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Departments Election Issues Introducing Psephos by Paul R. Lehto April 25, 2007 Dear Friends and fellow citizens concerned with elections: Psephos (pronounced SEA-foss) is the new nonprofit organization I will be working with to pursue our mutual and common interests in defending elections and defending democracy. This Greek word is defined in my signature line below, and it relates deeply to elections. Our tagline for Psephos is "In a Democracy, the People Count." Most recently these common interests all citizens share in defending democracy have led to productive discussions with leaders of PFAW on strengthening what can be accomplished in the restoration of our public elections. Emerging from discussions like these is a new and perhaps more powerful formulation of what our mutual efforts are all directly about: Specifically, it is my strong belief that our fundamental right to "toss the rascals out", which is the #1 inalienable right upon which the Declaration of Independence is built, must be secured. And, in order for the right to change our whole government via elections to be secure, especially against "rascals" or corrupt governmental officials, this right and elections themselves must be secured FROM the government. Of course, we need this right at all times and don't always know who the rascals or the corrupt are, until it's too late. Under our system "guaranteeing and securing the rights of the people" is the very reason governments are formed in the first place. So, given this purpose, how is it that total governmental/corporate control of elections (with the secret vote counting that occurs on all first counts on all forms of electronic voting machines) something that in fact secures us this inalienable right? Whenever the government can gang up with a chosen vendor to count votes secretly and thereby defeat the public's right to know and supervise its own elections, our inalienable right to change our government or get rid of the rascals is, to say the least, insecure. Thus, the government is clearly failing to secure and guarantee to We the People our #1 inalienable right. This is an extremely grave situation, a crisis for democracy. This is the gravest threat and crisis our democracy has ever faced. Freedom itself is not secure unless voting, the right that protects all other rights, is secured from any possibility of governmental interference. While these alone are huge stakes, it gets even more important when one realizes that under our American system of governance, elections simply don't pass legitimate power to elected candidates unless the consent of the governed, i.e., the consent of We the People, is validly and fairly obtained. Today, with secret electronic vote counting, we are left with no evidence that this is fairly occurring. Instead, all we get are "magic totals" and public officials and vendors who refuse (on grounds of trade secrecy) to perform simple acts of addition in public. In the 2nd grade math class I attended, refusing to show your math work was grounds for either getting an "F" or having to do the work over! Until publicly controlled elections are restored, our government is going to get an "F" from Psephos on securing and guaranteeing our rights, which is it's #1 responsibility and job. There will be little or no rest for citizens who love liberty and democracy until elections are restored to We the People. And, it should go without saying that there is nothing about modernity or computers or anything else that renders these inalienable rights and our elections a single whit less important, or more susceptible to compromise. A compromise of a Right is a violation of that same Right. In other words, Rights are things that trump other concerns. In significant part, Psephos will be dedicated to defending democracy for all citizens, and restoring our inalienable right to publicly controlled elections. We hope you will join us in whatever way you can, because with anything less than securing our elections from our government, we simply can not rest assured that our rights and freedoms will continue, or even that our government exercises legitimate power under the terms of our very own Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Thus, this illegitimacy is not a "charge" being made, it is a stated consequence under the long-established American way of not doing elections right and not obtaining the consent of the governed in a properly evidenced manner. If any of you will be at the San Diego Convention Center for the DCCC event Friday April 27, please let's get introduced, say hello, or at least get a chance to see our short press conference. Basic info is below. Thank you. Many of us will also be attending the PDA event Thursday night at 730pm at the Scottish Rite Center in San Diego. Paul R. Lehto Juris Doctor Co-Founder, Psephos (858) 750-5906 (Psephos office) Psephos means "pebble" in Greek, the original ballot. Psephology is the study of elections. Email this article to a friend |
Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008
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Brad Friedman
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December 19, 2007
Paul Rogat Loeb
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December 19, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
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December 17, 2007
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December 14, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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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
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November 20, 2007
David Swanson
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November 15, 2007
David Swanson
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November 6, 2007
Paddy Shaffer
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October 31, 2007
Michael Winship
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October 31, 2007
Mark Kastel
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October 30, 2007
David Swanson
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October 19, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
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October 2, 2007
David Swanson
"Voter purging: a legal way for Republicans to swing elections?"
September 16, 2007
Steven Rosenfeld
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September 11, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
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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
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July 30, 2007
Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
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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
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April 16, 2007
David Swanson
"Bye bye to Cleveland GOP Election Chair Bob "Ballots for Bush" Bennett"
April 16, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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April 15, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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April 6, 2007
Richard Hayes Phillips
"Two big victories boost Ohio's election protection movement"
April 5, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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March 30, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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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
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March 20, 2007
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
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March 16, 2007
Paul Rogat Loeb
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March 6, 2007
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
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March 3, 2007
Free Press staff
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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
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