Podunk, Dogpatch, Politics

I puzzled for a long time about why the Democrats were not publicizing defective voting machines nor discussing the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004.

Were they afraid such knowledge would discourage voters from coming to the polls? Were they afraid to be branded as defeatist?

Were they secretly in league with the Repugs? Why did they not behave like her majesty's loyal opposition?

So I asked a Labour Party Minister -- a great friend for many years. She reminded me of the fact that negativity does not win elections.

Voters tend to kill the messenger. Just blurt out that our voting machines are rigged and the electorate will think you're unpatriotic. Elections are rigged in Zimbabwe, Russia, Belarus, Georgia (not our Georgia), Congo, Sudan, and Sri Lanka. But not in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Voters like to be stroked. They like to hear "We're the greatest Country in the World" -- even when we're torturing someone's poor driver in Guantanamo.

Running for public office is like a speaking gig. You never go wrong starting your lecture with "I'm thrilled to be back here in beautiful Podunk (Dogpatch). Your people are so friendly, so intelligent, so welcoming. I love your food -- those dried hamburgers on Kaiser rolls, that aged coleslaw, that apple pie with the deliciously soggy crust and the congealed cool whip on top. And your Podunk wines -- Pinot Noir grown in your swamp, Chardonnay with just a hint of PCBs, Fume Blanc cultivated in the town dump. Now that's what I call green. You guys have really got recycling down!"

And I love your Podunk Notel with the magic fingers on the bed and the porn channels and the born again preachers on all channels asking for donations in the name of Jesus! (If Jesus was a real live person, he was clearly a socialist and feminist. Read the Gnostic Gospels by the brilliant Elaine Pagels).

But -- if our election system is rigged, mustn't we fix it? I worry a lot about those servers hacked by the Repugnicans. You can't even see the vote switching.

Cheney/Bush has destroyed our country -- drained the treasury, left us helpless against natural disasters, made us all criminals -- on the telephone, at the airports, in our own homes, at meetings of the causes we believe it -- like peace, ecology and saving our America the Beautiful. (It would be our National Anthem if a Jew hadn't written it!)

Our economy is in meltdown. Our children are illiterate and innumerate compared to the Chinese children, the Indian children, the children of the EU. Our schools, bridges, roads, trains, and airports are crumbling.

Not to mention all our soldiers who have died and the uncounted millions of refugees and dead children, mothers and fathers -- Iraqis, Afghans, Iranians, Lebanese, Israelis. Some were running shops, eating lunch, driving cars, going to school, making food for their families when hit by the Pentagon's finest cluster bombs, tasers, bunker busters, and nukes (teeny weenie nukes -- they say -- but still nukes).

Now, here we are less than one week before the election and the problem remains.

My husband, Ken Burrows, went to Florida in 2004 with a group of lawyers for fair elections. Waiting outside the polls, he and other legal colleagues were told to look for "disturbances" -- whatever they were. If there were electronic machines flipping from KERRY to BUSH, they could not see them. If there were servers changing DEMOCRATIC votes to REPUGNICAN, they could not see them either.

THEY WERE OUTSIDE THE POLLS WATCHING AND WAITING. It seemed like an empty exercise. The vote stealing was going full steam ahead in OHIO.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE? -- as LEO TOLSTOY once wrote.

Here are some suggestions.

PLEASE VOTE EARLY!

VOTE ON PAPER if possible.

MARK DOWN IN YOUR NOTEBOOK OR BLACKBERRY OR IPHONE OR NOKIA OR WHATEVER, WHERE YOU VOTED AND AT WHAT TIME.

BRING A CAMERA PHONE OR MIDGET CAMERA AND PHOTOGRAPH YOUR BALLOT AND THE VOTING SUPERVISOR IF POSSIBLE.

GET THE CARD OF THE VOTING SUPERVISOR. (I voted in Weston, CT yesterday and Donna M. Anastasia, Town Clerk, TOOK MY BALLOT. I have her email and phone #). WESTON is a Republican town which is why I vote there rather than NYC. I THINK MY VOTES DOES MORE GOOD IN WESTON (where I have had a house for 31 years).

IF YOU CAN GET THE CARD OF THE CLERK, DO SO. IF YOU CAN SNAP HER PICTURE (AS A TENDER MEMENTO OF AN HISTORIC ELECTION), DO SO.

