Editorial Comment: That a private corporation is given control and responsibility of the US elections is absurd. The 20 facts reported below are only one of the reasons why U.S. citizens should abstain from voting in the 2008 elections for president and the other national elections.
The second reason to vote not to vote is the fact that the people are offered up choices selected by the corporations meaning that the voter really has no honest choice in the elections. Candidates who truly oppose the system entrenched in Washington have no realistic possibility of winning an election.
The third reason to vote not to vote is the fact that there are no essential differences among the viable candidates running for office. Relative to the presidential elections, all one has to do for confirmation of this fact is to look at the voting records and speeches of John McCain and Barack Obama and his running mate, Hillary Clinton. McCain is spawned by the same warmongering psychopathology that bred George W. Bush. Barack Obama is an African-American face on the white power structure, making him arguably more dangerous than McCain. Why has his campaign been labeled with the theme of "change"? Does the reader seriously think that Barack Obama represents real change in the political and economic structure in Washington? Does the reader seriously believe that he would be permitted to be the Democratic candidate for president were he to go against the system that got him where he is today? With rare, exceptions (mostly face-saving), the presidential, senatorial and house candidates have all consistently voted to fund the Bush policies and the war on Iraq.
Abstinence is the most powerful vote one can make against the fraudulent electoral system in the U.S. Abstinence is the only tool, the most effective weapon against the established politicians who have risen to the level of viable candidacy. The greatest electoral fear Washington has is abstinence. The government uses the vote to justify its legitimacy. Without it, the US government can make no legitimate claim that it is a democracy - which it is not.
Vote not to vote in 2008.
- Axis Editorial Board
Did you know....
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/
042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/
views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/
042804Landes/042804landes.html
3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/
html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/
042804Landes/042804landes.html
4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold 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."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/
story.asp?S=1647886
5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/
commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/
evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html
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.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/
012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/
archives/000896.php
7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/
2000/00_28/b3689130.htm
http://theindependent.com/stories/
052700/new_hagel27.html
8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/
about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/
evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail 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.
http://www.commondreams.org/
views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/
2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html
10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/
views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/
default.htm
11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/
ataglance/default.htm
12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/
evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/
en/2004/10/301469.shtml
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.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/
stories/HL0312/S00191.htm
http://www.chuckherrin.com/
HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
bbv_chapter-8.pdf
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 2 years.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/
HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
bbv_chapter-8.pdf
15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/
update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/
2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html
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! (See the movie here: http://www.bbvdocs.org/videos/baxterVPR.mov.)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190
17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/
evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/
ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearch
StudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/
stories/HL0411/S00227.htm
19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/
tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html
20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/
ElectionAftermath04/
ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/g
overnmenttopics/government/policy/
story/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/
html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/
headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/
2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/
http://nightweed.com/printableusavotefacts.html