ConservativeEmpathy

Empathy Training for Compassionate Conservatives: Why the Democrats Are Still Whining About the Election (and Why Maybe We Should Be, Too)

Chuck Herrin, CISSP, CISA, MCSE, CEH

American, Voter, Republican – In That Order

www.chuckherrin.com

Author's note: **As of right now, 11-23-2004, there is no conclusive evidence that massive voter fraud took place, but there is overwhelming evidence that the weaknesses in our voting system could have allowed it. I hope it didn't happen, but the simple fact is that whether it did or not, our election systems, particularly those using DREs, appear to have been designed specifically to allow fraud, rather than prevent it. Who put these systems in place, and what is the real current state of e-voting? Read on, gentle surfer, and I'll do my best to tell you.**

I was talking to a dear friend of mine yesterday, and he asked me what I had been up to. "This voting machine security thing" I told him. "It looks really bad. I can't believe how insecure these systems are and how easy they would be to Hack."

He chuckled and said to me, very sincerely, "Well, just as long as they go Republican, right? Heh, heh."

There was an awkward moment of silence as I processed that. Now, this is no raving Neo-Conservative that I'm talking to here. I love him, but he probably couldn't pick Karl Rove out of an Evil Genius Lineup with Dr. Evil, Max Scorpio, and that Steve guy from the Linux cartoon (www.ubergeek.tv/switchlinux). I'm visualizing it now - "Suspect number 3, please turn to the right and say 'Mwuahh-haa-haa.....'"

Actually, this is a guy I've known for almost 15 years, a college buddy and fraternity brother who I have leaned against on many drunken and interesting nights, and is one of the very few people in the world I trust explicitly. I took a few seconds to let what he said sink in, and then I warily replied, "Actually, that's kind of the problem. So far, all the vote fraud analysis that's been done indicates that it benefited us 100% of the time."

He replied, "Yeah? Huh. Go figure. Hey, can you make it to the Tampa Bay / Panthers game next weekend? Kevin's coming up from Florida, and we're tailgating!"

I mumbled something about trying to be there and hung up, half-stunned and half-depressed. Now keep in mind, this really is a stand-up guy, who I know was raised in the church and who has been known to speak (at great length) on Moral and Religious topics to whoever would listen, whenever the urge struck him. Coors Light was often involved in bringing about these "sermons" from high atop Mount Barstool, but he still made some good points, which is why his offhand response surprised me so much.

I guess in hindsight, I really shouldn't be that surprised. I have been involved in analysis of our nationwide voting systems for only a relatively short while now, but I have noticed a strong, consistent partisanship entering the discussions wherever the topic is raised. Now, I have always been a Republican and consider myself a reasonably bright person, but what I can't understand is the differences in the answer to what I think is a very simple question:

"If voter fraud is committed on behalf of your party, does the fact that your party benefited from it make it OK?"

Now, to me, the ends clearly don't justify the means. But as I talk to other Republicans, I am finding that there is a clear and strong resistance to looking into the issue of whether or not our voting system has any integrity. For the most part, we're either simply not convinced that there is a problem or we simply choose to ignore it since the "problem" seems to work to our benefit. I'm not sure how many of them have ever played much chess, but it's clear that a whole lot of people aren't even looking 1, much less 2 moves ahead. What happens when the results of a corrupt voting system DON'T go your way? What's going to happen when your side DOESN'T win? Will you be able to put the fact that our system is so easily manipulated behind you and just "get over it"?

As an American Voter, charged with the solemn duty of electing the most powerful leaders in history, SHOULD you be able to?

Some other people are less disinterested and are more focused on actively attempting to discredit those who are concerned about the huge weaknesses in our Voting Infrastructure. For the life of me, I just CANNOT figure out why ANY Honest person would resist efforts to ensure that our voting system is secure and provides vote integrity.

Now as for a DIShonest person, that's another matter. I can figure THAT out just fine. More on that later.

We all know from our life experiences that the mixed blessing of being part of a Democracy means that everyone is supposed to have a voice. Those of us who have sat through those uncomfortable (ugghhh) Thanksgiving dinner political discussions know that sometimes everyone having a voice can be a pain, but we also know that the alternatives are all much, much worse. These alternatives have been tried by others, remember? Weren't we Republicans slightly involved in bringing down the Berlin Wall? Aren't we such big believers in Democracy that we are sending our kids to die in foreign countries just so those Foreigners can be Democratic and have a voice, too?

