[SOC] New Voting Systems/Corruption/Democracy at Further Risk

[Lloyd Lachow]

Hi everyone:
This was forwarded to me recently. I checked out some 
of the websites 
for the voting systems referenced in this letter and 
verified that in 
fact these new computerized systems appear to be as 
stated. Really scary!
This should be major news!
Check it out--
Lloyd

http://www.diebold.com/dieboldes/solutions.htm
http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

Forwarded letter:
Subject: Democracy Issues--Worth Reading

Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Barbara,

I'm writing to you about a situation of the greatest 
urgency. Last year, 
I narrated a film called "Unprecedented" by American 
journalist Greg 
Palast (currently writing for the London Guardian). 
This film documents 
the illegal expunging of 54,000 black and 
overwhelmingly Democratic 
voters from the Florida rolls just before the 
presidential election. We 
interviewed the computer company that did the work, 
filmed their 
explanations of the instructions they received and 
their admissions that 
they knew that their instructions would produce 
massive error. That 
figure has now been revised to 91,000.

Jeb Bush was sued, and was supposed to have returned 
these voters to the 
rolls, and did not, which explains his last 
re-election. The Republicans 
have something far worse in mind for the next 
presidential election and 
Democrats need to be prepared.

The recent elections of Nebraska Republican Chuck 
Hagel, the loss in 
Georgia of Max Cleland, wildly popular Vietnam vet, 
and the victory of 
Alabama Governor Bob Riley, along with a handful of 
other Republican 
victories, (all predicted to have been losers by straw

polls which our 
nation has refined to a high-art) points to an ominous

source: 
corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, 
modem-capable voting 
machines, recording and tabulating ballots.

You'd think in an open democracy that the 
government---answerable to all 
its citizens, rather than a handful of corporate 
officers and 
stockholders---would program, repair, and control the 
voting machines. 
You'd think the computers that handle our cherished 
ballots would be 
open and their software and programming available for 
public scrutiny. 
You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, 
which could be 
followed and audited if a there was evidence of voting

fraud or if exit 
polls disagreed with computerized vote counts. You'd 
be wrong. The 
Washington, DC publication The 
Hill(www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) has 
confirmed that 
formerconservative radio talk-show host and now 
Republican U.S. Senator 
Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part

interest in, the 
company that owns the company that installed, 
programmed, and largely 
ran the voting machines that were used by most of the 
citizens of 
Nebraska. When Democrat Charlie Matulka requested a 
hand count of the 
vote in the election he lost to Hagel, his request was

denied because 
Nebraska had a just-passed law that prohibits 
government-employee 
election workers from looking at the ballots, even in 
a recount.  The 
only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska, he

said, are those 
made and programmed by the corporation formerly run by

Hagel.

When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander Bolton 
pressed the Chief 
Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee, 
(the man 
responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are 
complete), asking him 
why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 
failures to 
disclose the details of his ownership in the company 
that owned the 
voting machine company when he ran for the Senate, the

Director 
reportedly met with Hagel's office on Friday, January 
25, 2003 and 
Monday, January 27, 2003.

After the second meeting, on the afternoon of January 
27th, the Director 
of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his job. 
Hagel's surprise 
victory is a trial-run for the presidential election. 
Election 'reform' 
laws are now prohibiting paper ballots (no trail) and 
exit polls, 
effectively removing all trace and record of votes, 
making prosecution 
of voter fraud virtually impossible.

For whatever reasons, the Democrats decided not to 
pursue the issue of 
fraudulence in the last Presidential election. The 
three Supreme Court 
Justices who should have recused themselves (Scalia, 
Thomas, and 
O'Connor) were allowed to stand unchallenged and pass 
a bizarre 
one-time-only ruling. That they were in place long 
before the election, 
demonstrates how clearly the end-game of such moves 
was thought out.

Unless the issue of voter fraud is elevated to an 
issue of national 
importance, not only is it highly probable that 
Democrats will lose 
again and again, but eventually voters will "sense" 
even if they cannot 
prove, that elections are rigged, and the current 50% 
of those 
boycotting elections will swell to the majority. 
Privatization of the 
vote is tantamount to turning over the control of 
democracy to the 
corporate sector. I urge you to use your considerable 
powers and 
influence to address this issue.



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