Centralizing the power to control votes and determine who holds the reins to our country is more a form of national socialism than democracy.
If you find this language inflammatory, well, you should.
When the Help America Vote Act was passed in 2002, an alien creature was introduced into our historical structure of governing through checks and balances and dispersed power.
This growing little monster, the Election Assistance Commission (The Commission), consists of four white house appointees, beholden to and reporting to the Executive Branch. The Commission -- with its centralized powers -- is alien to our democratic and representative form of governance; it is a complete betrayal of the founders' vision for dispersed power, as held by the States and the American people, specifically with respect to our voting systems.The Holt Bill (HR 811) further strengthens and empowers this alien Commission in our governmental structure.
I am concerned with defending my state and its beautiful, long time traditions and culture of grassroots democracy, and my nation's dreams and ideals for democracy and freedom.
This dream depends on our ability to choose the people we want to lead us, and to ensure -- through free and open democratic elections -- that, in fact, it is the people's choice who are the given the power to do so.
This is the beauty of the vision of our revolutionary founders, who understood the necessity of dispersed power to check and balance the human inclinations that may arise when people are handed control over the destiny of others.
The Commission, four white house appointees, controls the way America votes and how our votes will be counted.
It does this through a benign and bureaucratic sounding program called the "Voluntary Voting System Guidelines" program. Called "voluntary", because the Constitution does not allow the Executive Branch to mandate the manner in which States administer elections, in reality, The Program is not voluntary at all.
The Commission's Program is not voluntary because it is the means by which The Commission designs the technology and the implementation of all voting systems, computer-based or paper ballot-based, used in the United States of America. Its standards will be the basis for which a limitless number of lawsuits can be brought under a private right of action, lawsuits that can destabilize our nation by throwing elections to the courts and out of the hands of we the people.
Wielding a 2-3 inch binder of software and procedural specifications, requirements, and recommendations, The Commission dictates which technology-based voting equipment will be produced for American voting jurisdictions, as well as the design and procedures for using paper ballot voting systems.
And HR 811, the Holt Bill, enhances, broadens, and indefinitely funds The Commission.
The American people need to think very carefully about the implications of continuing to empower and fund indefinitely The Commission.
The cavalier manner in which many people dismiss the implications of the white house designing our voting machines and controlling paper ballot voting systems -- virtually controlling how every vote in the nation is not only cast but is counted -- is quite dangerous.
Perhaps it is hard for us to envision this alien invasion into our cherished form of democratic governance in the United States of America. Perhaps it is just too much for us to assimilate into our notions of American dreams and ideologies.
Perhaps this was the case for our fellow freedom loving people in Europe in the 1920's and 30's too.
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