election: also it is on talkdemocracy
http://www.talkdemocracy.org.uk/talk/viewtopic.php?p=331#331
Feel free to use or ignore
What follows - critiicism, comments welcome - are
A) a short (unused) letter to the Herald and
B) a lengthy background briefing explaining the perspective of the letter.
I write as riots happen in France where the Exit polls have suddenly become
unreliable after the introduction of ES and S software and machnery to count
the votes ... plus ca change?
Please feel free to use either in any way that you see fit, if only as a
background briefing paper.
questioning of their taken for granted reality, so probably debate about the
Scottish elections will stay within safe channels. But with your help we
could deepen and widen it??
best wishes, Keith Mothersson
Thomas McLaughlin assures us thst 'no one actually tried to steal last
Thursday's ballot' (Letters, May 7) But how do any of us know? If a team of
e-fraudsters had succeeded in shifting one vote in ten from Party X to Party
Y would they have left a calling card out of sheer bravado?
An influential neo-con handbook, Coup d'Etat, by Edward Luttwak, recommends
coups so stealthy that nobody gets upset and has to be shot protesting.
DRS is doubtless honest, but has recently bought Peladon Software, a San
Diego company which had recently bought in imaging software from Diebold,
the firm distrusted beyond all others by the large Voting Integrity movement
in the US.
Many of these e-voting and e-counting companies have boardrooms graced by
former insiders at the CIA or Pentagon, institutions whose commitment to
democracy is hardly beyond question and ones known to have worked on stealth
technologies for 'full spectrum dominance', including in cyber-space.
Mystery breakdowns in the Ohio count are now known to have provided a cover
for the results to have been routed via a secret GOP server to Karl Rove.
Like Jim Sillars I want to live in a country which relies on good old
Scottish scepticism, not faith-based voting. I will readily accept that I
may be being too suspicious if Mr McLaughlin will accept that he may be
being too naive. Neither of us really know yet both of us have a right to be
certain.
The paradox of the traditional system is that trust results from accepting
the starting point of resolute mutual distrust. By contrast having to accept
'expert' assurances about technology that no one is really in a position to
extend, not even the experts, is a recipe for increased distrust in the
political process and ever-lower turn-outs.
Far from e-technology taking us forward, its introduction has been a huge
set-back for Scottish democracy, whether or not anything untoward has been
tried on on this occasion.
Readers who would like to join me in a Campaign for Hand-counted Paper
Ballots are invited to write or phone me on 01738 783677.
Keith Mothersson,
2b Darnhall Cres,
Perth, PH2 0HH
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