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Edited on Mon Aug-09-04 11:06 AM by RedEagle
Start taking this to the local level, to the people in the county that must approve the monies for the voting machines. Let them know their position is on the line if they approve or have approved these machines. Write letters to the editor or guest op-eds to the paper to let people know how foolishly their money has been spent. Make it personal- THEIR money and THEIR vote is being treated in a dangerous manner. Nail down the county officials on the cost of paper vs. the cost of touch screens, maintenance contracts, tech support, software upgrades (certified) and the life span of DRE's. One county I know says they will break even in 15 years but I think the expected life span of the DRE's is only about 5-10 years.
Join voting groups as mentioned in several threads.
If you live in a swing state, pay very, very close attention. If you live in a state that is only marginally not a swing state, pay close attention.
Vote by absentee if at all possible, if you live in an area with Touch Screens. Do check your state's election laws so that you don't inadvertantly violate some rule that could void your vote. Some states allow absentee by request, others will only do so for specific reasons.
If you can't vote absentee and the state says they will provide paper ballots at the polls, make sure those ballots will be counted if you opt to use them. Voters in Maryland were cheated out of their vote because the state told them they could use the ballots but didn't tell them they wouldn't count them.
On that note, flood the local and state election offices with demands for paper ballots as an alternative to voting on DRE's. Write the media with that demand. And I do mean flood- email, snail mail, fax, phone. Get on the demand and don't give up, but keep in mind the preceeding paragraph. Not fair if they give you paper then after it's all over, say they don't have to count it. Get it in writing that your paper ballot will be counted as a regular ballot.
Get up on state election laws. Should be available through every secretary of state web site. Can often be found in libraries. What is in the library may not be up to date but it's a start.
In some states there are offices you can call and request copies of the specific laws for elections.
Getting the paper ballot is only part of insuring a clean election. Those ballots must be audited if there is any question as to the outcome. Too many candidates just give up when they should request a recount.
KNOW YOUR RECOUNT RIGHTS. Be ready to exercise them. There may be various ways to go about it, sometimes a party has a right to a recount, candidates should, and individuals may form a group to ask for a recount. It's not uniform across the states so you have to find out. Caveat- in all probability, other than party and candidate recounts, you're going to have to consider the funds to pay for one. It might be worth getting that backing in line right now. In most states, if the recount/audit changes the election, it shouldn't cost you anything, but check it out.
Be right there to witness everything. Create a group, join a group, and take on all aspects of elections- poll watchers, poll workers, witness to canvassing. You probably can't touch the ballots but you should be able to witness the counting in every state.
Be there, be involved, and be observant. Just a huge turnout of people watching and being involved might be enough to inhibit some shenanigans.
Get in the face of officials, politely of course, and let them know that voting is a citizen participation activity. And the more touch screens, the more they are going to have to deal with citizens until they get rid of them or use voter verified paper ballots with them.
On the national scale, it's time to get Congress to do a full blown investigation of R. Doug Lewis and The Election Center. Lewis is the literal "Election Czar" of America. No one really knows who is is, where he came from, or his connections. Know one knows how the Center got started, who conceived it, who funded it, and who continues to fund it. We got a glimpse recently that the vendors donate to the Center- the Center that runs the certification process for the vendors wares. Congress apparently didn't get the message about the inappropriateness of that.
Congress and the states have been following The Election Center and taking testimony from Lewis for years- yet they don't know who he is and the Center is NOT a federal entity. It's a supposed nonprofit that has come to weild almost complete control over this countries election process. Lewis creates instruction courses for officials down to the county level. And not just for election officials, but he's got that area completely covered. The inane arguments you hear for paperless voting almost all originated at the Center. Election officials live in their own little world and their information input comes from one source- the Center. The Center, I think, has helped create an "us against them" menatality in election officials. The Center has been involved at every level and of course, is there for the vendor sponsored events for secretaries of state and county election officials, including cruises (think Greek islands) and the like.
Congress hasn't a clue who or what R. Doug Lewis and The Election Center are. Why are they accepting ANY input from him and the Center?
All we know about Lewis is from one, brief bio. In it he claims to have worked for John Connally. Connally got involved in some shady dealings later in life. Connally's son happened to be in the Texas Air National Guard, too, and also got to know one James Bath. John Connally was introduced to Bath by his son and got involved in some of the Bath financial dealings. What else, we don't know, but it is interesting that this was probably about the same time as when Bush got to know Bath too. That's all we know about it, that and the Center is headquarted in Texas. Working for Connally, on a campaign or something, is of course, not enough. But is is interesting.
We have a nonfederal entity with almost total control over the voting process in this country. We have a nonfederal entity with no oversight influencing elections. We have a state official, with little to no oversight, the Secretary of State, with too much power to run elections and specifically, to choose the voting equipment used. (Thanks to Dan Spillane for pointing that out)
You have to wonder if the bottleneck at the Secretary of State level is any sort of accident, don't you? There's the achilles heel of the election process, where to influence to get the most for your dollar.
The process of accepting voting systems for state use should reside with the state legislature- not one individual, not one committee (which can be stacked), not the auditors- only by passage of state law accepting any type of voting system. That returns power to the people, via their elected representatives, to mandate how they will vote.
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