The simple fact is this: We can not have any sort of a real Democracy when our voting infrastructure is weak and corrupt. The only people who can win are the people who count the votes, and the people who actually cast the votes have no say at all. This has been known for quite some time, and in fact Josef Stalin weighed in on the issue a while back when he said:

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

Sounds true enough. Personally I'm not a big fan, but like him or not, you have to admit that Stalin was a pretty smart guy, especially when it came to ideas on how to keep the people from having any say.

If in fact he was on to something, shouldn't we know who's counting our votes in America? If you don't mind, I'd like for you to follow along in a short three-part exercise that I hope will help shed some light on what the Democrats are whining about and help explain one reason that our country is still so painfully divided.

Ready? Settle in, grab a pen, and here we go with....

Part One: The Hypothetical Conservative Nightmare.

OH. MY. GOD. John Kerry won by 3,000,000 votes. You just got off the phone with your tree-hugging sister-in-law, and you could hear her smarmy Vegan voice, thick with smugness, gloating, and tofu, talking about "How great it is that the people finally spoke, and I hope you can put your politics aside and get behind President Kerry's new plan for Socialized Medicine. It's like what Hillary wanted, but better! Whoop - my hummus is ready, so I'd better go. Save the planet! Peace!"

AAAIIIIIGGGHHHH!!! How did this happen? Everybody I know voted for Bush!

Hitting the Internet in this hypothetical situation, you gather some information that starts to really concern you, and it plays out something like this:

Hypothetically, would you be disturbed to find out that 80% of our votes are counted by 2 private companies, and these companies are both very strong Democratic party supporters? What if the CEO of the bigger company (Let's call them Big A) were on record in 2003 pledging to "to do everything we can to bring Ohio's electoral votes to John Kerry in 2004!"? In the last few years, let's say this company's leadership had donated over a quarter million dollars to political causes, and 100% went to the Democratic Party? What if no less than 5 of the managers, software developers, and designers who built the voting machines and wrote the software for this company were convicted felons, and one of the Senior Vice Presidents had been convicted of 23 Felony counts of Theft in the First Degree for, oh, installing back doors in software and using "a high degree of sophistication to avoid detection". Would it bother you that people who in many states are considered too untrustworthy to vote themselves were the ones who actually wrote the software that counts OUR votes?

Now say this person, who was convicted of 23 felony counts of theft, said he had a good reason for it. The reason for the embezzlement? He needed the money because "he was embezzling in order to pay blackmail over a fight he was involved in, in which a person died."

A little more:

What if someone obtained this person's court records and found that the King County, Washington prosecutor was after him for over $500,000 in restitution?

So now we have someone who's admitted that he's been blackmailed over killing someone, who pleaded guilty to 23 counts of embezzlement, who is given the position of senior programmer of the (Big A) central tabulator system that counts approximately 50 percent of the votes in the (Bush-Kerry) election, in 30 states, both paper ballot and touch screen.

What if 2 brothers ran both the voting machine companies? Would that raise any red flags?

What if the other big company (Big B) also had strong financial ties to the Democratic party, and prominent Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer had a long history with them, and in fact was CEO of this company just two weeks before he ran for Senate! As a matter of fact, the company that he ran actually counted 85% of the votes in his first Senate race, which he won in a "surprising" upset! Would it surprise you or bother you that he won, considering that he omitted any ties to this company, as well as his salary and stock options with this company in his mandatory personal disclosure documents?

What if the first "hypothetical" company had been audited by the State of Georgia and in all 17 districts checked, all 17 were running uncertified versions of the voting software, leading to that company being decertified and sued in Georgia, and that suit was now being settled for $2.6 Million?

What if this company's Vote Tabulation Software were so poorly designed that any Democratic election official, poll worker, company insider, or Hacker activist could easily add, modify, or delete hundreds of thousands of votes using Microsoft Office without leaving a trace? What if the company knew about people changing the votes database using this back door, and their own internal memos reveal that they know about elections officials in at least one county being "Famous for it"? And even though this company makes ATM machines, they say it's too difficult to make their voting machines "reliably" produce a paper trail? This makes a full recount virtually impossible - would you accept that? What if there were a Democratic Congressman from New York caught on video with President Kerry before the results came in on election day, saying "It's over! The election's over - we won. It's all over but the counting, and we'll take care of the counting."

