Review of "HACKED: High Tech Election Theft in America"
by Christine R. Cox
Rarely does one review a book, and then immediately begin
extolling it as a read belonging on the shelves of everyone’s home
library, in the classrooms of every high school senior government
class, made required reading for every college and every Political
Science and U.S. History major on college and university
campuses. Herein lies the exception.
Not for light reading, “Hacked! High Tech Election Theft in
America” is a compilation of eleven essays meticulously gathered by two
Austin, Texas activists, Abbe Waldman DeLozier and Vicky Karp, and
originally inspired by another equally zealous and politically erudite
Texan, Bev Harris. It begins with prologues by these two evidently
committed women, succinctly explaining their decision to take on the
protracted task of gathering information on a controversial subject
that by some will initially be seen as an attack on the foundation of
our government system and on its leaders, but by others, possibly most,
will be seen as a truly valiant act of patriotic dedication and an
exhaustive effort to advocate for our country’s lately tenuous
constitutional rights, the most sacred and essential being the right of
every citizens’ vote to be counted.
Since it is undeniable that if we are to believe in this
somewhat fledgling, experimental system of democracy, putting aside its
many extraordinary struggles, without fear of it becoming a plutocracy
or an imperialistic union, then every dutiful citizen of this country
must at the very least believe in our individual voice and the core
belief that each voice can and will be heard through the power of one
vote. “Hacked” exposes the muffling, even silencing, of that most
poignant voice, and then kicks the reader in the gut with its
methodical one-two punches as it diligently reveals the dirty,
unsettling truths about our flawed and corrupt electoral system, the
partners in crime who are corrupting and digging all its many gaping
apertures, and the plain and simple way that each reader’s vote is
being stolen right out from under his unsuspecting nose.
That these imperfections in our centuries old system are
mostly, and not accidentally, manmade and manipulated is something that
leaves the reader’s stomach more than a bit queasy throughout. And just
as the book begins to become somewhat murky, getting bogged down in a
textbookish fog of statistical detail, heartfelt stories like one by
Kathleen Wynne, the founder of the organization Black Box Voting, of
after hours dumpster diving for paper counted votes tossed in back
street trash barrels wake the reader up to what the writers want him to
see. The crude, plain truth, reveals “Hacked”, is that if every vote IS
to count, then every vote will need to be counted by humans – yes,
hiccup – our own, slow, tediously repetitive counting by hand will be
all in the end that which saves our system, and makes our government
truly representative of the entreaty of its populous.
The array of writers represented in the thick of this
must-have offering is impressive, though slightly biased, since many
hold a reputation as a liberal-leaner, like Ohio attorney and outspoken
journalist and activist Bob Fitrakis and Victoria Collier of the
historically famous Collier brothers family. Nevertheless, as the
reader becomes more engrossed in the ‘conspiracy theory’ offered
within, there begins to emerge a pattern. The theories presented, some
by election officials and judges themselves, and scrupulously backed up
with well researched and footnoted facts and numbers, may seem
outrageous at first, since the bulk of the electronic vote high-jacking
is orchestrated at the hands of corporate America and then left
unexposed by what some call the ”fourth hand of the government”, the
media. But it isn’t long before such a convincing case is made that
even the most centrist, or even right-winged critic will become an
outraged believer and want to see something change immediately. If this
book has the impact that its authors and essayists hope it will have in
mobilizing a grassroots movement to begin fighting against the
vote-stealing powers at be and demanding a fair, systematic, and
nationally uniform system for vote counting, the next presidential
election could be markedly different than the last few. And not only
nationally, but locally, people will begin to feel the impact of change
as the outcomes of some, perhaps many, elections become true
indications of what voters really want.
