From the November 2005 Idaho Observer:

Twenty facts about voting in America

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. Those who cast the votes decide nothing, the people who count the votes decide everything," is a quote commonly attributed to Joseph Stalin. Below is an article taken off the net proving that the Stalinist voting philosophy has been implemented in America. That Americans still believe their votes are (accurately) counted rather proves that Stalin’s assessment of human nature was correct.

by Alicia

The facts:

1. Eighty percent of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and Election Systems & Software (ES&S).

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

4. Diebold CEO Wally O’Dell is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush’s vice-presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9. Diebold’s new touch screen voting machines leave no paper record of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can be programmed to generate a paper record of transactions.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employed five convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50 percent of the votes in 30 states.

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of two years.

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold’s claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!

17. Thirty percent of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch-screen voting machines with no paper trail.

18. All — not some — but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President’s brother.

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida — again always favoring Bush — have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

Note: The weblink references to the 20 "facts" are noted at right. Though we did not check all of them, a random sampling proved the "facts"were supported by the references checked.

Combined with the thousands of voting anomalies associated with the 2004 elections that were reported all over the country by mainstream sources (The IO, Nov. 2004), we would have to assume that anyone who believes election results are accurate is either blissfully ignorant or in denial.

The article was written by Alicia, aka "Angry Girl" and is posted at the website at www.Nightweed.com.

Nightweed is a modern, politically-astute metal band and its members appear to be in their 40s. Though their website (and music) has rough edges, it is extremely on-point with many issues that we address in The IO. In our relentless efforts to find ways to encourage the youths in our midst to see, understand and resist the futures planned for them, we can send them to Nightweed and see what happens. (DWH)

1. www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3. www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html_

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4. www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6. www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26

www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

www.theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9. www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10. www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13. www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm

www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16. http://. blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18. www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950

www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20. www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04

ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm

www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html

www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html

www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org/