Busting election theft attempts
Investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman lays out the ways in which the upcoming U.S. presidental could be stolen and what we can do about it.
YouTube Link:
YouTube
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? - Wasserman Pt. 2
Investigative reporter and election protection activist Harvey Wasserman talks about how to repair our hackable election system.
YouTube Link: YouTube
Viewer Embed Code: [past into your web page so people can view it directly there]
SWING STATE: Investigating the Vote in Ohio
This is a proposal for production of an investigative video report on the Romney campaign's links to electronic vote counting in Hamilton County - a key county in the swing state of Ohio.
YouTube
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? - Wasserman Pt. 2
Investigative reporter and election protection activist Harvey Wasserman talks about how to repair our hackable election system.
YouTube Link: YouTube
Viewer Embed Code: [past into your web page so people can view it directly there]
SWING STATE: Investigating the Vote in Ohio
This is a proposal for production of an investigative video report on the Romney campaign's links to electronic vote counting in Hamilton County - a key county in the swing state of Ohio.
As Ohio Faces vote-rigging lawsuit, are dems, liberals, election officials ready to safeguard votes?
There's mounting fall-out from reports, first broken by The Free Press, that a Mitt Romney-linked company owns the Hart Intercivic voting machines used in key counties in Colorado, Ohio and other states. The stories have stoked new fears about a "stolen" election.
UPDATE: Those worries about a rigged election were given new urgency today as The Ohio-based Free Press editor-in-chief Robert Fitrakis, also a Green Party candidate for Congress, announced plans to file a lawsuit later today seeking an immediate injunction against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the ES&S manufacturer to halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized "experimental" software in 39 counties' tabulators in an alleged violation of state election law. His attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, has also referred the case to the Cincinnati FBI for a criminal investigation. Arnebeck says, "It's a flagrant violation of the law. Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between a county's vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators."
UPDATE: Those worries about a rigged election were given new urgency today as The Ohio-based Free Press editor-in-chief Robert Fitrakis, also a Green Party candidate for Congress, announced plans to file a lawsuit later today seeking an immediate injunction against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the ES&S manufacturer to halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized "experimental" software in 39 counties' tabulators in an alleged violation of state election law. His attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, has also referred the case to the Cincinnati FBI for a criminal investigation. Arnebeck says, "It's a flagrant violation of the law. Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between a county's vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators."
The electronic architecture of voter suppression
The Ohio Secretary of State's office may be incorrectly removing thousands of legally registered voters from the voting rolls. The Columbus Free Press has obtained suspect election-related software contracts signed by the Ohio Secretary of State's office. These newly uncovered contracts, signed with Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) and Triad Governmental Services, may be involved with Ohio Secretary of State John Husted's office erroneously, undetectably and possibly illegally removing thousands of registered voters from the voting rolls just prior to the presidential election.
"The purpose of this Agreement is to enable each BOE (Board of Elections) to accurately process BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) Match Files," the contract reads. Under federal law, the so-called "motor voter bill" citizens are allowed to both register to vote and update their voter registration at state BMV offices. The election-related software appears to be built to help move the BMV voter information to 87 of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections.
"The purpose of this Agreement is to enable each BOE (Board of Elections) to accurately process BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles) Match Files," the contract reads. Under federal law, the so-called "motor voter bill" citizens are allowed to both register to vote and update their voter registration at state BMV offices. The election-related software appears to be built to help move the BMV voter information to 87 of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections.
Harvey Wasserman talks election theft with two EON videos
In the following two videos Harvey Wasserman discusses election protection issues with the Ecological Options Network.
"Busting Election Theft Attempts," first portion of the discussion with Harvey Wasserman
Investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman lays out the ways in which the upcoming U.S. presidental could be stolen and what we can do about it.
"What is to be done?," second portion of the discussion with Harvey Wasserman
Investigative reporter and election protection activist Harvey Wasserman talks about how to repair our hackable election system.
Will Your Vote Even Get Counted?
In next week’s presidential elections women could, in effect, lose ownership of their bodies if the Romney-Ryan ticket, with its hard right stance wins. Even if Romney loses it will be a sad day for women in some quarters if candidates such as Akin and Mourdock, with their frightening, absurdist and fundamentalist leanings, are successful.
These candidates also may have an advantage that has not been publicized widely enough. Our elections are controlled by an international, privatized electronic voting industry, making it hard to know who actually owns the voting machines we use. Based on my research on rigged elections, I believe there is a deliberate effort to obscure some ownership issues. Records show that Unisyn, owned by a Malaysian gambling company, Scytl, ES&S, Dominion, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic are major players. There have been allegations that Tagg, Ann and Mitt Romney own Hart InterCivic, whose machines will be used in parts of Ohio and in Colorado (both swing states), and other states too.