Book Review by Joan Brunwasser
September 15, 2006
9/11, Jury Duty, and What America is Demanding of Us Right Now
By Joan Brunwasser
Hacked! High Tech Election Theft in America, 11 Experts Expose the
Truth! Edited by Abbe Waldman DeLozier and Vickie Karp, Truth
Enterprises Publishing, August 2006
Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews September 11, 2006
I got up very early today and headed downtown for my annual jury
duty assignment. It seemed somehow appropriate for 9/11. Because I like
to be prepared, I packed a raincoat, snacks, a water bottle, blank note
cards, my Filofax, paper, and two books. I'm sure I looked like a bag
lady, but you never know what you're going to need. Once a hoarder,
always a hoarder. I'm in the middle of a disturbing novel, Atonement by
Ian McEwan, and also packed Hacked! by Abbe Waldman DeLozier and Vickie
Karp. I got it in the mail over the weekend and thought that the
waiting game at the courthouse would be an ideal time to crack it open.
The introductory video at the Daley Center Courthouse echoed with
patriotic refrains that could so easily be applied to the issue of
voting integrity. The narrating judge talked about "fulfilling the duty
and obligation as an American citizen" and the "diligence and
sacrifice" of each of us that allows the justice system to work. He
also talked about the juror's responsibility to make a final
determination about what happened, weighing the "credibility of the
testimony of the witness," keeping in mind that the witness may or may
not be reliable and may or may not be telling the whole story. I looked
around, trying to discern on the faces surrounding me if anyone else
was struck by the themes of election reform.
As I sat there - doing my patriotic duty with my fellow citizens,
together, yet alone - I attacked the book with my yellow marker. I
highlighted so many passages that the pages seemed to glow. I'm sure I
looked like an overgrown student on a rampage. It's so hard to read
this material and stay calm. I found myself pulling on my hair from
frustration and anguish. I wanted to go screaming down the hallway. I
probably would have if I thought it would help, but rationally decided
against it. Maybe my morning yoga is paying off.
The electronic voting machine vendors and their proponents have done
a terrific job of framing the issue so that the onus always seems to be
on the well-meaning, concerned citizens and/or voting activists. In the
same way that Clean Skies, the Patriot Act, and Help America Vote have
taken on Orwellian overtones, the presumption of innocence and home
court advantage have been awarded to the vendors. We need to constantly
remind ourselves that it's the voters, not the machines, who are to be
protected. Anything that does not directly contribute to furthering
voting integrity should be discarded. We needn't apologize about it.
That's simply the way it's supposed to be.
Karp and DeLozier's book traces the history of our surrendered
elections. While 2000 and 2004 are strong in our recent memories,
corrupted elections stretch back much farther. It is a sad story full
of defeats, large and small. Historically, there was a much more direct
connection between the voter and the vote. As more layers have been
added, each has stripped away transparency and made oversight more
difficult. With the insertion of electronic voting, secret software,
and technicians who work on the machines (even in the midst of an
election with no one able to understand or verify exactly what has been
done), transparency is nothing more than a fond memory. These changes
have not benefited the American people or the democratic process. The
infamous hanging chads of the 2000 election became the pretext for
adopting wholesale electronic voting at the expense of the voter. HAVA,
which purports to "help" Americans vote, is ironically, a much bigger
threat to voters' intentions than the system it has replaced.
DeLozier posts:
Why is our government allowing its citizens to vote on privately
owned machines, without citizen oversight, using secret programming,
without proper testing or certification, and looking the other way
every time a machine miscounts an election? (xxvi)
Bev Harris asks, "If an elections official ruins an election - loses
votes forever, or mishandles the voting so badly that no one can repair
the error - we can fire that person. If an election's machine ruins an
election, shouldn't we fire that voting system?" (Hacked, 18)
The entire rationale for electronic voting machines seems to be
built on sand. (Readers, imagine that the following paragraph is
written in 20-point font, bold, italicized, and underlined!) HAVA does
not actually require the use of DREs, although it has been interpreted
that way often enough that everyone thinks that it does. Section
301-303 actually says (emphasis mine), "At least one direct recording
electronic voting system or other voting system equipped for
individuals with disabilities" (163). Another case of repeating a lie
over and over until it sounds true. This often-willful
misinterpretation has led to almost four billion of our tax dollars
being spent on this insecure, unreliable, expensive system, which is
actually antithetical to democratic principles.
Here are some more lies and distortions.
- Diebold has failed every test put to it by computer experts,
yet it insists that its machines do what they're advertised to do.
