Dr. Howard Dean, Chair
Democratic National Committee
Dear Dr. Dean,
Every week I get dozens of solicitations from the Democratic National
Committee, from the Democratic Senate and Congressional Campaign Committees,
or from various Democratic candidates and office-holders, each of them
asking for contributions. “You can help us achieve victory next November,” I
am told.
If by “victory” is meant a majority vote cast at the polls, then the
Democrats achieved “victory” in 2000, 2002 and 2004. And yet, the
Republicans remain in control of the Congress and the White House.
Small wonder! Republicans build the voting machines, Republicans write the
secret software, Republicans count and compile the totals. The Republican
machines allow no auditing of the vote totals they report. So Republicans
have the ability to “win” elections, regardless of the will of the voters.
There is compelling evidence that they have done just that.
And so, if nothing is done to end the privatization of our elections and to
introduce reliable verification, the Republicans will "win" again in November
2006 and then in 2008. Today, eleven months before the mid-term election,
the outcome is fore-ordained – as certain as Soviet elections under Stalin,
and Iraqi elections under Saddam. For, as Stalin said, "Those who cast the
votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything.”
In the United States today, the GOP counts most of the votes, and there are no means
to verify up to 80% of those votes.
In view of this dreadful situation, when the Democrats ask me for a
contribution I must reply: “What’s the point? It’s already been settled!
What remains is an empty charade.”
The evidence of election fraud is overwhelming. You, Dr. Dean, are doubtless
as aware of that evidence as I am. In fact, along with millions of fellow
citizens, I watched the video clip of
you sitting at a table with Bev Harris, as she
simulated with a computer,
in just a few seconds, a “fix” of an election. If I were to elaborate the
evidence of fraud, space restraints would force me to halt after I had
scarcely begun, and I would never get to other issues I wish to discuss in
this letter. Suffice it to say that several independent statistical analyses
have put the probability of an honest 2004 election as one in several
million. The thirty-plus-point polling discrepancy in last month’s Ohio
election reform initiatives are off the probability scale – in effect,
impossible as random error. Attempts to explain away the 2004 exit poll
errors are risibly lame. (For example, the theory that Republican voters
were more reluctant to speak to exit pollsters is supported by no
independent evidence, and fails to explain why this alleged phenomenon was
confined to districts with paperless e-voting machines, and not found in
paper-ballot districts). Reports of machine failure and error during the
2004 election were overwhelmingly to the advantage of Bush/Cheney. No one
has come forth with a plausible explanation of how Bush gained an additional
eleven million votes over his 2000 total. (For a “gateway” into the evidence
of voting fraud, see The Crisis Papers pages on
“Electoral Integrity” and
“Election
Fraud.”).
The evidence of voting fraud and election theft is no secret – it is out in
the open for all to see who are willing to see. In 2000, millions watched as
Republican thugs, recruited by Tom DeLay from Washington congressional
offices, stormed and shut down the voting recount in Miami. The published
text of the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore that handed the 2000 election
over to George Bush is a self-refuting travesty. Books, articles and reports by
Steven
Freeman,
John Conyers’ staff,
Fitrakis and Wasserman,
Mark Crispin Miller, and the Congressional
Government Accountability
Office, to name just a few, all testify convincingly to the
vulnerability of the election process and the illegitimacy of the election
results. Occasionally a virtual confession of guilt is blurted out by a
careless GOP operative. For example, as the votes in the 2004 Presidential
election were still being counted, Republican Congressman Peter King was
caught on camera saying “It’s all over but the counting. And we’ll take care
of the counting.” (You can
see it here).
There is no cogent rebuttal to this evidence of voting fraud: there can’t
be, for the e-voting machines and compilers have been designed to forbid
rebuttal. The software is secret and there is no independent record of the
votes. Accordingly, so-called “verification” is nothing more than a re-run
of the suspect tallies. Lacking substantive evidence of the reliability of
the voting and compiling machines and software, all that remains for the
defenders of e-voting is a pathetic plea, “just trust us!” That and ad
hominem attacks on the skeptics: “get over it!,” “sore losers,” “conspiracy
theorists.”
