Short of hand-counting all paper ballots in public view everywhere, which isn't going to happen anytime soon, this is the most promising path to restoring democracy, which even Jimmy Carter says we no longer have.
JB: Yes, all the publicity could prove to be good for raising concern and awareness. And Carter's not the only one who's worried. Let's backtrack for a minute. I know that you don't live in New York State, Ralph, so this Ocasio-Cortez race wasn't in your backyard. You couldn't even vote in that one.. How did you become a self-proclaimed 'election transparency activist' in your home state and beyond?
RL: Energized is a good word. You don't think much about elections, if you think they are generally fair within the parameters of what we know about them. We know cheating is American as apple pie. Vote early vote often, Richard Daley said, the Mayor of Chicago and one of the old time political bosses. He wasn't really joking. LBJ famously stole votes in Texas to become US Senator. But we thought it was the exception, and honest-enough elections the rule. I got energized when I realize this was not the case. And we are talking about important elections. In 2004, the whole world watched to see if we would re-elect George Bush, after he invaded Iraq. It was like a referendum of approval. And though Bush was declared the winner, there is strong evidence that he stole the key swing state of Ohio. Anybody can google this for themselves and, in five minutes, have plenty of good info.
So now, many people hated not only Bush. They hated Americans. We got a rap we didn't deserve. Fast forward to Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton, and it is clear that Sanders really won. People disappeared off the voting lists in New York and Arizona, and in California they got caught erasing Bernie votes with white out. There were shenanigans in state after state. Anybody can research this too.
Think of what a different country it would be if either John Kerry, or someone like Ron Paul or Bernie Sanders had been elected president. And it's always blamed on the American people, for not knowing their own best interests. But maybe they have been voting for their best interests all along, whether you are coming from the left or the right. And they've been getting robbed.
JB: Thanks so much for talking with me, Ralph. It's been an education!
***
*Tim Canova and the illegally destroyed ballots by Brenda Snipes, the Broward County [FL] Supervisor of Elections in his closely contested 2016 race against Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her seat in House of Representatives. Read more here.
Was Sanders (and the country) robbed? Many sources think so, here's one ; here's another[Newsweek].
DefCon 2018:
Coverage before convention:
Coverage after convention:
PBS:: An 11-year-old changed election results on a replica Florida state website in under 10 minutes
New Yorker: Election-Hacking Lessons from the 2018 Def Con Hackers Conference
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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