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An Emergency worldwide Citizen call: A Five-Step Battle Plan for YOUR Future: This is a call to you -- as an American, a custodian of your nation's future, and as a world citizen, to stop the anti-democratic government of the Bush Administration and their Humanitarian and Enviromental violations worldwide. Please act as if your life depends on it -- it well might. We have been led down a dark, perilous road. The journey has touched us all, from mothers and fathers burying children in a war over nonexistent WMD, to firefighters and policemen promised vital funds only to be cheated and asked to work for free. Millions of Americans have been cut loose as corporations exploit foreign workers on the cheap and CEOs gorge themselves on riches unprecedented in history. While Americans take second and even third jobs just feed their families, the Bush Administration has poured America's wealth into the greedy hands of defense contractors and tax-dodging megacorporations, notorious companies like (#1 Bush donator Kenneth Lay's) Enron or Cheney's wartime ripoff-artists at Halliburton. Our environment, safety, economy, national security, labor protection and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights have all been gutted and left to die in a worker-hostile economy.
Here's what we're facing from the "Hawks" and extreme right-wing Republicans: This November, the Bush election machine has more than three times the spending power of its opponenets(1). And they are fighting dirty, just as they did in 2000, when they purged Florida voter rolls(2), rioted to stop recounts(3), barred citizens from voting (ibid) and even threatened the Vice President and his family on their front lawn (4). This year, through gerrymandering, data theft from Congressional computers, impeachments and recess judicial appointments, they are trying to consolidate their unprecedented power. And they have a special election-season surprise in store for us as well -- as the AFL-CIO argued before the Supreme Court last December(5), the Bushites have MADE IT A CRIME FOR THIRD PARTIES TO CRITICIZE THE PRESIDENT OR SAY THINGS TO INFLUENCE THE ELECTION during the election's most critical phase:
They are ruthless, and will not concede victory without a vicious fight. Expect the outlawing of gay marriage to "divide and conquer", marginalize opponents and consolidate support from the religious right, a base estimated to be 30 million strong (7). Expect the Supreme Court to halt recounts again. Expect a "surprise" discovery of WMD even after Blix, David Kay and Iraq's scientists saying they were all destroyed. (8) Expect the "suprise" capture or "destruction" of Bin Laden conveniently close to the election (9). Expect lots of scary terrorism warnings and perhaps even an attack.(10) General Tommy Franks has even suggested a second 9-11-scale attack will lead to martial law in America (11). None of this should deter you; remember it was the same group (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Baker, Bush Sr., Perle, etc.) that armed and funded Hussein and Bin Laden in the first place. The blood of our dead is therefore on their hands. We must not underestimate the ruthlessness of those willing to start an international war based on known and transparent lies -- virtually against the will of the entire planet. Make no mistake; they are willing to throw away American lives in their quest for global dominion. And if you rise up and oppose them, you may be bullied, harassed and threatened, perhaps even by the FBI.(12) YOU MUST NOT LET THIS DETER YOU. WE MUST NOT BE BULLIED INTO LETTING THEM SEIZE POWER AGAIN! And here we come to the deep, dark heart of the matter - Republicans may try to fix Elections: This year 28% of the vote (and counting) will be tallied on electronic voting machines or scanners, which have been repeatedly hacked and can be used to fix an election -- all without a trace. Below you'll find a link to the diagrammed, step-by-step report of how e-vote activist Bev Harris hacked one(13). If you think this is exaggeration, please follow the links listed below, where everything has been well-documented and by the NY Times, the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, the BBC, etc. (14) Once paperless, effortlessly hackable (10) voting machines have been installed, the situation will be PERMANENT -- we will never know or be able to prove if an election has been stolen. And if it HAS -- those who have stolen it CAN NEVER BE VOTED OUT. And without the fear of voter reprisal, whoever takes advantage of such a situation could do literally anything they wanted and NEVER LOSE POWER. It will mean the end of Democracy. And if you work for an activist group, it will certainly mean the end of your organization.
