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And that IS the problem with electing true, unfettered representatives of "the People." The counting of our votes has been PRIVATIZED. It is conducted throughout the country, now, on voting machines and central tabulators run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled largely (80%) by one, private, far rightwing connected corporation--ES&S, which just bought out Diebold (aka Premier)--with virtually no audit/recount controls.
We have LOST CONTROL of our voting system. We no longer have the most basic condition of democracy--TRANSPARENT vote counting. This is not the only thing wrong with our democracy but it is the final nail--the coup d'grace--that makes serious reform IMPOSSIBLE.
Latin American countries also have very bad corporate press--in some cases, far worse than our own-- but they have been able to repeatedly elect true representatives of "the People"--in Brazil, in Venezuela, in Argentina, in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Uruguay, in Paraguay, in Nicaragua, in El Salvador, in Guatemala and, until the U.S.-supported rightwing coup d'etat, in Honduras. The difference is TRANSPARENT vote counting. With transparent vote counting, you can overcome almost any obstacle that rightwing/corporate/war profiteer forces place in the path of electing good leaders, including horrendous corporate press and U.S./corporate financial support for fascist candidates. Latin Americans have proven that it CAN be done. But with ES&S/Diebold 'counting' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code, it, literally, cannot be done. We CANNOT elect unfettered leaders. We could NOT elect a Franklin Delano Roosevelt today. It would NOT BE PERMITTED. The bad guys have the capability--the EASY capability--to prevent it.
We have first to do that basic groundwork that Latin Americans have done, on getting all the votes counted, which MUST be done in PUBLIC VIEW, and should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER be done by a far rightwing corporation using 'TRADE SECRET' code!**
This is furthermore something that can still be fixed--with a widespread citizen movement, a real 'Boston Tea Party' (not this fake 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party')--at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some potential influence. There is NO federal law mandating privately-controlled electronic voting. It was all done with corruption and lobbying (including the $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress). And it can be UNDONE without an act of Congress.
Political campaigns in the U.S. are extremely difficult for those who are not "made men" or "made women" (pre-selected). You have to have a million dollars in hand, these days, to even think of running for Congress. As for presidential campaigns, well, you know what the scene is there. But grass roots groups CAN and HAVE matched Bush-Cheney money, dollar for dollar. That happened in 2004. Grass roots groups can also mobilize and get out the vote. We've done so time and again. We can overcome every obstacle except this: ES&S/Diebold 'counting' all the votes with 'TRADE SECRET' code. So THAT is the thing that we MUST change, if 'We the People" are to have any chance at all to elect leaders who truly represent us, and to get serious reform under way.
Do you know that neither you nor me nor any American, nor our state election officials, have the right to review this 'TRADE SECRET' code by which our votes are tabulated? That's where corporations now stand, directly between us and the transparent counting of our votes. They have no right to be there. We MUST evict them from that position or our democracy is OVER.
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**(The basic choices are old-fashioned hand-counted paper ballots, counted in PUBLIC VIEW. Yes, this can be fiddled. No, it can't be fiddled invisibly at lightening speed, across whole counties, states and the nation. Or OPEN SOURCE code electronics, with the code owned and controlled BY THE PUBLIC, with a paper ballot backup and with a substantial audit (hand-count of the votes against the machine totals,). 'TRADE SECRET' controlled optiscans (including scanning of mail-in ballots) are NOT a transparent option. We have these in about 50% of the states, with a completely inadequate 1% audit. The other 50% of the states DO NO AUDIT AT ALL! Note: Venezuela uses OPEN SOURCE code--code that anyone may review--with a whopping 55% audit--more than five times the minimum needed to detect fraud in an electronic system. We do 0% to 1%, in a 'TRADE SECRET' system. They do 55%, in an OPEN SOURCE system. That's why they have universal health care and free educations through college, and we don't. That's why they have a president who is independent of our multinational corporate/war profiteer rulers, and we don't. They have the worse corporate press on earth, and multimillions of USAID and other U.S. taxpayer dollars pouring into rightwing groups and causes, but they have TRANSPARENT vote counting, and that IS the difference. It is pretty much that simple. )
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