Worse yet, its and other vendors' wares are routinely certified. So
then what does certification actually mean? And what kind of certifying
body is the ITA when it is vendor-funded, and reports only to the
vendors, who can choose to rectify the problems (or not) without voters
being notified? The law asks: cui bono? Who benefits from such a
system? Surely not the voters. (Please see the postscript about the
just released Princeton's Center for IT Policy Report.)
- What about the many reports issued after the 2004 election?
Conyers' report, the GAO Report, Carter-Baker, the Harri Hursti/Black
Box Voting Leon County hack, the Diebold security advisory alert, the
California task force report commissioned by Secretary of State Bruce
McPherson, the Brennan Center Report. Each was scathing regarding the
gaping holes in the security of the poorly written software. Do we
really need more proof that this is not working? What other system
would get so many chances?
- No background checks on company ownership or employees means that
many of the companies change hands, involve foreign ownership, and
employ known felons.
- Why are public officials, who are paid with tax dollars, defending
vendors at the expense of citizens and our elections? Why are former
elections officials now lobbying (often those who once worked for them)
for electronic voting machine vendor contracts?
- Why would we want defense industry figures, former CIA bigwigs,
right-wing extremists, or Venezuelan interests to control our voting?
What about senators (formerly "long shot" candidates) with presidential
aspirations? Why have we privatized this ultimate American institution?
What have we gained, and more importantly, what have we lost?
May Schmidt, the election judge says:
I want a system that is easy, can be executed with minimal equipment
and that the voters can understand easily. For me, the answer is
hand-counted paper ballots. This system is cheaper, efficient and more
transparent for the voter and election workers. I think voters trust
paper ballots more. In my opinion if someone wanted to throw an
election, one would have to have a group of complicit people in several
precincts. With electronic voting it only takes one hacker to tamper
with an election. It is the difference between NFL football and a
pickup soccer game! (Hacked!, p. 56)
We are urged to educate ourselves. This book has a bountiful
bibliography full of everything anyone needs to know to get plenty
alarmed. The authors welcome your scrutiny. Once you're mad about
what's going on, they recommend getting active. Educate yourself.
Support voting integrity organizations. Pick up a camcorder and observe
and record. Sometimes, a video is worth a thousand words. It has been
proven useful in providing evidence for lawsuits.
Karp and DeLozier bring together a stellar group: Bev Harris, Lynn
Landes, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, and
others, including an election judge with 35 years of experience. Each
of the contributors seems to conclude that hand-counted paper ballots
are the only way to secure elections. But even that is not enough. They
must also be "hand counted in public view, with vote totals posted at
the precinct level."
Here, the authors effectively offer point and counterpoint for the
traditional arguments brought by proponents of electronic voting.
Many say that it's too late; electronic voting machines have been purchased all across the county, and now we have to use them.
We say: Citizens get what they settle for. We refuse to settle for electronic voting machines or optical scan counters. Period.
Many say it's the computer age, that's how we have to conduct elections.
We say: Computers have their place, and they have no place running the elections.
Many say it takes too long to hand count paper ballots.
We say: In certain cases, it can even be faster to hand count paper
ballots than to wait days for uncertain results from highly suspect
electronic voting machines. But even if it did take longer, what is
more important? Speed? Or accuracy?
Many say we will not be able to win the battle of trashing these
machines and going back to hand-counted paper ballots without
incremental victories. Thus, amendments such as HR 550 and the other
proposed legislative "solutions" covered in Rep. McKinney's chapter
have value.
We say: How many more years, how many more elections will we allow
to be compromised or stolen before we say, conclusively: ENOUGH IS
ENOUGH! NO MORE COMPUTERS! NO MORE MACHINES RUNNING OUR ELECTIONS! We
will settle for no less than elections held with hand-counted paper
ballots! (Hacked!, pp. 192-3)
I didn't need to be convinced. Now, I'm throwing the question back
to you. Read the book and judge for yourself. Kathleen Wynne gave up
her job to become a full-time voting activist. That's a lot to expect
from any "normal" person. Realistically speaking, what can you do? What
will you do?
