SOURCE: OpEdNews

July 11, 2007

Exposé: Holt bill was revised by Microsoft, Diebold and ES&S

By Mark Crispin Miller

Friends, because HR 811 may come up for a vote within the next two weeks, it's most important that you read the following, right through to the shocker at the end.

On Monday some good friends of mine--Rush Holt's constituents--met with him primarily to talk about impeachment. As they make clear below, he doesn't get it, and doesn't seem to want to get it; and he also seems to think that We the People are too dim to understand what's going on. Moreover, he doesn't seem to think that it's his civic obligation as a congressman to help the people get it. All he seems inclined to do is sit there and shrug off whatever evidenceor arguments might move him to some useful public statement(s).

 
This is how he has responded not just to impeachment but, as we all know by now, to his defective "election reform" bill, HR 811, which (thank God) more and more of his colleagues are now abandoning, and yet he is impervious to every argument against it.

Now, Rush Holt is certainly a savvy guy, and not. of course, by any means right-wing. Why, then, has he stubbornly refused to fix his bill so that the Busheviks can't any longer rig the vote by fiddling with the DRE machines?

His various reforms would not prevent such further theft. If they did, you can be sure the Busheviks themselves would be attacking him and HR 811 with their usual ferocity. That they aren't doing so should make quite clear that they don't fear his bill, because it poses no real threat to their ongoing efforts to subvert American democracy.

I suggest that Holt has thus refused to change his bill for two reasons. First of all, he has no fear that Bush & Co. will steal more elections in the future because he has convinced himself they have stolen no elections in the past.

I've seen no evidence that he believes that Bush and Cheney stole their "re-election" or that there was fraud involved in any of the GOP's surprising

House or Senate "victories" in the last seven years. If he knew about the vast extent of BushCo's fraud, he wouldn't have come up with such a porous bill; and the same goes for most, if not all, of HR 811's remaining supporters. If they had studied all the evidence of fraud since BushCo came to power, they would be far less certain that this bill could make much difference.

 
As for Holt himself, there may well be a second reason for his long refusal to rethink his faith in e-boting machines. As Paul Lehto has informed me, it just so happens that a company called Avante International appears to be headquartered in Holt's district, and that Avante is positioned to make money if Holt's bill should pass and the machines should all be fitted out with "paper trails." Here's what we find posted on the home page of Avante's Web site.

ELECTION & VOTING SYSTEMS

Full-face and paging electronic touch screen voting systems (DRE VOTE-TRAKKER(r)) with proven voter verifiable paper ballot record and audit trail (VVPR, VVPB, VVPAT).  The first election system with proven 0% residual votes (unintentional undervotes).  The first optical scan paper ballot solution (OPTICAL VOTE-TRAKKER(r)) to use digital imaging to achieve zero errors in 1.5 million marks. The first, patented optical paper voting system to provide irrefutable electronic auditability.

Now, it's surely possible that this is sheer coincidence--i.e. that Rush Holt's bill could throw some business to a firm that is headquartered in Rush Holt's home district,and that specializes in the very sort of technical enhancement that Rush Holt is stubbornly proposing in his bill.

If it is a coincidence, however, it's a whopper, and it means that Holt is oddly uninformed as to the business interests in his own backyard.

(For a good piece on Avante's ongoing attempts to influence the election laws here in New York, see Bo Lipari's article

There is no doubt that Rush Holt has, in working on his bill, unduly heeded the concerns of interested corporations. This is not a speculation but a fact, which was revealed to me straightforwardly by Holt's own counsel, Michelle Mulder, who is, of course, a fervent advocate for HR 811. Recently Michelle tried, via email, to respond to some of the concerns expressed by me and several other activists, at one point asserting that the bill will not legitimize the use of secret vote-counts.

In response, I pointed out that the continued use of DRE machines, which HR 811 would permit, makes secret vote-counting inevitable, since there's no way to watch computers add up votes, or send them on to tabulators, or manage any other data.

And then I made this second point about the actual secretiveness enabled by Holt's bill: 

"Unless this point in the legislation has been changed, the bill [as marked up in committee] now stipulates that the e-voting software be available only to 'qualified' individuals, who must sign strict non-disclosure agreements."

(This was an extraordinary change, because the early version of the bill had ordered that such software must be readily available to everyone. See my vlog on this.)

And here is Mulder's staggering reply:

"That's not what the bill said when introduced.  Therefore, you can take up your concerns with Microsoft and others in the proprietary software industry.  During Committee proceedings they lobbied very heavily against the language that was in the bill as introduced and none of you lobbied in favor of the language that was in the bill as introduced, and thus, the software industry won.  It's very simple, really. "

In other words, companies like Microsoft, Diebold and ES&S had problems with the early version of Holt's bill; and Holt himself not only listened to them, but obliged them, so that his "election reform" bill would now make our system even more undemocratic than it is already. Of this development Holt's office made no public mention, as if those private companies' dictation of the law was no big deal.

And this, Holt's counsel says, is not Holt's problem. In fact, it's our fault, for not having "lobbied very heavily" for our position (which would have been a little hard, since Holt's people have consistently refused to talk or listen to the bill's opponents).

In any case, if we don't like it, we can somehow "take up our concerns" with Microsoft et al.--and do so without Rush Holt's help.

