By Charles Springer
I guess ol’Georgie Porgie is running on stupid these days with the latest debacle in Ohio. He is presently courting a Republican business owner whose corporation manufactures, of all things, touch computer voting machines.
This person also has promised to give good ol’ “king” George the state of Ohio. And if I am understanding it correctly, Ohio is one of the key states to winning the election in 2004. I also heard that this person is trying to get these paperless computer voting machines up and running all over the U.S. by the next election.
Using this type of voting system might be much faster, but it’s also much easier to manipulate than the punch card system. Think about it, especially those of you who are computer programers and hackers. When you vote now with the punch card system there is a safeguard, your vote is basically on paper, there is a record. Yes, this type of voting takes much longer to do and to process, but the fact that there is a paper trail and is counted by hand with a certain amount of checks and balances is ensuring. It’s not very easily manipulated — unless the vote ends up in Florida again. And I really don’t think Ol’ “emperor” Bush’s boys are not as dumb as they have made “we the people” out to be for the last two years and some months. I might be wrong though.
With this touch screen voting system, all the votes would eventually have to go to one computer for the final tally, with no paper trail. Think long and hard about that my friends. You could be voting for the democrat and by the time the final electoral vote is “tallied,” the republicans win. Or there could be software installed that takes so many votes for the democrats and then are changed to votes for Bush. This type of system could be manipulated in so many ways so that our democratic process is just an illusion like the many illusions this regime has pulled on “We the people” since this coupe in 2000.
I hope “we the people” can make enough of a clamor to stop this maneuver before it becomes a mainstream item in voting all across the United States and “We the people” never have a legitimate election again. This latest scheme is worse than the W.M.D. lies “we the people” were told to get us into Vietnam’s..., oops., I mean Iraq’s $4 billion, plus a month occupation and rebuilding. Or, is our country supposedly running on close to a quarter of a trillion dollar deficit?
This present administration seems to think “we the people” are still blinded by the Sept. 11 anguish and still believe Georgie Jr. is God’s gift to the American people. Or they just think “we the people” are just plain stupid.
I honestly think “we the people” should send our fearless leader a wake up call.
I think “we the people” should look at Ramsey Clark’s Web site, www.votetoim-peach.org, and see how badly this present Neo-Conservative regime has blatantly violated the Constitution of the United States, which was written to keep our government from becoming like it is now, like the persecuting Oligarchy of England our forefathers came here to escape from. And how many U.N. treaties did Bush and his cronies break to go to war in Iraq? Now, we have this new attempt to blatantly disregard the voting process, which is the back bone of the democratic process as a whole.
“We the people” should be tired of this whole regime’s “in your face” nepotism and lies, which are not only costing American lives, but making our whole country an incredible fiasco, and embarrassing us in front of people all over the world. Not to mention making the world a whole lot more dangerous for all.
“We the people” should be looking to clean house of politicians of this ilk as soon as possible in all levels of government. “We the people” should not just sit idle like bumps on logs and take this type of treatment from those who are/were elected to be public servants. And “we the people” should not let this despot, who now holds the highest executive office in America, win another election.
“We the people” should make it known that we are now very much aware of what is going on and will vote to impeach this whole regime for the violations it has committed against the Constitution and “we the people” of the United states of America. In 2004, we should vote all of them out of office. (Charles Springer is a homeless resident of Santa Monica and a freelance writer and artist. He)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 15, 2003. Read the original PDF.