Excerpt: "In a nutshell, the budding vulture capitalist Republican son of the vulture capitalist Republican running for president is part-owner of voting machines in a state that is a must-win for any Republican seeking the presidency."
Mitt, Ann and Tagg Romney confer with aides on a campaign flight. (photo: TopekaNews)
America: Land of Shady Elections
23 October 12
Reader Spported News | Perspective
merica: Land of Shady Elections
If a country proclaimed itself as the standard-bearer for Democracy around the world, while a son of one of that country's presidential candidates owned voting machines in a state known for swinging elections, would you take that country's claims seriously? Would you believe that nation's claims of love for Democracy if a team of UN observers were sent to that nation's polling locations on Election Day to monitor a hyper-partisan voter intimidation group?
We've all heard of the Golden Rule. No, not the "do unto others" law that Jesus spoke of in the New Testament - I'm referring to the more well-known "He who has the gold, makes the rules" one. In this case, the one with the gold is Tagg Romney, son of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Tagg also recently made headlines after saying he wanted to "take a swing" at the President of the United States for calling his dad a liar.
Tagg is managing partner of Solamere Capital, which is a subsidiary of financial firms owned by Allen Stanford, a guy doing 110 years behind bars for an $8 billion Ponzi scheme. Solamere is tied to many private equity-owned firms, one of which is HIG Capital's Hart Intercivic, a voting machine company whose products will be used in Ohio on November 6th. This is worse than when the owner of Diebold, who makes easily-hackable voting machines, promised to deliver Ohio to George W. Bush in 2004.
In a nutshell, the budding vulture capitalist Republican son of the vulture capitalist Republican running for president is part-owner of voting machines in a state that is a must-win for any Republican seeking the presidency. By any reasonable standard, this conflict of interest is cause for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission and the FBI, and is a national security concern for the Department of Homeland Security, all of which have a mandate to ensure that vote counts will not be tampered with on Election Day.
When you combine this troublesome detail with the many new unfair voter ID laws around the United States that are estimated to disenfranchise millions of Democratic-leaning voters on election day, this election could very well be a farce. Far-right politicians in Ohio, Virginia, Arizona and Florida have done their very best to suppress the Democratic vote by purging voter rolls, giving Latino voters wrong information on when to vote, and even adjusting early voting rules to favor Republican-leaning counties over Democratic-leaning counties.
The threat of a farce election is so great that lawyers for the ACLU, NAACP and other advocates have asked UN observers to come to the beacon of Democracy, the United States, and monitor our elections. This is in response to a Houston-based group called True the Vote that trains thousands of volunteers in a pledge to stop "voter fraud," largely through aggressive intimidation tactics. True The Vote's strategy is basically to give copies of voter rolls to poll-watchers, and encourage them to relentlessly question election officials when someone comes into a polling location whom they don't think should be there. While partisan groups like True The Vote are crying "voter fraud" as their excuse to make it harder for students, seniors, people of color, poor people, and other traditionally left-leaning constituencies to go vote, the only acts of voter fraud that actually occur are being committed by the far right.
We need to be just as aggressive in demanding accountability for the crooks who are trying to rig this election in their favor, before we're stuck with an illegitimate presidency and arguing over a few hundred votes in rigged courts.
Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. You can contact Carl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and listen to his online radio talk show, Swag The Dog, at blogtalkradio.com/swag-the-dog.
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Comments
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My question to you, why are you trying to discourage dyannne?
I don't get the negatives given Indian Weaver. He/She is exactly right. The American Revelution was not won just by writing letters (or contributing to blogs). Join a group like Move to Amend. Get active. Pull away from the key board once in a while and hit the street with Labor, students and others demostrating for a government for and by the People.
I was offended by Indian Weaver's immediate jump to an accusation of hypocrisy.
"What's the matter with American? Have ever read about the fall of the Roman Empire?
I'll tell you who was there: Greg Palast from the Guardian came all the way to Columbus. Even Jesse Jackson (and people didn't like that his people took up a collection, but he doesn't have money raining down on him). But where was everybody else?
I was glad to see the Occupy movement, and events around the country. I'm happy that there are still people remembering the May 4th events in Kent State University in Ohio, and many of the people who were in Kent back in the day have recorded the history. But the modern history is just as important.
If you vote early in Ohio, you are certain to vote with a paper ballot. Have the Board of Elections double-check that everything is filled out correctly (General Election checked; the year 2012; etc.). You can vote in person at the Board of Elections; do it tomorrow if you haven't already. We had our vote hacked to pieces in 2000 and in 2004. No kidding folks, Ohio is key to this, and we need people on the ground now.
Neither are the jerks who steal elections, and the cretin thugs in Congress who take our pay and vote against all that is humane and holy. The day we LET money be the decider of everything in this nation is about to be our doomsday. We need to storm Congress, the Supreme Court, Wall Street, and yes, some of us will get killed. I say, let's us old people do it! It beats the hell out of watching our toes rot off!
In 2012 we have Romney thru his son Tagg and a subsidiary of Solamere Capital owning a voting machine company that will be used in Ohio.
Can we say- another election stolen by the GOP.
Have they ever won an election fairly????
Idem populus qui dabit legiones, lexes et fasces nunc se continet panem et circenes - Juvenal satire 10.77–81
Translation: the same people who once gave the legions, laws and symbols of office now are only content with bread and circuses!
Why does it keep happening? Because overall, the American public is ignorant and apathetic. As long as they get their bread and circuses, they won't sit up and take notice of anything until it's much too late. I've been protesting various wrongdoing for 35 years, and what has it gotten me? About 30 seconds on the news once or twice. Until there are millions of us sitting outside our representatives ' offices, refusing to move until the elections are fair, the banksters are incarcerated, the wars are stopped, the environment is safe, the 1% are paying their share----nothin g will change.
It SHOULD be illegal to use machines that have no audit trail (pseudo audit trails do not count). Electronic touch screen voting machines have no way to be audited or the votes re-counted, because there is no paper trail, they can also be tampered with. So the only check would be the exit polls.
If you as a voter are concerned about the integrity of the machines you are using you either need to vote by mail - paper vote - or if an optical scan machine is available use that. Those machines do have an audit trail.
This however still begs the question - how can you be sure that the voting machine is counting your vote as intended? What system can we put in place to ensure that these machines are not rigged?
The envelope has a blank that needs to be filled in "2012," or it is invalid. "General Election" must be checked on both forms, etc. etc. The Board of Elections will help double check the voting application and envelope. Then the ballot itself must have the circles filled in carefully. Place the ballot where they tell you, NOT in the "provisional" box. A lot of little details can be messed up, but there is a much better chance of having a vote counted this way than chancing what kind of machine will be at the polls, and if those machines will be in working order that day.
As much as I would like to say you are wrong, I don' think you are. It really is difficult and confusing with all the misleading adds, not to mention the vicious ones.
I work at being informed, and I am sometimes in doubt on some of the issues, so if you REALLY don't care enough to understand what is going on, we have trouble and people saying asinine things like: "Obama had 4 years, time for somebody new"?????
With citizens and voters like that. Who knows what will happen
People still 'Believe in Democracy' though it now has deteriorated to a complete charade here.
'Voting Machines', so obviously horrific on the face of it, only really matter if you have Viable Choice, to begin with.
We don't. These Two Candidates work for the Same Bosses.
Moreover I still cannot get over the fact that before one lousy debate the president was up by a LOT in all the swing states. Now he's won TWO debates and they are calling it close. Teh debate they said he lost he really did not as Romney lied 27 out of 33 times! The president really won but was so flummoxed by the flip flops it threw him off his game. I give you a pardon, Mr. President!
I do NOT think it is close OR it SHOULD NOT BE close. Something is rotten in Denmark only it's not Denmark is the good old US of A! DESPICABLE.
Clear Channel had billboards in Cleveland and Columbus threatening a $10,000 fine for voter fraud. Those billboards were taken down, but may have already had their effect.
Thank you so much for making it clear WHERE there is something rotten. OK joking aside. This is NO joking matter.
I believe the reason you don't hear the president mention the voting "problems" is worry that people might think, that since there is monkey business going....WHY BOTHER TO VOTE !!
SOOO..... I think the democratic top people figure if we can get a LOT of our people out to vote we will have enough, even if some will be stolen.
Still I hope the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are investigating behind the scenes. They sure need to.
I am with you, I don't think it is that close. I also think we MUST start a movement to get rid of those voting machines BEFORE NEXT ELECTION. This MUST be a voter revolt. We can't have the same lament every election. THAT sure is the sign of insanity.
I think the rest of the world is LOOSING RESPECT for us. They may even be contemptuously laughing at us. And they would be right. for we are certainly NOT what we are always bragging about, strong and fair.
There are legitimate issues. Focusing on voter suppression efforts, including curtailing early voting, caging, unfairly challenging voters, putting up road blocks, misallocating voting machines, making it harder for the poor to vote, mislabeling voters as felons, mislabeing voters as non-US citizens, and destroying/thro wing out registration forms, is a better strategy. You're likely to get more people to listen to you and support you if you focus on actual intimidation measures.
But focusing on theoretical voting machine conspiracies, where the evidence just isn't there to show that these machines have actually switched votes, where there isn't even a smoking gun, makes you all look like conspiracy theories. Most ordinary people out there will view you as sore losers.
I know some of you don't want to hear that, but that's how it comes off. There are legitimate voter suppression issues. I agree that there are concerns about the machines, but most of these articles come off as sounding like conspiracy theories that are likely not going to be taken seriously by most people outside of this site.
Obviously, you aren't from Ohio. Everybody who lives here knows who votes for whom (average in cities), except that since P&G moved to Canada, Cincinnati is more of a toss-up and votes more Democrat than before, so Ohio should be all Democrat now. And it isn't, which can only be attributed to voter fraud. And, Diebold is in Canton, Infocision is in Akron (and tied to "Emerge Ministries" which is tied to the Colorado "Focus on Family" of Dobson). These are very well-funded groups that purposely disrupt elections, and all we can do is smile and be glad that they are spending money here... NOT.
I am not from Ohio and I totally agree with you, but...
Rainz actually has a point. There are a lot of low info voters. This has always been true. I can best hilight my point with two brief anecdotes. First, back when Reagan was running against Carter, a co-worker actually said she was planning to vote for Reagan because he was an actor. Yesterday a friend noted that she liked the twinkle in Romney's eyes during the debate, she saw an honest trustworthy man in the twinkle.
People base their vote on really stupid shit. All because we as a people are being "doped with religion, sex and tv" (John Lennon).
Lennon also said "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get me"
The 2000 election will go down in history as a legal coup d'etat for me. Not only was there vote flipping, but why did it happen in the State where the winner was also the Governor. This fish stinks.
There is a wonderful man that is to this day unjustly in jail, Don Siegelman from Alabama, where he went to bed after giving an acceptance speech, and in the morning he didn't win, & then Karl Rove and along with cronies affiliated with the Republican Governor Riley & then maneuvered a bogus case against Mr. Siegelman.
Decent people are getting hurt and considering what we endured after 2000, probably causing the destruction of the worldwide dominance of the USA , it is hard to forgive or neglect.
Ballots should be hand counted and on paper and standard throughout the USA. Maybe even making election day a holiday so everyone can go vote.
Damn this family has five or six generations poised to buy or cheat their way into the White House....These are some people to really worry about.
We can't afford to let these type of people take over our Democracy changing it into Fascist State.
All Romney wants is to be a ruler, I see no difference between him and his family than I do all the ruler in the middle east, past or present.
Don't expect any help from the current cabal of Supreme Lawyers-with-Ro bes, themselves perpetra(i)ator s of the problem in making Citizens United the national and treasonous crime and international embarrassment that it is, and making a solid mockery of the country's claim to be the flagship of Democracy.
Of course "If they had the courage" is the 'pont d'appui' (wish that RSN had italics and parentheses), innit?!
Watch out for the rogue state getting full rein!
This move to disenfranchise voters shouldn't surprise us - power and justice are already bought, corruption is endemic, this is just another step on the road to becoming a rich, well-armed banana republic.
If this is for real and not some photo-shopped, computer digitized scam, then the "election" has already been predetermined and our vote means nothing. Did You know that civil wars have started over far less than this!
It appears that someone at this T.V. station deliberately put this graphic up during a showing of "The People's Court" and a number of people saw this.
This is going viral on the internet now as I write.
What have any of the whiners done or will do about it?
Have any of you registered voters or poll watched? Do you support the organizations which have tried to stop this theft in advance?
Sorry if you are frightened of intimidation, beatings, water cannons, tear gas.
If you want freedom for America, you will accept that you must fight for her and not leave to the brave children.
http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/update-daily-presidential-true-voteelection-fraud-forecast-model/
You will see how we have been robbed and will be robbed.
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