The response of the mainstream media in the face of all this?
Total
silence.
The response of the Democratic Party? Total silence.
The response of the media and the Party to
the GAO report
validating the concerns of the critics? More silence.
Why!?
Admittedly, with total GOP control of the executive and congressional
branches in Washington, federal investigation and legislation are, for the
moment, out of the question. But elections are administered on the state and
municipal levels where, in many cases, the Democrats are in control. So I
ask again:
-
Where are the criminal investigations?
-
Where are the civil lawsuits, e.g., by Max Cleland in
Georgia, Walter Mondale in Minnesota, Al Gore in Florida, John Kerry in
Ohio?
-
Why is appropriate state-level legislation not proposed and
enacted by Democratic majorities?
-
Why is the national Democratic Party not publicizing the
GAO report?
I am told that some Democratic politicians are concerned
that if the Party raises a ruckus about voting fraud, the Democratic base
will be discouraged and will stay at home on election day.
Well, so what? If the fix is in on election day, what
difference does it make whether or not the
voters go to the polls? Why bother to close the gate after the horse has been stolen?
We also hear that the crime of stealing a national election is so enormous
that the GOP wouldn’t dare to attempt it.
Why would they not? Computer experts have shown us that the theft of a national
election can be carried out by very few individuals: the programmers who
write the secret software and a few centralized hackers working in “real
time” as the returns start to come in. We are also told that they can
do this without leaving any trace of their crimes.
Might the perpetrators be deterred by moral qualms or loyalty to our
political institutions?
Get Real! We are speaking here of a pack of scoundrels who have
lied to the public in order to
launch an illegal war costing tens of thousands of innocent lives, who have openly violated treaties and condoned war
crimes, who have suspended the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of
Rights, who have absconded with the national treasury and have put our
children and their children in permanent hock, who have sullied the good
name and reputation of the United States before the community of nations. In
the face of such manifest evil, stolen elections are moral chump change.
And consider in addition the stakes faced by these traitors: billions of
dollars from the public treasury “appropriated” into private accounts and
massive tax breaks for Bush’s “haves and have-mores” while the rest of us
face an increased tax burden and a slash in public services. And for many
now in the Bush administration and in the Congress, defeat in the 2006 and 2008 elections would
bring Congressional and Justice Department investigations and indictments
followed by hard time in the federal slammer.
In the face of all this, who can doubt that, if given the opportunity, they would fix elections in order to keep their ill-gotten booty and their
immunity from prosecution? And it is abundantly clear that they have
this opportunity.
When the defenders of e-voting bother to respond to these concerns, they are
heard to demand: "where's the evidence of this alleged fraud?" As
noted above, we have the evidence, compelling at least, and many believe,
conclusive. But such demands radically misconceive the correct burden
of proof. Private citizens and organizations should not have to take
upon themselves the obligation to prove their franchise either secure or
fraudulent. The free citizens of an authentic democracy have the right to a secure and verifiable vote, and it is the proper task of the
criminal justice system to secure that right.
So there you have it, Dr. Dean. A massive and ongoing crime is being
committed against our democracy – a democracy which has now, in effect, been
set aside and shut down. A democracy which can only be restored if we the
people rise up and take it back.
Where, in this coming struggle, is the Democratic Party? Is it an ally of
the people and a defender of our Constitution? Or is it an accomplice to the
crime?
The American people are entitled to an answer.
Continuing silence by the Democratic party is, in effect, an answer.
But it is not the answer to which the free citizens of a democracy are
entitled.
Respectfully,
Ernest Partridge, Ph.D,
Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers.
www.crisispapers.org
Copyright 2005, by Ernest Partridge
Ernest Partridge's Internet Publications
Conscience of a Progressive:
A book
in progress.
Partridge's Scholarly Publications. (The Online Gadfly)
Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the field
of Environmental Ethics and Public Policy. He has taught Philosophy at
the University of California, and in Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin. He
publishes the website, "The Online
Gadfly" and co-edits the progressive website,
"The Crisis Papers".
