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Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US
From: |
Robin Green |
Subject: |
Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US |
Date: |
Tue, 13 Jul 2004 12:49:59 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.4.1i |
> > From: "Pierce T.Wetter III" <address@hidden>
>
> http://www.eac.gov/annualreport_2003.htm#sec1
>
> The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) requires the
> establishment of an Election Assistance Commission (EAC) headed
> by four commissioners, who are appointed by the President.
The HAVA was what set in motion the current e-voting craze, I believe.
And the EAC seem rather wedded to e-voting, Diebold-style. :-( Is this
the kind of statement we want to see from a body entrusted with "helping"
states to conduct elections?
"Most importantly, the proposals requiring a voter-verified paper record
would force voters with disabilities to go back to
using ballots that provide neither privacy nor independence, thereby subverting
a hallmark of the HAVA legislation. There must be
voter confidence in the accuracy of an electronic tally. However, the current
proposals would do nothing to ensure greater trust in
vote tabulations."
The final sentence is the one I find Orwellian.
A more frighteningly ignorant and/or duplicitous statement on e-voting
I have never heard. Everyone who cares about democracy should be
concerned at these type of attitudes (which seem to be depressingly
common among elections officials in the US). As one Slashdot wag put it:
"I wonder if they'd let me take control of their personal finances
without a paper record - because the paper record would do
nothing to ensure greater trust in the financial calculations."
Isn't that a valid analogy? I think it is.
Either they do not understand even the more elementary problems (and there
are many problems, some elementary, some subtle) with current paperless
e-voting systems... or they are actively and knowingly complicit in the
electronic corruption of the election process!
And remember, just because someone's Black, doesn't mean they're automatically
a "good guy", or automatically care about racial disenfranchisement.[1] Really,
that's obvious to a five year old, but Pierce seems to tacitly assume this.
Likewise, just because a commision is "bipartisan" (Oh! So it's got Republicrats
and Demopublicans! How wide and all-encompassing a spectrum of opinion is that!
We clearly have nothing to fear!) doesn't automatically imply it's neutral.
The frightening quotation above demonstrates that bipartisan commissions -
gasp, even when Black people sit on them! - can come to the wrong conclusions.
--
Robin
[1] Racial disenfranchisement usually benefits Republicans the most, where it
benefits anyone at all, I believe.
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- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, (continued)
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Frank T. Pohlmann, 2004/07/13
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Neil Thompson, 2004/07/13
- [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] America, Land of Contradictions, Ron Parker, 2004/07/13
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Scott Parish, 2004/07/13
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Zenaan Harkness, 2004/07/13
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Pierce T . Wetter III, 2004/07/12
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Matthew Dempsky, 2004/07/12
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Tom Lord, 2004/07/12
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Pierce T . Wetter III, 2004/07/12
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Samium Gromoff, 2004/07/13
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US,
Robin Green <=
- Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Pierce T . Wetter III, 2004/07/13
Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Tobias C. Rittweiler, 2004/07/12
[Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US, Tom Lord, 2004/07/12
Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US, John Seifarth, 2004/07/19