Raw Story: Group Launches Divestment Campaign Against Voting Firms

[understandinglife]

Group launches divestment campaign against voting firms over paper trails, ‘partisanship’

Filed under: General— site admin @ 12:47 am

‘Velvet Revolution’ launches voting firm divestment campaign

By Jesse Kanson-Benanav | RAW STORY Managing Editor

The Velvet Revolution has begun!

This time, however, it’s not in Ukraine, but right here in the United States.

Led by Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com, the Velvet Revolution (VelvetRevolution.us) is a coalition of 80 progressive groups who say they have united to bring accountability and transparency to American voting procedures. Targeting the nine leading vote machine manufacturers–Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems and Software, HartInterCivic, MicroVote, Danaher-Guardian, TriadGSI, UniLect, and Advanced Voting Solutions–the Velvet Revolution hopes to open vote-counting procedures in America to greater public scrutiny.

“These companies are behaving terribly,” Friedman said. “They are all Republican companies that insist on keeping their information private.”

Friedman and the Velvet Revolution coalition insist that because such corporations are contracted to serve a public function–to manage vote-counting systems–they should be accountable to the public in the same way government agencies are. The coalition takes issue with the fact that all nine companies refuse to release their software, saying it is proprietary, and will not issue paper ballots or receipts.

The voting machine companies disagree. (more at the link)

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=140



"NOT ONE LINE OF SOFTWARE BETWEEN A VOTER AND A VALID ELECTION: NOT ONE, EVER AGAIN"

[democracyindanger]

1. Awesome, but

I'd call it the Paper Revolution.

[understandinglife]

2. That's an interesting insight. Please do share it with Brad &....

...the folk at VR.

Thank you.


TBO;24/7

[rawstory]

6. clever.

;)

[autorank]

3. Great idea for the CA State Pension Fund

Let Arnie run against them for that. Think about it.

[countmyvote4real]

4. This is great! I will do whatever I can to support their efforts.

And get this snip from the link...

“The reason we got rid of paper ballots was to ensure the accuracy of elections,” he said. “Now these people are saying (paper ballots are) the only way of having accurate elections.”

That is so unfucking-believable. It kind of sums up the whole situation.

[autorank]

5. Memo to CA Pension Fund: JOIN THIS MOVEMENT, DIVEST

and throw down on this issue with Arnie, make him run his campaign against you on this issue. He'll get his ass kicked.

Time for Democrats to be bold! This would just rock.

Arnie wants this fund "privatized." He's running a special election to get this. Why doesn't the fund just bitch slap the fat slob on this issue and dare him to do anything.

NEW LEADERS FOR A NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
SOCIAL JUSTICE, INTERNATIONAL RESTRAINT, NO
MORE “BUSH LITE”

[understandinglife]

9. Yes, in_deed. Please contact Brad and share your ideas with him. (nt)

Thank you.


PROVE MY VOTE COUNTS"

[autorank]

10. Will do, thanks.

[gort]

7. Make it Count. Vote Absentee.

We need to hammer that in to every targeted voting group. Fight the machines. Vote on Paper. Vote absentee.

Bush's army of Rovebots made sure that every blue precinct did not have enough machines so that they could suppress the vote in black neighborhoods and in cities skewing towards Kerry.

The other thing to try is to hire a polling firm to do exit polling since the MSM wont stand by their polling data when it showed that the Bushies stole the last two elections. They are cowards and are afraid to show Bush for the liar that he is. They also are being bought off by the GOP so it should not be surprising that they won't bite the hand that is feeding them.

Of course, we Democrats need to stand up and fight so that we can take back the Congress in 2006.

Gort

[goodboy]

8. Andy told me he was asked to be a part of this...I only hope he gets

well soon enough to participate.

[jazzjunkysue]

11. You go, Bradblog!