Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 12:44 AM
Subject: Re: 20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The USA

Bill, thanks for forwarding "20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA." It is greatly appreciated.

Coincidentally, as co-founder of a nationally known election justice advocacy organization, I'm in a position to confirm that the information represented in "20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA" is factual, with the exception of #17, which is outdated information. Regrettably, that number has risen considerably, from 30%, since the advent of the Orwellian-named "Help America Vote Act (HAVA)," signed into law by G.W. Bush, in October of 2002.

This one unfortunate piece of legislation is responsible for compelling the fast-tracking of highly suspect election systems and "services" throughout all 50 states, and for passing our democracy off to a handful of private partisan corporations - several with hidden colorful criminal histories - operating under 4th Amendment privacy rights and trade secrets protections. "Proprietary" technology = non-transparency of America's elections, for not even America's election officials are permitted to peek inside the secret "black boxes" now counting and centrally aggregating America's invisible votes.

HAVA is succeeding at this agenda of privatization and corporatization of America's votes by means of presumed federal "mandates," time and compliance pressures exacted upon officials at the state and county levels, and by dangling carrot monies before all 50 states. Election justice advocates are fighting this battle in most of the 50 states, including here in New Hampshire.

Make no mistake. What is happening in our voting systems today is nothing less than a full frontal assault on democracy right under our noses that is making a mockery of the democratic process and the American people. Moreover, these suspect systems are being exported en masse, overseas, as we speak.

Though we're all impacted, these days, by the many storms around us, it is well worth our while to pay close attention to this very critical issue. As Bill Moyers says, "Elections - the reform upon which all else depends."

Some suggested websites for further information:

http://www.blackboxvoting.org
http://www.ballotintegrity.org
http://www.ecotalk.org/votingmachinecompanies.htm
http://www.votescam.com
http://www.bradblog.com
http://www.wedonotconcede.com
http://www.solarbus.org
http://www.coalitionforvisibleballots.com
http://www.wheresthepaper.org
http://www.votersunite.org
Many more, some linked from the above sites.

Suggested and fascinating reading: VOTESCAM - The Stealing of America by James & Kenneth Collier (available at http://www.votescam.com; contact: editor@votescam.com and/or see site for link) and Black Box Voting - Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century, by Bev Harris (available at http://www.blackboxvoting.org; see site for link).

There's an old saying that, "If we don't 'do' politics, politics will 'do' us." Be assured that this is happening in a big way now. So, let's all try to keep on top of this. Thanks, again for forwarding "20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA."

Sharona M.
EarthAngelsNtwk@aol.com

-----------------------

From: Bill P.
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2005 2:04 PM
Subject: 20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The USA


Although I don't know how true this is (Bush Syndrome), I received This Through Bush Supporters... Such Blind Faith!


>20 Amazing Facts About
>Voting in the USA
>
>
>
>by Angry Girl
>Nightweed.com
>
>Did you know....
>1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:
>Diebold
>and ES&S.
>http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
>
>
>2. There is no federal agency with
>regulatory authority or oversight of
>the U.S. voting machine industry.
>http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
>http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
>
>
>3. The vice-president of Diebold
>and the president of ES&S are
>brothers. http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
>http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
>
>
>4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold
>is a major Bush campaign organizer
>and donor who wrote in 2003 that he
>was "committed to helping Ohio
>deliver its electoral votes to the
>president next year."
>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
>http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886
>
>
>5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel
>used to be chairman of ES&S. He
>became Senator based on votes
>counted by ES&S machines.
>http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
>http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html
>
>
>6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel,
>long-connected with the Bush family,
>was recently caught lying about his
>ownership of ES&S by the Senate
>Ethics Committee.
>http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
>http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
>htt! p://www. onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php
>
>
>7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a
>short list of George W. Bush's
>vice-presidential candidates.
>http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
>http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html
>
>
>8. ES&S is the largest voting
> machine manufacturer in the U.S.
>and counts almost 60% of all U.S.
>votes.
>http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
>http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
>
>
>9. Diebold's new touch screen
>voting machines have no paper trail
>of any votes. In other words, there
>is no way to verify that the data
>coming out of the machine is the
>same as what was legitimately put
>in by voters.
>http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
>http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html
>
>
>10. Diebold also makes ATMs,
>checkout scanners, and ticket
>machines, all of which log each
>transaction and can generate a
>paper trail.
>http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
>http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm
>
>
>11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
>http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm
>
>
>12. Diebold employed 5 convicted
>felons as consultants and developers
>to help write the central
>compiler computer code that counted
>50% of the votes in 30 states.
>http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
>http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml
>
>
>13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-
>President of Global Election
>Systems when it was bought by
>Diebold. Even though he had been
>convicted of 23 counts of felony
>theft in the first degree, Jeff
>Dean was retained as a consultant by

>Diebold and was largely responsible
>for programming the OPTICAL SCANNING
>software now used in most of the
>United States.
>http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
>http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
>http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
>
>
>14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean
>was convicted of planting back doors
>in his software and using a "high
>degree of sophistication" to evade
>detection over a period of 2 years.
>http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
>http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
>
>
>15. None of the international
>election observers were allowed in
>the polls in Ohio.
>http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
>http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html
>
>
>16. California banned the use of
>Diebold machines because the
>security was so bad. Despite
>Diebold's claims that the audit
>logs could not be hacked, a
>chimpanzee was able to do it!
>(See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)
>http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190
>
>
>17. 30% of all U.S. votes are
>carried out on unverifiable touch
>screen voting machines with no
>paper trail.
>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
>
>
>18. All -- not some -- but all the
>voting machine errors detected and
>reported in Florida went in favor
>of Bush or Republican candidates.
>http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
>http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
>http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
>http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid
=950
>http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm
>
>
>19. The governor of the state of
>Florida, Jeb Bush, is the
>President's brother.
>http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html
>
>
>20. Serious voting anomalies in
>Florida -- again always favoring
>Bush -- have been mathematically
>demonstrated and experts are
>recommending further investigation.
>http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsO
ut.htm
>http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,108
01,97614,00.html
>http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
>http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
>http://uscountvotes.org/
>
>NOTE: Please copy the above list
>and distribute freely!
>
>LET THE FACTS BE KNOWN! Thank you!

In Spirit And Universal Brotherhood,
Love and Light Bill *T/G"