The Catch-22 of Voting (Breaking News Commentary)

RE: "Ohio Vote in the 2004 Election" 12/8 Panel Hearing by House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, Chaired by Conyers (MI)

America:

During yesterday’s hearing in DC, the all-encompassing point was delivered by

Jonathan Simon, Political Survey Research Analyst and the person who downloaded the pure exit polling data CNN before it was altered to match end results. This is the same data analyzed by Stephen Freeman that determined that Bush had more of a chance of winning THREE jackpot lotteries on the night of 11/2 than enjoying the late swinging of the votes so drastically (odds 250 million to one). Please note that all aberrations favor the same candidate.

Mr. Simon astutely points out that we all face a Catch-22 scenario when the majority party will not change a rigged voting system that put them there and will keep them in power. To paraphrase Jonathan: "We have lost the bedrock of our society."

The media now becomes our last estate to clarify and to educate and to embarrass the majority into sane voting procedures. Are printers asking to much? Please media help us. On an encouraging note, there is a small chance two sets of electors could be sent from Ohio to DC on 1/6. While the courts would then rule in the majority’s favor as absolute power absolutely corrupts, it would be a feather in democracy’s historical hat. I look forward to see which congressman or senator will put their job on the line (Edwards?) and become the hero this country needs. Think of the book tour!

Please, everyone, think about going to your State’s Capitol this Sunday at noon. I will be at the Raleigh Vote Tally Rally in support of getting to the bottom of what happened in Ohio and Florida. There is one of these events in all 50 states and DC.
http://www.51capitalmarch.com/index.html I especially look forward to hearing Chuck Herrin speak who is a Republican Information Security Expert. I bet he wants a fair playing field too. Some people want to win fair and square. Those are the ones I want to listen to. In fact, I would be interested in his other opinions since he has proven fair-mindedness. Telling me I lost and to get over it just flies in the face of hard evidence.

After I finished a telephone interview with a print journalist today, I kicked myself for admitting my partisanship (and my age). I hope perhaps that honesty may be a short-term handicap but a long-term asset. Putting partisanship in on the table makes it sound like we have a case of sour grapes. However, in my "sour" mind, distrust of our voting system completely trumps "sour grapes." I have yet to hear any Republican logically dispute the widespread fraud — even a single claim — that is now so apparent (Warren County lockdown, 6-13 hour waits in the rain in minority and student precincts, discarded poll tapes in Volusia County, Florida, odd exit polling, electronic voting favoring one candidate, low voter turnout in Franklin County, Ohio despite record registration).

Naysayers (some voted for Kerry) are eerily quiet and sure aren’t ignoring or laughing at us in the tin foil hat crowd anymore. The light in the tunnel may be an oncoming train and my advice to the lovers of fantasy is to get out of the way. There is just too much evidence to say "we lost, blah, blah, blah." I say, prove the incumbent won! Give us a nugget like Republicans had to wait 3 hours to vote in Stepford County, or paper ballots overwhelmingly favored Kerry, or Mitofsky used a new exit polling method that distorted Zogby’s analysis, or that Simon’s early exit poll numbers were hacked, or another example of late undecideds break for the incumbent, or one of the voting machine companies’ CEOs voted for Dukakis, or that the chief IT programmer at Diebold does NOT have a criminal record in check fraud using computers, or that Palm Beach County has a good reason for withholding "top-secret" election records, or there was a good reason why election officials in Volusia County came in early to the warehouse on a Saturday morning after the election. Please give us something besides "we won, look at the final vote total." We should be happy the majority felt it necessary to report a vote total at all!

This president sure didn’t win the three debates. This individual has been wrong about everything else: He was wrong about weapons of mass destruction, that we would be greeted as liberators, that troop levels were fine, mission accomplished, that the tax cuts would lead to more jobs, that squelching teachers regarding sex education would lead to fewer abortions (they have increased 16% after a decade of decline), that terrorism was not an issue prior to 9/11, that the Clean Air Act would clean the air, and Leave No Child Behind would work without funding. What has this president been right about? Why should we trust him or anyone who voted for him? I think some people believe the ends justifies the means, that Star Wars will save us, and imperialization of different cultures is the answer. Judging from the track record, there is reason to doubt. Fair and verifiable voting would assuage my doubt regarding our dubious adventure into the Fall of the American Empire.

A level playing field will benefit everyone and it is my belief that this paper-trail battle is a reasonable one and can be won. Any legal vote is a good vote as far as I am concerned. I would not oppose this person on some of his issues (like tax cuts for the wealthy) if I believed that a true majority put him there instead of election rigging. Nevertheless, I must admit that I am a registered Compassionate Liberal (Democrat). I do not believe that we are the minority. And in terms of morality, I believe as many Republicans as Democrats support the multi-billion dollar pornography industry in this country (I am not one of them) but I digress. By the way, www.blackboxvoting.org is non-partisan.

I would like to report that when I met Edwards last Tuesday I gave his Chief of Staff, a videotape of voting irregularities compiled from MSNBC, C-SPAN, and Black Box Voting. I believe Kerry-Edwards should pursue remedies in his case, such as re-vote Ohio and Florida. If he watches the tape I bet he won’t concede so fast in 2008 (or 2012 or 2016).

Robin Baneth
rbaneth@mindspring.com
919-828-3534

M.S. in Ergonomics from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (1994)
M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from University of New Haven, CT (1985)

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