“We really had to put together a federal agency with spit,” says Rev. DeForest Soaries in a great interview by Tim Dickinson for Rolling Stone exposing (again) the cruel federal hoax.
Soaries was the first chair of the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) created by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in the wake of Florida 2000. He’s a Republican and a Bush appointee. Apparently, one of the few honest ones left. He resigned some time ago, apparently out of frustration with the EAC and the fact that the entire commission seems to be little more than a bad joke.
Here are a few choice clips from the interview…
DeForest Soaries: It wasn’t until I worked in Washington on an issue as generic as this that I realized how pitiful and perhaps how hopeless Washington really is. For God’s sake…if any issue should be the catalyst for bipartisan cooperation, this is the issue: voting.
It was probably the worst experience of my life. I found that there is very little interest in Washington for true election reform. That neither the White House nor either house of the Congress seems to be as committed to guaranteeing democratic participation in this country as we seem to be in other countries. It’s an embarrassment that we don’t have a broad enough consensus among political leaders that true reform should take place. I could count the members of Congress on one hand that took these issues seriously.
…
We don’t have a performance rate for machines. If we discovered that of 10,000 Diebold machines model XYZ, 1,000 break down during the day, is that acceptable or unacceptable? If it were a toaster we could tell you, it were a tire we could tell you. If a certain tire malfunctions a certain number of times then they have a recall.
We have no basis for having a recall of any particular type of voting equipment because there are no standards. And when we do have standards, even these standards are required to be voluntary. So is a one percent error rate good? Is a two percent error rate good? 5,000 votes cast, only 4,000 counted? Is that success or failure?
So when you ask me about Ohio, you can recite to me the worst data that anyone has unearthed in Ohio, I would have to say to you — very technically — so what? What does it violate?
It may violate your sensibilities, it may violate my sensitivities, it may violate someone else’s sense of fair play. But the Secretary of State of Ohio has proven that you can get straight through an election by saying: We broke no law. You see the problem?
OT, but important:
Mexico 2006:
Here’s the video of “Blue Shirt Guy” stuffing a ballot box.
And if there are clearly applicable laws and rules, the SoS such as McPhearson in CA, ignore them: ( https://bradblog.com/?p=3048 ).
It is not the problem that there are no laws or rules, it is that the election warlords are lawless.
It does not take rocket scientists to know that the goal is 1 + 1 = 2 … each time … every time … and that the final numbers go to the candidate the voter wanted that vote to go to … each time … every time.
Quite simple really.
I really do think that consumer protection laws in some states, election laws in some states, federal constitutional law, the voting rights act, and the common law can give protection.
But some election warlords say they are applying the law while others say they are ignoring the law, following the lead of the preznit.
Anyway kudos to DeForest Soaries for speaking out.
It’s really very simple. How can we have public elections with privatized voting machines? I will never trust the results of an American election again, unless Americans find the will to insist on massive voting reform – with independent oversight, accountability, verifiability. That’s all there is to it. My trust in our system is completely gone.
That is not to say I won’t continue to fight – I’ll fight harder, in fact. But my belief in ‘democracy’ has been pretty well shattered over the last 6 years.
Here is a link to petition your congressperson to support a bill that might clean things up considerably. Thanks to John in today’s Voting news.
I emailed the link to all my friends.
OT (but not really).
Rove: Bush to veto DeGette bill
By John Aloysius Farrell
Post Washington Bureau Chief
DenverPost.com
“When asked about the November election, Rove expressed confidence that the Republicans will weather the recent dip in public opinion.
“They are not going to be able to run the table,” Rove said, when asked about Democratic hopes to seize the Senate. He predicted that that the GOP would pull off some “surprise” upsets of its own.
And though the public is sour on the ongoing costs of the war, the new Iraqi government “looks like (it will be) able to get this job done,” Rove said. As long as there are signs of progress, “at the end of the day, … the American people do not want the U.S. to be defeated.””
Who’s ya Daddy
“He predicted that that the GOP would pull off some “surprise” upsets of its own.”
LOL
Rove was right about one thing, though:
… by enemies foreign or domestic, Karl!
