John

We are having record breaking temperatures here, and Kevin is doing some record breaking discourse. Very dis.

My description of Kevin's movie was The Silence of The Goats initially, which now in hindsight, was the better reality.

Now Kevin shows us that they can get even worse. They can proclaim deceit, incompetence, and utter contempt for the voter's intelligence when they are not being silent.

There is so much election official ignorance we can't keep track of it anymore (link here).

Perhaps The Ignorance of The Goats has been their goal all along?

Without valid elections there can be no valid government. Without valid government what do we have here?

Ever notice, election officials make an initial response to a brad blog or blackboxvoting charge, that is full of holes? This is in hopes that brad blog or blackboxvoting do not make a counter-response pointing out their lies/propoganda/incompetance. So, brad blog and blackboxvoting MUST respond. See Arthur Andersen's first response to Bev Harris. First, they ignore you. Then they make ridiculous responses. Then they resign or go to jail.

They really think they can issue ridiculous responses, full of holes, and expect it not to be pointed out. Why doesn't this election official go on a talk show, or debate someone from brad blog or blackboxvoting?

Big Dan said:

"Why doesn't this election official go on a talk show, or debate someone from brad blog or blackboxvoting?"

Because they CAN'T "issue ridiculous responses, full of holes, and expect it not to be pointed out."

Speaking of Wrecks - this morning, just as I was pulling into my parking space at work, Stephanie Miller played a recording of Bush introducing his new Budget Director and expounding on how he was going to spend the Taxpayers money wisely!

I busted up laughing so hard I almost drove through the lobby!

A week or two ago KestrelBrighteyes, if I recall, talked about passing out leaflets at the polling place telling people about these machines and asking if they think their vote counts.

Anyone have a take on the legality?

I sent this:
Subject: YOU MIGHT WANT TO CORRECT THIS

It is hard for me to believe that you would acknowledge the statement made by your spokesman, Kevin Evanto, that "optical scanners do not have a voter verified paper trail."

The ballot that the scanner counts IS VOTER VERIFIED PAPER. It is filled out by the voter himself.

This kind of absurd statement does not reflect well on officials who should have at least rudimentary knowledge of the meaning of terms.

Please. This is a hugely important issue.

Arlene Montemarano
Silver Spring, Maryland
============

And Got this:

Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 08:20:42 -0400
From: Evanto, Kevin
To: 'Arlene Montemarano' , Executive

A voter-verifiable paper audit trail is defined as a "vote receipt" printed by an electronic voting machine showing the elector his/her vote as it is being acquired by the electoral system. Optical scan machines that are legal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania cannot have this feature because VVPAT is not permitted by our state. Once the optical scan ballot is placed into the scanner, there is no way to trace it back to an individual voter-therefore, it is not a voter-verified paper audit trail. If it were, we would not be able to use it in Pennsylvania.

=========

HUH?

Are these people brain damaged?
How can they be so ignorant??

They're supposed to be the experts on this right?

On That Seventies Show, they make Kelso wear the "stupid helmet" whenever he does something stupid.

All the helmet manufacturers in the country should make a LOT of stupid helmets so we can spot these morons easier.

Just a quick note on Kevin's statement:
"They have been certified by both the U.S. government..."

Kevin:
I would urge you to do your homework, especially before chasting people who know a hell of a lot more than you do regarding voting systems.
For your information: The U.S. Government does not certify any voting systems. Incompetent government officials spouting off ignorant, misleading statements at the taxpayers expense, and against those same taxpayers' interests, need to be fired.
Our vote is not something that we will passively allow to be trampled upon.
Question: If Pennsylvania does not allow a VVPAT, just how do you conduct an audit or recount of those votes electronicaly recorded, and/ or tabulated?

Polls are showing that the people favor democrats taking over majority party status in congress in November. It is by average about 47% to 33% and growing (link here).

However, the way congressional districts are drawn (link to your district map here) raises the very serious spectre that gerrymandering may thwart the will of the people.

The way districts are drawn can change everything (link here).

On Hardball With Chris Matthews(MSNBC) yesterday (4/18/06), a reporter stated that on a district by district basis, polls show that republicans would hold the majority.

In other words, the design of the districts is such that it thwarts and is contrary to the will of the people at large.

The map link above shows how true this is. Look at the 25th and 28th districts of Texas, Tom DeLay constructs, to see what I mean.

We have a dictatorial situation anytime the will of the people is thwarted by its government. There is no other name for it. Some dictatorships are less vile than others, but calling a spade a spade is what I am talking about.

We have a dictatorship if the people cannot express their will by their vote. If the government allows us to vote but that vote is meaningless, the fact is that it is a dictatorship because the people cannot change the government.

The Texas gerrymandering case has been put on the fast track by the US Supreme Court (link here).

This is unusual under normal circumstances, but is all the more unusual since the cases have been stalled and have therefore been on the slow track in the US Supreme Court until now.

The case it now seems that will be reversed is Henderson v Perry (link here).

The issue of gerrymandering is equal to the problem with voting machines. Because even if we perfect the voting machines, the gerrymandering issue is just as much a threat.

Both evils ... gerrymandering and fraudulent and junky electronic voting machines ... are destroying American democracy.

And if the judicial goes down the tubes too (link here), and does not stop gerrymandering, I am sorry to say that democracy will be gone from American soil for a long time.

Kevin wrote: "Once the optical scan ballot is placed into the scanner, there is no way to trace it back to an individual voter"

I think what he is saying is that there is a paper ballot which is inserted into and read by the optical scanner. This ballot is not tracable to the individual voter, but there would be a paper trail because there is the ballot itself which was read by the scanner.

This would keep the voters vote private, but still leave a trail.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally against these machines in all of their versions, but I think I see some logic in what he is saying.

A receipt showing "How the machine recorded your vote" could be rigged while the machine actually records something different.

I don't know - the whole thing stinks as far as I'm concerned!

Brad:

Are you aware of the fact that the Op-scan ballots were not counted at the polls, but at the warehouse in the strip?

I thought this was contrary to law. I thought you could not re-count any votes without a court order and all interested parties present.