 |
Sun Sep 07 2008 | |||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Departments Election Issues The mystic voting hall: for the love of democracy by Sheri Myers January 5, 2007 I am in the famous Mystic Pizza, in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, where a young, unformed Julia Roberts grins from a fading movie poster. Out the window, the late November sky gathers cold, grey and moist, wanting to snow. Townspeople, bundled up, hurry in and rush out with sizzling pizza in boxes. Against the wall, serenely oblivious, gold and silver and rainbow colored fish shimmer and wiggle and dart in the warm water of their tank. I recall my first time snorkeling, after running a terrible marathon in Hawaii. There I was, just a gal from Ohio, glimpsing creatures underwater so exquisitely beautiful and diverse and beyond my imagination that my eyes teared. And now, on my walks through this centuries-old New England village, I pass an old, squat, one story red brick building. It sits apart from the surrounding three-story wood structures. No filigree porch or widow’s walk. Above the door a flaking brown sign states in white: Fourth District Voting Hall. I imagine the first generations of Mystic Seaport citizens, men named Asa and Clark and Erasmus gathering in this one story room. Squared-jawed, strong smelling, hardy whalers, boat builders, proprietors, farmers, even the town ne’er do well, stomping the mud off their boots, nodding a terse hello. Perhaps it was a fine meeting or fraught with conflict. No matter what, I must imagine that in that small room, if a citizen didn’t show to vote, he was missed. Raising one’s hand or not, in agreement or not, they looked around the room for consensus to direct the future of their town and our democracy. They felt entitled to a say and damn it, they said it. A village that’s been around since the rebellion from King George has a cellular, generational memory of the struggle for self-rule. This Hall is a unyielding assertion and protection of the Mystic people’s most fundamental right in a democracy; the right to vote in mortar and brick. As part of the Los Angeles Citizens Election Protection Task Force I read the reports filed by Poll workers for Democracy and voters' calls made to the EP hot line (866 OUR VOTE) on election day, 11/07. Outrage and confusion as folks on the rolls for years are suddenly not registered to vote. Others spend hours in search of a familiar polling place that has moved without notice. Callers are worried because blase poll workers are pitching their ballots into an open box, or the machines have failed to register their votes. Conversely, others fear that the machines are working all TOO well and their votes will be glitched. The Voting Hall has vanished. But our urge to be counted, thank the heavens, still burns. We still hitch up the horse and search for the old brick voting hall. Why else do I read that a man takes half his day to relentlessly ping- pong from one purported polling place to another? Why else does a young woman tearfully argue for her right to vote on a real ballot, not a provisional one? Why else do the newly trained poll workers passionately fight for the voters to be treated fair and square and not like second class citizens? This is the amazing beauty of our species that glimmers and catches the light. For once and all, we have got to address the systemic failures and the anti-democratic thugs, or to be kind, the willful amnesiacs, who deny their fellow citizens’ fundamental right to enter the Voting Hall. It is an indignity so primal I feel generations of Americans standing with us, to shake their fists in righteous indignation. This is our shame. Not the kind of shame to tick our heads a little and sigh. This is a shame that has darkness in it. It is dead wrong. It demands we act. We the people must resurrect the Voting Hall. “I am up between what’s right and wrong.” - Nanny, Lakawanna Blues Email this article to a friend |
Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008
"Nonviolent resisters put Senator Clinton on notice"
December 23, 2007
Pete Perry
"In-depth, post-EVEREST interview with Ohio's Secretary of State"
December 21, 2007
Brad Friedman
"The phrase that could defeat Hillary Clinton"
December 19, 2007
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Ohio will likely face big vote-counting problems in 2008"
December 19, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
""Critical security failures" leads Ohio Sec. of State to recommend ban of DRE (touch-screen) voting machines"
December 17, 2007
Brad Friedman
"Ohio Secretary of State confirms 2004 election could have been stolen"
December 14, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Kucinich first, Edwards second in PDA straw poll"
December 7, 2007
Tim Carpenter
"Hillary and the politics of disappointment"
December 2, 2007
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Voting can be a real battle for U.S. troops and others overseas in the 2008 primaries"
December 2, 2007
Loretta (Laurie) Ahlrich
"Wolf Blitzer loses Democratic debate"
November 20, 2007
David Swanson
"Another Clinton campaign fraud"
November 15, 2007
David Swanson
"We remember… Nov. 2 memorial anniversary of the 2004 Ohio election"
November 6, 2007
Paddy Shaffer
"The weak slat under the bed of democracy"
October 31, 2007
Michael Winship
"Aurora Dairy exemption from check-off program challenged; USDA should demand retroactive payment from faux organic milk producers"
October 31, 2007
Mark Kastel
"Kucinich tops other Dem Presidential leaders in key CA straw poll"
October 30, 2007
David Swanson
"Will the GOP election theft machine do it again in 2008?"
October 19, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Exactly how the good guys finally won"
October 2, 2007
David Swanson
"Voter purging: a legal way for Republicans to swing elections?"
September 16, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
"Why doesn't the GOP want Ohio's voting machines tested?"