Victoria Collier puts it well: "Do you support democracy?... If you
do, then you must believe in the vote and you have the responsibility
to fight for it right now. You have no right to turn away from that
fight, or expect someone else to fight it for you" (70). That's it, in
a nutshell.
Five years ago today, when the planes struck the World Trade Center,
I was getting a massage, an unusual treat. We sat and watched the
television in stunned silence. I felt like I was suddenly speaking a
foreign language. I just didn't get it. It didn't sink in. It was too
weird. It was too new and raw.
It's been a long five years. I'm a lot older now. Another dubious
election and its aftermath have aged me. But, I know what I know. I'm
not so na•ve anymore. What I now know is that we're under attack, only
it's from the inside, and it's striking at the core of who we are and
what we'll be in an even more fundamental way than 9/11 did. My
challenge is to wake people up, without burning out or going mad in the
interim. I'd like to keep my hair. I could use some help. Won't you
join me?
***
Get a copy and share it with your friends!
Authors Website: www.CountEveryVote.BlogSpot.com
Authors Bio: Joan Brunwasser of Citizens for Election Reform is a
citizen activist working hard to restore and preserve free and fair
elections. Her main focus is distributing "Invisible Ballots" through
her lending library project. Since mid September, she has loaned the
DVD to 'borrowers' in 37 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Canada, Holland,
England, Ireland and Japan. She has now enlisted 2,048 individuals and
groups in her project and is always looking for new contacts. Her
latest target is the local press, local elected officials and other
community movers and shakers. She is the Voting Integrity Editor for Op
Ed News.
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS: Hacked! High Tech Election Theft in America
The greatest threat to our election process is theft.
We all know about the GOP re-emergence of Jim Crow voter suppression
laws and dirty tricks like not putting enough polling booths in
Democratic (particularly minority) precincts.
But most of the progressive community has a hard time fathoming the
intricacies that make up the most dangerous threat of a massive voting
fraud: electronic voting machines. Not only are they privately owned,
but their software is patented and not available to the public.
In short, America has subcontracted the counting of its votes to
primarily Republican affiliated electronic voting machine companies.
They have control over how the votes are processed. Vote counters in
polling places rely on what the machines tell them.
Many progressives regard the idea that an election would be stolen
through the manipulation of electornic voting machine software as a
"dreaded conspiracy" theory. But the facts indicate that it is not a
theory; it is a distinct possiblity.
"Hacked! High Tech Election Theft in America" is an excellent primer
on the threat to democracy posed by electronic voting. It is not some
crazed theory. It is just common sense, once you understand the issues
at hand.
"Hacked" includes explanations by some of the leading activists in
the area of exposing the truth about electronic voting machines.
Don't be intimidated by the technology of the problem. Because then
you've given up on understanding a grave threat to our democracy.
The Supreme Court may have stolen the election for Bush in 2000, but
more ominously elections can now be stolen with a slight change in vote
counting software -- and no one would be the wiser.
It's like carbon dioxide. You won't even smell it.
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS http://buzzflash.com
Book Review - by Pat Shannan
HACKED - High Tech Election Theft in America
Abbe Waldman DeLozier and Vickie Karp have given new
definition to “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The 1697 poem
tied the phrase to lost love, but HACKED is a compilation of
evidence from eleven experts - almost exclusively women - who are
raging against the crooked system of computer vote fraud in America,
and their scorn is far greater than any one of them could ever level
against a mere former lover.
Some are better known than others, such as Rep. Cynthia
McKinney of Georgia and Bev Harris, an early voice of the vote fraud
whistle blowers, to whom the book is dedicated, but the eventual
message of each - following another new and outrageous vote fraud
example - is the same: the practice must be stopped. It has destroyed
the citizen's confidence in the democratic system of selecting by
majority rule at the ballot box.
The two Austin, Texas women became enamored with this project
after hearing Bev Harris on the car radio explain the fraud in the 2000
presidential election and how the computers can be and are “errantly
programmed and corrupted and easily hacked.” They have compiled
remarkable evidence from around the country and have assembled a group
of writers that will convince the greatest of skeptics.
