Larry BerganAN OPEN LETTER TO BILL GATES CONCERNING VOTING MACHINES
Sorry for screaming, but since Lt. Governor Gary continues to lie and say that he couldn’t stop the only statewide deployment in America of Diebold voting machines that have been proven to be hackable by one of our own citizens, (can you name him?), and costing us largely untold, (by Utah’s media), millions of dollars, I feel I have to point my fellow conservative, but largely silent citizens to the Peter B. Collins show from Friday the thirteenth of July 2007. If you download and listen to the last portion of the show, you will hear one of my favorite voices in the voting integrity movement.
Mark Crispin Miller is one of those invisible voices in America, who pulls no punches when it comes to the “one man, one vote” concept of peaceful revolution. This interview holds special importance to me, because he implicates Microsoft in the battle to stop the aforementioned concept held dear by our esteemed forefathers. It seems the the only bill in congress that would allow the public to examine the code that counts their precious votes, (HR 811), has been compromised by giant corporations including Microsoft and Diebold, among others. None of the organizations or people that should be watching out for us ARE, (watching out for us, that is.) These include Moveon.org, PFAW, Common Cause, ACLU, Bill O’Rielly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Dan Rather, Rod Decker, Get Gephardt… You name it.
I will never put myself in the league with people like Brad Friedman or Mr. Miller, who filled in for the vacationing Mr. Friedman, on his regular Friday spot on the show, but I am proud of this letter I tried to relay to Bill Gates on the only forum I had on June 15th, 2006. Maybe Bill or Mr. Herbert will respond, but I’m not holding my breath.
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AN OPEN LETTER TO BILL GATES CONCERNING VOTING MACHINES
Dear Mr. Gates:
I heard you on NPR’s “What I believe” series , talking about your hopes and dreams concerning computers and other very important issues facing today’s world. I too share your love of computers and have always thought they were the greatest invention of my lifetime. I even taught myself programming and published a little known program called “Cyber Print” for Atari in 1988 just before they went out of business. Don’t worry, I now own a PC and find it to be perfect for my needs.
Who could image a machine that could not only allow somebody to compose and orchestrate their own musical score, create incredible works of art, or think of virtually any question that popped into their mind and actually have the answer in the time it takes to boot up their PC and hop on the internet. Wow!
Many years ago I was with some friends, and the subject of computers came up. Somebody I had never met said something that seemed so stupid to me at the time, that for a moment, had put me in a state of rage! He said that computers were the “appliance from hell”. I was speechless that somebody could say something so ignorant and literally could not think of a thing to say.
Today, I feel he may have been right! Whether you are a conspiracy nut or not these days, nobody can argue that computers, intentionally or not, are keeping us from knowing our votes are being counted at the polls. Something so horrifying that apparently, people don’t want to believe it. This news is traveling slowly to say the least. Not from any lack of notification on my part though. Just ask anybody at the local news hotlines or members of the Voting Equipment Selection Commitee here.
I walked the streets and collected hundreds of signatures for a group of local activists in Utah last year soliciting for paper ballots. I even got to speak at a local rally for my efforts and told of my ease at gathering signatures from both sides of this 21st century political divide we find ourselves in. Although I didn’t ask, I assumed most of people I talked to must have been republican. Almost all of these people did not know that these machines were secretly programmed, but nearly everybody I talked to signed up immediately and were very appreciative that somebody was trying to fix this obvious problem.
Despite all my, and many others efforts and money, local officials elected to buy an unverifiable system for the 2006 midterm elections. I also understand the democrats aren’t planning to organize an exit poll this year. Maybe they are too busy getting one together for the next Kiev race! We all know how goofy those Russian elections can get!
This is where I hope you might come in. Although I don’t think it takes any great knowledge of computers to understand this problem, I’ll bet your thoughts on this disturbing matter would promote our cause faster then any thousand computer scientists. And I’ll bet those same scientists would be very happy to get back to their regular day jobs, and leave the task of producing verifiable voting procedures to competent professionals who get paid for that sort of thing!
I’m sure that your great American success story could only be enhanced by your bravery to come out against any corporation that would sell, or polling officials that would buy, a machine designed to count votes, without providing complete transparency. Some things are just too important to get all mixed up in a legal conundrum. In other words, they tell us we are lucky to live in the greatest democracy in the world, and I’m just asking for the right to have my ONE vote registered AND counted on election day.
Thank You!
July 19th, 2007 at 8:09 am
H.R. 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, is co-sponsored by Rep. Matheson. It would ban paperless voting systems starting with the 2008 election. A voter-verified permanent paper ballot would be required. If it doesn’t pass, then everyone in Utah should sign up for vote-by-mail.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Wow, Good for Torture Jimmy. Such a man of principle.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Great letter, Larry. And thanks for the kind words.
Note to Richard Warnick: When the supporters of HR 811 claim that it “bans paperless voting systems” as you’ve suggested, it’s incredibly misleading. It bans (by 2010) only touch-screen machines that don’t produce a so-called “paper trail”. The touch-machines you already use in Utah, as I recall, already offer such a paper trail, and the fact is that such a paper trail on dangerous DRE touch-screen machines don’t make things any better. Arguably, they make things worse, in fact.
Fact is, the paper trail can be gamed just like the internal numbers. As well, when such a machine breaks down, voters cannot vote. Period.