IF YOU PRESS OBAMA AND MCCAIN LIGHTS UP, TAKE A PICTURE. IF YOU COMPLAIN TO A SUPERVISOR AND SHE OR HE SAYS YOU JUST DIDN'T PRESS HARD ENOUGH, DON'T DO IT AGAIN AND GIVE MCPALIN A SECOND VOTE. JUST GET ALL THE INFO, THE PHOTO, THE NAME AND ADDRESS AND EMAIL AND TELEPHONE # OF THE VOTING CLERK.

THERE WILL SURELY BE LAWSUITS SO HOLD ON TO THE EVIDENCE.

IF YOU CAN PHOTOGRAPH WITNESSES, DO SO. IF YOU CAN GET THEIR NAMES AND ADDRESSES AND EMAILS AND TELEPHONE # s, DO SO.

PLEASE SEND ME OTHER SUGGESTIONS I CAN DISSEMINATE WIDELY.

I fear we are going to have a Tuesday bloody Tuesday. Be prepared -- that's the boy scouts' marching song -- as Tom Lehrer wrote.

Comments

[claster]

I believe that the one foolproof defense against voting shenanigans is an overwhelming, undeniable victory. This seems to be the Obama campaign's strategy, and it looks within reach. Shame on the GOP for their past thefts, certainly, but shame on the Democrats for allowing those elections to be within a narrow enough range to make the thefts possible.

[hindy]

Gosh Guys! Take a lesson in voting from Canadians. We have a federal agency called Elections Canada that standardizes ballots across the country. And yes, we still use paper ballots and mark our choice with an "X". Archaic - Yes! Smart - Definitely! Our Federal elections are too important to have the Provinces screw ballots up. After all of your recent fiascos, why are you still leaving ballot designs up to individual states? That allows partisan states to design partisan - skewed ballots.

If its any consolation to you, I'm up here holding my breath along with all of you and praying for an Obama win. I can't even begin to describe how ridiculous McCain has made the US look to the rest of the world with his nomination of Palin the creationist, anti-choice, anti-science, anti-global warming proponent from so called "middle" America - or what I would prefer to term "middle" ages.

Maybe on November 5th Russia will give her a dacha from which she'll be able to see America .

This isn't just about Democrats versus Republicans. Its not even just about the economy. Its about intelligence and tolerance versus so called "intelligent design" and medieval attitudes.

I wish I was qualified to vote. Because, after all, when America gets sick, we all go into intensive care.

[georgebeckton]

Diebold machines?

Sorry for my ignorance, In UK we have paper only ballots. Can't Congress assemble a bipartisan conference of all states to agree on a simple uniform voting process together with agreed oversight?

In any case, in very short measure, the USA will hopefully soon re-boot for the sake of all humanity

Best wishes to Barrack

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Oh George, if all states agreed on a simple uniform voting process with oversight how would they be able to tip the vote? There's only so much influence that can be gained from gerry-mandering voting districts, and they only get a chance to do that once a decade... unless you're in Texas, then it's no holds barred!

Thanks for the good wishes, I'm doing what I can to change my state from red to blue, and my government from an amoral, corrupt Fascist autocracy, back to an immoral corrupt democracy. After that we'll work on the corruption, but first things first.

[Proletarian101]

This would require every state to have the same governing and political structure. Currently every state has the right to elect its officials in the way they see fit. Also, the size of your population lends itself to a uniform voting system. Larger populations become cumbersome with paper ballots. As a side note, voting irregularities occur 4 to 1 in areas with paper/machine ballots vs. electronic ballots.

[TRYKER]

made us all criminals -- on the telephone, at the airports, in our own homes, at meetings of the causes we believe it -- like peace, ecology and saving our America the Beautiful." Erica Jong

Wow Erica, this was the best piece you've done, excellent.

And putting a big red target on every American's back, so anywhere in the world any one of us go, we are in danger because of George Bush, isn't setting well. We are the ugly Americans.
We aren't safe abroad and are criminals at home...how does that equate to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?
...and forget Freedom!
How is that not Treason? Enemies from WITHIN our own govt, for shame.
Yes, this time we will not be saying...."oh welllll" if this election is stolen. We will not stand/lie down for it this time. We have had ENOUGH! We have been backed into a corner.
We will allllll fight back, we won't give up.
There are too many independent Americans to expect that their vote, thrown away, will go un-noticed.
Paper trails, documentary evidence, notes, photos...its all truth in court. I hope everyone takes your advice, just in case.

[janh64tx]

Extremists - in BOTH parties obviously live by the same creed:
It doesn't have to be true - just say it - get someone to repeat it - and at least a small fraction of morons will believe it.

[jinjinpinti]

The reason the McCain campaign has made such a huge issue about the Acorn problem, which will not effect the vote, is as a smokescreen to cover the ongoing plan for coup #3.

[Proletarian101]

Ms. Jong, I understand that you are concerned about the election but spreading rumors and misinformation does not help the process. All documented voting machine failures and fraud have been caused on mechanical machines and paper ballots (look it up) where people have been able to manipulate the vote at the source. The most secure voting method currently is electronic voting because, unlike what you see in movies, it is near impossible to access the database within these machines and impossible to manipulate the data without a record of it being created. If some kind of fraud is attempted, documentation of that event will be created. We are not living in books or movies written by people that do not understand the technology, we are living in the real world.

[Fetchcat]

You obviously never saw "Hacking Democracy" on HBO (available at their site). An optical scanner in Florida showed minus 16,000 votes for Gore. When Blackbox.com investigated with a Finnish computer expert, they discovered that the electronic scanner memory cards had writable programs on them, contrary to what Diebold claimed. Their expert "rigged" a sample vote, and most of the yeses became no-s. Yet no sign of tampering showed up in the program. Be afraid, be very afraid.

VOTE and PRAY!

[Proletarian101]

I have seen it and the way that was presented was a bit technologically ingenious. The story states that the 16000 vote issue was not on an electronic voting machine but on an optical ballot scanning machine.

The experiment that you referred to accomplished its test by changing the "program" which would be like you taking the hard drive out of your computer and putting another one in. This system would not function under normal setup and voting conditions. Also the audit system would not allow it to be used.

[Adenophora]

So how you rig the vote on an electronic machine is that you get the key (go online where Diebold published a picture of their key and this key opens ALL of the Diebold machines), open the gate, take out the disk that is there, put in your disk with the changed program on it, hit the re-boot button, then take out your disk and put back in the original disk. This takes about 30 seconds. And hey presto - distorted results.
It is SO easy to mess with an electronic machine. By simply re-booting the program with a different disk, you can alter 10,000 or more votes. However, with a paper trail and comparing the paper ballots to the electronic results gives you an accurate result. It would take hours and hours to go through every paper ballot and alter it.
With computers, it is garbage in - garbage out.

[Proletarian101]

There is no disk. It is a firmware driven machine.

[kjstjohn]

I wish what you were saying were true. There are electronic computer record systems in other industries that are far more secure and auditable than some electronic voting machines.

[sophiej]

yesterday machines in West Virginia were flipping early votes from Obama to McCain.I'm afraid your "real world" has become a horror movie.

[Mugzi]

You are so wrong!!!! Machines are the worst way to go...as evidenced by the 2004 election and now. Machines tabulators can be hacked, reset, by programmers and they do and are! Make no mistake, our election system should not be in the hands of private companies who have access to the inner workings of machines where votes can be manipulated to whatever the programmer wants. Yes, the best voting system is paper ballots with pencils AND OVERSIGHT of counters by both/all parties, like Canada. They have the results by 11pm of the same day.

Paraphrasing...voters decide nothing, counters decide the election - Stalin

[Proletarian101]

You have been misinformed on how these machines work. That is like saying that a programmer could program ever car in american to shut down all at once causing a tremendous accident. It is not possible. The oversight and review of the systems design and operation would not allow this to occur. It is not like you see in the movies where a programmer can hide a function that can be accessed at anytime. The network that these system operate on is isolated from the outside, the software is not really software but more of a firmware operation that can not readily be changed and the counter cannot be manipulated through the machine interface. These are all things to scare you and others into either not voting or thinking that your vote is comprimised. Unfortunately it seems to be working. I have heard people stating that they would not be voting because they believe that the machines will not work properly anyways. What a shame.

