted results in presidential race, H.R. 6200.
SHARE Monday, August 28, 2006 More on International Election Nullification by DC Politicians
This blows away the San Diego Registrars defense against a recount in the pending law suit. The Registrar says there is NO need to recount because the federal government assumed authority and jurisdiction when it swore Bilbray in.
BUT NOW WE KNOW THAT THEY RELIED ON STATE AUTHORITY TO DO SO AND THEY ADMIT IT. It's in the record. Amazing!
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, August 25, 2006 ELECTION NULLIFICATION in California Congressional Election
Breaking news Friday August 25 on the nullification of the Congressional election process in San Diego's 50th Congressional District by the premature swearing in of Brian Bilbray only 7 days after the June 6, 2006 election. Election Nullification has occurred, with even the certification of the election rendered void, according to the arguments filed by the defendants and the necessary conclusions therefrom.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Zogby poll: strong 92% support public access % info re: vote counting
This result flies in the face of electronic elections where vote counting is commonly considered a trade secret of the vendors of electronic voting machines.
Paul Lehto, who commissioned the poll, said: "It's one of the highest political values ever measured."