On today’s BradCast: Great news for a change, with a big victory for voters in Georgia! [Audio link to show is posted below.]
After what seemed impossibly long odds just days ago, a bill that would have moved the state from 100% unverifiable touch-screen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting devices to just-as-bad-if-not-worse 100% unverifiable computer-printed and barcoded “paper ballots”, failed to pass in the state’s General Assembly before the legislative session ended for the year on Thursday at midnight.
That, despite a powerful lobbying effort by the nation’s largest private voting machine vendor, ES&S, which stood to make millions on the deceptive “paper ballot” scheme being pushed by elected officials — including GA’s Republican Sec. of State candidates State Rep. Buzz Brockway and State Sen. Josh McKoon — in both chambers of the legislature.
In recent days, however, Election Integrity advocates on the ground in Atlanta and via social media have been rallying like crazy and mounting an extraordinarily impressive effort to inform the public in hopes of blocking this dangerous bill. The effort was focused on detailing the many dangers of unverifiable barcoded ballots as produced by the type of touch-screen Ballot Marking Device (BMD) computer voting systems that GA lawmakers were hoping to move to after 15 years of using easily-hacked, oft-failed DRE voting systems statewide.
We’re joined again today, for a bit of a victory lap, by election integrity expert MARILYN MARKS who has been tirelessly fighting the bill and rallying the social media troops on Twitter, along with Jenny Cohn and others in recent days. (Cohn was on the show several weeks ago to discuss the GA bill and her must-read article documenting the many dangers of unverifiable BMD “paper ballot” voting systems.) Marks was also on the program just days ago, when overcoming the “incidious” vendors’ last minute push for SB403 in the GA legislature seemed all but impossible.
“It is because of the hundreds of people that called, wrote, tweeted…just so much pushback from the citizens,” that the effort to kill the bill was successful, she tells me today.
After citing the many who made Thursday’s late night victory possible, Marks turns our attention to several continuing related battles. Among them, the lawsuit her organization, Coalition for Good Governance, filed months ago in hopes of ending GA’s use of DREs in favor of a verifiable HAND-MARKED paper ballots. GA already uses such a system for absentee vote-by-mail balloting and, Marks argues, the same existing system could easily and inexpensively be expanded for use by all voters at the polling place before this fall’s crucial mid-terms.
She also offers a warning for voters around the nation, where unverifiable computer-marked and barcoded paper ballot BMD schemes, like the ones being pushed in GA, are already being deceptively sold to the public as “paper ballot” systems by Republicans and Democrats alike. PLEASE NOTE: Paper ballots or “voter-marked” paper ballots are not enough. Demand nothing less than HAND-MARKED paper ballots as your state or county “upgrades” its system with the hundreds of millions of dollars that have just been allocated for this by Congress!
Marks tells me she’s hopeful that the broad social media effort on SB430 has resulted in lessons that can be used around the country “when — it’s not an ‘if’, but ‘when’ — the barcode balloting comes to them. And they better be watching carefully, because this money is about to start flowing from the federal government like now, literally now, and you know exactly what the vendors are going to do.”
Also on today’s show: A recently leaked memo reveals how Administrator Scott Pruitt’s EPA is now instructing employees to use false talking points regarding the science of climate change in order to create doubt and confuse the public about the broad scientific consensus finding the human burning of fossil fuels as the main cause of global warming; A new AP survey of young voters finds huge majorities see Donald Trump as “racist”, “dishonest” and “mentally unfit” for office; Judge Stephen Reinhardt, “liberal lion” on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, died suddenly on Thursday, after nearly 40 years on the court; And, finally, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds some 75% of Americans now support a “Medicare-for-All” style, single-payer, national health care insurance program…
What a great show on Friday! From GA voting to the EPA insanity. (Perhaps they should change the name of the EPA to the Environmental Propaganda Administration.) Great coverage and an awesome interview!
The show was particularly interesting to me since I have just moved to Georgia from Seattle. I had pretty much decided not to vote here due to their horrible touchscreen elections. I mean, why participate in something like that? To what end? Now I find I may be able to use a hand filled out, paper ballot, thanks to the work of people like you! So I decided I’ll go ahead and register. Big hugs to you and Desi! — S
4Earth –
Thanks for the nice words! AND, glad to hear the info was helpful to you out there. Yes, even if GA doesn’t manage to change it’s system between now and November, you can STILL fill out a hand-marked paper ballot there if you vote absentee!
(Which, btw, I never recommend, unless it’s either a) absolutely necessary because you’ll be out of town on Election Day or b) you’re otherwise forced to vote on 100% unverifiable touch-screen systems on Election Day at the polling place.)