by Mike Hersh, 11-22-03

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To prevent a repeat of the 2000 meltdown which cost us confidence in our republic, we must inform ourselves and protect our electoral system. Three years after the 2000 Election, there's still a lot of confusion. What really happened? Did Bush lose or did he just stop Gore from overturning a narrow but legitimate election? Did Gore mess up by asking for partial counts or did Bush cheat? And what about all those people thrown off the voting rolls by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris - the Florida Co-Chairs of Bush for President?

To resolve these questions, all that matters is Florida State law. It doesn't matter what Bush or Gore wanted - and you got that wrong anyway. Al Gore called for a state wide count during both phases of the process. But that doesn't matter. All that matters is Florida State law which requires determining the clear intent of the voter.

The Florida Supreme Court properly ruled that under Florida Law, when a voter writes "Al Gore" and circles "Al Gore" the intent is clear. This is a vote for Al Gore. Also, ballots where a voter punched the card but the hole didn't clear completely are votes unless there were partial holes (blocked by chads) for more than one candidate. But when a voter punches Al Gore and Pat Buchanan, it's impossible to tell which one the voters wanted. So that is a ruined vote.

Machines often cannot tell a clear legal vote from an unclear wasted vote. Sometimes the punch cards stick together and the machines cannot read either of them. When disputed ballots could change the apparent outcome, Florida law requires a hand counts. That happened in Florida, and by law there should have been a full, fair hand count. There never was. The US Supreme Court "changed" Florida law by overturning the FL SC ruling.

It gets worse. Pro-Bush Floridians counted all the possible votes for Bush, but Bush sent in the lawyers who sued to block hand counts which might have helped Gore. When it favored Bush, Pro-Bush officials held hand-counts in 6 counties which favored Bush, but if it might favor Gore, the Republicans claimed neither vote should count, which is in violation of the law. That's immoral, dishonest and wrong. It's also wrong to claim Gore tried to block any military votes. Right wingers claim that happened, but it never did. Bush officials threw out Gore votes, not the other way around.

Florida judges - trusted with running court rooms where the decisions over life or death are made - were presiding over the counts ongoing when Scalia issued the emergency order to halt the counts. Scalia decided not to trust these people entrusted with ultimate judgment to count votes, and feared that if it turned out Bush lost it might "cause irreparable harm" to Bush's chances to be President.

After these artificial, intentionally delays, the pro-Bush 5 complained there wasn't enough time to complete the counts - which was also a lie. Hawaii's Electoral Votes for the 1960 Election didn't come in until January 1961 and they counted. So first Scalia and then the pro-Bush 5 threw out the votes and overturned the 2000 election. No other election in US history ended this way, with 10,000s of valid ballots ignored.

Bush cheated, but Gore won anyway, so Bush sued the voters. Bush stole the 2000 election, and the GOP plans to steal the 2004 election as well. The New York Times reports, "Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, is leading an effort to make computerized voting more transparent. His bill, introduced this year, would require that computerized voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot and that the software code be publicly available. The bill, in the House Administration Committee, has 60 co-sponsors, all Democrats."

The Times quotes Congressman Holt: "Someone said to me the other day, 'We've had these electronic voting machines for several years now and we've never had a problem.' And I said, 'How do you know?' and he couldn't answer that. The job of verification shouldn't belong to the company; it should belong to the voter."

The NY Times identifies "Douglas W. Jones, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Iowa and a member of Iowa's board of examiners for voting machines" who says, "There's a feeling in the computer scientist community of utter dismay about the state of voting-machine technology" and "David L. Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford" who adds, "If I was a programmer at one of these companies and I wanted to steal an election, it would be very easy. I could put something in the software that would be impossible for people to detect, and it would change the votes from one party to another. And you could do it so it's not going to show up statistically as an anomaly.''

See: Machine Politics in the Digital Age by Melanie Warner, the New York Times, November 9, 2003: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/business/yourmoney/09vote.html?ex=1383 714000&en=4aaf05085122736c&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND

When I first learned about this a few years ago, I recoiled - refusing to believe. Sadly, it's true. Some people are rigging the voting machines we rely on to tell us who won the campaigns to lead us. They're so unsure of their ability to win elections fairly and / or are so cynical and power-mad they refuse to trust in a fair outcome. They're stacking the deck, cheating, rigging the voting machines.

Bev Harris of Black Box Voting is leading the way on this. She wrote a book exposing this threat to our American freedom. Read her book, available for free download at: http://www.blackboxvoting.com/.

This is beyond chilling. This issue fills many people with dread, making us want to just forget about it entirely. We cannot afford to hide. Luckily we can act now to protect our rights. Here are four easy steps you can - and must - take today:

(1) Help pass the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003. Also known as H.R. 2239. Contact your Representative and Senators to demand they cosponsor and support this bill to prevent voter fraud.

(2) Join with a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) which is demanding an acceptable electronic voting machine standard. We must persuade the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) to require secure, voter-verifiable election equipment and technologies that support open democratic principles of governance rather than the flawed standard currently under consideration.

(3) Learn the facts, then contact the media to demand they investigate this threat to our freedom.

(4) Learn even more and sign a petition to expose recent voting abuses. Tell everyone you know the truth about election 2000 to prevent a repeat in 2004.

We all must call and write to our Senators and representative. Demand they support Rep. Rush Holt's bill to prevent voter fraud, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003. Also known as H.R. 2239. This is the most important most underreported political story this year. We must demand that to the media cover this to ensure fair, accountable voting. Our freedom tomorrow depends on our actions today.

For more information and ways to contact elected officials, the media and more, see: http://www.mikehersh.com/Prevent_Stolen_Elections.shtml

Mike Hersh (c) 2003