[jhNY]

While I am suspicious as anybody about voting machines and their controllers, and so am in agreement with both tenor and suggestions in your posting, I must ,in the name of scholarship if nothing else, point out that "What Is To Be Done?" was not written by Tolstoy. The author was Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

[rhokit]

Fact Check, please: Katherine Led Bates was the daughter of a Congregationalist minister in Falmouth, MA..Were you perhaps thinking of Emma Lazarus, who wrote "Modern Colussus" inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty? "Give me your tired, your poor..."--as opposed to "O beautiful for spacious skies..."??

[pfc1369]

I believe Erica was thinking of "God Bless America" by Irving Berlin.

[ozofjakes]

Um, it is illegal in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, and Texas (among other states) to bring any recording devices or cameras to the polling place. And this IS the greatest country on earth, just ask the millions who imagrate here every year. The air must be thin way up there in the Ivory tower.

[IntrepidReader]

It's illegal in North Carolina, too.

[zanzig]

You might also want to ask the billions more who don't migrate there every year. I don't doubt your patriotism, but believe me it is offensive to the rest of the world. And very hard to justify when you have a corrupt electoral system that gave you 2 fraudulent adminstrations, an adminstration that gave the world torture as a policy statement, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, an almost complete destruction of you Consitution, acceptance by the general populace of the lowest common denominator in education, health and living standards, and many more.

[3rdOption]

To flip the presidential election, you don't need to cheat everywhere.

You just need a close election, and then you target the lynchpin state.

2000 was Florida, 2004 was Ohio.

2008 will be Pennsylvania.

The only machines you need to crack are the tallying machines for the Democratic strongholds. Then you need to flip just enough votes to let the R's win.

The reason McPalin has been hammering PA? To give the first plausible reason for an upset there; "Hey, we put a lot of time into PA, and it sure paid off for us..."

The reason "The Bradley Effect: Is It For Real?!?" has been the pundit query du jour in the last couple of weeks is to cast doubt on exit polling. A variance between the exit polls and the actual vote count of more than 2% indicates a faulty/stolen election. But not if the white voters lie and say they voted for Obama when they really didn't.

So if there's a statistically impossible variance between exit polls and the actual vote tally, it was The Bradley Effect, not Diebold-enable election theft.

"Hey, we worked for PA, and won fair and square! So take off your tin foil hat and dismiss your lawyers. We Win Again!"

Google Spoonamore "Election theft", or go to:
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/spoonamore_revelations

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

horse dung...

McCain would have to take Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania (he is currently behind in 5 of those 7) AND STILL NEED New Mexico or New Hampshire or Colorado or Ohio.

Good luck with that! Because there's no quit in Obama supporters!

Obama '08!

[legalclubs]

I agree. McCain would have to win all the "toss ups" (many of which he is actually behind in) plus take at least 2 other states that are safely "leaning" for Obama. We're talking anywhere from 5 to 7 different contents which McCain is likely to lose will all have to go for McCain. In addition, many of the "must win" states have Democratic Governors and Secretaries of State, so the Republicans are not in control of the process. Unless Obama says something along the lines of "I can't wait to stick it to whitey", I think he's got this one in the bag.

[Mugzi]

I hope you're right! Regardless, we MUST make it our mission, especially with a Democratic congress, to reform our election system. HAVA is no friend to the voter, yes, voting is a right to eligible, registered citizens and we need strong legislation to protect voters from fear tactics, intimidation, disenfranchising voters. We shouldn't have to go through the gauntlet to vote. GET RID OF MACHINES! They put our election system in the hands of private companies, not the people. Paper ballots, with pencil and oversight of counters by both/all parties. Canada does this and they have the results by 11pm of that day...

[Wnde1drs]

Well guess where they are using electronic voting machines? Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Nevada and Colorado. That's 133 electoral college votes right there that could be stolen with rigged machines.

I agree with 3rdOption. The Bradley Effect, the heavy campaigning in Pennsylvania where Obama has a double digit lead, and Acorn is all a smoke screen and the media is falling for it hook, line and sinker.

It's the same type of scams that the Republicans have used successfully in the last two elections. I just hope they don't get away with it this time and we have real voter reform before the next election.

