ACTION ALERT FOR NOVEMBER 2008
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With national primary elections at an end,
and a very important general election coming in
November, spiritual progressives need to take action now to let our legislators know that we
Unfortunately, legislation that attempted to make that possible was defeated in the House of Representatives almost completely along party lines on April 15, 2008. San Diego Democratic Representatives Bob Filner and Susan Davis voted YES and San Diego Republican Representatives Darrell Issa, Brian Bilbray, and Duncan Hunter all voted NO.
The "Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008" , H.R. 5036, would have provided financial assistance to states, if requested, by offering reimbursements for the costs of obtaining paper ballot voting systems and for the costs incurred in conducting audits or hand counting of the results for the November 2008 General elections. This would have helped those states burdened by the tremendous expense of unreliable electronic voting systems, states now finding it difficult to afford a return to paper ballots.
Sadly, in 2008 in San Diego, even though we have paper ballots at precincts and absentee paper ballots, we still will not know if the electronic optical scanners read our paper ballots correctly and we have no way of knowing if the electronic tabulators have counted our votes accurately, short of a hand recount which is prohibitively expensive and will not take place.
In 2008, very few counties nationwide have chosen to hand count paper ballots. Most, unfortunately, have instead chosen expensive and unreliable partisan privately owned election systems to count votes using secret, proprietary software to run the scanners and tabulators.
With the financial incentives provided by HAVA,
the "Help America Vote Act of 2002," we are now at a place in the U.S. where almost ALL votes cast nationwide are counted and tabulated by four major voting systems companies (soon to be three), all privately owned and operated using secret proprietary software, not available for public oversight. In May 2008 it might be just three companies, all with strong ties to the Republican party.
Throughout the primary season, we have witnessed these private corporations conducting our public elections with malfunctioning voting equipment exempt from any public oversight.
When combined with questionable use of electronic voter registration databases, new requirements by some states for state-issued IDs at the polls, and a host of additional partisan efforts to prevent a number of eligible citizens from voting, you have a problem/disaster of major proportions for any democracy. In addition, you have the very real silencing of the voice of spiritual progressives as our nation sets its priorities and goals for the future.
This is an ACTION ALERT asking everyone to contact your senators and representatives, state senators and assembly members, to let them know that you do not approve of the status quo for elections in 2008. Contact organizations that you belong to, media outlets, friends and
acquaintances, asking them all to join you in
working for change. Every email, letter to the editor, and phone call is only one ripple in the pond, but only a few ripples in a pond often signal a bigger storm coming. Elections in the U.S. are very dirty right now and in dire need of a cleansing storm of public protest.
"There is no particular
reason to trust the outcome of any election in the U.S. anymore, at least not those counted by computers,which is most of them."
"If America returned to the paper ballot system, fraud and error in elections definitely would not end. They would,
however, be much easier to detect and correct. Elections would [then] be run by people, not corporations. There are enough vested interests trying to influence every election. Why do we need the extraneous interest of profit-making companies?"
Jonathan Vankin
It now appears that
HAVA had less to do with helping the disabled voter and
more to do with helping to privatize the conduct of U.S. elections while at the same time increasing profit for a select few partisan voting systems venders.
HAVA provided a windfall of tax dollars to these select few
voting systems venders.
must have passage of legislation before November 2008 that will at the very least,
guarantee that all votes will be cast on a
paper ballot and that funds will be made available for mandated audits.
The reliability and accuracy of American election results is in doubt. We must take action now to assure that our votes are counted and our voices are heard. Our silence could yield results that present a danger to all of us now and for generations to come. Note: **As of November 1, 2008, needed reforms have not been mandated.
The Security of our Votes is in Doubt
Each state determines how it will conduct elections. State senators and assembly members can legislate safeguards.