This is gonna see a whole lot more mailboxes     If truth offends ya, don't bother lookin': http://www.notgovernmentapproved.com           or at this long http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ movie. -------Original Message-------  From: Jim Welch Date: 11/7/2007 4:59:44 PM To:  Subject: Slam !!   I ask for your support on an issue that smacked me in the face when I went to vote yesterday.  If this is allowed to stand we shall surely hear the sound of the door on the boxcar slamming shut. I had read many reports about how the electronic voting machines had been compromised and how it had been proven over and over that the results could be manipulated. Frankly, like most people I trusted the "people in charge" would correct and take care of these problems and this could not really ever effect my vote. I was wrong. Yesterday, while I in the process of voting for the first time with an "electronic voting machine" (in Wharton County we had been using paper ballots up till now) I actually saw the machine change my vote! I was on page 2, item 11 (right hand column) when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the left hand column. In a blink of an eye my vote changed on Item 8 which I had already voted on. Incredulously I called for an election official to come over to my booth. With him looking on I changed my vote back to how I wanted it on Item 8 and then went on to my next item and we both witnessed Item 8 change back again ON ITS OWN!!!! The "machine" overrode my vote!!! I am not naive enough to think this only happened once to me. How many other votes were changed is an answer I will never know. Even though a voter can review his votes on each issue before he "finalizes" his ballot there is absolutely no guarantee a change did not occur after he left a particular page, or even when he "finalized" his ballot. The election official called a lady who is charge of Wharton County elections, a Ms. Owens, and informed her what had happened. He came back to me and inquired if I wanted to continue with the ballot, or if I so desired I could have a "new" electronic ballot. I told him, "No." If the electronic voting machine could override and change my vote once it could do it again. What is the value of casting a vote if there is no way the voter can know WITH CERTAINTY THEIR VOTE HAS NOT BEEN ALTERED OR CHANGED?? There is no value. I called Ms. Owens and she explained that a "paper trail" could be generated by the electronic voting equipment, but not as the voting occurred. In other words, we are asked to accept as factual the results generated at a future time, which is obviously not verifiable, by the same electronic voting system that we question and know as an indisputable fact can be manipulated or "adjusted". When we go in to vote we are asked to verify who we are and we are required to have proof of our identity. That is good. If history has shown one thing to be true it is that there have been many an election rigged by using nonexistent "voters" and changing election results. However, we, the voter, are being asked to accept ON BLIND FAITH as total fact that no one will change the vote by rearranging the 1’s and 0’s, that the electronic voting machines will not make arbitrary errors, and that no political agenda will have access to these electronic voting machines. We are being asked to believe that people are not bribeable, that all politicians in power are honest, that special interest groups do not possess the knowledge, nor the money to acquire the knowledge, to hack into these electronic voting machines and change the votes. We are then further asked to believe that the machines themselves will tell us the results and print a report that we can believe!! As Josef Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." Without a verifiable paper ballot generated at the time the vote is made there cannot exist, at this time, any way to 100% know the data is accurate and has been preserved and counted accurately. This "electronic voting" has all the markings of the end of the Liberty of the People and the rise of tyranny in America of unparalleled proportions. We are being told that we must use electronic voting machines because the Federal Government "requires" it. I was told the Republicans while in control of Congress passed legislation mandating electronic voting. Seeking more information I called the Harris County Republican Party and spoke to Ms. Mandy Day, an Administrative Assistant, who assured me that since the decision to use these electronic machines in Texas was made by a Republican Secretary of State and "he is such a good man", I should not be concerned. Great indoctrination by the Republican Party. Poor logic. Two points regarding this. The Federal government has no authority anywhere in the Constitution to mandate how States or local Governments accumulate or process the votes. Texas should still have some of that old Texas Spirit of Liberty coursing through it’s veins, and our elected officials should enough gumption to stand up for the Citizens Liberties and their right to cast a REAL vote. Point two - Once the voters of Texas understand what has been done to them by the Republican politicians the 40 year hiatus from power in Washington which the Republican suffered will look like a stroll in the park. And, local/State politicians who have supported this voter disenfranchisement will be hunted down with dogs, pitchforks, and lanterns. You can fool some of the people all the time. You can fool all of people some of time. But no matter how sharp the Texas politicians think they are, there will be hell to pay when the Texas voter wakes up and smell their voting Rights burning. Jim Welch