Wake up call: Verifiable, transparent voting systems must be the law

Alvin Greene's mysterious candidacy and win in the Democratic primary in South Carolina, and his apparent mental problems are becoming the main story, when in fact, the real story here is the obvious vote tampering.

The fact DeMint would slaughter the Democratic nominee no matter who it was, seems to be obscuring the irregularities in the Premier Election Solutions electronic voting system (a Diebold-owned company, which in turn is owned by avowed Republicans) -- people seem to be thinking it just doesn't matter. But the loser, Vic Rawl, who has challenged the results, is correct in stating this is about the system.

We're lucky, in a way, that the tampering is so obvious. It should be a huge red flag. There is plenty of evidence to warrant a thorough investigation. And that investigation should result in a conviction of officials at Diebold, and the barring of the company from any further participation in vote-counting.

Further, the fallout from this scandal needs to spark changes in the law. Citizens must demand an open, fully transparent system, with a verifiable paper trail and regular, random audits.

Diebold and other companies have a sordid history when it comes to counting votes. There have been other equally suspicious results in the past. So far, we as a society have let them slide. We do so at the peril of our own democracy.

Call for a Constitutional Convention

Let's face it, our democracy is in a shambles. With corporations buying our elected representatives' votes on every important issue, and with our Supreme Court enabling their corrupting influence at every turn, we, the people, need to do something. Congress is unable and unwilling to reform itself.

Little Rhode Island, our smallest state, is working to get the ball rolling:

Rhode Island's David Segal's Call for a Constitutional Convention

From the article:

The push for a [Constitutional] convention is not a step lightly taken. Ours is the world's oldest continuous (written) constitutional government. There is plainly something our framers got right.

Yet it is impossible for any fair minded soul, whether Democratic or Republican, to look at the current state of the American democracy and not believe that something has gone profoundly wrong. Our framers intended a Congress "dependent upon the people alone." We have evolved a Congress dependent upon campaign funders. That competing, and indeed corrupting, dependency has destroyed Congress's ability to answer its first obligation fairly. It has distracted Congress from the demands that this democracy makes upon it, and fundamentally weakened America's trust in this the most important branch of the Framers' design...

Is a body so deeply addicted to the current system capable of changing that system? Can we trust the victim of a dependency to free itself from that dependency?

More and more are coming to believe that the answer is no. That this system has so entrenched an economy of corruption -- not the corruption of bribes, but a corruption of the sole dependency our framers envisioned, upon the People -- that only outsiders can now change it. And our framers gave one kind of outsider -- state legislatures -- that power.

-- Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, on HuffingtonPost.com, June 14, 2010 10:22 AM

Vote! Or forfeit any right to complain!

Sure, you're tired of hearing it, but until we get up near the percentile of eligible people voting that other democracies have, we need to keep prodding each other. Please vote, no matter how much you think it won't matter. Because it does matter.

And after election day, let's put the pressure on our government to finally do all the things it's been neglecting: health care for all, rebuilding our infrastructure, alternative energy, etc., and last but NOT least: REFORMING THE ELECTION SYSTEM ITSELF!

It's incredibly embarrassing to hear from people in other countries who can't believe what a mess our election system is! We need a uniform system, completely transparent and verifiable. Fire the incompetent/dishonest electronic election machine companies, put their CEOs in jail where they belong for election tampering, and legislate proper election procedure - right away! Let's not wait until the next election!

Here's hoping that 'change we need' is more than just a slogan...

Mainstream media and politics - more of the same ol', same ol'

Most of the mainstream media seem to me to be pawns of the corporate behemoths, which own those same media sources, by the way. Corporate greed and control of our political process has driven our country into the deep hole it's in, both financially and morally. Greed rules. Look at NAFTA, corporate-controlled health 'care', war for private profit, and the neglect of our infrastructure and a real energy policy -- to mention the dismal state of just a few facets of our present national predicament. After eight years of sinking into the largest deficit and national debt in history, record foreclosures and unemployment, I think it's time for some big changes. The mainstream media, meanwhile, continues to whistle a mostly happy tune, everything's ok, we just need to drill off the coasts. Rising sea levels, melting polar caps and extreme weather, droughts and hurricanes be damned.

Sorry, but I can't buy into the same ol' same ol' -- it's just lemmings marching off a cliff. We need big, systemic changes here and around the world. Personally, I don't think the Dems have it in them to do what really needs to be done either, they also are too dependent on the big money that has been corrupting our government. But at least they're a step in the right direction, with regards to energy and perhaps health care, investment in infrastructure, and of course, ending the fiasco in the middle east that has killed, maimed and tortured so many, while only inspiring a new generation of terrorists who hate us.

