Action Alert: Demand paper trail for electronic votes

This stuff is getting out of control. Have you heard about conservative Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska, whose 1996 victory against his Democratic incumbent was described by the Washington Post (1/13/1997) as "the major Republican upset in the November election"? Hagel won virtually every demographic group, including many largely African-American communities that had never before voted Republican, and he was the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska. Six years later, Hagel ran again and won in a landslide (with 83% of the vote) against Democrat Charlie Matulka, in "the biggest political victory in the history of Nebraska."

What a guy, huh? But perhaps upset victories and landslides are just to be expected when you are the head of (as Hagel was in 1996), or own part interest in (as Hagel does now), the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska. Interestingly enough, Hagel didn't disclose his connection to the company to the FEC:

When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander Bolton pressed the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee, the man responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete, asking him why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 failures to disclose the details of his ownership in the company that owned the voting machine company when he ran for the Senate, the Director reportedly met with Hagel's office on Friday, January 25, 2003 and Monday, January 27, 2003. After the second meeting, on the afternoon of January 27th, the Director of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his job.

Meanwhile, Hagel is still happily playing Senator.

Ready for more? Turns out that Bush pere (hence, no doubt, Bush fils) is no stranger to computer election manipulation:

Former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell writes that one of the favorite tactics of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s was to control countries by manipulating the election process.
[...]
Documents illustrate that the Reagan and Bush administration supported computer manipulation in both Noriega’s rise to power in Panama and in Marcos’ attempt to retain power in the Philippines.

And guess what? It also turns out that the electronic voting companies are all incestuously connected, and received primary funding from Howard Ahmanson, Bush supporter and millionaire financier of the ultra-conservative Christian right:

For example, at Diebold whose corporate chief, Wally O'Dell, a top Bush fundraiser, has publicly committed himself to "delivering" his home state's votes to Bush next year, the election division is run by Bob Urosevich. Bob's brother, Todd, is a top executive at "rival" ES&S. The brothers were originally staked in the vote-count business by Howard Ahmanson, a member of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing "steering group" stacked with Bushist faithful. [...] [T]he brothers Urosevich, originally funded by the far Right, figure in the counting of approximately 80% of electronic voting in the United States.

I believe this is called playing "hardball". Those of us not inclined to see Bush steal another election can take action at Verified Voting.

It might also be worth contacting Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell and others who for some mysterious reason are blocking the call for electronic voting machines to have a paper trail:

His spokesperson Carlo LoParo recently pointed out that federal mandates under HAVA do not require a paper trail: “. . . if Congress changes the federal law to require it [a paper trail], we’ll certainly make that a requirement of our efforts.” LoParo went on to accuse advocates of a paper trail of attempting to “derail” voting reform.

Contact info for Blackwell is here. Finally, it can't hurt to call your local paper, express your concern, and ask them to report on this story.