Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.Org
This segment of “Democracy at Risk” was a head nod to the activists and it’s about damn time too. As Kitty points out, voting activists have had to step up and try to ensure the voters’ votes are counted correctly because elections officials have failed, in large part.
The text-transcript of Wednesday’s segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full…
Chief among the correspondents working on this story, Kitty Pilgrim. She has the details for us tonight — Kitty.
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, these citizens are really the real heroes. Now, across the country they are demanding audits, they have mobilized groups. They have insisted on paper records of electronic votes. They have sued state governments for tighter rules. They’ve called out lax election officials, and they are making a difference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): Who makes sure that your vote counts? In this election it’s most likely a citizen activist group. For example, the Chicago Office of People for the American Way Foundation are training 3,000 students to troubleshoot problems on electronic voting machines on Election Day.
JULIE SWEET, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: These kids are going to be there for us, just to kind of look over the election judges’ shoulders. And if they have problems, then the kids step in and they figure out how to make it work.
PILGRIM: Groups that have spearheaded the effort include VoteTrust USA, Common Cause, Mainstreet Moms, Voter Action, verifiedvoting.org, Voting Integrity Alliance, Florida Fair Elections Coalition, Cleveland Center for Election Integrity, votersunite.org, saveourvote.org, Accurate, and academic researchers at Johns Hopkins and NYU’s Brennan Center.
They inspire each other. One of the founders of Florida Fair Election Coalition talks about going to the polls with Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, one of the early critics of security flaws in electronic voting.
SUSAN PYNCHON, FLORIDA FAIR ELECTION COALITION: They were taking buckets of paper trash out the back door of the elections office as they were talking to Bev inside, telling her that they didn’t have the records. So I rescued those with another woman from Broward County. We rescued all those records from the trash.
PILGRIM: Activists appear on Capitol Hill wearing “Got Paper?” T-shirts, demanding a voter-verified paper trail.
At Princeton, a computer science professor, Edward Felton (ph), and two graduate students demonstrated security flaws in Diebold’s computers, becoming the unofficial gold standard of safety.
This week, owners of Sequoia voting machines were asked if they would submit their equipment to Princeton for a test.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you supply them with a machine and some software to look at?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we’ll take it under advisement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, why do activists have to take action on their own? Many elections officials fell down on the job, they simply trusted the voting machine companies to fix any flaws. That leading to elections that are not sufficiently transparent.
If the voting machine manufacturer declares the results and election officials blindly accept them, someone has to — has to cast a critical eye on this entire process — Lou.
DOBBS: Citizen activists, thank god for them, because this is another case where government is just simply failing, failing the people and putting the integrity of the election at risk.
And terrific job as always. One of the principal people covering this story.
Kitty Pilgrim, thank you very much.
And this Thursday night at 9:00 p.m., tomorrow evening, the documentary “Hacking Democracy” premieres on HBO. The documentary exposes the vulnerability of our country’s electronic voting systems. It’s certainly important to watch, Thursday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, on HBO.
ALL HAIL LOU DOBBS!!!
Actually the ‘Government Officials” aren’t failing anything, they want a completely fraudulent election so they (Rethuglicans) can stay in power.
The MSM isn’t failing either because obviously they are complicit in covering up all the crimes this non-elected criminal regime is perpetrating on the American people.
The only ones failing here is the overall American public for not rising up by the millions and physically kicking these treasonous bastards out and I mean ALL of them, Rethug & Democrat alike.
Every single thing this treasonous regime has implemented in the last 6 years should all be wiped clean from the records as without any question they were never elected.
This election WILL be stolen just like 2000/02/04’ in spite of the excellent work done by many groups and especially Bradblog.
There is only ONE way this criminal regime is ever going to be brought to justice and we may as well start facing up to it and get busy.
There needs to be at least 80-100 Million Americans that are sick & tired of what is happening that will take to the streets and physically take these bastards out because all normal democratic means have been taken away.
Voting is not going to work, cant rely on the MSM obviously, the Democrats are utterly worthless.
The time has come for bats pitchforks torches & ropes.
This whole clusterphuck could be cleaned up completely in a weekend and start fresh.
Send these bastards to the Hague, burn Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia to the ground along with FAUX news and straighten out the other networks either tell the truth, stop covering up crimes or go the way of FAUX news.
This is how this country was founded, the country is lost & on the brink of destruction and needs to be RE-Founded
Nunyabiz (#2) you propose a simple concept — Revolution.
The problem of how to make it happen is much more complex. In order for the people of the United States to rise up against an oppressive government they would need to…
a. Know that they were being oppressed.
b. Want to change the situation.
c. Be willing to risk their lives and livelihoods to change things, and,
d. Have a leader to follow (mobs, like committees and congress, don’t work well).
Right now, non of those conditions have been met.
A “tipping point” could come in the USA to put a, b, and c into place (at which point, I think a PLATHORA of “leaders” would quickly appear — they are always around to jump in front of a parade and lead it when they are confident that it is big enough for them) but it is hard to imagine what kind of event could trigger such a tip, and equally importnt, how the meme would travel when the corporate media have such near-total control over the distribution and “spin” of information.
I think it more likely that we will go the way of Germany, and sink into a very ugly corporate fascism. Eventually, one or more of the other superpowers on Earth will decide that we are too dangerous to be allowed to continue unabated and we will be humbled by a major world war.
