H.R. 550: The poison pill that will kill Democracy

H.R. 550 is the bill put forth by Rep. Rush Holt that mandates a paper trail on our voting machines. Now, being as against Diebold and their ilk as I am, you're probably wondering about right now, how the fuck could such a good idea as making a paper trail for our electronic voting machines be the poison pill that will finally kill what little remains of our democracy?

Because this bill is flawed. Dangerously flawed.



The bill requires a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). That's good. We need that.

It sets a minimum audit requirement. 2%. That's not so good. We need 100% audit requirement. Currently, we have 0% requirement.

Requires the source code be made public. Well of course it should. WE pay for it. Plus it is critical to OUR freedom. Fuck Diebold and any other company that wants to keep their source code secret.

It requires the Election Comittee to open up the bidding process to the public. This is good too.

So with so much good, how can this be THAT BAD? Let's go back to how this all got started. It began with a cheap labor conservative plan called the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA). Typical doublespeak name from the CLC bastards right? It was written up in Bob Ney's office. This little Act created the Electronic Assistance Commission (EAC) and started all the paperless electronic voting machines. The lobbying firm that made this all possible representing the computerized voting machine makers such as Diebold was none other than Greenberg Traurig. While you might not have heard of them before, perhaps you've heard of their employee? Jack Abramoff.

Yeah, THOSE guys wanted the EAC created by HAVA and THOSE guys made it possible for Diebold to put us in this mess in the first place.

And H.R. 550 seeks to make the EAC a permanent entity with broadened powers. The bill gives the EAC "blanket authority" to conduct recounts in any state of their choosing and, if the state give permission, to conduct state and local recounts!!!

Do you think for one instant, for one fraction of an instant, that someone like Christine Gregoire would have won her election had the EAC been in charge of the recount? Do you think any state the Republicans control won't instantly INSIST upon a recount by the EAC INSTEAD of a local, state run, INDEPENDENT recount?

Then think about this: The EAC is an Executive commission. That's right. As in, it's members are all chosen by the President of the United States.

Now, if you'll recall, we have this little thing called the Constitution of the United States. It's seen better days, to be sure. But it still carries weight with some of us and it expressly grants the states the right to manage their own election systems. You see, the founding fathers didn't want a dictator to control our elections.

But that is PRECISELY what H.R. 550 will do. Give our election process over to the President of the United States. And when that happens, it's Officially Over. No more America. Kiss it goodbye.