"It's secret vote counting,” says Karp, “and the result is no
different than someone taking the ballot box in a back room and
returning later to tell us what the vote count was.”
Kathleen Wynne tells of a midnight “dumpster dive” outside the
Diebold Election Systems offices in McKinney, Texas in search of
incriminating evidence. She and Bev Harris separated from the stinking
garbage in their motel room what they deemed valuable, then bravely
went back at 3:00 a.m. for another dive. Wynne tossed while Harris
caught and stashed the smelly bags in the trunk and backseat of their
car, and they escaped a second time before the cops could swing by on
routine patrol. This after-hours hunting trip yielded a bonanza that
Diebold would have a hard time explaining.
Victoria Collier, daughter and niece of the real pioneers of
the vote fraud expose', says the Collier brothers expected to win a
Pulitizer Prize for their research and book, VoteScam, and
should have but were instead vilified as “conspiracy theorists” and
that their groundbreaking investigation is still carefully ignored by
the media and many vote reform leaders who are afraid of being labeled
the same way themselves.
But election fraud is a conspiracy, Victoria says. “It's a
treasonous, tragic and extremely effective conspiracy to undermine,
control and destroy democracy. We cannot win this fight by pretending
that vote fraud began yesterday - or even worse, pretending that it has
not yet begun.”
Jim and Ken Collier documented massive “vote scamming” as
early as 1970 in Dade County, Florida. Over a period of years they were
able to discover not only how widespread the practice was (is) but also
how fully protected by all the major corporate news networks it
remains. They spent over twenty years of investigation before releasing
VoteScam in 1992.
Bev Harris shocks us once again with the little known story of
Sen. Chuck Hagel's stunning success in Nebraska by “making lightning
strike twice,” according to CNN, when he won the 1996 Republican
Primary, defeating a much better known attorney general of the state,
and then bombing Democratic Governor Ben Nelson in the general
election. Nelson had led in the polls since day one.
The Washington Post called Hagel's victory “the major
Republican upset in the nation” as he became the first Republican to
win a U. S. Senate seat in Nebraska in 24 years.
But the reporters missed the real news scoop and “this time
not because they intentionally ignored it,” reports Harris. Chuck Hagel
had been no less than CEO of the voting machine company that would
count his votes - American Information Systems - up until only two
weeks before announcing his run for the senate. However, reporters
didn't report it because they didn't know about it. Hagel had omitted
this little gem on his disclosure documents.
When asked to describe every position he had held, paid or
unpaid, he mentioned his work as a banker and even listed his volunteer
positions with the Mid-America chapter of the American Red Cross, but
what he never disclosed was his salary from, or stock holdings in, the
voting machine company whose results sent him to the U. S. Senate.
After Hagel claimed publicly in 2002 that he had sold his
stock in the company, it was discovered that he had not, but not before
he had already been re-elected by his same vote-counting system
controlled exclusively by his company.
“This is not a gray area,” says Bev Harris. This is lying.”
On Super Tuesday, 2008, no less than New Jersey's governor
himself was forced to wait 45 minutes before he could cast his vote,
due to some computer malfunction. Then it gave his vote to someone
other than that of his choice. He found this disconcerting enough to
appoint a couple of Princeton University computer science professors,
Ed Felton and Andrew Appel, to investigate Sequoia Voting Systems and
its failing machines, which later misreported voter turnouts.
In March, Sequoia, which is one of the largest e-voting
machine manufacturers in the United States, retaliated by threatening
to sue Felten if he didn't back off. They claimed that an inspection of
their product - the software being a “trade secret” - would violate
their agreement with the counties.
Then in April, the courts ordered the questionable voting
machines impounded. Subpoenas were issued in six New Jersey counties
demanding that officials turn over for testing all voting machines
where discrepancies were found in the presidential primary tallies.
So with so much said over the years, yet so little done about
it, maybe the truth-seekers are finally starting to make some progress.
This coming eight years after a man who couldn't have been elected
president of the Midland, Texas Rotary Club was somehow elected
president of the United States.
If you can read HACKED without getting “hacked off,”
you are farther down the road to docility than I ever intend to be.
I've been steaming over it for three weeks.
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