We Pretend to Vote, They Pretend to Get Elected

This is a big week for elections and voting rights advocates.

In addition to being a huge political event, the activity surrounding
the Holt Bill, H.R. 811, is highly symbolic,. The symbolism is that of
diversion and denial. Holt is the apotheosis of the 2002 Help America
Vote Act (HAVA). That nihilistic effort was supposed to take care of
the problems of Florida in 2000. Unfortunately, Congress missed the
point. Instead of dealing with the 57,000 voters wrongfully removed
from the state of Florida?s registration records (50% minority voters)
and the 100,000 plus ?spoiled? ballots in Florida which were spoiled
along racial lines (predominantly black precincts), HAVA served up the
new voter suppression and disenfranchisement through its emphasis on
voting machines and centralized registration databases.

This is important to understand. Congress passed a bill that gave us
lousy voting machines run by Republican companies and an emphasis on
state based centralized voter registration, the same type of databases
used by Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush to remove the 57,000 voters from
the rolls in 2000. It did nothing about spoiled ballots in minority
precincts, other than provide a new vehicle for spoilage, electronic
voting machines. HAVA also ignored the potential for
disenfranchisement via state based voter registration databases. What
could they have been thinking? One wonders. But, they weren?t thinking
very well.

HAVA is the Somnambulist controlled by Dr. Caligari. The Holt Bill is
the magic elixir that keeps the Somnambulist from ever awakening from
his dangerous and mindless sleepwalking journey that devastates the
community. Quite an accomplishment!

I?m not questioning Holt?s motives. He introduced bills on voter
intimidation and misleading election practices in the 109th Congress
and he?s heading up the election contest brought by candidate
Christine Jennings in Florida?s 13th congressional district. I fully
expect his considerable intellect will not be able to tolerate that
obvious miscarriage of justice.

Nevertheless, we need to wonder what kind of input Holt?s getting to
produce such a flawed bill. It?s not all right to perpetuate
electronic voting. At the very least, touch screens should be tossed
in the nearest recycle bin immediately, if not sooner. It?s not all
right to have election systems so complex that we need experts to
decipher the election results. There will always be hired guns on one
side or the other who make the case leading to endless controversy,
litigation, and public distrust.

Can?t the Congressional faction get over it? They don?t get to control
and manipulate with abandon using complexity and magic shows which
they think continue to confuse and dazzle the public. People are well
aware that electronic voting is a joke perpetuated by special
interests; the interests who take but do not give and promise but
never deliver. Congress needs to provide a suitable election approach
that speaks to the peoples? need to know and understand. Instead, we
have an expertise in diversion that focuses us on the machines while
we avoid the real issue, the issue that?s been with us since the
Compromise of 1876, the suppression and disenfranchisement of minority
and poor voters.

Compounding the diversion is outright denial. It?s more than simply
denying the real problem; that?s easy to see. It?s a denial of the
original 1960?s Civil and Voting Rights legislation. In an excellent
article in AlterNet, Steve Rosenfeld points out the following:

As election integrity activists focus their attention on pressuring
the House Committee on Administration to ban electronic voting
machines when Congress reconvenes next week, the question of whether
voters can individually sue -- known as a private cause of action --
has received scant public attention. But that legal right, which was a
cornerstone of the federal Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, is
not in the panel's bill, H.R. 811. Instead, the bill says citizens can
sue under other preexisting law. 13 April 2007

Think about it. What would our history look like had citizens been
denied the right to sue to gain their civil and voting rights?

In a previous article on the subject, Rosenfeld criticized election
integrity activists for focusing on the negatives of the Holt bill
while ignoring its implications. He suggests that H.R. 811 will
effectively ban touch screens (DREs) and assure that optical scans
with durable paper ballots are the standard. Should Holt pass, I hope
that he?s right. He?s certainly a thorough analyst.

However, I disagree. It doesn?t matter if Holt passes. The regulatory
arm of the federal government for voting rights is the Department of
Justice with U.S. Attorneys fired for political reasons and replaced
by political operatives. The name of the game is voter fraud, the sham
election crime wave that produced a grand total of 24 convictions
between 2002 and 2005. Those attorneys will not likely enforce much of
anything that Holt offers, unless it?s advantageous to the White House
game plan for 2008, perhaps the most important election in our
nation?s history given the stakes.

The reality is simple. If the Holt bill passes, it will be enforced by
Alberto Gonzales or his replacement aided by one of those famous
presidential signing statements where the laws passed by Congress are
changed with the stroke of an autopen. And we?ll have voting machines,
optical scan or touch screen, built, sold, and, in many cases,
maintained by politicized corporations of a Republican kind.

Congress is doing a much better job on Iraq than it is on elections.
At least we?ve got people willing to stand up and say that the war is
a disaster. When will we get a major political figure to stand up and
say that our election system is a disaster designed to maintain those
in power in perpetuity; most often at the expense of the least
powerful?

Until we have a thorough exposure of the various forms of election
fraud, the situation will remain one where we pretend to vote and they
pretend to get elected.

Michael Collins
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: Bush voted worst President ever.
    ... Voting this next election just became much easier. ... I'll vote for whoever is running against anyone ... This bill is a rush to judgement in my mind. ... Be assured that you have my vote in the upcoming election. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Eleven worst places in the country to vote -- all controlled by Republicons
    ... We used to think the voting system was something like the traffic laws -- a ... Some allow prisoners to vote; ... Georgia state legislators passed a bill requiring voters to present ... director of election law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. ...
    (alt.politics)
  • [Full-Disclosure] Blackbox: Elections fraud in 2004
    ... Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 ... evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside ... National Association of State Election Directors -- to certify that your ... The most important test on the ITA report is called the .penetration ...
    (Full-Disclosure)
  • RE: [Full-Disclosure] Blackbox: Elections fraud in 2004
    ... > election through electronic voting machines. ... > evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside ... > The most important test on the ITA report is called the .penetration ...
    (Full-Disclosure)
  • Early voting is driving stakes into the hearts of Republican vampires
    ... WASHINGTON -- Officials in early voting states are reporting record turnout with Election Day still two weeks away. ... Voters line up Monday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to cast their ballots early. ...
    (alt.politics.bush)
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