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Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:06:26 -0400
From: Wanda Ballentine
Subject: The 2004 election

This is a long post from a friend of mine who is a very dedicated activist and media person in Eugene, OR. She's done a lot of research on the voting problems and given some suggestions.


Hacking Democracy - The 2004 Election
by Amy Pincus Merwin
June 2003


Dear Friends,

By way of an introduction, I am a whole systems media producer and activist/organizer in Eugene, OR. I have also organized nationally in founding and setting up the Doughnut Network and other 'green' money and business organizations.

I am extremely concerned about the state of our democracy and, by extension, the world.

I honestly believe that the only way we will resituate any of our social services, schools, protect our environment and our freedoms, and rid the world of the plague of domination by the Bushes and their cronies is to remove the Bush administration from office.

You might have understood, as I have, that this regime planned for years to create a coup to take over the control of the US Federal Government. According to former Tom Ridge aid, Joseph Cirincirone, they spent ten years `of planning in exile' (between Pappy and W). Then they very cleverly focused all the attention of the muddled election in Florida on the chads, when the real issue was the voters, mostly African-American, who were removed from the voter rolls for fictitious and (future, i.e. "Minority Report") felony convictions by Kathryn Harris under the direction of Jeb Bush. See:

So since the 'chads' became the issue, Congress has now passed the "Help America to Vote Act" which mandates each state (except Oregon, as we vote by mail) to purchase touch screen voting machines for the 2004 election, and no later than 2006.

The problems with touch screen voting machines are explained in the following links. In particular, they were tested out in the 2002 Nebraska Senate election, where `transparently' Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Senator, had a controlling interest in the voting machine corporation prior to the voting machines being installed and to his subsequent successful election in Nebraska.

This article describes how Hagel's influence is already affecting the elections process: "Senator Hagel's Campaign Finance `Reform' Bill Leaves 58% of National Party Soft Money Untouched, by Public Citizen.

And, apparently Microsoft has proprietary over the voting software, so no one else can check it out and make sure it's operating correctly, which it apparently does not.

SO, if we really want to claim our democracy and make sure our government does not bankrupt its citizenry, then we will need to establish citizen exit polling with copy machines and lock boxes for people to copy and drop their vote printout into, for every precinct in the nation (except Oregon), and set-up independent vote counters to verify the 2004 vote.

Of course we must first insist that we are given a paper copy of our vote, which apparently the machine can do. And that in itself is a huge education campaign. See "VerifiedVoting.org - Campaign to Demand Verifiable Election Results".

And I wonder, if citizens do insist on a paper copy of their vote, if Code Red [marital law] wouldn't be convenient solution for the Bushies, to defer the election indefinitely. See New Jersey Homeland Security and US Homeland Security Codes.

I am overwhelmed with the amount of information I discovered writing this email which validates my worst fears.

So, if we do not recuperate our civil liberties by banning the USA Patriot Act (another crucial issue), and insist on a verifiable paper record of the 2004 vote, then I feel certain that we will surely not only feel the loss of our social services, health care and protection of our environment, but will find ourselves living in a globalized-fascist-corporate dominated world culture for generations to come. Please spread this information widely.

Please contact me to organize these efforts. We'll need all Americans everywhere to participate in this process:

  1. register new voters and bring them to vote;
  2. work together to set-up citizen exit polling, including
    1. educating voters about voter fraud,
    2. insisting on paper copies of our vote,
    3. securing copy machines and lock boxes for every precinct, and
    4. developing INDEPENDENT vote counters to verify the vote.

I want our children and children of all species to have a chance to live in a free and healthy world.

Sincerely,
Amy Pincus Merwin
InForm Media
2220 Sandy Drive
Eugene, OR 97401
o. 541-345-1633 h. 541-345-4855 cp. 541-521-5062
fx. 541-344-5830
inform@rio.com




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