Ellen Theisen and Brad Friedman Discuss the Dismantling of our Democracy TONIGHT on Voice of the Voters

From the Coalition on Voting Integrity:

Ellen Theisen, Author of the Theisen Report
and Brad Friedman, editor of the Bradblog,
Discuss the Dismantling of our Democracy

TONIGHT on Voice of the Voters Heard on
1360 AM, Philadelphia's Renaissance Radio,
and on the internet (https://wnjc.duxpond.com/)
Wednesday, June 13 -- 6 PM Mountain Time
All Shows archived here

In the wake of the controversy stirred up by the flawed Holt bill, H.R. 811, voting rights activists all over the country hoped that the Senate would provide an improvement. What they got instead was a mandate for the demise of democracy. From Teresa Hommel of WheresThePaper.org:

[Parts of "The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007"] "explicitly sell out American democracy to corporate commercial interests. The EAC and vendors, without other stakeholders such as states, parties, and citizens, will develop a process to protect private interests from public knowledge of how our elections are conducted."

Tonight's special guests on Voice of the Voters will address the legislative questions that are swirling around voting reform. Ellen Theisen, founder of Voters Unite and author of the recently released Theisen Report, will discuss in depth the dangers of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate Bill 1487, "The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007." The Theisen Report is available here.

Brad Friedman, editor of the BradBlog.com, will be on hand to discuss S. 1487 as well as the controversy surrounding H.R. 811. Brad will also report on breaking election integrity news from around the country as only he can.

Listen tonight to find out how S. 1487 threatens the integrity of American elections by:

Establishing a Class System within Our Electorate: The bill systematically dismantles go of the people, by the people and for the people and sanctions the creation of a class structure with different rules for distinct communities such as racial minorities and the elderly. Who's next?

Elevating the Elections Assistance Commission to Dangerous and Unconstitutional Levels of Power:(from the Theisen Report) In an astonishing undercutting of the governmental structure established by the Constitution, this bill would combine Executive and Legislative powers into one agency, under the President and unaccountable to the people or any government structure.

This bill not only does the bill give the EAC authority to execute laws, but by making the EAC guidelines and certification process mandatory, this bill would also give EAC lawmaking powers. The guidelines and certification process - established by these four Presidential appointees unaccountable to the public - would become federal law.

Corporatizing our Elections: (from the Theisen Report) The "disclosure" provisions declare unequivocally that corporations, in league with the EAC, rightfully own and operate the secret counting of the votes in all states.

S. 1487 places control of elections in the hands of four Presidential appointees, who have no direct accountability to the citizens and no oversight. Under this bill, the EAC, in collaboration with corporations, would decide which voting systems would be allowed to count votes. The EAC would establish how many such systems should be available at each poll site and where early voting poll sites should be located. Corporations approved by the EAC would own and operate the proprietary (secret) software that counts the votes. The EAC, in collaboration with those corporations, would determine how to enforce that proprietary ownership. The EAC would determine who is accredited to observe elections.

As always, John Gideon, Executive Director of Voters Unite will give Voice of the Voters listeners a round-up of all the week's voting news.

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Voice of the Voters is an hour devoted to voting rights, election reform and voter-verified paper ballots. Ultimately it is an exploration of Representative Democracy itself and the responsibilities of citizens and their elected representatives. It airs every Wednesday night at 8:00 PM ET on 1360 AM and on the Internet at https://wnjc.duxpond.com/.

Note: If you use dial up Internet, it is best to turn off all other programs in order to receive clearest broadcast.

Listeners can call in questions live at 856-227-1360 and submit questions in advance at the SaveOurVote.com website.

Voice of the Voters now also available as a podcast at iTunes.com under "Voice of the Voters" in the News & Politics category.

Archived shows are available at here.

Guest Bios:

Ellen Theisen is founder of VotersUnite.Org and the Co-Director and Managing Editor of VotersUnite! In her 22-year career as a software technical writer, she has written hundreds of user manuals, functional and design specifications, online help systems, and programmer guides. Ellen created and maintains the VotersUnite! website, developing most of the informational resources available on the site.

Early in 2004, Ellen wrote "Myth Breakers for Election Officials" to dispel myths about HAVA and inform decision-makers of important, under-publicized facts about electronic voting issues. The document has been distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local decision-makers, and volunteers are now distributing the second edition. The document has also been included as testimony in three court cases regarding electronic voting issues.

Ellen's work in the voting integrity movement led directly to the development of the Vote-PAD as an accessible alternative to computerized voting devices. During much of 2006, she focused her attention on providing that alternative, and has now resumed developing the resources available at VotersUnite!

Brad Friedman: Aside from being named Time Magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year", Brad is an investigative citizen journalist/blogger, political commentator and broadcaster. He is the Creator and Managing Editor of The BRAD BLOG (https://www.Bradblog.com).

Reports and breaking news from his popular website, The BRAD BLOG, are frequently cited by the national media, and can be read at www.BradBlog.com. He has appeared in numerous documentary films, as well as on ABC News, CNN, CourtTV and elsewhere to discuss his reporting and expertise on a variety of issues.

He's a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and has written articles and editorials for Mother Jones, Editor & Publisher, ComputerWorld, Columbus Free Press, Salon.com, TruthOut.org, Harvard's Nieman Foundation of Journalism, Hustler and other non-pornographic publications and websites.

In addition to live speaking engagements around the country, Brad has Guest Hosted on a number of radio programs for Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy, The Young Turks and others. He's also the host of The BRAD SHOW, a radio program co-produced with Internet news site RAW STORY and a frequent Guest on radio shows across the country. More information, online listening links, and archives to previous BRAD SHOW's can be found at www.BradShow.com.

Mary Ann Gould
Coalition for Voting Integrity
votingintegrity@aol.com

Editor's Note: Also see our previous post on the proposed election reform bills currently in Congress.