Baur's brief statement is perhaps more profound than intended. For apparently, fidelity to the party quashed allegiance to country. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris not only failed the voters in the state of Florida, they robbed the citizens of this country of a fair and honest election. Clearly, they embraced a value system where partisanship dictates actions, right or wrong, and the win justifies the means.
--Aside from not recognizing the 2000 election as a product of malfunctioning systems, machines, processes, materials, and antiquated, gaping election laws, both Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris were "singled out in particular for ignoring 'mounting evidence' of problems with outdated voting technology in a number of counties, and for ignoring requests for guidance and assistance from local officials." Local election supervisors also failed to adequately prepare for the election, showed a lack of leadership, and allowed an "unequal distribution of quality voting equipment." Older voting equipment was distributed disproportionately to African-American precincts, resulting in a higher rate of voting errors among African-American voters. (16)
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Election Systems & Software (ES&S):
What do these states have in common: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming? All own ES&S voting machines. All experienced ES&S election failures. Thirty-four states documented and still counting experienced election equipment failures. (If you live in one of these states and want more information, or if you're curious about the failures experienced with other election equipment, this information and more is presented ESS Failures on VotersUnite.org. Hone in on failures by state, vendor, failure type. It's guarantied to make a believer out of you.)
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ES&S owns a plethora of election failures, including but not limited to my recent Florida favorites: Florida's 2006 Attorney General's race where a conservative estimate of 89K missing votes were never accounted for or even investigated. And 2006's Sarasota's District 13 race, where 18K missing votes were investigated by the GAO in a restricted effort with no conclusive results.
--The following information illustrates the influence one voting machine vendor holds over an election, the country. According to privately owned ES&S, ES&S is the world's largest provider of total election management solutions with over 170,000 systems installed worldwide. ES&S provides end-to-end, start-to-finish solutions. In layperson terms, this means bluntly:
"I'll tell you what to do, how to do it, figure out who your voters are and in the end tell you how they voted."--
In more technical terms, ES&S systems control management of Voter Registration, Ballot Production, Warehousing and Delivery, Election Programming, Voter Education/Outreach to Voting, Counting and Tabulation, and Election Results Reporting. In the past five years alone, ES&S was responsible for printing more than 450 million ballots.
--Today, nearly 67 million registered voters are supported by ES&S equipment. On a national scale, ES&S systems counted approximately 50 percent of the votes in the last four major U.S. elections. Approximately 97,000 ES&S iVotronic Touch Screen Voting Systems are installed in 20 states. Approximately 30,000 ES&S optical scan tabulators are used in 43 states and worldwide.
--Incidentally, again according to ES&S, "The iVotronic was the first touch screen voting device officially certified for use in the State of Florida, and its innovative technology enables all voters to easily and correctly cast their vote in complete privacy." (17)
--No it doesn't.
--Summary:
Conspiracy? Coincidence? Skullduggery? How about an innocent little nudge here and there to hedge your bets? How many fleas do you pick off your collar before you know... Perhaps you've conclusions of your own. Or perhaps you've a new interest in what goes on in that big black box once you've done your part, cast your ballot, and entrusted your precious vote to your election officials. But whether or not you conclude conspiracy, intent, ineptitude, or patriotic void, none of us should condone the blatant disrespect to our country and ourselves as demonstrated every election through the incompetent mismanagement of our right to vote in this country.
References
1. VelvetRevolution.us, 10/01/08
2. Matthew Haggman, "Buyer' Remorse." Daily Business Review, 2/3/2003.
3. Click here.4. "Jeb Bush Jumps Into 1998 Florida Governor's Race," cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS, 11/12/1997.
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