<p>So the further down that path Georgia went the uglier things became. </p>
<p><blockquote type="cite">On Aug 19, 2010 6:56 AM, "dude-aaron-omy" <<a href="mailto:aaron@pd.org">aaron@pd.org</a>> wrote:<br><br><p><font color="#500050"><br>On 2010/08/11, at 11:12 , Robbie Honerkamp wrote:<br>
<br>> On 8/11/2010 10:54 AM, Bob Toxen wrote:<br>><br>>> I...</font></p>Robbie is basically correct here, as I was about to point out myself.<br>
<br>
SoS Cathy Cox, her Election Director Kathy Rogers, a Democratic<br>
Majority<br>
Georgia Assembly and Democratic Governor Roy Barnes were the government<br>
representatives who instigated the installation of the Diebold Zero<br>
Evidence<br>
machines. Still, it might not be fair to say that they didn't think<br>
that any sort of<br>
verification was needed, since it appears to many of the voting rights<br>
activists<br>
working on this issue that Diebold was fraudulent in representing<br>
their election<br>
systems to our State representatives, claiming that they met the paper<br>
verification<br>
requirements of the system recommendations that came out of the (multi-<br>
partisan)<br>
21st Century Voting commission in 2001. In my view, the whole thing was<br>
as bait and switch scheme and the legislators didn't have the facts on<br>
what<br>
they were voting for. <<a href="http://sos.georgia.gov/vote_comm/meetings.htm" target="_blank">http://sos.georgia.gov/vote_comm/meetings.htm</a>><br>
<br>
The big carrot Diebold was grabbing for was tens of millions of our<br>
Federal tax<br>
dollars earmarked for updating State voting equipment through the<br>
(Republican<br>
sponsored) 2001 Help America Vote Act (which, BTW, also mandated paper<br>
audit capabilities for machines purchased with the funds). Important<br>
note here<br>
is that Diebold didn't actually have any voting systems to sell until<br>
they acquired<br>
a Texas company, Global Elections Systems, just 30 days before they were<br>
awarded the largest voting system contract in history (around May,<br>
2002).<br>
<br>
Most of the sales job to the Commission and the State officials came<br>
through<br>
the Diebold contracted lobbying firm of Massey and Bowers - Massey being<br>
the (D) SoS predecessor and former boss of Cathy Cox, Bowers being a<br>
former (R) Attorney General. Together with the sole "expert" PAID<br>
witness<br>
they arranged from Kennisaw State Computer Department, Dr. Brit<br>
Williams,<br>
they convinced the legislators that Diebold should be handed a monopoly<br>
contract with guaranteed profit margins (that the public wasn't allowed<br>
to see for 3 years despite numerous open records requests because<br>
Diebold claimed their contract contained "trade secrets").<br>
<br>
Kennisaw State, Brit Williams and Merle King were rewarded for their<br>
deceptions with the contract for the "Elections Center" where they<br>
receive some $500,000 every year to re-certify the zero evidence<br>
Diebold election systems (? as cerfifiably insane ?). Mostly, though,<br>
the Election Center has served as a massive, publicly funded PR<br>
platform for the Diebold corporation, where they can brainwash the<br>
public and election workers into thinking that insane is the new normal.<br>
<br>
It took a couple years, but the State was eventually reimbursed $73<br>
million<br>
from our Federal tax dollars for the Diebold machine purchases. In<br>
2004,<br>
our coalition estimated the transition had actually cost the State<br>
about $130<br>
million in payments to Diebold and Kennisaw. Actual costs of all the<br>
training<br>
and maintenance contracts and machine transporting and system storage<br>
and expensive Diebold technicians running around running our elections<br>
on election days and keeping the Kennisaw propaganda factory going<br>
has probably brought the cost of our last 5 elections to somewhere over<br>
$200 million by now, especially after adding in the 3x market price<br>
laptops<br>
Diebold sold us as "poll books" in 2004.<br>
<br>
In 2006 Cathy Cox ran for Governor, though Cox didn't abandon her SoS<br>
duties mid term the way Karen Handel did for this 2010 election cycle.<br>
This corrupt act of incompetence opened the door for Purdue to appoint<br>
a non-incumbent (R) incumbent for the SoS office that didn't have as<br>
many liabilities in conflicts of interests, abandoned promises and<br>
corruption.<br>
<br>
Karen Handel was installed as Secretary of State back in 2006 (over Gail<br>
Buckner) at least partly on a promise to put paper audit trails on the<br>
systems.<br>
However, once in office, Handel abandoned all paper trail commitments,<br>
probably thanks to some $25,000 in campaign contributions from Massey<br>
and Bowers. It's my understanding that Massey and Bowers generously<br>
thanked Karen again in her (thankfully) failed run for Governor this<br>
year.<br>
<br>
Kathy Rogers continued as State Election Director through 2006 and<br>
served as the frontline committee blockade to all legislative attempts<br>
to<br>
bring legitimate election systems to Georgia. She resigned when Karen<br>
Handel took office and immediately went to work for the Diebold<br>
corporation<br>
as a high priced glamour girl spokesperson.<br>
<br>
In Fall, 2009 a case challenging the constitutionality of the machines<br>
came<br>
before the State Supreme court. Faced with perjury, the expert<br>
witnesses<br>
from Kennisaw testified under oath that there is no way to audit or<br>
verify<br>
election results [no matter how many years they get paid our tax dollars<br>
to fraudulently re-certify the machines]. Still, the Supreme Court<br>
punted,<br>
claimed GA voters don't have standing to challenge the State's choices<br>
of election systems regardless of how clearly incompetent or fraudulent<br>
they may be, and then threw the hot potato back to the State Capital.<br>
<br>
So I think you can see from the above that quibbling about which half<br>
of the (Dem)/(Rep) duopoly is more responsible for the corruption of<br>
our election systems is rather pointless. As we see time and time<br>
again<br>
with most all government corruption, the source of the problems is the<br>
Corporate Welfare State piratization of our essential public services<br>
and Corporate lobbyist influence over our representative lawmakers<br>
and laws. So long as we allow ourselves to buy into the the mythical<br>
and fraudulent formula that { (Cost + Profit) < Cost }, then we will<br>
suffer<br>
the kind of obscene corporate fraud and systemic failures we find<br>
in the Diebold monopoly profiteering control over an insane, Zero<br>
Evidence voting system.<br>
<br>
peace<br>
aaron<br>
<br>
[snip]<br>
<p><font color="#500050">_______________________________________________<br>Ale mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br><a href="http://mail.ale.org/mai.">http://mail.ale.org/mai.</a>..</font></p>
</blockquote></p>