What if, given this voting system, John Kerry suddenly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, although the exit polls and numerous other indicators predicted a strong victory for President Bush? What if every single reported voting irregularity shows gains for John Kerry? Every single one, including districts in Ohio with 119% voter turnout suddenly favoring Kerry. And when voting activists ask for Freedom of Information Act requests from Volusia county, FL, they wind up finding the signed, dated information they requested in the trash outside the building, while the information they were given was unsigned and dated November 15?

If the Republicans lost the election in this scenario, would you blindly accept that the will of the people had been done?

Would you accept Kerry's surprise victory as a "mandate" and unite behind President Kerry as he tried to implement his strong Liberal agenda? Or would you maybe be a bit suspicious once tremendous amounts of statistical evidence of voter fraud surfaced? Would you be upset, or would you just "get over it" and fall into line behind your new "leader"?

Now think about that scenario for a minute, and be honest. Decide what you would REALLY do before you go any further - take your time, and feel free to read the sample scenario again. What would you do? Would you be upset? Or would you accept it, let it go and just "get over it"? As an American citizen, responsible for the governance of the most powerful country the world has ever seen, what would be the best moral decision? Remember - there might be a quiz later on with a guy named St Peter, so be honest and decide what would really be the right thing to do.

OK - got it? Now write down your answer. Go ahead and decide what you would do as a Republican in that hypothetical "nightmare" scenario and put your decision in writing, based on what you know at this point. In ink. There's no changing it later. Ready? When you're done, let’s move to….

Part Two:

In part two of our exercise, take the above scenario, replace the word "Democrat" with "Republican", "Georgia" with "California", "Liberal" with "Conservative", "Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer" with "Republican Senator Chuck Hagel", "Big A" with Diebold, "Big B" with ES&S, and "John Kerry" with "George Bush". After you do all that, read it again. Actually, you don't have to do any of that - I’ve done the replacement for you below, in the interest of saving you some time, and added links to the "Footnotes" section at the bottom of the document.

The Real Scenario: America, 2004

Would you be disturbed to find out that 80% of our votes are counted by 2 private companies, and these companies are both very strong Republican party supporters? (1) What if the CEO of the bigger company (Diebold) were on record in 2003 pledging that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president".(2) In the last few years, Diebold's leadership has donated over a quarter million dollars to political causes, and 100% went to the Republican Party.(3) No less than 5 of the managers, software developers and designers who built the voting machines and wrote the software being sold by this company are convicted felons, and Jeff Dean, one of the Senior Vice Presidents, has been convicted of embezzlement. (4) In case no. 89-1-04034-1 he was convicted of 23 Felony counts of Theft in the First Degree for installing back doors in software and using "a high degree of sophistication to avoid detection".(5) Would it bother you that people who in many states are considered too untrustworthy to vote themselves were the ones who actually developed the systems that count our votes?

Why was he convicted of 23 felony counts of theft from by planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection? The reason for the embezzlement was that he needed the money "in order to pay blackmail over a fight he was involved in, in which a person died."

A little more:

BlackBoxVoting.org's associate director Andy Stephenson obtained the court records of Jeffrey Dean which noted that the King County, Washington prosecutor was after him for over $500,000 in restitution.

"So now we have someone who's admitted that he's been blackmailed over killing someone, who pleaded guilty to 23 counts of embezzlement, who is given the position of senior programmer of the (Diebold) GEMS central tabulator system that counts approximately 50 percent of the votes in the (Bush-Kerry) election, in 30 states, both paper ballot and touch screen," said Stephenson.

What if 2 brothers ran both voting machine companies? Would that raise any red flags?

Bob Urosevich is currently president of Diebold Election Systems, and Todd Urosevich is vice president of ES&S. (6)

What if the other big company (ES&S) also had strong financial ties to the Republican party, and prominent Republican Senator Chuck Hagel had a long history with them, and in fact was CEO of this voting machine company 2 weeks before he ran for Senate! As a matter of fact, the company that he ran actually counted 85% the votes in his first Senate race, which he won in a "surprising" upset!(7) Would it surprise you or bother you that he won, or that he did not disclose ANY of his stock or salary information from this voting machine company in his required personal disclosure documents?(8)

Diebold was recently audited by the State of California and in all 17 districts checked, all 17 were running uncertified versions of the voting software, leading to that company being decertified and sued in California, and that suit is now being settled for $2.6 Million?(9)