DRE touch-screen systems, with or without a paper trail, need to be banned. Period. Unfortunately, Holt’s HR 811 (which I helped to author during it’s pre-introduction state) fails to do that. So, until it’s amended, it should not be supported as is.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:24 am
P.S. Meant to add that the bill does NOT require a “voter-verified permanent paper ballot ” as you suggest. It requires ONLY a paper trail. Unless you consider a paper trail to be a paper ballot. But if you do, then you need to ask why the Holt bill requires that only 3% to 10% of those “ballots” ever need to be counted at all. And only long AFTER election day.
That ain’t a ballot. Don’t be fooled by the misleading language in the bill, and the misleading information being forwarded by its supporters.
July 19th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Brad, thanks for weighing in. Your leadership on this issue is much appreciated. Of course you are correct that H.R. 811 doesn’t go far enough and should be amended if possible. But this bill has made some local politicians nervous– the Salt Lake County Council recently adopted a resolution opposing H.R. 811. They apparently don’t believe it won’t apply to Utah voting machines or at least are worried about the direction Congress wants to go with this.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
That’s the real Brad Friedman alright. Nobody impersonating him would be saying those things. The truth just has a certain ring to it, and Brad tells it every day as the busiest voting integrity activist on the planet. I’m am stunned that he showed up here to help me out with all the things he has going on.
To anybody reading this post, please go to the website that I posted above to listen to the Peter B. Collins show, (especially on Fridays when you can get a rundown of all the important developments concerning voting issues.) Actually, Brad is hosting the show while Peter is on vacation this week. Peter has a great show which always puts the truth before entertainment just as Brad’s great Blog does. Voting integrity can be a very boring, and mind numbing thing to keep up with, so Brad includes other topics of interest and some great humor to temper the discussion.
By the way the brave Utah citizen who proved our new Diebold machines could be hacked is Bruce Funk. He was treated similarly to Rocky Anderson for doing his job, and doing it better then virtually every other election official in the United States. Thank you Bruce! You can find out more about what really happened with Bruce by going to BradBlog.com and typing his name into the search box there.
Thanks a million Brad, it made my day to see your name here!
Come on Utah, lets have a discussion here. You are being used to enrich a corporation that deserves to be sued. They have been sued at least twice and lost both times. Lets get our money back, not give them more.
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 am
Where have all the gun nuts gone?
long time passing
Where have all the gun nuts gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the gun nuts gone?
Chasing immigrants, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:20 am
Let me clarify things. The immigrants probably didn’t want to risk their lives to cross the border and be treated like felons for mowing our lawns. I’m thinking they wanted to mow their own lawns, in their own country. This isn’t rocket science. But, then again, maybe Clinton wasn’t acting like a rocket scientist when he joined with all the Republicans, and authorized NAFTA.
I’m not a rocket scientist either, but I think there was an election in Mexico in 2006 that had a chance to put a leader in charge who promised to help the poor people in that country. Unless I was duped, (and I’m not saying I wasn’t), the same company that helped Bush steal the election in 2000, (Choicepoint), helped steal that election also.
The media ignored that story.
Would any self respecting gun nut be surprised?
By the way, I don’t own a gun, and never have. I think change can come from better means.
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:25 am
Not to be redundant:
Come on Utah, lets have a discussion here. You are being used to enrich a corporation that deserves to be sued. They have been sued at least twice and lost both times. Lets get our money back, not give them more.
I thought so!
Crap!
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 am
“Power comes from the end of a gun”
Mao Tse Tung.
Definitely not from Larrys’ Utah.
Whatever became of the 2006 mexican fraudulent election? Whatever became of our own?
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I’m not hearing about minute men brandishing their guns to bring change against Diebold, but I hear a lot about them pointing weapons at immigrants. I just think the whole gun nut thing is a play act to divide us. When the Democrats are in office, they’re all over the place making threats, but won’t say a thing when a mercenary army takes guns away from poor people in New Orleans.
Everything is phony.
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
We are living in an hypocrisy that can be measured very simply in terms of how many people support policy and vote against their own self interest.
But then when they do it again after getting it shoved up their asses, I think we are also dealing with a crazed neurotic populous who can no longer distinguish between what they see on TV and reality.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 am
Larry, that is simple bullshit and you know it. It is the expressed official policy of the Minutemen to absolutely not interfere in the progression of the felony of illegally transgressing our border, they forward any information they get to ICE or homeland security. That said, as in all cases where people are observers to crime, there can be incidents.
Perhaps you have fallen into the category of people Cliff talks about, that cannot distinguish reality, and perhaps watches too much TV.
The minutemen are a single issue group, and what they are doing about diebold is about as much as any of us can do, in what is now a bi-partisan dictatorship. Any elections have been a sham for quite some time.
The proof is in the unerring and direct policy of stealing everything on earth, that isn’t nailed down. What is nailed down and cannot be taken, is simply being scuttled and those in the way, destroyed.
You wonder on our popularity or that any issue matters with this as “prime directive”? No matter what the sugar coated assholes from either party say? In the end the world will judge us, and has it seems. We are found LACKING!! Or lackeys to tyranny.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
The Minutemen are a reckless band of bigots fighting against the wrong enemy. The illegal immigrants that risk their lives to facilitate our standard of living are the most innocent of all the parties involved and yet they are also the victims.
Support for the Minutemen is a guaranteed reservation in hell.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Yes the standard of living that is being eroded as wages fall due to people like yourself, that agree with slave wages, and jobs with no benefits…like the ones you sent to china when you worked for lyon. Cliff, far be it from you figuring it out, but YOU are the enemy.
It is the height of hypocrisy for you judge anyone in America that wants the immigration laws upheld after you having materially benefited from outsourcing and from low wage unskilled immigration, which I call domestic outsourcing .
Really, how do you live yourself?