An amazing article that discribes the amazing flaws of the USA election system, which can easily be hacked in a unverifiable voting system to manipulate election results: Hack
the Vote Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell — who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States. For example, Georgia — where Republicans scored spectacular upset victories in the 2002 midterm elections — relies exclusively on Diebold machines. To be clear, though there were many anomalies in that 2002 vote, there is no evidence that the machines miscounted. But there is also no evidence that the machines counted correctly. You see, Diebold machines leave no paper trail. Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, who has introduced a bill requiring that digital voting machines leave a paper trail and that their software be available for public inspection, is occasionally told that systems lacking these safeguards haven't caused problems. "How do you know?" he asks. What we do know about Diebold does not inspire confidence. The details are technical, but they add up to a picture of a company that was, at the very least, extremely sloppy about security, and may have been trying to cover up product defects. Early this year Bev Harris, who is writing a book on voting machines, found Diebold software — which the company refuses to make available for public inspection, on the grounds that it's proprietary — on an unprotected server, where anyone could download it. (The software was in a folder titled "rob-Georgia.zip.") The server was used by employees of Diebold Election Systems to update software on its machines. This in itself was an incredible breach of security, offering someone who wanted to hack into the machines both the information and the opportunity to do so. An analysis of Diebold software by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities found it both unreliable and subject to abuse. A later report commissioned by the state of Maryland apparently reached similar conclusions. (It's hard to be sure because the state released only a heavily redacted version.) Meanwhile, leaked internal Diebold e-mail suggests that corporate officials knew their system was flawed, and circumvented tests that would have revealed these problems. The company hasn't contested the authenticity of these documents; instead, it has engaged in legal actions to prevent their dissemination. Why isn't this front-page news? In October, a British newspaper, The Independent, ran a hair-raising investigative report on U.S. touch-screen voting. But while the mainstream press has reported the basics, the Diebold affair has been treated as a technology or business story — not as a potential political scandal. This diffidence recalls the treatment of other voting issues, like the Florida "felon purge" that inappropriately prevented many citizens from voting in the 2000 presidential election. The attitude seems to be that questions about the integrity of vote counts are divisive at best, paranoid at worst. Even reform advocates like Mr. Holt make a point of dissociating themselves from "conspiracy theories." Instead, they focus on legislation to prevent future abuses. But there's nothing paranoid about suggesting that political operatives, given the opportunity, might engage in dirty tricks. Indeed, given the intensity of partisanship these days, one suspects that small dirty tricks are common. For example, Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently announced that one of his aides had improperly accessed sensitive Democratic computer files that were leaked to the press. This admission — contradicting an earlier declaration by Senator Hatch that his staff had been cleared of culpability — came on the same day that the Senate police announced that they were hiring a counterespionage expert to investigate the theft. Republican members of the committee have demanded that the expert investigate only how those specific documents were leaked, not whether any other breaches took place. I wonder why. The point is that you don't have to believe in a central conspiracy to worry that partisans will take advantage of an insecure, unverifiable voting system to manipulate election results. Why expose them to temptation? I'll discuss what to do in a future column. But let's be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake. CREDICTS/SOURCES: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120303A.shtml
I. LOBBYING (20 minutes approximately) Tell your representatives to support Bills H.R.2239, 1986, and ESPECIALLY 2045 (14) Online
e-petitions: Congress State
elections boards State
Attorneys General State
Election Officials Members,
Natl. Assoc. of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks Penelope
Bonsall, national director of the Office of Election Administration
II. MEDIA BLITZ (one to three hours approximately) Write a letter and email or fax it to Radio & tv stations, newspapers & magazines in your area: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/News/ National
Media Contacts: CBS
Evening News NBC
Nightly News Peter
Jennings : ABC World News Tonight Washington
Post: New
York Times: CNN
HeadLine News executives: USA
Today: Los
Angeles Times: REUTERS: Associated
Press: USA
Today: editor@usatoday.com,
Ask your elections board (about any e-voting purchase evaluations meetings to be held in your district. As a member of the voting public, it is your legal right to attend as a witness, although, out of convenience, they may try to avoid giving you the information. Insist on your rights. If you do attend as a witness, you may well be a victim of intimidation tactics. Insist on voter-verified paper ballots. Bev Harris has written comprehensive answers to arguments you will hear. DO NOT BACK DOWN OR BE INTIMIDATED BY CIVIL SERVANTS -- they are your EMPLOYEES, paid by YOUR TAXES: From Bev Harris, http://www.BlackBoxVoting.Org
