In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
PETER COYOTE'S LETTER TO SEN. BARBARA BOXER
Oh goody a celebrity has an opinion. But hey, his opinion is about something we mention here an awful lot here on TCS: Electronic Voting Machines. And I loved him in E.T.
Parts of his letter:
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 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.
- rob 6:23 PM - [PermaLink] -
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