Re: Possible Denver Post Ad

["dougrcurtis" <dougrcurtis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A Final Argument Advocating Absentee Ballots

What is our primary recourse to date for initiating substantive action to
insure every vote gets counted correctly in the upcoming elections? The
answer is: There isn't one!

We have already tried forwarding a bill through the legislature to provide a
voter verified paper trail and we have not been successful. In fact HB1227 -
which further limits citizen participation in elections and darn near gives
totalitarian powers over the election process to our Secretary of State - is
becoming the new paradigm, making it even less likely for us to forward the
cause of a fair election.

We have investigated the possibility of a lawsuit. Apparently we would need
much more evidence from within the State to advance a claim.

We are trying to recruit and train poll watchers. This is a very worthy
endeavor and we should continue along this path, but poll watching will only
uncover malfunction in the voting process and not malfeasance. In truth,
notating a few areas of malfunction around the State will do little to
further our cause. The oppositions argument will be that problems of this
nature can happen with paper ballot voting just as easily (ie.."The ballot
box that fell into the river"), and that electronic voting is seamless and
allows better access for disabled folks. In short, relying on the
malfunction argument will be a long hard slog that should be pursued, but
most likely will have no immediate impact.

On the other hand, launching an ad campaign to promote voting by absentee
ballot will accomplish two objectives immediately: It will make the public
more aware of the deeper problem with electronic voting, which is
malfeasance, and if successful, it will create a mountain of paper work for
the county election offices prior to the election. This extra work dumped on
the counties could end up being more expensive than fitting the electronic
voting machines with voter verified paper trail apparatus.

The real essence of our problem is that The Fix Is In, and since it is too
late for any legislation to be enacted to correct the problem, we must
resort to what could possibly be construed as a form of Civil Disobedience.