Today, on the fifth day of Operation: P.O.P., the proofer movement gets another member. We welcome Mark Brown of the No Chaser blog as yet another Tennessee citizen who wants proof from Secretary of State Tre Hargett and/or State Election Coordinator Mark Brown Goins that a single vote has been accurately recorded by any of the 100% unverifiable touch screen electronic voting machines we use in 93 out of 95 counties.

Hello, Mark! *clap, clap, clap*

“Think about it,” he writes, “Where is the evidence that a single vote has been accurately recorded by any of these machines? Voters aren’t given a receipt that shows how their votes were recorded. The voting machines don’t even display that information onscreen. Not a single Tennessee voter has the slightest clue how his or her vote actually went down in the record.”

See, much like the Birthers who want to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate to prove he’s an American citizen. The Proofers, like me and No Chaser Mark, need to see evidence of how our votes are being counted.

You know, “vote in secret, count in public” instead of “vote in secret, count in secret.”

While we wait for Mr. Hargett and Mr. Goins, Mark also wants to know why other conservative officials in Tennessee continue to ignore their requests from “hard-working left-wing bloggers”:

Stacey Campfield, where’s the birth certificate we asked for last Sunday? Ron Ramsey, ready to give us those text messages you exchanged with Paul Stanley? Ron and Mark Norris, when are you going to tell us exactly how you handled the sex scandals involving “Family Values” conservatives Mike Faulk and Jeff Miller?

Tick, tock.

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99.7 WWTN’S Nashville Michael DelGiorno spends his entire show – that’s 5 days a week for 4 hours a day – telling his listeners that President Obama and Democrats everywhere are “dangerous” and will ruin the country, make them all broke, and get them all killed. He says that the President coddles terrorists, abandons our allies, and is “probably” a muslim (whom he, of course, coddles as well). He said, on August 10th, while filling in for Ralph Bristol, that they are all going to get “slaughtered by this idiot in the White House.” It is fearmongering at it’s finest and it is unyielding.

Complicit in President Obama’s master plan to “ruin” the country are all of us “idiots” who drive around with Obama bumper stickers on our cars:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“I’m serious I’m wondering who are these 85% of democrats that still support this president…Can I talk more on the people’s level…Let me just talk street talk…When he was elected only like 3 out of 10 of us really vetted this guy, understood who he was, where he came from, what the stands for, what he planned to do, the dangerous people that molded him…So when you were driving around with your Obama bumper sticker only about 3 out of 10 of us knew how freaking stupid you were but now 6 out of 10 of us know how stupid you are. Seriously do yourself a favor, it will keep you from getting a few #1 signs and a lot of filthy looks. It’s one thing to be dumb and partisan and destructive to our country – just take the bumper sticker off will ya? Cause things could escalate from town hall meetings right to the streets. You don’t want to be stuck with that idiot’s name on your car. That’s the ultimate clunker.”

Thanks for looking out for us, Mike. But if things “escalate from town hall meetings right to the streets” and even one car with an Obama bumper sticker is damaged, or one person driving a car with an Obama bumper sticker is hurt, you will have to answer for it.

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Are these the little dudes counting the votes inside the machines?

Are these the little dudes counting the votes inside the machines?

We represent the Lolliproof Guild. The Lolliproof Guild. The Lolliproof Guild. And in the name of the Lolliproof Guuuuiiiild…We wish to welcome you to Disenfranchise Land!

It’s been four days since I asked for Secretary of State Tre Hargett and State Election Coordinator Mark Goins for proof that even one vote cast during any election using the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines we use now in 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee has ever been recorded accurately, as per the voters’ intent.

On Day 3, yesterday, I heard back from Mr. Goins via email. It’s clear, however, that he didn’t quite understand my request.

After making sure that I knew that he was not responsible for making the decision to purchase the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines (“Decisions were made by the election commissions in each of those counties about what type of equipment to purchase”) he explained the testing procedure (“…the machines are tested prior to purchase, upon delivery and again before each election in each county…”) and suggested that I contact individual election administrators from each of the counties that use the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines to witness testing procedures:

Rutherford, Bedford and Lincoln counties are all scheduled to hold elections Oct. 13. Typically, the testing of the machines is done a few days prior to each election, so I encourage you to contact the election administrators in those counties to make sure you’re aware of the time and location of the testing.

For Rutherford County, contact Hooper Penuel at (615) 898-7743. For Bedford County, contact Summer Leverette at (931) 684-0531. For Lincoln County, contact Shelia Allen at (931) 433-6220.

Rutherford and Bedford County both use Micro Vote Infinity equipment, while Lincoln County uses ESS iVotronic equipment.

