New GOTV Method

Over the past year several organizations such as the Coalition for Voting Integrity, BlackboxVoting.org and others have been warning about the threat to our democracy from electronic voting machines. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of why these computer voting terminals are so bad because you can read all about it better at their websites. Please do.

Every computer expert and/or programmer I know, regardless of political affiliation, has issued dire warnings about the machines being developed by companies like ES&S, Sequoia, Diebold, and Danaher. They claim features have been built into these computers that raise questions about the integrity of their vote counts. Now Lou Dobbs on CNN has disclosed that many counties, heckled by taxpayers obsessed with avoiding investing in their communities and fair elections are allowing poll workers unfettered and unsupervised access to these machines.

Since attending several forums sponsored by the Coalition for Voting Integrity I've been joking that, as a political consultant my job will be made very easy by these new machines. Instead of running a conventional campaign with voter contact, media, field organization and direct mail, in the near future all I need do is find the best hacker around and program the voting machines to rig the elections. Now it seems the federal government is making this shockingly easy.

It seems counties in several states, including Pennsylvania, are allowing poll workers to collect and store the new machines in their homes prior to election day. Wow, what an opportunity. Here's what I recommend.....

If you live in a county that allows the completely unsecure storage of these computerized machines please contact me now. I will arrange for a computer expert to visit your home and reprogram them so our candidates are guaranteed victories. Just think, no more having to spend all that money actually winning votes. No more phone banks, canvassing, direct mail, and working outside the polls. Simply pick up your machine, take it home and call our experts.

We all owe a great deal to those making this possible: Congress for passing HAVA, Secretary of State Pedro Cortes who refused to listen to our concerns about the security of these machines, the companies who built them so they could be rigged, and the taxpayers who refuse to invest in their communities and force their counties into this reckless policy.

Just think, we never need lose another election! If your precinct doesn't have a judge of elections please get appointed to this immediately so you can control the machines.

Here is a portion of the transcript from the Lou Dobbs telecast about this issue:

In the upcoming midterm congressional elections, a little more than four months from now, a third of the nation will be casting ballots on electronic voting machines. Tonight, new questions about the extraordinary lack of security that results from the use of these machines. Kitty Pilgrim reports.

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In San Diego county Patty Newton volunteered as an election worker in the June 6th primary. After her training class for electronic voting machines, she got the surprise of her life.

PATTI NEWTON, FORMER POLL WORKER: We were given slips of papers, had them stamped by one of the staff members and we were directed to drive across to the parking lot to pick up our voting machines and take them home. We all felt an ominous kind of responsibility. It was not something that we were told we would be doing.

PILGRIM: She stored the electronic voting machine here, on the floor of her garage for seven days until the election. According to Vote Trust USA, states with so-called sleepovers for electronics voting machines are California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Florida, but certain counties in other states do it also. Voter activists say while millions have been spent buying the machines, counties don't have the budgets for storing them or delivering them on election day.

SUSAN PYNCHON, FLORIDA FAIR ELECTIONS COALITION: Each jurisdiction has been given money through the Help America Vote Act to purchase the machines, but many of these jurisdictions are strapped when it comes to trying to maintain them, already, and to have this some huge delivery charge on top of that, that money comes directly out of the local taxpayers' pockets.

PILGRIM: In Florida the Volusia County Department of Elections manual makes it official, "Pick up the voting equipment and ballots at your designated pick-up site prior to the day of the election. As soon as the items are picked up, they must be stored in a secure place." But on March 5th in Dallas County, a 14-pound electronic voting machine was stolen from the home of an election judge. Today the Dallas sheriff's office told us the voting machine has still not been recovered.