Sunday, October 21, 2012

Early Warning Signs of Fascism


Look, I live in France as if you aren't aware. I have fought hard to obtain dual nationality. I can vote here and I can vote in the USA. I am a registered New York City voter and through the Overseas Voter Foundation, I find it very easy to vote in New York and National elections with a traceable paper ballot. I was able to vote early in the presidential election last week and sent my ballot via DHL, which makes it very easy for Americans living overseas to have a totally trackable record of their vote.
Most democracies in the world have never adopted or have rejected electronic voting. As far as I can see, the only popular reasoning for e voting is the illusion of media immediacy. You can have the results in seconds, instead of minutes. 
In French elections, I go to my little mayors office in my village, sign in...select my ballots in privacy and drop them in a big transparent glass urn. When I do it, a bell rings and the adjutant mayor announces that I have voted. Lots of kisses and handshakes accompany this ceremony. When the election is officially over, we are all invited to publicly witness the vote count. What could be simpler and more open than this? So we wait a little longer for the returns...but hey, Fascism is fast and Democracy takes a little more patience. One thing is certain, though, electoral fraud is not an issue here and it is virtually impossible to steal an election.
In my last post, I documented how the Romney family is directly involved with the company supplying the E Voting machines and soft ware in many states. The alumni of Bain Capital are very involved with the promotion and management of corporations supplying Electronic Voting technology in America. We all lived through the debacle of the Diebold machines and the manipulation and suppression of voting in the last 3 presidential elections.  In Dr. Lawrence Britt's study on Fascism, he raises 14 Defining points as warning signs. This is #14: 
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
If you are able to demand a paper ballot, and if you can vote early, I implore you to do it. If you have any acquaintances who are concerned and you can influence to do the same, please, do it.
Because voter suppression, intimidation and electronic manipulation is how the Republicans plan to steal this election. A stolen election is not a valid election, but it is a de facto coup d'etat. This was the front page story in the Guardian Observer today...and of course at this point in time, it's too little too late.
Will the request for  International Election Monitors by U.S. Civil Rights groups even get picked up on by the American media? None the less, The OSCE (Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe) opened its observer mission in the US on October 9, led by OSCE ambassador Daan Everts. It has 13 international experts based in DC and 44 long-term observers from 23 countries being deployed throughout the country. There is an unprecedented putsch to steal this election, by voter suppression, intimidation, fear propaganda, economic manipulation of employees and actual subversion of the actual electoral process. Just about the only way you can fight back now is to vote on paper and demand accountability. Please!

1 comment:

Ol'Buzzard said...

Good point. We vote on paper in the small Maine communities.
the Ol'Buzzard