[E-voting] Re: meeting with John Gormely
Catherine Ansbro
cansbro at eircom.net
Fri Oct 12 00:17:16 IST 2007
Hi Paul,
You have a personal invitation to visit me anytime. It'd be great to =
meet up. You've been doing Trojan work stateside.
Catherine Ansbro
Paul Lehto wrote:
> =
> I apologize for omitting this link, and if there's any information =
> about Ireland that would be interesting to know, please send it my way. =
> =
> This is the link i referenced previously but forgot to include in the =
> original email. =
> http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070929/OPINI=
ON/709290323 =
> <http://www.thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20070929/OPIN=
ION/709290323> =
>
> =
> Paul
> =
> PS I'd like to say, though it wouldn't really be true that my honest =
> motive for this email was undisclosed previously, that I'm just =
> looking for an excuse to visit Ireland again, having been there in =
> 1992 during a summer trip to europe before entering law school. :)
>
> =
>
>
> =
> On 10/11/07, *Paul Lehto* <lehtolawyer at gmail.com =
> <mailto:lehtolawyer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> =
> I would like to introduce myself since I just signed onto the list
> and hopefully being fromthe USA it's not a list violation for me
> to be on this list.
> =
> I'm an election law attorney and national leader in the effort
> against computerized secret vote counting in the USA. I got
> active in 2004 after observing a phantom vote being added to the
> totals from my polling place, where I was an attorney observer. =
> That led to a co-authored scientific study with Dr. Jeffrey
> Hoffman that contains smoking gun evidence of electronic
> irregularities. See
> www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishElectionFraudInvestigation.pdf
> <http://www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishElectionFraudInvestigation.=
pdf> =
> One such smoking gun (a rarity when the vote counting evidence is
> so secret) is that the 19 machines specifically pulled out of
> service because they were observed to malfunction by flipping
> votes and/or freezing up had (in a very Democratic county and in
> the closest governor's race in US history) more than 50% more
> votes for the Republican than for the Democratic candidate. =
> There are some other astonishing facts for the science-minded at
> least in the study, though few take the time to read these kinds
> of things it is worth the effort in many cases.
> =
> The study led to a lawsuit, where I specifically chose to attack
> the legality of the contract to purchase the machines as being
> "ultra vires" or beyond the power of the government to agree to,
> for twelve different constitutional and public policy reasons. =
> See www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp
> <http://www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp> WIthin 9
> months of the lawsuit being filed, the county commission voted to
> get rid of the touch screen DREs (Direct Recording Electronic)
> machines. That was in January 2006. =
> =
> My co-plaintiff was Jack Wells, who was descended from both a
> REvolutionary War soldier as well as one of the original state
> senators of Washington state. I didn't know Jack, but he
> responded to the call, just as he did in the Aleutian Islands in
> WWII. Jack died on October 1, 2007 after a sudden onset of lung
> cancer, he was a lifelong non-smoker. ALso a lifelong hero, being
> termed a "legendary" teacher for 26 years and continuing after
> retirement in the lives of his students.
> =
> The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed as moot by the Court of
> appeals, on account that we had won, basically, in that the
> machines were gone. This was incorrect in that we also asked for
> a $5 million refund, but that is the end-game of the system, in
> this particular county. =
> =
> This past weekend, we had a breakthrough with 226 organizations at
> the Latino Congreso, the national public policy and politics board
> for the Latino community. They passed a very strong resolution
> that I wrote that anchors our movement in inalienable rights. I'm
> uncertain of the precise translation of these concepts to Irish
> law since the primary US referent is the Declaration of
> Independence, but since they emanate from John Locke the english
> philosopher and others perhaps that makes them unpopular in
> Ireland. :) The resolution is found at but I've
> http://latinocongreso.org/resolutions07approved.php?id=3D103 also
> included the key excerpts below to show what we are demanding.