If you’re interested in seeing a test of the Hart eSlate equipment, it is used in Dickson County, where an election is scheduled for Sept. 24. The contact there is Linda Medley at (615) 789-6021.

And if you’re interested in seeing a test of the Premier (formerly Diebold) equipment, it will be in use in Shelby County’s Oct. 15 election. The contact there is Rich Holden at (901) 545-2600.

I feel nicely put off. But I do not feel as if my request has been answered. Perhaps I made it too confusing. Let me break it down more directly:

“On election day, can Tre Hargett, Mark Goins, any poll worker, or poll monitor look into the internal bits of a touchscreen electronic voting machine and see how the votes are being counted? Can we, as voters, feel certain that what goes in the machine is going to be what comes out at the end of the day tally? Where’s the proof?”

Operation P.O.P. continues.

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And Karl Rove tried so hard to prove voter fraud that he’ll probably be rewarded with a trip to the federal penitentiary.

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You Can’t Cure Gay

According to the American Psychological Association (and Ted Haggard), sexual orientation is not something that can be repaired:

Last week, the American Psychological Association (APA) invited its 150,000 members to no longer tell clients who would like to change their sexual orientation that treatment might achieve that. This new scientific – and ethical – position results from an intensive and extensive examination of the studies conducted on this question over the last 40 years.

An APA research committee concluded, in fact, that no evidence demonstrates that “corrective (reparative) therapy” or any other attempt to change sexual orientation is effective. Professionals close to conservative religious sects maintained that such therapy exists and produces results. These counselors were reproached with playing into the hands of a reactionary morality. They will now have to question themselves about the value of that practice.

Not only does the APA warn its members against that “treatment,” but it also advises them to no longer present homosexuality as an illness or a problem of personal development. That position, supported by the organization’s senior leadership, will undoubtedly not be held unanimously by all psychologists.

In other news, you can’t stamp-out straight either.

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Mac McLean, reporting for the Bristol Herald Courier and TriCities.com, writes today that Sullivan County election officials decided “they don’t need to file a lawsuit seeking to block the state’s paper ballots law from going into effect” and will instead leave “the job of solving a bureaucratic quagmire created by the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act up to the very state officials who set it in motion last year.”

The Voter Confidence Act requires counties to buy and start using optical scan voting machines with paper ballots in time for the November 2010 election.

And the “bureaucratic quagmire” consists of the Secretary of State and the State Election Coordinator, who refuse to implement the law.

In preparation for the new law, Sullivan County “bought a set of the machines in 2006 and used them for early voting during the 2008 election’s early voting period and again in the 2009 city elections,” according to Elections Administrator Jason Booher.

But, Booher is misinformed when he tells McLean that they can no longer use the machines because the new law says they have to meet “a set of standards the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) adopted in 2005.”

Two things. First, nowhere in the law is the phrase “2005 Election Assistance Commission standards,” and two, the EAC standards state very clearly state that they are voluntary.

In other words, as a state, we can use any paper ballot counting machines we want to use. It’s our choice…kind of a states’ rights thing. Booher can use the machines he purchased in 2006 and Tre Hargett can allow the other county Election Administrators to purchase machines like the ones that have been working without incident in Hamilton, Pickett and, apparently, Sullivan counties.

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Reader Blayne directed our attention to an article up at Clarksville Online, the voice of Clarksville, written by Joyce McCloy of NC Coalition for Verified Voting and Voting News Blog.

In the article Joyce writes that a “A perfect storm is brewing for Tennessee voters for the 2010 election:”

Tennessee is set up for an election debacle, thanks to the states’ reliance on paperless electronic voting. Currently 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee use these machines.

Unless the Secretary of State Hargett takes swift and certain prompt action, thousands of votes will be at risk in the 2010 election. Computer scientists agree that any electronic voting machine can fail without warning. SOS Hargett should pay attention to the lessons learned by other states.

North Carolina found out the hard way that paperless voting machines can lose thousands of votes. In the November 2004 Presidential Election, 4,400 votes were permanently lost by “state of the art” computerized voting machines. The AP described that election as “A Florida-style nightmare …with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.” On top of that, the outcome of one statewide election contest was too close to call. There would have been a $3 million dollar “do-over” election if one of the candidates hadn’t voluntarily withdrawn. (See North Carolina Ballot Blues)

So why take a chance? Tennessee has time to act now and protect the 2010 election from mishaps. North Carolina adopted a paper ballot law in August 2005 and had new voting machines running an election in April 2006. Thanks to these paper ballot optical scan machines, North Carolina saw a our undervote rate for President cut in half in the 2008 election. (An undervote occurs when for some reason a ballot is cast but no vote is registered for the candidate.)

