-Caveat Lector- Votescam Action Alert! <http://www.votescam.com/Greenteaparty.html> (This action alert was recently posted on the Green Party website http://www.greenparty.org ) From The Teller-Woodland Green Tea Party (Inspired by The Boston Tea Party and The Green Party) <http://www.votescam.com/Greenteapartyactionalert!.html> As of January 30, 280-400 bills have been introduced in at least 40 states regarding the issues of Internet voting, standardizing vote counting procedures in each state, and increasing the use of computers to count votes, according to Jennie Drage at the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Florida vote count fiasco, especially the US Supreme Court's decision, has pressured each state to make vote counting uniform and computerized. New legislation would increase the use of computers to count votes and would move decision making power about how votes are counted from the county and municipal level to the state level across the US. For thirty years the computerized vote count has functioned as the perfect tool for those who seek to fraudulently manipulate elections! In a nutshell, when computers are used to count votes, poll watchers, election officials, even the Secretary of State, are not allowed to actually see the vote count. All they can see are ballots being fed into a computer, or no ballots at all, just a receipt from the computer at the end of the election day. Nor are they allowed to examine the computer software, which is what determines how the votes are counted. This amounts to an illegal secret ballot count. Only the private corporations, which are paid millions of taxpayer dollars to program the software, know whether the votes will be counted accurately. The newer computers even have modems enabling them to be accessed by other computers, telephone, satellite, or even a cell phone. The rigging of computer counted elections is essentially impossible to detect, or to prove. Internet voting leaves no paper trail, making it impossible to have a recount. Internet voting is even more riggable, less secure and unverifiable than counting votes by computer. Another "innovation" already in use, now being considered for standardized procedure, is touch screen voting. This system is also computerized and also leaves no paper trail. Canada, Britain, Switzerland, India and Israel count their paper-ballot votes by hand. During the last election Canada counted 13 million votes in 4 hours. Forcing us to have our votes counted by unverifiable and riggable computers violates the US Constitution and the State constitutions. For more information on computers and vote counting see the article below titled, "Does Your Vote Count? Computer Voting Machines vs. Hand Count" <http://www.votescam.com/Doesyourvotecount.html> and the web pages: http://www.votefraud.org http://www.votescam.com http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=3261&author_id=309 And refer to the book: "Votescam: The Stealing of America" by James and Ken Collier. (212) 809-9090 or www.votescam.com Without an accurate and verifiable vote count no other important issues are likely to have a fair chance. This is not a partisan issue. The oligarchy, the plutocracy, the corporate dictators, and the US media oligopoly are attempting to make their control of this country even more complete. We need a grass roots uprising similar to the anti-war movement and the anti-nuclear movement. We really need to win this battle if the flame of freedom is going to continue to burn in this country. It is time for another Boston Tea Party!! Suggestions: 1. Call up your local state rep or senator, or visit your state's web page, and find out what bills have been introduced having to do with vote counting, election reform, and new voting technologies. 2. Provide educational materials to your rep, senator, and members of the committee each bill is in. 3. Contact others across your state, and the rest of the US, who are likely to be concerned about our vote count being accurate and verifiable: political parties, the ACLU, local boards of elections in each county and municipality, labor unions, environmental groups, magazines, consumer groups, churches, farm organizations, etc. 4. Write letters to the editor. 5. Call in or get on radio talk shows. 6. Contact independent computer experts in your state and ask them to look at these materials. We need lots of computer experts to come forward on this issue. 7. Send this letter to news organizations all over the Internet. 8. Start an initiative petition campaign to stop computerized vote counting in your community. 9. Have your local public access TV station show the Votescam Video; show it to groups. 10. Take a video camera to your local polling place on election day and demand to watch the vote count. 11. Find out what state statutes enable the use of computers in your state. 12. Have your local rep and senator introduce legislation to amend these statutes so that votes are counted by hand. (The key to a hand count is having the ballots counted at the local polling place, and having enough polling places so that each polling place has no more than 300-500 ballots to count. The current common practice of transporting the ballots to a central location jeopardizes the security of the ballots, and increases the number of ballots to be counted at one place, thus greatly increasing the time it takes to count the ballots unless done by computer.) 13. Do civil disobedience at your polling place, or in some politician's office. 14. Help us here in Woodland Park, Colorado. 15. Forward this letter all over the Internet; print hard copies and give them out. In Woodland Park, Colorado we collected nearly 500 signatures on an initiative petition. The petition requires all vote counting be done by hand. As a result, the City Council was forced to either vote for the petition, or put it to a vote of the citizens. Woodland Park citizens will be voting on this initiative July 17, 2001. But catch 22, the vote on this initiative is likely to be by computer!! We will be pressuring the City Council to have the votes counted by hand, however we are confident that the count will be done by computer even though counting by hand would cost much less, be verifiable, and be much harder to rig. Bill S 74. S74 will allow mass mail in balloting in all counties in Colorado. (complain about HR 01-1135. See http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/stateleg.html for more details. ) In Woodland Park, Colorado, citizens have risen up and initiated an election on computer counting of votes versus hand counting of votes in an attempt to toss out the computers. The citizens of this city should be allowed to have the votes on this initiative counted out in the open by hand, where poll watchers are able to actually see the votes being counted. If the citizens of Woodland Park are not allowed a hand count of the ballots, then we will be having a demonstration including some people doing civil disobedience. Make history! Come join our demonstration! Help us throw a little tea!! We need help setting up a web page. We need money for fliers, fines, and legal costs. We need legal help. We need people to contact the state reps and senators in Colorado and