fixed voting machines

Hi,

About a month ago, something made me wonder about voting machines. I
honestly can't remember what triggered it, but I went to the web
search-engine
google and entered in those two words. What came up frightened me a lot.
My first thought was, "Its over." By it, I mean democracy in the US. It
appears
that Nebraska may already be lost. There are those who say Florida is
lost for good, but I hope that our memory is not so short that we can't
do something
about it. For those who can, I urge everyone to see the documentary
"Unprecedented." Its described below. Elin and I saw it last week. Its
less than an hour
long and filled with things you need to know in order to constitute an
informed citizenry. You can find screenings or order a copy via
www.unprecedented.org.

I consider this the most crucial issue of our time; crucial for us in
the US, and crucial for world because of our power. We must be informed
and
communicate with each other, however we do it.

Today, this email landed in my in-box and I'm thrilled that others are
talking about this too. Our democracy is in danger folks, and NOT from
terrorists in
other lands. These are homeland terrorists, and they are travelling in
the "highest" circles. Please read below and consider following Coyote's
advice.

One more thought - last week I attended a meeting at a church in
Pasadena of a group called the Coalition for Civil Liberties. A woman
from the DC office
of the ACLU came to speak about the dangers of PATRIOT II. One of the
things which most stood out to me was her recalling a recent time when
the ACLU
tried to get a Congress-person interested in a particular issue. They
were told that she supported their view, but needed to know that her
constituents felt the
same way. They asked, "What kind of response do you need?" She said, "15
letters."

Now that's something to think about. I'm hoping that the ACLU and the
League of Women Voters will take this issue on.

Love,

Dan
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>From Peter Coyote:

Dear Friends,

I'm including a copy of a letter I sent to Barbara Boxer and my other
representatives with the evidence accumulated of a potential 'November
surprise'-- the
rigging of the next Presidential vote by private, inaccessible,
untransparent voting machines that leave no paper trail. For a fuller
discussion of the issue and
links, please go to: CommonDreams.org Published on Friday, January 31,
2003

(Here's a specific link - DS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm

I consider this a critical issue and if you agree, I urge you to
disseminate this widely and write a personal letter to your
representatives: NOT AN E-MAIL. If
you need their address go to:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/>http://www.house.gov/writerep/

and for the Senate go to:

http:/www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Thank you very much,
Peter Coyote

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 machine, 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
(http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) has confirmed that
former conservative 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
probably 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.
--
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST