By David Swanson

For over half the days during any period of years you choose to select, the biggest story in U.S. news outlets is the impending most important election in your lifetime. The story, of course, takes an infinite variety of forms, ranging from candidates' friends and associates to their diets, wardrobes, religions, childhoods, and hobbies. There are variations that take us through polls and fundraising and commercials and donors and staffers and analysis of commentary on reporting on sound bytes. We learn the ins and outs of the process, the demographics of likely supporters, and the statistical likelihood that a candidate of a given race, religion, gender, and shoe size will get an RBI in the next inning. Occasionally we even get a glancing glimpse at what a candidate might do if elected.

Tonight from 8 - 9 p.m. ET I'll be interviewing Mark Crispin Miller and he'll be taking your questions at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net

Mark Crispin Miller is professor of media studies at New York University and the author of the book: Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform. His books include Boxed In: The Culture of TV, Seeing Through Movies, and Mad Scientists, a study of war propaganda.

Miller writes in his book, Fooled Again, that the 2000 U.S. Presidential election and 2004 U.S. Presidential election were “stolen”. Miller presents extensive documentation, backed by 56 pages of notes, supporting his contention that the outcome of both elections was altered and controlled by a small minority. He states that the American voting populace can no longer assume that their votes will be accurately assessed, and that the installation of electronic voting machines in state after state is a fundamental flaw in the U.S. electoral system. He appeared in the 2004 documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave, which focuses on the hidden mechanics of the media, its role as it should be and what it actually is, and how it shapes (to the point of almost controlling) U.S. politics.

Mark’s new book is: Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008.

On Thursday, February 21st, David Earnhardt, the writer, director, and producer of the best film yet released on election fraud, "Uncounted," showed the film and spoke about it in Charlottesville, Va., at an event hosted by the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice (CCPJ). The week of the event, Charlottesville's daily newspaper and its two weekly newspapers wrote about the movie and the issue of election fraud: Daily Progress, The Hook, and C'ville Weekly.

CCPJ recorded a 50-minute video that includes Earnhardt's opening remarks prior to the screening of the film, and his remarks and question-and-answer session at the end. During the Q&A, Earnhardt is joined on stage by CCPJ board member David Swanson.

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Machines can’t be trusted to get elections right
By David Swanson, C'ville Weekly

How can we be sure our votes in the February 12 primaries were properly counted? We can trust and hope, but we cannot be certain. Charlottesville uses DRE voting machines (Directly Recording Electronic voting machines). While the city brags that these are not touch-screen machines, because we turn a dial instead of touching a screen, the problems are the same. The machines we use have produced noticeable errors in some places around the country, such as displaying on the final page for confirmation different selections from those the voter had made. But the major danger lies in the unnoticeable.

By David Swanson

As we muddle our way through primary elections fraught with errors, fraud, and suppression, it's useful to look back at the elections of 2004 and 2006. So, on Wednesday February 20th, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET I'll be interviewing David Earnhardt live online, and you can phone in with your questions.

By David Swanson

By the time November 2008 rolls around, you will have endured over two years of breathless horse-race election coverage. (I, for one, am going to spend the next few days pushing Obama over Clinton, and then tune back in on Halloween to decide whether to vote for Obama, Nader, or McKinney. There are too many important things to work on in between.) But the big question (and one of the important things to work on) is this: will you have any way to know your vote is counted?

On February 12th, I'll vote for Obama in the Virginia Democratic Primary if it still matters (if it doesn't I'll vote for Kucinich). And I will have no possible way to determine whether my vote is counted. I'll be voting on a touch-screen electronic voting machine. There will be no piece of paper generated and stored as I vote. A "paper trail" may be produced later, but if the vote totals are monkeyed with by the machine, the paper trail will simply "confirm" the bogus numbers.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

For me, it's quite simple. I was appalled at what I'd seen in the 2004 election ...

-- David Earnhardt, Director of Uncounted

* * *

First of all, BuzzFlash wants to commend all those Americans who are working to ensure that every citizen can vote -- and that every vote is properly counted.

California seeks nearly $15 million from voting machine company
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen sued a major voting machine company Monday, accusing Election Systems & Software of selling unauthorized machines to San Francisco and four counties.

The lawsuit seeks nearly $15 million in penalties and reimbursements. Bowen contends that ES&S sold 972 of its AutoMark A200 voting machines to San Francisco and Colusa, Marin, Merced and Solano counties in 2006 even though the state had not tested and certified the machines.

"ES&S ignored the law over and over again and it got caught," Bowen said in a statement. "California law is very clear on this issue. I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into this state, ignore the laws and make millions of dollars from California taxpayers in the process."