It seems to me that this is a good reason not to back HR 811 as it's been rewritten by Microsoft, Diebold, ES&S and other entities in "the proprietary software industry." It's also a good reason to demand to know if Avante International has had any exchanges with the congressman about his bill.

And it might also be a good idea to bear in mind, and make the point, that Congress' purpose is to represent the people, not the likes of Microsoft and Diebold, nor, for that matter, either party, nor any other entities resistant to democracy.

MCM

From a friend re: Monday's meeting with Rush Holt about impeachment:

The meeting today (Monday) with Rush Holt went badly.  He agreed they did all these wrong bad awful things.  But said nothing could be done about it.  That it couldn't be proved, that it was a non-starter.  Told us the people needed to be educated.  We told him current polls, he did not believe it.  Said they were doing hearings to educate.  Denied it was Congresses job to do this. Denied that it was a party line.  Linda as very calm and praised his leadership.  We said not one word about the controversy over the voting - but that was clearly there.  He said he got a flood on the blogs after our forum.  I was very confrontational and gave back every argument and documented with the latest polls.  We all disagreed with his analysis, he even told us to get other friends.  He said we were in a bubble, No one he knows thinks the way we do.

From another friend:

On 7/10/07, roses4joanne wrote:

 Good Morning you bunch of uneducated, ignorant, dumba _ _  Americans!

I know you are thinking what a strange way to greet my wonderful fellow progressives...right ? Let me tell you of my adventures yesterday and you will understand.

The members of the Central Impeach group had asked me to join them in their presentation to Rush Holt requesting his support of HR 333 for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. And I  want to say "Thank You to Mary Ellen and Linda for the invitation !"

Also we had gone prepared to address his bill HR 811  due to come to a vote sometime within the next couple weeks but we didn't get to express our concerns on that one, since Holt was very anxious to get rid of us after it was apparent he was loosing on all fronts his decision not to support Impeachment.

I must say Linda Gochfeld and Mary Ellen Marrino did an excellent job of  presenting the reasons for impeachment and even though Holt agreed this administration did numerous high crimes and misdemeanors, he still stood fast on his statement, " The support for Impeachment is not there, the American public is uneducated and do not understand what crimes have been committed. "  ( my response to his statement- please give us more credit than that) 

Linda explained the reasons for Impeachment as laid out in the Resolution for Impeachment , that was passed by the Princeton Democrats, and  Mary Ellen presented poll data and other supportive information as to why it is necessary to impeach Bush and Cheney.

Holt kept repeating we will never see Impeachment because the Bush gang have a way of covering  up their dirty deeds. Mary Ellen responded, "on most of the items in the resolution, they have already admitted to committing these crimes" . 

Everytime Linda and Mary Ellen countered his statements with facts he went back to " The support for Impeachment is not there, the American public is uneducated and do not understand what crimes have been committed. "

Mary Ellen tried on numerous occasions to make him realize he has a duty to impeach and to negate the precedence set by this administration to stop the hemorrhage of our constitutional rights and liberties. 

He said Conyers and Waxman will never go for impeachment and Pelosi wasn't in favor of wasting time on something they couldn't win. Besides there is no support for impeachment, the grassroots need to get out there and educate the public so there is support.

Mary Ellen handed him copies of the petitions her group had collected and said there is support out there but the news media just isn't covering it. 

Mary Ellen  continued, "we don't need to go to the Senate for impeachment,  it can be done in the House and there should be enough votes to impeach, and at least restore checks and balances to our Constitution. "

Upon leaving the meeting, the general consensus amongst the 5 ladies who attended was the only one in that room who was uneducated was Rush Holt. 

Today , as in the past the American citizenry, are way ahead of those in the DC beltway and our elected representatives have no idea of what is going on in the real world or for other reasons have chosen not to.

Although I was there for mainly moral support for these very intelligent women, I did add my 2 cents, of giving a copy of all the places that have passed resolutions or are in the midst of doing so, to show there is growing support for impeachment. And added ,last November after elections the Democrats enjoyed a 65% approval rating and now it has dropped to28%  for not complying with the mandate of the people to stop the war and accountability of this administration. MaryEllen corrected me that the most recent poll showed only 14% ....and was even lower than the president's. 

There was one item I did want to read to Holt, but Linda being optimistic Holt would be receptive to our request, thought maybe it would be a little strong. I know I have been harping on this fact for sometime now but we do need to remind our elected officials of exactly their duties according to their oath of office and the Constitution.

 T he Oath of Office of the House of Representatives:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.

This is the central commitment of every member of the United States House of Representatives: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not to support and defend the American people. Not to support and defend the land itself. To support and defend the binding contract we Americans make with ourselves and each other, the American Constitution.

As I reflect back on the events of yesterday, I know we have to change things in this country, for what we currently have in DC are not representing us, but are representing big business and their corporate sponsors. If you think that the Democrats aren't being forced to march in lock step behind Pelosi, the same as the Republicans are held in line by Rove.....you are only kidding your self.

Since we were asked to educate you dumb Americans, I am forwarding some of the most recent articles on impeachment and please feel free to contact Rush Holts office to let him know you are one of the educated.

IN FACT I ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO SO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Joanne O'Neill

Please forward this widely !!!!

Authors Bio: Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at NYU and the author of numerous books including his most recent "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)".