Elections In
America - Assume Crooks Are In Control
By: Lynn Landes
16 Sep 2002
Don't blame the poll workers in Florida. The facts, supported by
votingmachine experts and numerous newspaper articles, have made itclear. Computerized
voting machines that were certified by the state ofFlorida, caused most of the problems in
Florida's primary election. In theabsence of paper ballots, the damage is now
irreversible.
This was no accident. It's not new. And Florida is not alone.
"The concept is clear, simple, and it works. Computerized voting
gives thepower of selection, without fear of discovery, to whomever controls
thecomputer," wrote the authors of VoteScam (1992), James &Kenneth Collier(both
now deceased). It's a 'must read' book about how elections have beenelectronically and
mechanically rigged in the United States for decades, andwith the knowing and sometimes
unknowing support of media giants and government officials, including... ironically...
Janet Reno.
Only a few companies dominate the market for computer voting machines.
Alarmingly, under U.S. federal law, no background checks are required on these companies
or their employees. Felons and foreigners can, and do, owncomputer voting machine
companies. Voting machine companies demand thatclients sign 'proprietary' contracts to
protect their trade secrets, which prohibits a thorough inspection of voting machines by
outsiders. And,unbelievably, it appears that most election officials don't require
paperballots to back up or audit electronic election results. So far, lawsuits to allow
complete access to inspect voting machines, or to require paperballots so that recounts
are possible...have failed.
As far as we know, some guy from Russia could be controlling the outcome
of computerized elections in the United States.
In fact, Vikant Corp., a Chicago-area company owned by Alex
Kantarovich,formerly of Minsk, Belorussia (also known as White Russia, formerly U.S.S.R.),
supplies the all-important 'control cards' to Election Systems &Software (ES&S),
the world's largest election management company, writesreporter Christopher Bollyn.
According to ES&S, they have "handled morethan 40,000 of the world's most
important events and elections. ES&S systemshave counted approximately 60% of the U.S.
national vote for the past fourpresidential elections. In the U.S. 2000 general election,
ES&S systemscounted over 100 million ballots."
Getting back to Kantarovich, he would not disclose where the control cards
are made, except they aren't made in America, writes Bollyn. Nor would hediscuss his
previous employment. Bollyn says he got somenot-too-thinly-veiled threats from
Kantarovich.
Kantarovich sounds more like the Russian mafia, than a legitimate
businessman. But the really big deal is this....all of ES&S's touch screen
machinescontain modems, "allowing them to communicate-and be communicated with-while
they are in operation," reports Bollyn. That communication capability includes
satellites. "Even computers not connected to modems or anelectronic network can still
be manipulated offsite, not during the election, but certainly before or after," says
voting systems expertDr. Rebecca Mercuri.
ES&S supplied the touch screens for Miami-Dade and Broward counties
wherethe worst machine failures occurred. But the debacle was nothing new for ES&S.
Associated Press (AP) reporter Jessica Fargen wrote in June 2000, "Venezuela's
president and the head of the nation's election board accused ES&S of trying to
destabilize the country's electoral process. In the United States, four states have
reported problems with equipment supplied by the company. Faulty ES&S machines used in
Hawaii's 1998 elections forced that state's first-ever recount."
Sequoia is another voting systems company that sends a cold chill down my
spine. "Mob ties, bribery, felony convictions, and threats of coercion are visible in
the public record of the election services company," according to investigative
journalist and filmmaker Daniel Hopsicker, and reported in Spotlight.com. Hopsicker says
that Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, a 65-year-old senior executive with Sequoia, and
the firm's Louisiana representative, recently pled guilty to passing out as much as $10
million dollars in bribes over the course of almost an entire decade." According to
American Law Education Rights &Taxation (ALERT), Ricci is the president of Sequoia
International, which also manufactures casino slot machines.
That's just great. Now, we could possibly have both the Russian mafia and
the U.S. mafia involved in our elections.
In May 2002 Sequoia was bought by De La Rue, based in England. By their
own estimate, De La Rue is "the world's largest commercial security printer and
papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of
security documents such as travelers checks and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people
across 31 countries, (De La Rue) is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment and
software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide." And they develop technology for
secure passports, identity cards, and driver's licenses.
Okay, add Dr. Evil to the mix and be on the look-out for international
money launderers, drug kingpins, and Nazis.
The Shoup Voting Solutions of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, has a reputation
for rigging elections, wrote the late co-author of VoteScam, Jim Collier. According to
Collier, in 1979, Ransom Shoup II, the president of the firm, was convicted of conspiracy
and obstruction of justice stemming from an FBI investigation of a vote-fixing scam
involving the old-fashioned lever machines in Philadelphia."
These reports are just the tip of the iceberg. The numerous instances of
U.S. voting systems error and fraud are documented in a 1988 report for the U.S. Commerce
Department entitled, "Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized
Vote-Tallying" by Roy G. Saltman, a computer consultant for the National Institute of
Standards and Technology's Computer Systems Laboratory. Many other experts and observers
have been warning and complaining about these problems for decades.
But complaints, warnings, reports, and books like "VoteScam,"
haven't deterred government officials like Pinellas County (Florida) Commissioners Calvin
Harris and County Judge Patrick Caddell. They told the St. Petersburg Times in October
2001 that they were aware that all of the voting machine companies had "problems in
their pasts." But, Harris said, "We have to look at this objectively and not get
tied up into the emotions of, 'Some guy might be a crook."
Dear Commissioner Harris...when it comes to elections in America...assume
crooks are in control...and then act accordingly.
Links:
http://www.votescam.com
http://www.securepoll.com
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