[ValereP]

For at least the past 8 years, it appears that U.S. citizens have been comfortably deluded by their keepers, while being steadily swindled by the various special interests who own their elected officials. Take a look at Bush right now... after a shocking 700 Billion $ bailout scam, the people still seem reluctant to voice any real objection... distracted by visions of sugar plums and election twinkies?. Or perhaps too exhausted from the increasingly laborous marching pace inside their spinning squirrel cages to notice. Right now even though the world looks on in horror, Bush is proceeding to lock in additional DEREGULATORY measures before Nov 1... as if the parting loot bags haven't been enough. Is there anything that would stop them from stealing the election again? I doubt that it would even matter who wins the election... the agenda is effectively set by creditors for future generations to come.

[jhNY]

Spot on and correct! Debt will direct our doings in the public sphere for the next generation, unless massive inflation is used to pay it off.

[pdxsteve]

While I don't believe in the broader notion that Republicans have actually rigged millions of voting machines, I do believe there is a far more insidious conspiracy at play. Has anyone ever wondered WHY ballots are made to be SO confusing? Here is my guess: many state elections offices are run by Republicans, or, if they are non-partisan, are run by "non-partisan" Republicans. These individuals create ballots that are hard to use. This in turn helps to suppress the vote, which tends to work in the GOP's favor. Here is my solution: a nationwide mail-in ballot system. This already occurs in several states (one of which is mine). In Oregon, the mail-in voting system has been highly successful in increasing voter turnout, and ensuring accountability (each ballot is signed, and on paper, and addressed specifically to the individual whose vote it contains). Maybe we should try this on a national scale.

[shamba]

Confusing. There are no electronic voting machines that post a vote immediately. One cannot accidentally vote for Palin twice as Ms. J suggests. All of them give the voter a chance to review the votes before they are "recorded" and many (as here in Utah) offer a paper receipt of sorts that the voter can check before submitting the final votes.

Now hacking is another matter, but I know of no credible evidence that the Republicans hacked their way to winning in 2000 and 2004. Their tactics had (and the current tactics are similar) to do more with voter suppression in Ohio in 2004, and Supreme (Court) hypocrisy in 2000. It is not going to happen this time. And yes if it does, insurrection is in order, but let's not fall into unsubstantiated conspiracy theory fantasy land. And one must give credit to Charlie Christ in Florida this year for extending early voting times.

And to the idiot who accuses ACORN of undermining the election - all I can say is how stupid. ACORN is required to submit all registration forms it gathers. Yes, even if they say Mickey Mouse. ACORN tags questionable registration forms but must submit them anyway. These kind of false registration forms are not going to undermine the vote. Mickey Mouse and other real and imaginary celebrities are not going to show up on the voter rolls and are not going to show up to vote. ACORN is not a problem. Enough!

[KrunchyTako]

I admire your constructive words and that you left out personal hate towards the candidates unlike many here though some of what you wrote I see a little differently. With ACORN I do agree that Mickey Mouse wouldn't make it any further than just a registration inaccuracy. What bothers me about ACORN is the fact they are suppose to be a non partisan group since they are tax funded. My tax dollars shouldn't go to a group that is openly supporting a candidate whether I'm for or against that candidate. If I wanted to support a candidate I can donate on my behalf not through a group that's suppose to be neutral.

The other thing that bothers me is that if the amount of registration forms turned in equates to the value of tax funding giving to this group than false or duplicated registration forms should become invalid. Maybe then there wouldn't be persons registered over 70 times because those employed by ACORN have quotas to meet. Other than that I enjoyed what you had to say.

[NationalTreasure]

+Ms. Jong:

I worry about the voting machines in West Vrginia that are being recalibrated in the midst of an election.

Folks in West Virginia are casting votes on machines that election officials say the have to recalibrate because sometimes they incorrectly log a vote for McCain although the voter is making every effort to select Sen. Obama.

The recalibration taints the voting process and does not allow for continuity of the process and distorts the voting count yet our Department of Justice has done nothing about this problem.

[Proletarian101]

This is absolutely not true. Your source of information is preying on the naive to scare them about their vote.

[Mugzi]

People should be secure to know that their vote is counted as they mark on the ballot, which is not the case. We should be scared, scared to warrant change to get rid of machines, get our election system out of the hands of private companies. We should have paper ballots with oversight of the counters by both/all parties. This is what Canada does and they have the results by 11pm that day.

Paraphrasing...voters decide nothing, counters decide the election - Stalin