1. not sorry for 'shrill' tone and abrasive attitude; when democracy is being smothered, i have no time for polite entreaties... saloonists who think that civility and politeness are all that is needed to effect real change are fools... *as if* our forefathers had only been more polite to king george, he would have relented...

2. again, not *just* dem'rats, but all der gut citizens *should* have been clamoring for TRUSTWORTHY, complete, and accurate vote counting since AT LEAST coup 2000... is voting the BEDROCK of a purported participatory small-dee democracy or not ? ? ?

(i have NO DOUBT that much of the early-voting phenomena -DEGRADED by recent laws, NOT enhanced- is due to various minorities and others JUSTIFIABLE mistrust of the present voting 'systems' and 'their' (sic) gummint which administers them...)

3. because of the fatally flawed role of the korporate/mainstream media, the sleeper will not awaken: there is no clarion call from investigative mainstream journos that 'our' (sic) voting systems are flawed, vulnerable, and gamed...

no oj-ification of that issue, no sirree...

no MSM attention, no problems, nothing to see here, move along...

4. to iterate and reiterate: computer-based systems ARE INHERENTLY VULNERABLE... don't take this village idiot's word for it, most any computer expert of note will agree to the inevitable problems involved, ESPECIALLY UNDER PRESENT SYSTEMS CONFIGURATIONS...

5. EVEN GIVEN computer-based voting systems, the present configurations are fraught with systemic, logical, and application problems that are moronic: spaghetti code (good for hiding mal-code) unnecessary in what is -at heart- an abacus simulation; daisy-chained machines that transmit 'illegal' (*snort* as if that means anything) code changes and 'patches' AFTER machines are 'certified' (NOT that 'certification' means much: the election supers CAN'T SEE THE PROPRIETARY CODE, even if they could analyze it); the audit capabilities are either nil or useless; as you mentioned, the chain of custody on both machines and the various form factors of recording votes (smart cards, discs, etc) is out of control; NOT TO MENTION, machines and VOTE TABULATORS which are amenable to 'outside' phone calls/jiggerypokery, AS WELL AS -again- 'illegal' software 'upgrades' and 'patches' EVEN AFTER the voting is over...

6. shit, 'we' can't even get our fearless kongresskritters to change the stupid electoral college fiasco to reflect the people's will more directly; EVEN AFTER one of the most controversial (*snicker*) elections of our his story where (supposedly) the electoral vote was not reflected in the popular vote total...

AND we expect these Korporate Money Party hacks to overhaul our voting systems to increase and benefit voter participation, not limit it ?

we expect these keepers of the duopoly to do ANYTHING which makes it practical for third parties to get a toehold ?

i don't think so...

my suggestions ? thought you'd never ask:

PAPER BALLOTS

HAND COUNTED

LOCALLY REPORTED

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

remember this election day: one dollar, one vote !

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof

PAPER BALLOTS

HAND COUNTED

LOCALLY REPORTED

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

ANY -repeat ANY- COMPUTER-BASED system IS vulnerable to centralized hacking (as are the vote tabulators) in a manner and degree that 'normal', distributed voting systems are not; which SHOULD disqualify such systems from use, period...

NOT ONLY is this merely a truism given computers and the systems (ie vista) we run on them, but is doubly so given the 'blackbox', (so-called) 'proprietary' status of the code... (AT THE VERY LEAST, the code needs to be open source and transparent)

(wtf ? a 6th grade nerd with a spreadsheet program could make a perfectly usable 'election' program in an evening...)

it is triply so given that numerous hackers and other computer security experts have DEMONSTRATED the NUMEROUS exploits that could be used to hack the vote...

further, NOT THAT voter suppression/etc isn't important and effective in and of themselves, but FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY is establishing the acceptable memes and narrative THAT WILL DISGUISE THE ELECTION FLIPPING and muddy the waters...

acorn/etc ('they both do it...')

redbaiting ('energized the base for unexpected turnout...')

new narrative to explain events ('we've got them just where we want them...' 'i'm a come-from-behind kind of guy...' 'you just wait, late at night, we will gain on'em...')

and ALL OF THIS election fraud crap has been suspected since BEFORE coup 2000, and made obvious during coup 2000 and 2004...

WHERE HAVE THE DEM'RATS BEEN ? ? ?

HAVA only exacerbated problems and enforced hackable, non-auditable DRE devices on EVERYONE...

why, dem'rats, why ? ? ?

'CAUSE THEY *WANT* A FUCKED UP SYSTEM, *JUST* LIKE THE RETHUGS ! ! ! IT SERVES THE INTERESTS OF *BOTH* HEADS OF THE KORPORATE MONEY PARTY...

The System (tm) is broken, and saloonies are going to 'fix it' by throwing more money at a corrupt system to be corrupt their way...

*sigh*

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof