Re: [stopvotefraud] Re:June 2-4 "Take Back America Conference" in DC

[Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all:

On Mon, 31 May 2004 22:40:18 -0700, you wrote:

>
>Please do not follow Al Kolwicz' terrible advice.

Please follow Al Kolwicz's very good advice.

>It is true that no
>bill is perfect, and that it can be difficult to decide when to
>compromise.  Before Al rejects the options that are on the table, he
>should give us some better options, and provide some evidence that he
>has a strategy that will succeed.  A choice between partial success
>and failure is an easy choice, at least for me.

If this movement wishes to collapse then it should follow Mr. Dill's advice.

Mr. Dill correctly states "that it can be difficult to decide when to
compromise".  Indeed, that is often (that vast majority of the time?) very
true.

To me, though, it is very clear that compromise on this issue will yield the
following results:

1) Fraud and manipulation will move towards whatever loopholes the bill(s)
leave just as compressed air will exit through a pinhole in a balloon.

2) The paper v. DRE v. receipt v. hand counting issue is hard enough to
explain to intelligent people.  Allowing a half-right bill to come along
will cause an effect in the news industry called MEGO.  MEGO stands for "My
Eyes Glaze Over."



I experienced the MEGO effect when I was running for office.  It had nothing
to do with voting and everything to do with water.

I won't bore this audience with the details of water rights (and economic
wrongs) in Colorado, but I thought that I had an easy way to explain why
water was being wasted in Colorado.

Boy, was I ever wrong.  I couldn't get the editors of large newspapers to
understand what was going on.  I couldn't get water user groups to
understand (and they cared).  The only people who understood were water
economists and water lawyers and they all liked this incredibly convoluted
system precisely because it is hard to explain.


The point is, the more exceptions and obfuscations there are in a system,
the more that political heat is taken off elected officials because there
are fewer and fewer people who understand what is wrong.

Right now, explaining what's wrong is hard.  If a less-than-almost-perfect
bill is passed then explanations will require hours instead of minutes.
This movement is already struggling because explaining the problem(s)
relating to electronic voting takes minutes rather than seconds.

Supporting and/or allowing bills to pass that are "in the right direction"
ON THIS ISSUE is a recipe for political ruin of both this movement as well
as for democracy in America.

>
[snip]
>
>	David Dill
>	Founder of VerifiedVoting.org

[snip]

Ralph Shnelvar
Founder of nothing in particular