Ultimately, the longevity and viability of Democracy rests on a single factor, a fair and impartial counting of our election votes. The only real power the people of this country have resides in the power of the vote. With it, we can nominally control politics and politicians, and direct them to work in our best interests.
Without a fair and impartial counting of our votes there is no possibility for a peaceful change of power. Without the vote we have no importance what so ever in the political process and no voice in the direction of our own country. Without the threat of being voted out of office, the politician has nothing to fear from the voter and any obligation to even lend tacit support to their needs is gone.
Think about this. Read the blogsphere. Look at the results of national elections in 2000 and 2004. One was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court after massive voter fraud in Florida, the second was settled with a victory for Bush after massive voter fraud in Ohio and other states. In neither case was an official full investigation allowed. The main stream press ignored all reports of vote fraud and the topic was quickly buried.
Please consider the following facts and links:
- 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
- There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
- The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
- The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886
- Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/ 031004fitrakis.html
- Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php
- Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html
- ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
- Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html
- Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm
- Diebold is based in Ohio.
- Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml
- Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
- Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
- None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html
- California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190
- 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
- All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm
- The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html
- Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/
(Source: Velvet Revolution)
Simply put, these voting irregularities render null and void the process of voting. It isn't who votes and what they vote for that is vital here, it is who counts the votes. It would appear that the Republican Party, namely the Bush Administration control of vote counts will render any legimate democracy as a moot point.
This is not an issue for just Democrates or Independents, this is a fundamental issue that strikes all people in this country. If we cannot depend on the sancitity of our vote, if we cannot depend on our votes being counted correctly, then Democracy is dead.
If we can no longer control our destiny with the vote, and if Democracy no longer exists, what other means do we now have to control our own country?
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