Tennessee, she also writes, “already has warning signs of an election meltdown to come,” and she chronicles a list of problems during previous elections in Davidson, Knox, Williamson, Hawkins, Shelby, and Sullivan counties.

In addition, there is a video of statements by voters in Carteret County, North Carolina who lost their votes on a paperless machine in the November, 2004 election.

Finally, Joyce provides example of several states that have enacted paper ballot laws successfully and asks that all Tennesseans Contact Secretary of State Tre Hargett by email at tre.hargett@tn.gov or by phone at (615) 741-2819 to demand he implement the Voter Confidence Act and paper ballots by the 2010 election.

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I’m a proofer. He’s a proofer. Wouldn’t you like to be a proofer, too?

Yesterday was the first day I asked Secretary of State Tre Hargett and State Election Coordinator Mark Goins for proof that even one vote cast during any election using the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines we use now in 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee has ever been recorded accurately, as per the voters’ intent.

I’m calling it Operation P.O.P (Please Offer Proof).

Today is Day 2. Coodinator Goins has said previously that he doesn’t see anything wrong with the machines we use now and Secretary Hargett is willing to forgo implementation of the 2008 Voter Confidence Act that would give Tennesseans paper ballots as well as the ability to do a meaningful recount because he thinks it’s would be a waste of money.

We may not see eye to eye on these positions but both men owe it to the people of Tennessee to show that the machines we will be relying on to give us a fair election in 2010 will count every vote cast and count it accurately.

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WPLN aired a 5 minute feature this morning by Blake Farmer on the battle over secure and verifiable elections in Tennessee.

The next big election in Tennessee is for governor, and the primary is just a year away. A new state law says voters are supposed to have paper-based voting machines to use by then. But a dispute over replacing touch screen voting machines has taken a partisan turn. The stalemate hinges on how to interpret one line of the Voter Confidence Act. WPLN’s Blake Farmer reports.

In the piece, Farmer covers the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines we use in 93 out of 95 counties in the state, the inability to hold a recount when using these machines, the two counties in Tennessee that use paper ballots and optical scan machines, and the Voter Confidence Act that would give us paper ballots in Tennessee. He also interviews Sean Flaherty of VerifiedVoting.org, Rep. Gary Odom (D-Nashville), State Election Coordinator Mark Goins, and Scott Allen of the Hamilton County Election Commission.

Go to WPLN.org to listen or read the transcript.

But the most interesting interview is with the Election Assistance Commission’s Matt Masterson, who Farmer checks in with after Goins tells him that he can’t comply with the Voter Confidence Act because the law says he has to buy optical scan machines (used for counting the paper ballots) certified to the latest Election Assistance Commission standards (2005) but there just aren’t any that have been through the certification process.

With Masterson’s help, Farmer uncovers the flaw in the loophole Goins is trying to exploit:

The election coordinator’s office says it’s true, he doesn’t want the state buying machines not certified to the latest standard. But don’t expect the federal agency in charge of writing those guidelines to jump in the middle of the dispute. The Election Assistance Commission makes suggestions, not mandates, says the EAC’s Matt Masterson.

MASTERSON: “The EAC’s testing and certification program and the standards that they use are voluntary and the states can choose to use the program in any way that they find necessary.”

So the state’s predicament is self-imposed, and the clock is ticking.

So, according to the Election Assistance Commission, the standards they set forth pertaining to voting machines are voluntary – each individual state is within its right to decide for itself which machines to buy. In other words, as a state we would be following the standards by deciding for ourselves whether or not to follow the standards. Which means that the Secretary of State’s office is choosing not to follow the law by implementing the Voter Confidence Act.

Should he be allowed to do that?

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Last week I was compared to a “birther” (see: Lou Dobbs) because I don’t think any votes ever cast during any election using the 100% unverifiable electronic voting machines we use now in 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee has ever been recorded accurately, as per the voters’ intent. Ever.

Ironically, the “birthers” questions about the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate has been anwered, but my question has not.

And, because it has not, today begins “OPERATION: Please Offer Proof,” also known, thanks to Freddie’s mom and and Steve Scarborough of Roaneviews, as “Operation: POP” and the “Proofer” movement.

Today I am calling on Secretary of State Tre Hargett and/or State Election Coordinator Mark Goins to present proof to the voters of Tennessee that one vote cast electronic voting machines has ever been recorded accurately. Shouldn’t be too hard, should it? We’re only asking for proof of one vote.

Coordinator Goins doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the voting machines we use now.

Great. Let him prove it.

Coordinator Goins also wants to wait until next legislative session to decide on whether or not to give us secure and verifiable elections.

OK. We can wait. But only if the system we use now can be verified as full proof. If it can’t be verified then we must act now of the results of every election held in 2010 will be suspect.

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