This is a critically important Democratic primary race, with a very savvy, knowledgeable election reformer, DEBRA BOWEN, pitted against a candidate who is clueless on electronic voting (Deborah Ortiz).
Please advise all your lists, and family and friends, to vote for DEBRA BOWEN in the California Democratic Primary today.
And donate to this effort to put Bowen ads on Spanish radio stations:
"Latinos for America has produced (pro-bono) Spanish language radio ads for the Los Angeles market that will run in Spanish talk radio on Monday and Tuesday....Follow the link to 'Valley Grassroots for Democracy'
(TO DONATE--IT'S EASY:)
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/9271 and make a donation ending in $.06 (for example $50.06 or $500.06 -- whatever you want to give). The $.06 will let Valley Grassroots for Democracy know that your contribution is to go to the Bowen ads in Spanish. Discussion at this thread...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2662470----------
Bowen is a strong, strong supporter of open government, is very knowledgeable and savvy about electronic voting, and has been aggressively challenging Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson on his illegal actions on behalf of Diebold (the Bushite election theft corporation). Bowen's opponent Deborah Ortiz doesn't have a clue. She has made frighteningly uninformed statements about it, like "trust, but verify." Trust Diebold? Right.
But Bowen is slightly behind in the pre-election polls with large undecided. What may be happening is that people are simply responding to Ortiz's Hispanic name, in ignorance of the issues in this down-ticket race. That would be tragic! Nothing could be worse for Hispanic voters--and for all of us--than Bowen NOT winning this primary!
Bowen is the one who has been challenging Diebold, from a position of expertise and experience. She is the one we need countering Diebold shill McPherson in the fall! She was endorsed by 80% of the rank and file Democrats at the recent state convention. She is the VERY BEST Secretary of State candidate imaginable.
It's a very close race. Turnout will very likely be light. Every vote counts. Every ad counts. Spread the word!
Also see: www.debrabowen.com
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This may be the most important vote you ever cast. We are dealing with serious corruption in the election theft industry, as a result of a a bill--the so-called "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA)--engineered by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney--which created a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle that would mostly benefit two related corporations--Diebold and ES&S--with very close ties to the Bush junta and far rightwing causes. These, and a third big player--Sequoia (also tied to the Republican Party)--have used Bushite bullying and lavish lobbying to force the states to purchase expensive, unreliable, insecure and extremely hackable electronic voting systems, while insisting on the use of 'TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY vote tabulation programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--with virtually no audit/recount controls. The result is the takeover of our election system by private partisan corporations, accomplished very fast, in the 2002-2004 period.
Diebold's and ES&S's rightwing connections are becoming well known. Sequoia, the least well known of the big players, now employs our former Republican Sec of State, Bill Jones, and his chief aide, Alfie Charles, to peddle their voting machines--an outrageous example of corrupt "revolving door" employment. Jones and Charles first brought this election theft technology to California; now they're gettng paid for selling it.
We need a strong counterforce in California--someone who understands this technology AND the critical importance of a return to TRANSPARENT vote counting. That someone is DEBRA BOWEN--a proven advocate of open government, and an legislative expert on electronic voting, who has held state hearings on the Diebold/McPherson lawlessness. We need to elect this strong public advocate before the Bushite takeover of our election system is complete. The grass roots is fighting back. For instance, a citizen lawsuit recently resulted in 7 counties setting aside Diebold machines and using paper ballots for this primary.
See, California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496Seven of these counties have promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205Having a knowledgeable Secretary of State who is on the side of the public will be a great help to our enormously important struggle to recover our democracy and our country.
Vote for DEBRA BOWEN! Donate to the ads! Spread the word!