Alternatives to the Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S machines (operated by heavily partisan CEOs, designed to operate WITHOUT a paper trail, and whose code and components are not allowed to be examined) exist. Avante Systems has a machine that shows a printout through a glass screen. After the voter confirms it is correct, the paper ballot is droped into a storage box so it can be checked against the machine totals and the AccuPoll system has a scanner that can pass over the printed ballot to verify votes. Alternative,
secure e-voting machines you can suggest to your elections officials:
IV. VOLUNTEER ELECTIONS MONITORING (three days approximately, including preliminary training) Vootewatch is organizing election monitor volunteers here: http://www.votewatch.us/forum/register.php? Bev Harris has outlined a point-by-point strategy on specifically what to look for when monitoring electronic voting machines. It is also recommended that you either download her free e-book "Black Box Voting", or better yet, purchase it here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org From Bev Harris, http://www.BlackBoxVoting.Org CITIZEN WATCHDOGS: What to look for and report -- Let's get good at this before November! Optical-scan systems and absentee ballots: We have information that all systems recognize carbon-containing marks (soft lead pencil). Some DO NOT recognize all inks. You may want to bring a soft lead pencil to the polling place with you to mark your optical-scan ballots. All Diebold counties (AccuVote and AccuTouch are Diebold brands) -- Ask that the poll workers print a report and post a copy at the polling place at the end of the day, whether they are required to or not. All Diebold machines, both touch-screen and optical-scan, contain internal printers and have the ability to print a polling place results report. This takes 60 seconds and costs nothing, and is an important check and balance to compare with the county results from the GEMS system, which we believe to contain security flaws. Votes should not change from the polling place to the county. Report any instance of mismatched polling place/county tabulations here. Do NOT accept the excuse that they won't match because early votes, absentee, provisional, or challenge votes were added into the polling place totals. That is called "co-mingling" the data and is not an acceptable record-keeping practice. Additional categories of votes must be accounted for as separate line items. Sequoia touch-screens do not have an internal printer. A printer can easily be hooked up with a serial port. If you see printers, demand a polling place report. Watch for any "wandering vote tallies" on election night, especially if any votes go DOWN. (Yes, this has been known to happen). Late poll openings: Report these immediately and we'll try to get cameras there. This is a form of vote suppression, often occurring in minority areas. Late vote results: Report late incoming tallies. These can be indicative of the county trying to resolve voting machine anomalies before filing reports. Observe how many cords come in and out of the voting machines. Report any evidence of networking the machines together. Report any time you see more than a simple power cord plugged in while the election is in progress. Wardrive election sites. See if you can pick up wireless signals either during or after the election. Wireless communication is not permitted. Also, report any use of cell phones for vote transfers, which is also not permitted. Election workers: Report the procedures used for training if they seem insecure. For example, we have already had reports that in Georgia, some poll workers were told to take voting machines home after training; Georgia flag artwork was uploaded right before the election; and other unwise and insecure procedures were followed. Go visit the polling place at the end of the day and see how secure it is. We had reports recently of machines left in the polling place unattended. Felony watch: In some states, IT IS A FELONY for technicians who are not sworn elections officials to touch the vote database in any way, shape or form after votes have been cast. In fact, if you look at Chapter 13 of Black Box Voting, the San Luis Obispo incident was probably illegal (Diebold tech Sophia Lee was tied to a live vote database that appeared on the Internet five hours before the polls closed). Watch for statistical anomalies. Look at everything. Time is of the essence, as these analyses take some time and there are only a few days before the election is certified.
V. LEGAL CHALLENGES (indeterminate) Author Lynn Landes has questioned the constitutionality of voting machines: http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachinesUnconstitutional.htm If your organization has the wherewithal to raise a legal challenge on these (or other grounds) here are some resources below: Election
campaign and civil rights lawyers listed for every city: Institute
for Justice: Center
for Indiviual Rights: Class
actions: Southeastern
Legal Foundation: Other
challenges: Pax
Christi is also organizing an international group of elections monitors.
More information here: Electronic
Frontier Foundation attorneys:
1
(GOP:$115,667,827 ; Dems:$44,175,502). 2.
Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine "The Great Florida Ex-Con Game"
3
a."Unprecedented" -- internet preview of the film 3
b. Lynn Landes: "Mission Impossible - Federal Observers & Voting
Machines" 4.
Barabara Walters interview"The Note": 5.McConnell
vs the Federal Election Commission 6. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0404/hentoff.php 7.
"Bush Assures Evangelicals of Commitment to Marriage Amendment" 8a.
Online Journal: "Wag the Osama" 8b.NewsNet5:
"Ridge Sidesteps Question On Bin Laden's Capture" 9.
U.S. Unloading WMD in Iraq 10.
Aljazeera.net: "Purported Al Qaida Statement" 11.
NewsMax: "Tommy Franks: 'Martial Law Will Replace Constitution After
Next Terror Attack'" 12.
The New McCarthyism, the Progressive: 13.
Scoop: "Inside a US Election Vote Counting Program" 14a.
NY Times: "Hack the Vote" b.
CBS: "Electronic Voting Causing Concern" c.
UK Independent: "All the President's Votes?" d.
Salon: "Will the Election be Hacked?" e.
BBC: "Concerns over US Computer Voting" f.
ABC News: "Avoiding Another Florida Fiasco" g.
"Comparison of Senate Bills 1980, 1986, and 2045"
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