> =
> It seems to me that the one extraordinary, boundary and
> paradigm-shifting fact about voting is that in any democracy or
> republic, voters are exercising an act of sovereignty when voting,
> similar to an act of the "king can do no wrong", because in all
> democracies and republics it's recognized that all legitimate
> power comes only from the people. As such, at the unique time of
> voting we have a different "hat" on completely, not the hat of the
> mere citizen, and it is not possible, even in theory, to hide the
> vote counting from the sovereign rulers/masters of the society --
> the voters. If someone wishes to deny this principle, they take
> themselves outside of the realm of republics and democracies, and
> do so at their political peril, so I think it's quite effective to
> frame things this way and show that the position of safety is to
> affirm the power of the people and the position of maximum danger
> is to deny it. Because, if it is denied, you can call our
> societies lots of things (*^&*&%$&*) but you just can't call them
> republics, and you can't call them democracies. the politicians
> are invited to choose their poison, if poison a transparent voting
> system BE. =
> =
> I'll also forward a link to a brief op-ed column that i wrote,
> it's only 600 words but is the briefest summary I can think of as
> to where I'm at and to some extent by extension where the US
> movement is at.
> =
> I am also co-founder of Psephos (the greek work for pebble, the
> original ballot) in the San Diego area of California, but i do not
> live there, rather in Michigan right now, close to the shore of
> the world's largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior (though not in
> volume of water, only in surface area, see Lake Baikal) . =
> www.psephos-us.org <http://www.psephos-us.org/>
> =
> Having presumed to lecture by introduction just a bit, it is
> nevertheless my keenest desire to find out more about Ireland's
> movement and situation, and to see if we may be able to work
> together or at least trade notes and experiences. If anyone, for
> example, would like to be on my ONE WAY listserv for my writings
> (replies are on other lists) I would be happy to add your email
> address to my demandingdemocracy group at googlegroups.com
> <http://googlegroups.com/>
> =
> Thank you and I hope to hear from some like minded folks in
> Ireland as to what I might learn from your experiences, and
> perhaps vice versa
> =
> Regards
> Paul Lehto
> Attorney at Law
> 425-422-2114
>
>
> =
>
> *1. *THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that *_the 206 organizations
> represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso
> support: _*
>
> =
>
> (a)voting systems where _every part of the system_ including early
> voting, absentee voting, election day voting, and post election
> day vote counting is *observable by the public and creates
> evidence accessible to and understandable by the public, and
> recognize this is necessary to preserve unalienable rights of
> self-government, such as the right to alter the government at
> will; *and
>
> (b)condemn those so-called "public servants" who cooperate with
> corporations to deny information on vote counts to the public,
> violating their loyalty to the public, and preserving corporate
> rights instead of rights of people; and
>
> (c) _require _all voting systems to be _compatible with the
> rights of self-government,_ or else they are _unacceptable
> regardless of cost savings or convenience;_ and
>
> (d)Favors: =
>
> =
=
> i. completely open, honest, and public vote counts, with
> immediate access to all information about counts; and
>
> =
=
> ii. absolutely secure chains of custody from the time ballots
> are cast through the time for recounts; and
>
> =
> iii. guarantees of speedy, effective investigations and
> remedies for any reported irregularities, just as our armed forces
> treat all potential threats seriously; and
>
> =
>
> 2. FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED *these rights are mandatory and
> non-negotiable,* and that it's the government's primary purpose to
> guarantee these birthrights, but election secrecy render
> government accountability to the people impossible; and
>
> */3. /*FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the 206 organizations
> represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso
> *_demand full recognition of all voting rights of all people,
> _*and voting systems that reflect the */_best checks and balances
> ever developed for elections: fully observable, transparent
> elections._/ *
>
>
>
>
> -- =
> Paul R Lehto, Juris Doctor
> lehtolawyer at gmail.com <mailto:lehtolawyer at gmail.com>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> E-voting mailing list
> E-voting at lists.stdlib.net
> http://lists.stdlib.net/mailman/listinfo/e-voting
> http://evoting.cs.may.ie/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition. =
> Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.7/1062 - Release Date: 10/10/20=
07 17:11
> =
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.stdlib.net/pipermail/e-voting/attachments/20071012/7508ea=
23/attachment.htm
More information about the E-voting
mailing list