complain about HR 01-1135. See http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/stateleg.html for more details. Make checks payable to: The Teller-Woodland Green Tea Party Box 220-171 Woodland Park, CO 80866 Ph: 719-687-8141 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================= Preparing for Civil Disobedience <http://www.votescam.com/GreenteapartyCD.html> Here in Woodland Park the City Council has voted to count the votes by computer and to have the registered voters vote by mail in ballot (The unregistered voters who are allowed to vote in this election also will be voting at a polling place.). I have threatened the Council publicly three times with a law suit if they vote to use either of these methods of voting (computer counting and mail in ballot). So now that it is clear that both of these methods are being used, we are looking more closely at our options. It does not appear that the ACLU locally is going to go into court for us on this issue. It is possible that we can talk an attorney into helping us, but not likely. In order to get the ACLU to go into court we will have to persuade not only the local chapter, but the Denver Chapter. The local chapter is helping us, but they at this point fully realize that the exercise of going into court has a very slim chance of success at any level in Colorado. I have encouraged them to take it all the way to the US Supreme Court, and some day they may (especially if the National ACLU decides to). But in order to get them to do that I, and others, will have to keep working on them. I have compared the situation with computers and vote counting to the many attempts black people made during the civil rights movement. Black attorneys went into court many, many times before they finally got justice at the Supreme Court level. I have also pointed out that this does not just effect a minority group, it effects the entire country, our most basic civil liberties, and the very existence of democracy. I have been told by a member of the ACLU locally that courts and the ACLU are sensitive to public opinion and pressure. If others (the local ACLU is willing to help with this) are able to get this issue out to the public, get people to start demonstrating, get arrested, write letters to the editor, make it clear that there are lots of people who believe there is a problem, similar to other movements, get a movement going, then it is both more likely that the ACLU will eventually go into court, and more likely that the courts will produce a favorable order. The chances of a victory in court now, and even in the future with strong public opinion, are not good. This situation is very similar to what black people faced during the civil rights movement. So it looks like we have to get a movement going by whatever means we are able to, and at the same time continue educating and pressuring the ACLU. So locally we are looking at what kinds of things we can do prior to the election. Here are my thoughts so far: 1. Write letters to election officials, the secretary of state, maybe even fax every member of the Colorado General Assembly and the Governor, stating that these election methods are illegal and why, and asking for action, satisfaction. I am thinking that legally it is probably important that we cover all the bases legally before doing civil disobedience so that later in court the judge can not say to me, why didn't you try every thing else before breaking the law? 2. I have already publicly given the letter below (To the City of Woodland Park) to the WP City Council. The letter was also printed in both of the local newspapers. I am sure that we can improve on the letter and add some additional legal arguments to it. 4. Go into court pro se, or if we can find a pro bono attorney, and ask for an injunction against the City. (I wonder if we would be allowed to ask for a decision by a jury?) 5. Go into court and ask that the mail in ballots be kept at the post office rather than at the Clerk's Office. 6. Find out exactly what specific civil disobedience actions are likely to result in what sorts of penalties. For example jail time, financial penalty, etc. (However, Colorado attorneys may not legally be able to give advice to a person planning on breaking a law.) 7. Try to locate an attorney to represent people getting arrested. 8. Line up people to be poll watchers when mail ballots are transported from the post office to the clerk's office, when mail ballots are officially opened over the course of 10 or so days, and when the ballots are being counted by computer. (Not likely to be able to find enough people to do all this poll watching.) 9. Be ready to go into court again after the election to challenge the results. (I wonder if we would be allowed to ask for a decision by a jury?) 10. Have volunteers on election day do an exit poll of the people voting at the polling place. Although this is not likely to accomplish a lot, it is an interesting idea that is worth considering. The following I am including for information purposes, but they do not seem to be good ideas, at least to me at this point in time: 11. Talk to the local head of the County Democratic Party, a friend, about putting some pressure on the local democratic member of the county board of elections. My friend, the Democratic Chair, appointed him. But he is not replaceable apparently until the next time the position comes up for appointment. (There are only two plus the county clerk on the board of elections.) She, the Chair, may be willing to arrange a meeting with him. Whoops, I just realized. This election is a City election. The officials who certify the City election are usually the clerk, mayor, and a judge. Isn't that neat? 12. Go into court and ask that after the ballots have been counted they be placed in the possession of the State Police, although protecting the ballots after the vote count is only of value if we have probably at least 1-2 thousand dollars for a recount, and if the Secretary of State, or a judge, is willing to order that the recount be done by hand. The state statutes say that the recount has to be done by the same method as the original count. (Is this what it is like to play chess with your hands tied? The only way you get to make a move is with the permission of your opponent?) Earlier this week we (Glenn Raleigh) initiated a pro se law suit, based on the WP City Charter's requirement that the election be held within 60 days of when the initiatives were found sufficient. This legal action is only likely to cause the election to take place sooner. However, since the City Clerk has publicly stated that the county owned computers will not be ready to use till July, we are hoping that the election will be scheduled sooner and that the count will be by hand. But this is probably not likely either. We are currently trying to find an attorney to represent us at the hearing on this case. Some local citizens have offered to put up some money. Keep It Up! The Teller-Woodland Green Tea Party Box 220-171 Woodland Park, CO 80866 (ph) 719-687-1002 (fax) 719-686-9760 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -end- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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