Diebold's Vote Tabulation Software (GEMS) is so poorly designed that any election official, poll worker, company insider, or Hacker activist can easily add, modify, or delete hundreds of thousands of votes using Microsoft Office without leaving a trace.(10) Diebold knows about people changing the votes database using this back door, and their own internal memos reveal that they know about elections officials in at least one county that are "Famous for it". (King County, WA).(11) And even though this company makes ATM machines, they say it's too difficult to make their voting machines "reliably" produce a paper trail, in spite of the fact that EVERY ATM produces at least 2 pieces of paper with every transaction (the money and the receipt, if desired).(12) This makes a full recount virtually impossible, in violation of many state election laws - would you accept that? What if there were a Congressman from New York (Republican Congressman Peter King) caught on video with President Bush before the results came in on election day, saying "It's over! The election's over - we won. It's all over but the counting, and we'll take care of the counting."(13)

What if, given this voting system, George Bush suddenly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, although the exit polls and numerous other indicators predicted a strong victory?(14) And so far, every single investigation into vote irregularities has shown gains for the President, and none for John Kerry. Check the reports - EVERY time.

Would you accept this, if you were a Democrat?

Would you accept Bush's surprise victory as a "mandate" and unite behind President Bush as he tried to implement his strong Conservative agenda? Or would you maybe be a bit suspicious once tremendous amounts of statistical evidence of voter fraud surfaced? (15) Would you be upset, or would you just "get over it" and fall into line behind your new "leader"?

Given what you now know, does the fact that people are questioning the results of the election sound a little more reasonable than it did a few minutes ago?

What you have just read is a depressing, but very accurate summary of our current voting infrastructure in America. The companies referenced are actually Diebold and ES&S, and they are the top 2 voting machine companies in the US. They are also run by brothers. Now I accept that this may be hard to believe, but sadly, it's true. I encourage you to look into it and verify everything in that summary. I footnoted every statement with at least one reference for you, so go ahead - educate yourself on the issue, since it affects you as much as it does any other American. Go ahead and look some things up, if you want to. Follow every link and research every issue from the description above. I want to be sure that we all really understand what’s happening.

I'll wait. Once your research is done, come back here and we'll move ahead to…

Part Three:

Once you've verified that all of these facts are true, part three of our exercise is going back to what you wrote down after part 1, and reading what you wrote. Did you "get over it" and let it go?

If you wrote down "Yes", that you'd just accept it, then please stop reading right here and go see if any good reality show re-runs are on. Frankly, I'm surprised you made it this far.

If you wrote down "No", or that you wouldn't just accept it, then congratulations! You are now officially a sore loser and a conspiracy theorist! You are also not nearly as dumb as these companies would like for you to be.

Don't worry - you're not alone. 1/2 of the country feels this way right now. I know – it doesn't feel very good, does it? Don't let the denial creep back in - the things you just found out are still true.

If you stop believing that there's a real problem, keep researching. These things are awful, but they are true. Repeat that to yourself if you need to; I know I still struggle with not wanting to believe it myself. Every day, I struggle with myself, because I don't want to believe it, even though it's staring me in the face. Took me HOURS of research before I accepted it, and I still don’t want to believe that it's true. Surely it can't really be that bad! Sorry. It really, truly is, and just understand now that if you stop believing it that you are just lying to yourself so you'll feel better. That's an option, and it's easy to do, but you know that's not the answer. That leads us straight into:

The Follow Up:

Here's the Empathy Training part. Hey, nobody ever said it would be easy, but if you made it this far, you're doing great. Remember our sample scenario? In the Conservative Nightmare scenario, how would you feel about the Democrats who so clearly benefited from the situation but remained silent? Would you believe them when they said that "Moral Values" is their Number 1 concern? Would you think that maybe they were being just a bit hypocritical if they highlighted their ethics in public, then boldly ignored all evidence that fraud was committed since apparently "the ends justified the means"? Would you believe them when they said they were committed to bringing "Dignity Back to the White House"?

Now wait just a second - don't jump into Defensive Partisan mode yet! Bear with me a minute longer and try to step back into the position of an Objective Observer. Nobody said you were a bad person, and this is just a thought exercise.

Now, let's leave the Hypotheticals and get back into the real world for a few minutes. Honestly, before this information about our voting system was presented to you, were you dismissing the people who tried to bring up the subject of Election Fraud as "wack-jobs", "whiners", or "sore losers"? It's OK. That HAS been our Party Line. Again, it doesn't make you a Bad Person to support your party, and this information hasn't exactly been on the Front Page. But now that you know about it and hopefully have verified the facts yourself, what you decide to do now is how history and your children will remember what kind of person you really were.