If we're truly to change things deeply enough and quickly enough, we need to somehow divorce the electoral process from its addiction to big money. Until then, politicians will continue to serve their real constituency, the ones that get them elected, the deep pocketed corporations that not only fund the campaigns, but lavish hundreds of millions on the big parties that pass these days for political "conventions."

No matter who wins in November, the people need to demand real election reform.

Finally, an honest Republican computer expert agrees, the technology cannot be trusted

Here is a very interesting video interview with a man named Stephen Spoonamore, one of the world's leading experts in cyber crime and a self-described "life-long Republican."

Although this interview is from October, 2006, it has only recently seen the light of day. It is just one more bit of testimony from yet another computer security expert, warning us that these machines are incredibly insecure.

Mr. Spoonamore is an extremely experienced computer security expert. As he says, we need to have paper ballots, marked by the voter. They can then be scanned and tabulated by computers, but the initial record of the vote must be made on paper by the voter, so that recounts can be trusted. Also, random audits must be a regular part of the process.

Please forward this interview link far and wide, and demand the following from your secretary of state, House representative, and Senators:

Ban the use of electronic voting machines!
Furthermore, demand that all elections in the United States be conducted:
1) with a hand-marked paper ballot for every vote;
2) the ballots counted publicly and transparently at each precinct;
3) citizens allowed by law to observe the ballots being counted;
4) precinct results posted publicly before being sent to the central tabulator.

Fresh evidence Diebold is tampering with our elections

Why we need open-source software, paper trails and automatic audits on electronic voting machines, if we must use them at all:

In the 2002 Georgia race, incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who was five percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss in polls taken a week before the vote, lost 53% to 46%. Incumbent Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who led challenger Sonny Perdue in the polls by eleven points, lost 51% to 46%.

Here's why: The election was stolen by good ol' Diebold.

Check it out: http://rawstory.com//news/2008/Cybersecurity_expert_raises_allegations_of_2004_0717.html

Radical changes needed

The state of this country and the world at large is such that tinkering around the edges will no longer suffice – not that it ever really did. (In fact, that's what got us into this mess in the first place!)

The current crop of neocons that has stolen the White House and terrorized our democracy should be tried and locked up forever – as karma would dictate, seeing as how they think they can lock people up and throw away the key. (Only difference: they can be locked up legally, for high crimes and misdemeanors.)

As Truthout.org's Marc Ash put it: "For those who thought Tom Delay's departure would really change anything in Congress, this past week was a strong cup of coffee. On Capitol Hill, politics and greed still trump the good of the nation, still trump the Constitution, still trump all. While nothing that happened in Washington this past week was new or should have surprised anyone, we were nonetheless served clear notice, anew, that this is a democracy under siege."

So, we need to do some serious reconstruction of our democracy, by, in my view:

1. Outlawing big money from the electoral process at all levels, giving qualified candidates equal time and space in the media, and nationalizing the energy corporations and health care.

2. Implementing a 'new deal' style alternative energy program, training and employing people to build a new infrastructure for carbon-free energy delivery.

These things will allow us to gain a new footing, and begin to change everything else that needs fixing. Neither the Dems nor the Repubs will do this on their own, we need to pressure them like they've never been pressured before.

Sorry excuse for an election system

I was sorry to see Edwards bow out of the race, but sorrier still to see once again how our lousy election system plays out. Nine months before the election, and we're already down to basically three candidates -- two on the Democratic side, one on the Republican. And of course, no independents. And it's all because of the corrosive effects of big money.

Make no mistake, it is because of the huge piles of cash involved that states try so hard to jostle near the front of the line with their primary dates. Everyone knows the biggest pile of money gets thrown at the early states, for the reason we're seeing play out now -- candidates (and their backers) feel they cannot compete if they don't get some early victories.

For one thing, it shouldn't be a winner-takes-all approach for the delegates -- just like it shouldn't be for the electoral college in the general election. For another, and I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but we have GOT to get the big money out of our election system altogether. What we end up with every single time is candidates who serve their constituency alright, and very faithfully. Unfortunately, that constituency is not the voters, but the ones who helped them buy those votes with big ad campaigns -- their big money donors.

This is the underlying cause of ALL our problems, I feel. We cannot begin to address the real, underlying solutions to our myriad crises in this country without first addressing this one. Only when candidates feel a real need to do what the public wants will they begin to solve our problems. Health care, environment, military, corporate greed, the economy -- the reason these are SO screwed up is that our so-called 'leaders' have been led by the nose themselves, right to the feeding troughs of the very rich.