2008 Election Will Be Stolen in PA! A Plea from A Resident of the "Silent State"

I am a Pennsylvanian - and so are you, especially in this year of 2008. We face a serious SILENT Crisis and MUST Act. Will you help?

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I call Pennsylvania the "Silent State" for few are talking about our plight and concurrently our impact on the Nation. Pennsylvania may just be the key battleground state determining the next President and Control of Congress ... yet we predominantly will be voting on paperless DRE touchscreens.

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If this remains, then 2008 will be "stolen"! If one cannot prove "reported "results, if there is no way to recount, no way to get back to source entry/ballot of voter then have we voted? How will we know - we won't.

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If we don't know "reported" results are the people's choices then have we had an election? NO! If no vote... no election....then won't 2008 be stolen from rightful deciders?

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Most of PA State Leaders - of both parties - ignore the problems of paperless DREs (not that DREs with printers are acceptable). The media in PA and nationally are SILENT too.

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My nightmare is Election 2008, with determining decision made by Pennsylvania...yet with no way to prove the count...not even a Chad ...hanging or otherwise....or is it, we will all be hung by Pennsylvania, in particular?

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All Americans will "lose" their voice if Pennsylvania is the decider. All Americans have a stake in removing the gag on and in PA ,,, and helping to ensure that State (along with others) has voter marked paper ballots and precinct based optical scan or hand count in November and effective oversight system to ensure smooth running and full voter participation. Yes, there is more needed to be done but first we MUST have the actual ballots cast by voters, not the SILENCE of secretly programmed machine bytes determining who may be the - "the" not "our" -next President ... selected not elected!

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Pennsylvania unchanged will be far far worse than 2000/2004 -worse than Florida/Ohio - for we have NOTHING at all to check or recount for there is nothing there. No real Vote...no real Election.

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How sadly ironic it would be if the State where our Nation began, where our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were forged, where the idea that people are capable of self governing, that government exists to serve us and all power flows from and back to the people was proclaimed, is the place where our rights end. Pennsylvania may be - nay, will be, the SILENCING of those great ideas/ideals and the death of our representative democracy unless action is immediately taken to give us back our vote and have a real election.. As we in CVI say... Democracy begins with the integrity of OUR vote...and ends without it.

Well if PA decides the election based on the present unprovable - SILENT to the intent of voters - system - Integrity is gone, for there is no way to prove, thus will our Democracy end. Yes, it is that serious for once lost, how will we regain? Can we...or will something else take its' place?

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We must focus our fight to change Pennsylvania in one of its' largest counties, Bucks. The Citizens are aware, more so every day, they are not silent though the majority Commissioners must be for they do not hear and do not care (read editorial below) Bucks is where the first American flag was delivered to George Washington who was camped at the Molland House in Bucks County. It is where it was first flown on what was becoming the United States of America.

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It is up to Bucks to raise the flag again... the battle for our rights..our vote -OUR Vote...and set the example and replace all DREs whether Congress acts on legislation timely or not. We must do the morally right thing...as quickly yet efficiently/effectively as possible. It can and must start county by county so by Election Day 2008, every voter in PA (and ideally all the USA) cast their vote (the REAL Vote) on a ballot that is proof of citizen choice not of secretly programmed "fatally flawed" machines.

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This means that All Americans must now also become Pennsylvanians and Bucks Countians, for your vote could be nullified by the former ... are you willing to let a worse situation than 2000/2004 occur?

If not, then we ask in the name of those who went before and gave blood and effort to give us freedom and for the sake of our children and future generations that our great ideals, backed by the Voice of citizens through their Vote, is NOT SILENCED, that it still survive because WE today took a stand ... removed the Silence...and raised our voices together and kept raising until heard and heeded,,,by November Election by We the People ... an Election, NOT Selection by unproven report or court decision.

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Abraham Lincoln stated "Elections belong to the People. It is their decision."

Let's make it our decision ... starting with the critical county and state that could decide 2008.

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Right now please call Governor Rendell (D) at 717-787-2500. Call Bucks County Commissioners Cawley and Martin (both R) at 215-348-6000. Tell them you are their constituents too and they are your representatives for their decision impacts your vote ... that it's time to END THE SILENCE...show leadership in the best tradition of Bucks, Pennsylvania's and America's history and ideals. Replace ALL paperless DREs with voter marked paper ballots and either optical scan or hand count. GIVE US BACK OUR VOTE...our first right, as Tom Paine stated, the right from which all others derive.

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Yes, we need more but we must begin be having a ballot completed directly by the voter first. Call now and have everyone you know call till the Silence is banished by the Voice and Choice of We the People. YOUR Vote and OUR future may depend on it.

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EDITORIAL

Time to reconsider
The Intelligencer

THE CONTROVERSY OVER Bucks County's use of suspect electronic voting machines is not going away, and with a growing mountain of evidence suggesting that the machines harbor some serious flaws we think it is now incumbent upon the county commissioners to revisit their decision to purchase the machines two years ago.

We supported the commissioners' decision back then, believing it had been made on the basis of good information and a thorough review even though the vote to purchase more than 700 Danaher electronic machines for about $3.8 million was soundly criticized, particularly by a group known as the Coalition for Voting Integrity. The coalition has never ceased in its efforts to have the Danaher machines — which they say are vulnerable to hacking and produce no paper record of the votes actually cast — tossed out in favor of a system using optically scanned paper ballots. Paper ballots may seem to some like a step backward, but opponents of the electronic machines insist such ballots represent the best way to reassure voters that their choices are accurately recorded.

This week a standing-room-only crowd of some 100 citizens — and there were more who couldn't be physically accommodated in the room — packed the commissioners meeting with a single purpose in mind: to convince Republican Commissioners Jim Cawley and Charley Martin and Democrat Diane Marseglia to support a federal bill that would reimburse counties for the cost of replacing electronic voting machines with a paper ballot voting system. Cawley and Martin refused, noting they weren't sure the bill would really reimburse counties based on comments made by county chief operating officer Dave Sanko. A spokesman for Bucks Congressman Patrick Murphy, a co-sponsor of the bill, disputed Sanko's analysis.

More and more unfavorable information is coming to light about electronic voting machines, including from watchdog group Common Cause. It would seem that this is no time for the Republican commissioners to turn a deaf ear (some might say an arrogant deaf ear) to an issue that clearly has a lot of county residents upset. A longtime committeewoman, who has been voting for 60 years, said at the meeting, “I always had faith that my vote was counted accurately, and I do not have that confidence now.” We don't believe that's an isolated sentiment. A number of other states have already decided that electronic voting machines are just too fraught with demonstrated and/or potential problems and have decertified their use.

Costs have to be considered. The county has already spent going on $4 million to buy the Danaher machines and just approved almost $100,000 to extend the machines' warranty for another year. The House bill as drafted would authorize $500 million in federal funds for the switch away from electronic machines, but even if it doesn't cover the entire cost or the bill doesn't pass at all, there's something more important than money going on here. Accurate voting goes to the very heart of what this country is all about.

The electronic voting machines were sold to the public as accurate, easy to use and a major improvement over the mechanical machines they replaced. They are easy to use. But their accuracy and integrity continue to be challenged, and their superiority to the old lever machines as far as yielding a true picture of voter sentiment remains to be proven.

The Republican commissioners can no longer turn their backs on this. They were elected to serve the voters who elected them. By maintaining there is no problem, they are serving only themselves.