I hope Lou Dobbs picks up on that quote!
Catch them breaking a law[s] and then put them away permanently.
Example on our diebold scanners here in sacrament it says it’s a felony to tamper with the electronic voting machine. Well if they used bad/uncertified/unvalidatable equipment in more than three local precints then that’s three strikes.
And god knows they sure have cost many americans their lives now.
God can not validate their damn electronic voting machines.
this has to end now!
sacrament = Sacramento
btw – it’s not a bad joke, it’s a nightmare for our country. it’s a national security emergency. Parts coming from china, and all this, what the hell are they thinking?!
How about we use USA doped parts in china to remove their leader? hmm?
This “rovian” quote (from the meeting with the editorial board of The Denver Post) really cracked me up .
“”We were all an embryo at one point, and we ought to as a society be very careful about being callous about the wanton destruction of embryos, of life,” Rove said.”
Shame Iraqi
Shame Iraqi’s have less value than embryos
(typo ,lessthan symbol don’t work inside html )
MMIIXX < CLEVER ;-)I remember seeing the Rev. DeForest Soaries at some meetings in Washinton and I thought he looked uncomfortable, like he was in a room full of people who were just making an appearance and weren’t really paying attention to him. Smart guy!
“I found there is very little interest in Washington for true election reform.” DeForest Soaries, 2006.
“No issue is more important than this.” (flag-burning)
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UTAH), 2006.
If any two statements by public officials better exemplify the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of our government, I can’t imagine what they could be. Get ready for the swift-boating of Rev. Soaries.
WHAT SCARES ME IS THE FACT THAT DOBBS IS DOING SEGMENTS ON ALL THIS AND STILL IT’S IGNORED. (BY MSM) AND BRAD, WHY WOULD THE DNC TELL BUSBY TO NOT MENTION THE MACHINES ? ARE THEY COWARDS, OR ON THE GOP’S SIDE ? IS ANYONE ON ‘WE THE PEOPLES’ SIDE ?
” My sense was that most of the elected officials in Washington “” in their heart of hearts “” really believe that the system can’t be too bad because it produced them.”
So they (Congress) think it was a bunch of comedic errors that put Bush in our White House in 00 & 04…I don,t know whether to say sheesh or BULLSHIT
Agent 99, #4
I signed the petition since it had a recent date, I also signed a similar one months ago. I believe that one went to my senators also.
Floridiot #18
Sheesh and BULLSHIT! IMFAO!
For Floridiot: I suspect a fair number of Congresspeople knew that Gore was cheated in 2000, and assumed that HAVA would fix the problem in the future.
HAVA was a bi-partisan effort, and whenever both parties claim credit for something that seems to be a step forward, everyone on Capitol Hill takes the attitude, “Well, we fixed that. Aren’t we wonderful?”
When something like HAVA blows up in their faces, we never hear, “Boy, did we screw up!” Why? Because both parties go into C.Y.A. mode. This includes a defensive attitude toward hackable election machines and an unwillingness to challenge fraud (a la Kerry, Hackett, Busby). If a Democrat dares to challenge an outcome, he or she would be labeled “partisan” and “sore loser” by Republicans, and isn’t popular with other Democrats either, because HAVA was bi-partisan.
Witness Chris Dodd’s petulance toward John Kerry, who happened to say (off the record, of course), “You know, there’s a problem with these machines.” Dodd got angry and stalked away. Helping voters is one thing, admitting you screwed up is something else again.
lambert strether #1
Thanks for your link – I had been asking about more information on another thread.
Floridiot #18
Get to this link and give us some help please:
https://bradblog.com/?p=3052
It is a series of posts that have to do with the EAC link to Ciber, Inc. in Alabama where Shawn Southworth is shown to have certified every voting machine for every company “¦ and I link it to the republican operatives “¦
Calling Floridiot, calling Floridiot “¦
I’ve had it with having to create a user name and a password with every activist action. I’ll contact my Rep. on her website. You’ll (They’ll) never get any significant numbers with such a cumbersome system. Yech!