September 11, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The Cat in the Hat, elusive happy endings, and the [election] mess that is so big, and so deep, and so tall"
September 9, 2007
Joan Brunwasser, OpEdNews
"The Death of the DRE: gone the way of Lawn Jarts"
September 3, 2007
Christopher Wilson
"Fooled Again series: exclusive interview with Michael Collins"
September 1, 2007
Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity editor, OpEdNews
"Fooled again series: exclusive interview with "Diebold whistleblower" Steve Heller"
August 27, 2007
Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity editor, OpEdNews
"The Dan Rather voting machine special, a recipe for election disaster, and serious food for thought"
August 24, 2007
Joan Brunwasser
"Resistance of one"
August 10, 2007
David Swanson
"The dog ate my homework continues: inter-office Ohio Board of Elections email prompted by SAVE THE BALLOTS website gives a glimpse into the attitudes of Ohio election officials"
August 9, 2007
Paddy Shaffer
"Look at who runs our boards of elections"
August 9, 2007
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Restore health to America's elections and pull the plug on SDD virus threat"
August 8, 2007
Michael Richardson
"Paper ballots for California: Secretary of State announces de-certification/re-certification plans for e-voting systems"
August 4, 2007
Brad Friedman from Plano, TX, with help from Emily Levy of VelvetRevolution.us and Tom Courbat of SAVE R VOTE
"The dog ate my homework"
August 3, 2007
Richard Hayes Phillips and Patricia "Paddy" Shaffer
"Welcome to jail for destruction of election records… for some of the ladies and gentlemen of the Ohio Boards of Elections!"
August 3, 2007
Paddy Shaffer
"The criminal cover-up of Ohio's stolen 2004 election sinks to the fraudulent, the absurd, the pathetic"
August 2, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Part II – Squire v. Geer: Facts the Magistrate left out are even more shocking than the ones he included"
July 30, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Will Bush cancel the 2008 election?"
July 30, 2007
Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
"Ohio's 2004 presidential election records missing or destroyed"
July 30, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
"Sausage making and electronic voting machines"
July 27, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Shreds of evidence"
July 26, 2007
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Missing records and record access in Ohio, July 2007"
July 25, 2007
Paddy Shaffer
"On-site observations of the hand-counting of paper ballots and recommendations for the general election of 2008"
July 24, 2007
Sheila Parks
"Sicko ?"
July 3, 2007
Joan Brunwasser, OpEdNews
"John Edwards supports "open source" for voting systems"
June 27, 2007
Alan Dechert
"Will electronic voting reform create new ways to steal elections?"
June 6, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
"US Attorney resigns following Conyers’ request for BBC documents"
June 2, 2007
Greg Palast
"Will Al Gore face his inconvenient truths about our stolen elections?"
May 18, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Giving the voters "poisoned food" to "nourish" democracy"
May 17, 2007
Marj Creech
"In the land of the free, and the home of the brave"
May 17, 2007
Paul R. Lehto
"The globalization of electronic election theft"
May 11, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"RFK: Rove and Rove's brain, 'Should be in jail,' not in office"
May 9, 2007
Greg Palast
"Introducing Psephos"
April 25, 2007
Paul R. Lehto
"Are Rove's missing e-mails the smoking guns of the stolen 2004 election?"
April 25, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The GOP's cyber election hit squad"
April 22, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
"Another path to peace: the case for Kucinich"
April 19, 2007
David Swanson
"Virtual election season"
April 16, 2007
David Swanson
"Bye bye to Cleveland GOP Election Chair Bob "Ballots for Bush" Bennett"
April 16, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Bye bye to Cleveland GOP Election Chair Bob "Ballots for Bush" Bennett"
April 15, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Auditing the mid-term election"
April 6, 2007
Richard Hayes Phillips
"Two big victories boost Ohio's election protection movement"
April 5, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"More potential 2004 election illegalities rock Ohio's Hocking County as Cleveland braces for a legal firestorm"
March 30, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"New Ohio evidence exposes apparently illegal 2004 recount activity by Hocking County's GOP Election Director, and a stinging complaint is filed in Cleveland"
March 26, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Explosive new vote fraud developments continue to rock Ohio and Florida"
March 23, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Forced resignations and stiff prison sentences intensify the escalating blowback from Ohio's 2004 stolen election"
March 20, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Election fraud, my ass"
March 16, 2007
Paul Rogat Loeb
"After Ohio's recount rigging convictions in Cuyahoga, is Coshocton County next?"
March 6, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Florida setting example"
March 3, 2007
Free Press staff
"Sequoia Voting Systems contract with San Francisco needs added section to ensure transparency"
February 13, 2007
Brent Turner, Open Voting Consortium
"Ohio's spreading stolen 2004 election scandal claims another victim"
February 10, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"First criminal convictions from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm recount was rigged"
January 27, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Election attorneys amplify importance of convictions for recount rigging in Ohio 2004 presidential race"
January 26, 2007
Paul Lehto
"Do new Ohio recount prosecutions indicate unraveling of 2004 election theft cover-up?"
January 19, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"The mystic voting hall: for the love of democracy"
January 5, 2007
Sheri Myers
"DREs, magic and other sleights of hand"
January 4, 2007
Rady Ananda
Read Articles by Year:
2007 2006 2005 2004
2003 2002 2001 2000
All content © 1970-2008
The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer