I got to ask Bonifaz about whether he would commit to 100% hand-counted paper ballots. He said that he is "getting close, but not all the way there yet". He said that we first need to educate the people and the local officials that currently have and are committed to optical scan machines, and that he would be willing to go to 100% hand-counted paper ballots eventually.

::::::::

June 17

I went to the house party today for John Bonifaz for Secretary of State, and
I got to ask him about whether he would commit to 100% hand-counted paper
ballots. He said that he is "getting close, but not all the way there yet",
so I asked him what it would take to get him to go the rest of the way. He
said that we first need to educate the people and the local officials that
currently have and are committed to optical scan machines, and that he would
be willing to go to 100% hand-counted paper ballots eventually. I disagree
with him with respect to this willingness to delay taking the strong stand
for political expediency, but at least he is heading in the right direction.
His stand is better than that of William Galvin, who as far as I can see is
just hiding in the shadows and biding his time for re-election without
actually doing much for us. Given that he has done real work for clean
elections (both with respect to the counting process and the financing) and
against Bush in other respects on more than one occasion, John Bonifaz is a
candidate that I can actually support despite his being a Democrat. (This
is only a specific exemption -- in general, I am still boycotting the
Democrats.)

If Galvin is re-elected yet again, as the odds favor, not much will come
from the Secretary of State, as we have been experiencing, and eventually
(when they get around to it, probably in 10 to 20 years), the Republicans
will put Massachusetts under the direct control of their fraud machine
without much of a fight. If John Bonifaz is elected, at least we will have
a Secretary of State who is pressing in the right general direction, even if
not as unswervingly as I would like, and Massachusetts might put up a real
fight against the Republicans, even if it is ultimately doomed.

Therefore, I put my $50 (the maximum amount allowed without writing a check)
in the envelope at the end of the house party.

Submitter: Joan Brunwasser

Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Submitters Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.