That can be a lot of pressure, so feel free to do some more homework before you react. In fact, I would be grateful if you were to do some research before you emailed me to tell me how wrong I am! The information is all out there, so please, take your time.

Now, I'm not trying to lecture anyone on morals and hypocrisy, since I'm not perfect, no one wants to hear it, and frankly, that's not my place. We all make mistakes, ( I supported the Iraq war at first, I voted for Bush in 2000, and I voted for John Edwards, who has turned out to be one of the least effective Senators NC has ever produced), but how we define ourselves and our character is by what we choose to do after we learn about the mistakes that were made. I know that this information is probably new to you, and I hope that you do your own research to confirm the facts yourself. Approach what I've just told you with an open mind and a healthy sense of skepticism, but not outright denial. Keep in mind, I'm not asking you to mobilize and storm the Capitol, or "convert" to the "Dark Side" and be a Democrat. I'm not doing either of those things myself; I am still a proud Republican and still believe in the proud traditions of the Republican party. I know that eventually my fellow Republicans will do the right thing and help to fix this flawed system, but to this point our partisan politics have been blinding us decent conservative Americans and preventing us from doing the right thing. I know that once you see it, you, my fellow Republicans, will stand with me and help us to fix this. I just know you'll do the right thing...but I do have to admit that so far, the silence from the Right has been deafening. Republicans have resisted listening to the Democrat’s questions, and I think I know why.

So far, the Democrats have been asking the wrong questions:

Here’s a quote from my open letter to the Democrats:

“It wouldn’t matter if George Bush bit the head off a puppy in front of the UN - Republicans are not going to join in your fight to overturn the election and inaugurate John Kerry. Conservatives don’t want Kerry in office. For all of the reasons listed above, plus a heavy dose of fear of Liberalism, most Conservatives will not embrace the cause if the goal is to put Kerry in office, regardless if there was fraud committed. You are missing the point when you describe the problem as “Bush stole the election from Kerry”, and Republicans are simply not going to get on board with that.”

Was the election stolen? So what do we do?

Fact is, we don't know and may never know. The worst part about where we are is that IF fraud has been committed, those who did it may have done it so well that we may never be able to know for sure. We need to take a look at the REAL problem and re-frame the issue. The problem is not that John Kerry lost the election. That is just a SYMPTOM of the real problem, which is that the electorate may not be under the control of the American people. We need to re-frame this debate under different terms that EVERY American can understand and support.

There appears that there was definitely a grab for power, but it was not the Republicans stealing power from the Democrats. If it happened, then a small group of Republicans stole the power from the American People as a whole.

The reason that we Republicans haven’t seen it stems from the fact that it is not as obvious to us Republicans as it is the Democrats, since the pendulum of power moved in the way we wanted it to. We’re less likely to see the problem, since we tried to push the pendulum to the right, and the pendulum dutifully moved to the right. What we’re missing is the fact that maybe WE didn’t move it any more than a surfer moves the wave he rides in on by pointing his board towards the beach. Just because we pointed our board that way doesn’t mean that we’re the ones controlling the tide. What if we’re not in charge anymore, but most of us don’t really know it yet? Instead, we’re a lot like a dog sticking his head out of a pickup truck’s window – he feels like the fastest dog in the world, never realizing that he’s not the one pushing himself so quickly through the wind. This allows us to make out like bandits in the short term, since our goals are at least temporarily aligned with those actually providing the motion. For now, we can ride happily along, wind whipping through our ears, feeling great and in control. The problems don’t start until we try to get out of the truck, or worse, cross the street in front of it. Then it becomes painfully obvious who really has the power, versus who was just along for the ride.

One of the great and fundamental aspects of our Democracy is that the pendulum of power is designed to swing back and forth, with each party having control for a while, and then after a while control changes as the pendulum swings the other direction, pushed by the will of the American Voter. Think about it – Carter, then Reagan / Bush, then Clinton, and then Bush, and then by most accounts, the pendulum was apparently supposed to swing to Kerry. But it didn’t. Why? What if rather than the will of the American voter driving the direction of the pendulum, a small group has figured out how to keep the pendulum from moving away from them and towards the opposition. I’m going to quote Stalin again, since apparently a small group of people figured out that what he said so long ago really is true – “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything”. The cold cunning behind those words gives me chills sometimes.

