Guest blogged by Shannyn Moore
ANCHORAGE – If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament.
I grew up in what I call “The First Free-Range Organic Christian Church of Homer.” Sundays brought a message, fellowship, and a line of repentant souls taking communion-a remembrance of sacrifice.
The first time I cast my vote, it struck me as similar. The blood shed for my right to stand at a flag draped table and make my choice part of the collective wasn’t lost on me. I had one of those “Come to Jesus” moments and in 20 years I haven’t missed an opportunity to vote. Unlike Christ, the idea of democracy has never shed a drop of blood; patriots did. The same cannot be said of the suffragettes. Unlike the sacrament celebrated in religious ritual, elections should not be faith-based. The framers never intended our government to be run on trust; hence the myriad of checks and balances. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Election integrity is not about restoring faith in the system. Checks and balances are…
When we vote, the agreement we all make is we cast our ballots for candidates who may not be the victor. We know that. Taking the risk of voting for a loser only works if you have confidence the process is beyond reproach. It is equally vital the winning candidate have an agreement the citizenry will follow their lead. Leadership can only be ordained if the people know their votes counted.
The past eight years have shown us the result of questioned elections. After election disasters in Florida and Ohio, a good portion of the country didn’t agree George W. Bush was legitimate. I know people who refused to call him President Bush because of the suspected election fraud.
Alaska has a rich history of questionable elections. 2008 has been no different. Anomalies prompt people to scratch their heads and watch just a little closer. From some reactions, you would have thought asking a question was “unpatriotic.” After reporting on the 2004 Election tampering, and knowing full well it was questionable, I wondered what this year’s ballots would tell us. Apparently, Alaskans have completely changed their “voting habits” to include: a mail-in preference, cross-ballot voting, and finally, registering to vote and then not showing up. Alaska headlines are screaming “record turnout!” But in truth, our percentage of voter turnout is still lower than our average historical Presidential election records show. So what? Does that mean we shouldn’t ask questions and get answers about reconciliation? As Americans we pledge to hold our leaders accountable; why wouldn’t we start by holding the process of elections to the highest levels of integrity.
The day after the election I was in contact with both the Begich and Berkowitz campaigns. I’ve been in very close contact with the Alaska Democratic Party which has filed Public Records Requests. Experts from around the country are more than happy to answer questions or to mull over possible explanations to the election anomalies. People much smarter than I are paying attention, and are asking their own questions. A reporter I’ve bumped into for several years called today. He wanted to know if I thought the current vote count in Alaska was still “stinky.” Another local asked if I thought the process was now legitimized since Begich was now leading Stevens. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? That my questions would hinge on partisanship is insulting and indicates a complete lack of understanding. Anyone who thinks we don’t need a more transparent election process because their candidate is in the lead is a pathetic partisan hack. I became a voter registrar in February of this year. To want to count only votes cast for my party of choice is vulgar. Not watching the referee calls when your team is winning is to invalidate the game.
So do I still smell the mudflats? Yes. Do I know what the source of stench is? No. Could it be the late wafts coming off the 2004 election? Possibly. What I know most certainly is this: voting is a sacred right; a remembrance of those who fought hard and shed blood for a bulletproof idea. Guarding the integrity of elections is essential to our democracy and anything less is blasphemy.
Show up. Ask questions.
Every vote counts.
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Shannyn Moore is a Native Alaskan and a top rated progressive broadcaster based in Anchorage, Alaska. Shannyn blogs at ShannynMoore.wordpress.com and Huffington Post.
Excellent comparision Shannyn. I’m just wondering, what you think about the dem’s argument they couldn’t push election integrity issues before this presidential election for fear of undermining people’s confidence in the election process and using that excuse to allow the dysfunction in our elections to get their guy in and keep the whole power structure still in place? Hell, the supreme court even sided with that flawed logic. As a very wise man once replied when asked have we a republic or monarchy?, ” A republic if you can keep it.”
http://www.bartleby.com/73/1593.html
Without clean, unquestionable elections, it doesn’t seem to me we have kept it…feel good victory or not! Add to that, the most listened to media’s total blackout of the most troubling aspects of our election systems, and by george, one could easily reason the appearance of a Democracy would be enough to keep the monarchy in place. It seems to me a historic opportunity exists for our president elect in restoring our Democracy with clean election law.
For eight years now, we’ve had a monarchy Most of us didn’t like it. of course the American Tories wallowwed in the glory that was Bush, but Now that the idea has resurfaced, let us make certain that it never disappears again.most of us would have preferred to be ruled by our Condtitution, instead of one man’s whim
The technology exists, and has for quite some time, that would allow each and every state across teh fruited plain (Hawaii and Alaska as well) to completely stop all voter fraud. There’s no time like the present to get the darn thing in place and implemented.
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/
The latest round of kongresskrapper kabuki has finished. This episode was entitled “FUCK YOU NETROOTS!” and was presented by the Senate to everyone in the USA who voted for “change”.
At the end of the stylized performance the hero Lieberman was saved from answering for his neglect of his duties and enabling of Bush regime malfeasance and instead was rewarded with great wealth and power. The hero who saved him, President-Elite Obama, stood modestly by.
Change who can believe in?
… Jimmy Lewis said…
Since voter fraud, i.e. fraud by voters, is practically nonexistent that wouldn’t be much.
If you meant electoral fraud, fraud at the electoral level, well most of that is currently caused or abetted by technology of one form or the other in the first place… very poorly chosen technology.
Jimmy Lewis –
What “voter fraud” and what “technology” are you talking about? Sounds like you don’t have a clue about either of them. Feel free to prove me wrong. Though I might suggest you go read the article again first…then another hundred or more other articles here before you bother to step in it again.
The voters are doing fine. Please leave them alone. But the administration of your elections — by private companies, and insidious officials trying to keep legal voters from casting their legal vote — are a disaster. And that, my friend, is ELECTION fraud. Hope you take the time to learn what you’re writing about, and about the most precious right and important value on which your country stands.
Brad,
I did read your article … and I thought it was very well written. I was not attacking voters, per se. Private companies and insidious officials are all a great part ot it, however, you called me out and asked what vote fraud. So Brad, here it is, the many types of fraud that exist today … including:
Voter registration, voter suppression, voter caging and purging, voting multiple times, felon voting, absentee ballots, voter impersonation, illegal aliens, homeless people and vote brokers who bus people from place to polling place all figure into elections.
Then there’s the physical tampering aspect. Ballot stuffing, theft or destruction of ballot boxes, destroying election material, registering false voters including the dead (this type of fraud can occur in voter registration drives, especially those conducted in third-party voter registration efforts like those involving ACORN.
There have been reports of changing the software of a voting machine to shift votes between candidates. Altering or replacing the hardware of the voting machine, such as inserting a circuit board using a ‘Man in the Middle’ attack technique to manipulate recorded votes. And how about voter intimidation and coercion, bribery, corruption or threatening of election officials that has existed for far too long? Counting electronic ballots of voting machines, usually memory cards, more than once if they contain votes as wanted by the fraudster. The opposite is to let them disappear in case of unwanted votes, this is equivalent to stealing an entire ballot box.
The technology I spoke of would combine the following: A uniformed (nationwide) bar code on all drivers licenses and state issued I.D. cards (which would indicate whether or not the voter is legally registered), along with biometrics (i.e. a thumb print). The individual “registered” voter would be the only human to handle his or her own vote. If the bar code and biometrics match, the vote would then be sent, electronically and instantaneously, to each individual city and state offices where the integrity of the data is secure and final (all without any additional human intervention or interpretation.
Since this system would allow for any legally qualified individual to vote (once), at any officially authorized location around the globe, the need for absentee balloting becomes moot.
I’m sorry that you felt the need to read between the lines and attack me “¦ when in essence I was agreeing with you.
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/
Jimmy Lewis,
1. I am a registered voter, and because of financial problems, I don’t have an ID card. Now what?
2. DMV Tries to Stem the Tide of Fake Licenses Voting ID is a Real BAD idea. (only took me 0.29 seconds to find this http://www.google.com/search?q=...DMV+corruption )
3. Humans can not see electronic signals, such a system as you suggested above (electronically and instantaneously), would not allow for citizen oversight, and would in fact open up exploit possibilities to officials and programmers. Also electronic parts fail without warning.
4. voter fraud and election fraud are not the same. These words have different meanings which represent different actions.
5. Nobody is attacking you.
6. Not sure how to break this down so you understand.
“Voter registration, voter suppression, voter caging and purging, voting multiple times, felon voting, absentee ballots, voter impersonation, illegal aliens, homeless people and vote brokers who bus people from place to polling place all figure into elections.”
We shall try..
Voter registration – election fraud
voter suppression – election fraud
voter caging and purging – election fraud
voting multiple times – voter fraud, fascist media story fraud
felon voting – voter fraud
absentee ballots – election fraud
voter impersonation – voter fraud, fascist media hype fraud
illegal aliens – voter fraud, fascist media story hype fraud
homeless people and vote brokers who bus people from place to polling place all figure into elections. – voter fraud, fascist media story hype fraud
Continuing on…
physical tampering aspect – Election Fraud
Ballot stuffing – Election Fraud, Broken Chain of Custody
theft or destruction of ballot boxes – Election Fraud, Broken Chain of Custody
destroying election material – Election Fraud, Broken Chain of Custody
registering false voters including the dead – Election Fraud
(this type of fraud can occur in voter registration drives, especially those conducted in third-party voter registration efforts like those involving ACORN. – Media Hype Fraud
There have been reports of changing the software of a voting machine to shift votes between candidates. – Election Fraud
Altering or replacing the hardware of the voting machine, such as inserting a circuit board using a ‘Man in the Middle’ attack technique to manipulate recorded votes. – Election Fraud
And how about voter intimidation – Election Fraud
and coercion – Election Fraud
bribery – Voter Fraud, Transparency Breech
corruption or threatening of election officials that has existed for far too long? (Two Sub Categories lumped into one.)
Corrupt Officials – Election Fraud
Threatening Election Officials – Media Hype, The opposite has been true where Officials threaten and arrest voters and poll watchers.
Counting electronic ballots of voting machines – Election Fruad
usually memory cards usually, more than once if they contain votes as wanted by the fraudster. – Election Fraud
The opposite is to let them disappear in case of unwanted votes, this is equivalent to stealing an entire ballot box. – Election Fraud
7. Paper Ballots, Hand Counted, with public oversight and an Unbroken Chain of Custody, and Non Electronic Voter Registration Registry List.
What a great post. Shannyn puts the “gritty” in election integrity.
… Phil said in comment #8…
Rock on, Phil! 🙂
Your answers, and Brads, were much more coherent than my sleep-deprived one.
Jimmy Lewis –
I will take it on faith, for the moment, that you are sincere in your concerns and so will presume that you had previously been confused by so much of the propaganda out there.
My time is short today, and so I’ll refer you to Phil’s response above, in hopes that it begins to help you untangle the conflation you’ve made between real concerns of election fraud, and the phony (GOP-promoted) concerns about voter fraud.
Yes, the idea of hundreds of thousands and/or millions of voters being illegally purged from the roles is a very serious concern. As is the idea that a single person with inappropriate access to a voting machine can flip an entire election without detection.
The largely fantasized notion of “illegals” and dead people and fraudulently registered ACORN voters voting and double-voting, etc. is a scam. While there are a handful (literally, can be counted on one hand) of such things happening over the past 10 years, they hardly compare to the very real concerns mentioned in the graf above.
You’ll note that your proposed “solutions” do nothing to combat the real concerns mentioned, only the phony ones. In fact, they make some of the real concerns even worse (since there are far more access points for bad guys to invisibly disrupt/confound/flip the entire process).
As mentioned, I don’t have much time today, so I’ll have to leave it at that for now, and hope that you will get to work — there is plenty to read here over the years — to untangle what has been tangled for you, so we can work together towards real solutions (hint: none of them require technology).
And, for the record, I did not write the piece above. It was written by Shannyn Moore from Alaska, a journalist who has recently learned hard, concentrated lessons in the need for transparency in elections due to the recent fiascos in her state.
Actually, I have some errors. Just trying to be honest here.
I think, (not sure) that felon voting is actually legal in some states. ( I don’t know for sure or which states )
Also, that I can see, I spelled Fraud wrong once. “Fruad”
There might be more errors when you get to details of specifics and specific states. On the other hand I was trying to answer you in a hurry.
However, I know on a personal level I definitely passed the EI comprehension test. Something that the corporate media is yet to come to grips with.
I am not perfect, I try hard. Part of what makes me understand this stuff is my electronics background, (I still have full lab of test equipment.) and in my later years, programming. Although I did understand logic early on. I also have two sets of motorola data books (The brown and the blue), and several other company data books. I learned via the USAF, and my local community college Grob, Malvino, Floyd and hands on by stripping parts and repairing and creating things for years and years.
You might find me talk about bloody knuckles, and the ability to destroy a voting machine (If legally allowed to) in 1 second. That’s cause I KNOW electronics. I can break it real fast. What I can’t do however is reverse engineer silicon under an electron microscope. I don’t have that equipment, and I doubt that I would be legally allowed to destroy every machine just to find out if there were backdoors at the doping level.
I ain’t the smartest guy in the world, but I have common sense, and I know where to go to get things done correctly if I can’t do it myself.
There are a lot of people out there that are smarter than I, but it seems that it still isn’t enough to break though the media blackout on the issue.
I care a lot about voting.
It’s life and death for many who volunteer in our military. The way our country has be run (TOP LEVEL) for the last eight years is a complete disgrace. These people should have their security clearances (IF any) Shredded and never be allowed to work in government, or contract, or lobby for the rest of their lives; others deserve life in prison (in my opinion)
Elections have become a national security problem, the question is when will joe six pack (like myself) realize it?
The media that you hear on AM radio and Broadcast TV for the most part is complete propaganda, spin, lies, or blacklisted. There is not very many people that are telling you the truth out there. Or even trying to. Personally I dig Nova M and Air America, but I don’t always even agree with everything they say either. I am like that. Ask anyone around here that has read my crap. I am a thorn in your side sometimes when you least expect it. And many times I am wrong.
I admit when I am wrong. That’s the way I was taught. I thank my Grandma Adele Caine for that. Many in our family have fought, and some died for this country and your rights.
I want the US Constitution restored. PRE BUSH.
But I am ranting now, I digress.