After all, China will eventually get sick of playing second fiddle to an arrogant and imature nation which owes it more money than it can possibly pay and plays strutting and cocky “cowboy” games that could cause harm to their population.
So, VOTE WHILE YOU STILL CAN, so you can at least tell your children and grand-children that you TRIED to change the system before you weren’t even allowed to do that.
What is needed is a take over of the MSM.
First destroy FAUX news completely, every building, every Sat dish, every truck, everything that makes FAUX news function burnt to the ground.
Then tell the remaining media outlets you are next and you have 24 hours to start singing.
Have 100s of 1000s of emails and snail mail sent all saying the same thing.
Get them to tell the truth about 9/11 and all the bald faced lies told since then.
If that doesn’t incite enough absolute hatred of this criminal regime to get an overwhelming response to take these criminals out then you can kiss this country goodbye.
Just stop voting as there is no need to vote for an Emperor and say Sieg Heil Mein Fuhrer and be done with it.
My wife and I are leaving this country within a year or so because we have pretty had it.
So all I can say is good luck.
a good article but hopefully Lou Dobbs and Katie Pilgrim will mention the other important groups that are outside the orbit of the main groups they utilize typically as sources, and are mentioned in the transcript above. Only Election Defense Alliance and Velvet Revolution are doing exit polling (a very important task) as well as my own independent exit poll for the 50th Congressional District, but neither of these groups get a mention, ever, so far as I know.
It’s a typical reach-out issue or difficulty. This movement is actually bigger than almost anyone knows…
Lou Dobbs is a liar. He’s acting as if all of this is a new revelation. Where was he in 2004? 2002? Bullshit. A whore will say anything for the right price.
Let me add this as well. If Lou Dobbs is not lying, and he has finally, after 6 years recognized that there is an e Voting problem, then he dumber then a sack of rocks – since the rest of us have been bitching about this since Nov 2000.
Liar or Dumbass, take your pick. But Lou Dobb’s is one or the other.
Most of the mass media are “pack animals” who follow the going trends. Some will try to be at the LEADING edge of the pack, but very, very few will venture out into uncharted territory where the other animals aren’t feeding (exceptions? Obermann).
Dobbs is trying to be “out in front” of an issue that is suddenly getting a bit of mass media traction. Not so far out there that he might get cut off at the knees if the story doesn’t “take” but far enough out that he can capture some of that cable audience that is out there hoping and waiting to see the MSM take on the issue. And, from the number of times that he gets quoted here (in spite of his “forgetting” some major players and/or facts) it’s clearly working.
The idea of “taking over” the media is an intriguing one. One hope for that was the internet, and getting more and more people to get their info from the blogs and aggregators. But, of course, it’s still years off when the majority of people will get their news from websites, and by then, it will be MAINSTREAM websites like cnn.com or KOS (yes, I consider that site pretty “mainstream” at this point — or “sell-out” if you prefer).
Burning FAUX to the ground? If only it were that easy.
We can thank Mr. Clinton (“the best Republican President we’ve ever had”) for the 1996 Telecomunications Act that allowed this massive consolidation of media power. It’s a lot harder to break up a cartel than to build it — they have too much at stake.
November 7 will decide EVERYTHING. How we respond on November 8 will decide THE REST.
Vote DEMOCRATIC and GET OUT THE VOTE IN NUMBERS SO LARGE THAT THEIR CRIMES ARE CLEARLY VISIBLE.
I agree heartily with all you guys.
Nunyabiz: very important part of your comment, “Get them to tell the truth about 9/11 and all the bald faced lies told since then.” It all hinges on that – it’s the only reason some Americans supported the illegitimate war. It’s one of the reasons the media went into blackout mode. It’s how they gained control of everything.
Oh sad news that you’re leaving the country. I know just how you feel & have considered it. I lean toward staying just to add my support for exposing & prosecuting the thugs. This thing is global – it’s not a pretty picture.
One other comment – look at how many REAL journalists [etc.] got fired for doing the job our 4th estate is supposed to do – report unbiased news. Remember Phil Donahue who had the highest rated show but got canned because he had “too many antiwar supporters” on his show. Lots were fired and then – how many have been killed?
All we can do is continue yelling the truth from the rooftops – loud & clear. CharlieL pointed out the scary truth – if things don’t change we will go the way of 1930’s Germany.
PS Nunya – have you noticed these stories that address your special comment?
Excellent Video
and – How Deep is the Rabbit Hole
Americans have so many distractions. Sports, Game shows, Talent shows, Sitcoms, Commercials ect…
If we could just get them to be excited about participating in their own futures through government, it would be great and even profitable, but our government likes things just the way they are, and will crush any attempt to change things.
One of the hopeful things that has happened are the Robert Greenwald, and Michael Moore type DVD parties which allow us to “go around” the media and have fun a the same time.
Would HBO have a problem with public showings of “Democracy Hacked?” I wonder.
“PS Nunya – have you noticed these stories that address your special comment?
Excellent Video
and – How Deep is the Rabbit Hole”
Yes Kira I have seen those stories and heartily agree, it is the only thing I can see that could possibly stop this madness.
9/11 Truth MUST be told and MUST be understood by the vast majority in order to effect any change.
and that change needs to be drastic, not just a simple change from Neofascist Totalitarianism that we have currently to a Democratic House trying to fight Neofascism.
There needs to be a complete overhaul of the US Gov. in a manner that would have pleased Thomas Jefferson.
Just stressing your point!
High 5, Nunya & 99