If you haven’t seen how easy taking control of our votes would be, check out www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm. Chances are, you’ve seen it, but if not then go ahead and check it out, followed by reading the HackTheVoteFAQ. It’s scary how quietly the pieces have been moved into position over the last few years, setting us up for this.

"What worries me is in 20 years or less, there'll be an election where people will believe that something wrong was done and they won't be able to prove it." --Barbara Simons, PhD, Former President of the Association for Computing Machinery, Truthout, 2003.

NeoCons call "Check" on Democracy - Mate in Four?

Since the only thing that holds our Representatives accountable to us is the power of our votes, if that disappears, so does their accountability. Why do you think that Karl Rove is predicting a Republican Dynasty for the next 40 years? Because he may have figured out how to freeze the pendulum of power, and he thinks that we are either a) too stupid to see the massive consolidation of power into the hands of a mighty few, or b) too weak and divided to do anything about it. The incredible power of our American nation is contained solely within the American people’s votes, and by not returning that power to us they are able to quite literally Rule the World. The world has never seen a group as powerful as those in control right now, and to think that they are operating with nearly total impunity should frighten all of us to the very core of our beings.

This power is not rightfully theirs, however. It is ours, and they are supposed to borrow it for 2, 4, or 6 years (depending on their office) so that they can represent us and our interests. When that time is up, the system is designed to return that power to us, and then WE decide whether to give it back to that same person or give it to someone else who we think will do a better job. But here’s the new twist; what happens if they simply decide not to give that power back? Who are they accountable to then? In that case, they are accountable to no one but themselves, and what the American Public wants does not matter anymore. Our interests are irrelevant, and they are free to do what they want with our power, our money, our Armed Forces, and our lives.

Yes, it appears that the pieces are in place to steal a great deal of power, but not from the Democrats. It will be (or has been) stolen from ALL of us, and that is what the American people need to know. The great unknown right now is whether we still have enough power left to get it back, and it is critical for the survival of our Country that we do everything possible with the power that we still have within ourselves to try and do so.

Endgame Strategy From a Conservative Pawn:

I know that I’ve just laid a lot on you (sorry), and I don't want to ask too much, so let me just ask you to do this: Take a few minutes, set your personal and political agendas aside and think about where we are as a Country. Research the issues with our Electoral System and based on what you find, decide for yourself if things really have to be this way. For Electronic voting, keep in mind that responsible engineering doesn't always mean using the latest technology available, it just means using the most appropriate technology available. Sometimes, that's paper. Ask yourself if we can ever come together and really make the world a better place if we keep following the path that we're on. Based on what you find in your research, ask yourself "if our votes haven't been stolen yet, do you have any reason to believe that they won't be?" It's not going to cost you anything, and nobody will think less of you afterward regardless of what you decide, as long as you have an informed opinion. Just stop and think about it for a minute, and then decide what would be the right thing for you to do, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an American Citizen.

Then, just take the next logical step, and do it.

Chuck

Postlogue: Hey, one last thing - If you're mad right now, that's cool. You have a right to be, and I'm mad, too. Just wait 24 hours before you do anything, and give yourself some time to research look into it and decide who it is you are really mad at.

Some people will undoubtedly respond to this information by sending me an angry email telling me how stupid or wrong I am. Let me save you some time: I fully accept that I might be wrong, but that doesn't equal stupid, so if that's your grand plan, save your keystrokes. Either you don't get it, or you just refuse to believe it, and yelling at me about it won't solve your problems or make any of this less true. I won't yell back, so don't expect a reply. Instead, spend that time asking yourself what you hope to accomplish by screaming, and if by not questioning what we have in place you're making things better for yourself and your family.

To the rest of you, thanks for your time and attention, and God Bless.

Footnotes / Links:

1) http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

2) http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/30/technology/election_diebold/?cnn=yes

3) http://www.opensecrets.org and http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00081.htm and http://www.bartcop.com/diebold.htm and http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/04votefraud.html

4) http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html and http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

5) http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf and http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm

6) http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=printstory&id=8564&cat=2 and http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

7) http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm

8) http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-3.pdf and http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

9) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/11/BAG869PCU31.DTL and http://www.atsnn.com/story/97860.html and http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5021

10) This one's easy - www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm .