The Democratic Dilemma

To win -

Power, control,

    the ultimate goal.

No matter how.

    No matter what.

 

          Prior to the 2000 presidential election, Jeb Bush and his Republican administration used an unprecedented combination of dirty tricks, illegal activities and legal but unethical practices that resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of black voters in the state of Florida. These events have been unveiled in a documentary film: "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election." This film incisively lays bare the details of how the Republicans in Florida undermined the democratic process. Intentional electoral injustices, sinister voter purges and suspicious irregularities marred the election. Since the state of Florida's electoral vote went to G.W. Bush by a popular margin of only a few hundred votes, since Bush's victory depended on these votes, and since black voters in Florida prefer Democratic candidates to Republicans by a 20 to 1 margin, it was clear that Jeb Bush's activities illegally gave the presidency to his brother rather than the rightful winner. It was a stolen election. The Republican Party had in effect overthrown the United States government by deceit. With Republicans now controlling the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government, attained through illegal means, the frustration and anger felt by honest Americans who still adhere to democratic principles could logically lead to terrorism and revolution: Civil War American style - with the goal of restoring democracy.

          Jeb Bush was rewarded, not punished, for his crimes. In fact, he and his brother enjoy power as never before. What were the ultimate consequences of his successful coup d'état? The undermining of democracy throughout America. This conclusion was drawn in a New York Times article shortly before the 2004 election where it was noted that Republicans were conducting comparable illegal activities and used similar dirty tricks in at least a dozen different states. When caught, the Republican offenders defended themselves by stating that "Democrats are doing it, too," but in no case was this claim documented. Undemocratic, un-American activities have proven to be rampant by the right-wing extremists who control the Republican Party. The success of Jeb Bush's illegal activities in 2000 promoted at least a 10-fold expansion of similar activities across the country in 2004. Because of their anti-minority practices and their Ku Klux Klan-like tactics, the Republican Party has truly earned the title: the American Nazi Party. Democracy is not valued; the goal is merely to win. The third Reich is back in power.

          The most damaging development over the past four years has been the implementation of electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail and therefore cannot be checked. Over a year before the 2004 Presidential election, I wrote and published newspaper letters warning that manipulation of these machines could easily undermine the basis for democracy; that their use should be prohibited. It was not long thereafter that the use of such machines in California was prohibited. Republicans in many states, however, strongly supported their use. These machines had been made by right-wing-leaning companies that recognized their potential for influencing the outcomes of political races, and Republicans in many states saw this as a golden means to insure continuing political control.

          Just after the 2004 election, Thom Hartmann (CommonDreams.org) wrote an essay entitled "The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy." In this essay he questioned the tenet that democracy in America is still alive. Although many Americans are loath to accept the possibility that we have been duped and cheated of our democratic rights, some of us are convinced that this is the case; that Al Gore, not G.W. Bush was the rightful winner of the Presidential election in 2000, and that John Kerry, not G.W. Bush, was the rightful winner in 2004. Bush has illegally achieved the Presidency in two successive terms, and the power the Republican Party now wields is sufficient to prevent a return to democratic principles. Democracy in America remains only a word.

          A week after Election Day, reports were rolling in of some unsettling trends concerning electronic voting machines. In Columbus, Ohio, for example, machines registered several hundred more votes for Bush than the number of total voters who cast ballots. And in North Carolina, a voting machine lost more than 4,000 votes because of problems attributed to the machine's memory capacity. There have been more than 20,000 complaints about electronic voting machines - and the Internet rumors are flying. That's why Working Assets' ActForChange is working with several members of Congress to call for an independent authority to investigate and dig deeper into the electronic voting problems. At this time, however, it is not clear that these efforts will yield results. After all, Congress is Republican controlled, and the Republicans aim to keep control - at all costs.

          Below I quote, with editing, from an essay by Thom Hartmann, written just after the 2004 Presidential election.

The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all - it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analyses are conducted of what may prove to be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, it is critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time. Why are We The People allowing private, profit-motivated corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, handle our votes?

Maybe Florida went for Kerry, maybe for Bush. Over time - and through the efforts of some very motivated investigative reporters - we may well find out. Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org just filed what may be the largest Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] filing in history. Bloggers and investigative reporters are discovering an odd discrepancy in exit polls being largely accurate in paper-ballot states but inaccurate in touch-screen electronic voting states. Even raw voter analyses are showing extreme oddities in touch-screen-run Florida, and eagle-eyed bloggers are finding that news organizations are retroactively altering their exit polls to coincide with what the machines ultimately said.

Two years ago, Senator Chuck Hagel, before stepping down and running for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska, had been the head of the voting machine company (now ES&S) that had just computerized Nebraska's vote. The Washington Post (1/13/1997) said Hagel's "Senate victory against an incumbent Democratic governor was the major Republican upset in the November election." According to Bev Harris, Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely black communities that had never before voted Republican. Hagel was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska, nearly all on unauditable machines he had just sold the state.

Georgia - another state that went all-electronic - provides another example. USA Today reported on Nov. 3, 2002: ‘In Georgia, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows Democratic Sen. Max Cleland with a 49% to 44% lead over Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss.' Cox News Service, based in Atlanta, reported just after the election (Nov. 7) that, "Pollsters may have goofed" because "Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland by a margin of 53 to 46 percent." The Hotline, a political news service, recalled a series of polls Wednesday showing ‘that Chambliss had been ahead in none of them.' Nearly every vote in the state was on an electronic machine with no audit trail.

Recently, Bev Harris published her book on the subject of "Black Box Voting". It includes the revelation of her finding of the notorious "Rob Georgia" folder on Diebold's FTP site just after Cleland's loss there. Lynn Landes had done some groundbreaking research, particularly her investigation of the Associated Press, as confirmed by Rebecca Mercuri and David Dill. There's a new video out on the topic, Votergate, available at www.votergate.tv which everyone should see. It alerts us all to the dangers which are already reality.

Democratic Congressman Rush Holt had introduced a bill into Congress requiring a voter-verified paper ballot be produced by all electronic voting machines. This bill was co-sponsored by a majority of the members of the House of Representatives. The two-year battle fought by Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay, both powerful Republican leaders in the House, kept it from coming to a vote, thus insuring that there would be no possible audit of the votes of about a third of the 2004 electorate. This has fueled the flames of conspiracy theorists convinced that Republican ideologues - already known to be willing to lie in television advertising - would extend their "ends justifies the means" morality to stealing the vote "for the better good of the country" they think single-party Republican rule will bring. Importantly, two rallying cries of the emerging "honest vote" movement must become: (1) Force Republicans to Follow Democratic Principles, and Prosecute When They Don't, and (2) Get Corporations Out of Our Vote!

Why have we let corporations into our polling places, locations so sacred to democracy that in many states even international election monitors and reporters are banned? Why are we allowing corporations to exclusively handle our vote, in a secret and totally invisible way? Particularly a private corporation founded, in one case, by a family that believes the Bible should replace the Constitution; in another case run by one of Ohio's top Republicans; and in another case partly owned by Saudi investors?

It's time that the U.S. - like most of the rest of the world - returns to paper ballots, counted by hand by civil servants (our employees) under the watchful eye of the party faithful. Even if it takes two weeks to count the vote, and we have to just go, until then, with the exit polls of the news agencies. It worked just fine for nearly 200 years in the USA, and it can work again. The electronic voting machines are not working, except in the illegal interests of the far right.

In Germany, they take the vote the same way most of the world does - people fill in hand-marked ballots, which are hand-counted by civil servants taking a week off from their regular jobs, watched over by volunteer representatives of the political parties. It's totally clean, and easily audited. And even though it takes a week or more to count the vote, the German people know the election results the night the polls close because the news media's exit polls, for two generations, have never been more than a fraction of a percent off. We could save billions of dollars that have instead been handed over to ES&S, Diebold, and other private corporations. Or, if we must have machines, let's have them owned by local governments, maintained and programmed by civil servants answerable to We The People, using open-source code and disconnected from modems, that produce a voter-verified printed ballot, with all results published on a precinct-by-precinct basis.

As Thomas Paine wrote at this nation's founding, "The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery."

 

 

Thom Hartmann (thom@thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show. www.thomhartmann.com. His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People: A Call To Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy."