The democratic republic of the United States of America is teetering on the brink of extinction by eliminating the Constitution and the rule of law it undergirds. A small number of determined oligarchs, including wealthy industrialist Charles Koch, are secretly working to take down our democracy and replace it with a scheme of free market economics managed only by elites.  Koch is one of the originators of The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a non-profit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives that draft and share plans for state level legislation favoring corporate interests and elimination of government regulations. Proponents of ALEC exert heavy influence on legislative and administrative actions in the country. Under the pressure of that influence, pieces of our current government are being dismantled or defunded so they are unable to perform as intended by previously established law. In some cases, the existing laws are just willfully ignored. Unqualified people are summarily appointed to fill government positions and administer programs affecting the major corporations they are supposed to assist and supervise. Biased loyalty of an increasing number of judges, congressmen, and governors continues to be readily purchased by generous gifts of campaign funds to ensure that they win elections. The aspiring plutocrats involved have always resorted to dirty tricks to influence voters. What’s new and very distressing is the theft of elections by the use of computerized voting machines.

During the Age of Revolution (1774 – 1848), great movements of people in societies around the world rebelled against repression, exploitation, and exclusion. The revolution of the North American Colonies from control and exploitation by King George III and his British Empire drew strong support from others in distress. The founding fathers of the United States of America were much inspired by the successful examples of inclusive governance long in effect by their indigenous neighbors. They adapted the inspiring methods they witnessed in the native societies to create a totally new form of government of, by, and for the people it served. This let them avoid repeating the fatal errors made by leaders of other revolutions that, without models for a more inclusive form of governing, soon reverted to business as usual.  Thus, the unique democratic republic of the United States of America became a “light unto the world” that offered exhilarating hope to multitudes everywhere yearning to be free. Inheritors of a struggling revolution in France expressed their fervent hope that it would lead the way for a better future for everyone. They expressed their deep gratitude by gifting the newly hatched democratic experiment in North America with the iconic Statue of Liberty that was installed in a joint  French/American ceremony on Liberty Island in New York harbor.

Meanwhile, the displaced oligarchs in the new republic planned ways to bring down the democratic triumph and restore monopoly capitalism. They set about devising means to regain control of the great masses of citizens (other than slaves and indentured servants already under control). They reasoned that too many people were thinking and talking in ways that might keep them free and in charge of the democracy they helped to create. The basic means chosen for this purpose was economic. Except for the elites and their friends, the country was bankrupted by using the power of a corrupted banking system.  With savings wiped out and wages severely reduced, discretionary time for working people to be involved in much of anything other than base subsistence was sorely limited. Under such repressive conditions, the weighted down engine of democracy sputtered lifelessly and the repressive era of monopolists (later dubbed the Robber Barons) sprang up to take over the reins of government.

This kind of control went too far and eventually resulted in the Great Depression of 1929.  The effects were so bad for so many people that another revolution was started under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a wealthy and educated person with the moral compass to reject monopolistic subjugation and to work for the swift restoration of a healthy democracy.  Under provisions of his New Deal great gains were made by the ailing masses.  The offending elites went back underground to nurse their wounds and plan for “next time.” We are now seeing results of steady incursions into the workings of government by those persistently determined enemies of democracy.

The control game being played by elites didn’t change, but new means for repressing the vote were plotted and placed in action. Some of them, like gerrymandering, were openly legislated into laws that stacked the deck against a majority that might vote the wrong way.  A profusion of other means, negatively categorized as “dirty tricks,” were openly employed to control voting that might limit repressive power.  Propaganda was used to confuse voters. Access to polling places was denied. Properly completed ballots were “disappeared.” Validated names were removed from registration lists. People were guided to the wrong location or told the wrong date to vote.  Polling places were moved to unhandy locations. The number of voting booths was reduced.  Malfunctioning and broken voting equipment was not replaced.

Stealing elections with “dirty tricks” once prompted Rush Limbaugh and Roger Stone to tout their trickster prowess gleefully as their approach to conservative victories.   After George W. Bush was elected in 2000 fellow trickster Karl Rove sermonized: “ We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.  And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out.  We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”  Research evidence indicates that they had secret information (voting machine controls) even then that assured their victories in close elections of national significance.  It was used to push George W. Bush over the line in 2000 and 2004. Then came the unexpected surprise in the 2008 election when a fed-up public came out in droves to vote, overwhelming both the dirty tricks and vote theft by computer manipulation, to elect Barack Obama as President.

The voting machines used for elections in the United States are manufactured by wealthy (corporate) elites who allow only their employees to have access to their inner workings or to “service” them.  On the claim that the hardware and software of the voting machines created by private companies are proprietary, the companies that manufacture them have been able to prevent any independent examination of the computer coding responsible for vote theft. Along with gerrymandering, voter suppression and other tactics, electronic voting machine manipulation was a crucial tool used by the supporters of Donald Trump’s victory to steal the election in 2016. That is how computers will be used to facilitate the theft of the next election in 2020, unless some drastic changes are made in the regulation of our voting machines to guarantee that all votes are correctly recorded and there is full compliance with the existing legislation for retention and preservation of ballots and ballot images in accordance with United States Code (Title 52, Chapter 207, Section 20701), now routinely violated in most states.

Conducting research to uncover solid evidence that computerized election theft is a reality has been a formidable task. There has been no direct access to offending equipment and its operators. Many prominent scholars and writers have been aware of multiple smoking guns and are continuing to do their best to alert the public and the authorities. In the Reference Section of his 2018 book, Code Red: Computerized Elections And The War On American Democracy Jonathan Simon, eminent researcher and Executive Director of Election Defense Alliance cites the broad range of research findings and related media activity (pages 269  - 277).  In Study VII, he presents a startling Timeline of Events and Anomalies in the Computerized Voting Era:2000 – 2018. It is a disturbing certainty that evidence of computerized election theft abounds and if not exposed and corrected before the 2020 elections, democracy in the United States of America remains highly vulnerable to a painful death.

This is not a give and take struggle between concerned Republicans and Democrats for influence in evolving a better democracy.  It is a war of oligarchs to eliminate all semblances of the democracy that they despise.  We need to keep in mind that the underlying aim of all this cheating at the ballot box has been for the sole purpose of controlling and repressing a majority that could oblige power hungry elites to live by rules of a democratic republic instead of the “winner take all” plutocracy they desire.

This state of affairs must be broadly exposed. Our election apparatus and processes must be taken from exclusive control by corporate proprietors. Regulations must be legislated to ensure the complete integrity of our elections. There must be a level of transparency sufficient to guarantee that all ballots cast will be correctly counted and preserved. Corrective action must be done quickly, while enough rule of law still exists to enforce its compliance. Action must be on three fronts: (1) broadly raising public awareness of the truth, (2) voting in greater numbers than ever before, and (3) helping to verify the integrity of our voting processes.