These candidates also may have an advantage that has not been publicized widely enough. Our elections are controlled by an international, privatized electronic voting industry, making it hard to know who actually owns the voting machines we use. Based on my research on rigged elections, I believe there is a deliberate effort to obscure some ownership issues. Records show that Unisyn, owned by a Malaysian gambling company, Scytl, ES&S, Dominion, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic are major players. There have been allegations that Tagg, Ann and Mitt Romney own Hart InterCivic, whose machines will be used in parts of Ohio and in Colorado (both swing states), and other states too.
Hurricaine Sandy and the living planet
Suddenly we all know Sandy, the superstorm that whacked New York City, left 55 people dead across the East Coast — and about that many in Haiti as well — knocked out power to millions and caused some $20 billion worth of property damage.
What I find fascinating is that the storm has a name.
Sandy failed to bring climate change into the presidential election season — though the warmer waters of the Atlantic and rising sea levels, resulting from human activity, aggravated the storm’s intensity — but “she” claimed quasi-celebrity status as a killer mega-storm, thus manifesting a deeply pre-scientific human need to personalize nature, indeed, to be one with nature, as so many indigenous people still are.
The naming of tropical storms may seem trivial, but I’m thinking maybe it’s anything but. Climate change denial rests on the assumption that nature is inert and the planet on which we have evolved is a dead rock. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what we do to it.
What I find fascinating is that the storm has a name.
Sandy failed to bring climate change into the presidential election season — though the warmer waters of the Atlantic and rising sea levels, resulting from human activity, aggravated the storm’s intensity — but “she” claimed quasi-celebrity status as a killer mega-storm, thus manifesting a deeply pre-scientific human need to personalize nature, indeed, to be one with nature, as so many indigenous people still are.
The naming of tropical storms may seem trivial, but I’m thinking maybe it’s anything but. Climate change denial rests on the assumption that nature is inert and the planet on which we have evolved is a dead rock. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what we do to it.
The indefinite detention of the progressive voter
Earlier this year President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. It allows for the indefinite detention without trial for any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism.
Some might have thought that there would be wide-spread revolt among people who voted for Obama against legalized indefinite detention. And there was some protest, mostly led by Chris Hedges (who did not vote for Obama), with some legal victories against the law.
But the political success seems to have come from the law itself -- in favor of Obama. Instead of provoking a revolt, the result seems to be this:
Obama is in effect telling his supporters: "You better support me more, because I just signed this law saying the president of the U.S. can detain anyone he wants. Now, do you want me to have this power, or do you want Mitt Romney to have this power?"
And so, perversely, Obama by signing a law most of his supporters almost certainly didn't want, has actually ensured a greater grip on them. He has in effect indefinitely detained them.
Some might have thought that there would be wide-spread revolt among people who voted for Obama against legalized indefinite detention. And there was some protest, mostly led by Chris Hedges (who did not vote for Obama), with some legal victories against the law.
But the political success seems to have come from the law itself -- in favor of Obama. Instead of provoking a revolt, the result seems to be this:
Obama is in effect telling his supporters: "You better support me more, because I just signed this law saying the president of the U.S. can detain anyone he wants. Now, do you want me to have this power, or do you want Mitt Romney to have this power?"
And so, perversely, Obama by signing a law most of his supporters almost certainly didn't want, has actually ensured a greater grip on them. He has in effect indefinitely detained them.
The economic consequences of Mr. Obama
When British economist and public intellectual John Maynard Keynes wrote his famous essay entitled “The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill” in 1925, the British economy was still suffering the consequences of WWI, and was slowly sliding into the worst economic depression in world history. Today, as the Great Recession continues to devastate millions of people’s lives in the United States, Americans will decide in a matter of days whether they want Mr. Obama to continue on as President for another four-year term, or elect Governor Romney to replace him in the White House. As an economist who is committed to social justice, I would like to offer a brief assessment of President Obama’s economic policies during his first term, and speculate on the likely direction that the U.S. will take under a second term Obama administration versus a possible Romney White House.
The Free Press confirms installation, secret justification of uncertified last minute election tabulation reporting software in Ohio
The Free Press has obtained internal memos from the senior staff of the Ohio Secretary of State's office confirming the installation of untested and uncertified election tabulation software. Yesterday, the Free Press reported that "experimental" software patches were installed on ES&S voting machines in 39 Ohio counties. (see Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote?).
Election Counsel Brandi Laser Seske circulated a memo dated November 1st renewing the already shaky justification for installing software made by Election Systems and Solutions on vote tabulation equipment used in 39 Ohio counties. The letter to Ohio Secretary of State personnel Matt Masterson, Danielle Sellars, Myra Hawkins, Betsy Schuster, and Ohio's Director of Elections Matthew Damschroder, clarified the dubious justification for not complying with the legal requirements for the examination of all election related equipment.
Election Counsel Brandi Laser Seske circulated a memo dated November 1st renewing the already shaky justification for installing software made by Election Systems and Solutions on vote tabulation equipment used in 39 Ohio counties. The letter to Ohio Secretary of State personnel Matt Masterson, Danielle Sellars, Myra Hawkins, Betsy Schuster, and Ohio's Director of Elections Matthew Damschroder, clarified the dubious justification for not complying with the legal requirements for the examination of all election related equipment.