Democracy, Take Two

Could it be? Someone other than the quixotic John Conyers taking systematic election theft seriously? The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550) proposed by Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) would do the following:

Mandate a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast in every federal election, nationwide; because the voter verified paper record is the only one verified by the voters themselves, rather than by the machines, it will serve as the vote of record in any case of inconsistency with electronic records;

Protect the accessibility requirements of the Help America Vote Act for voters with disabilities;

Require random, unannounced, hand-count audits of actual election results in every state, and in each county, for every Federal election;

Prohibit the use of undisclosed software and wireless and concealed communications devices and internet connections in voting machines;

Provide Federal funding to pay for implementation of voter-verified paper balloting; and

Require full implementation by 2006.

Today's openly fascist Republican Party, with its tragecomically fiendish hunger for power, has rendered Americans' shared ideals about citizenship, government and each other a quaint anachronism. H.R. 550 attempts to recover some of the ground lost to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy of primarily state and local election officials and various unofficial operatives intent on subverting open and honest elections in pursuit of total governance by the GOP.


But conspiracy is too small a word for what has transpired since Bush's vote-trashing judicial coup in 2000. Considering their network extends from podunk election precincts to the United States Supreme Court, it's fair to say this particular conspiracy - systematic election fraud - has become part and parcel of neoconservative culture and the Republican Machine's villainous plan for total domination (which, from my dark vantage point, still appears to be going swimmingly).

Join me in revulsion as the jackboots line up to oppose The Voter Confidence Act. The petition expressing support HR 550 can be found here.