Illegal Elections in Florida Give
Glimpse of Upcoming Elections

Letter from actor Peter Coyote to Senator Barbara Boxer 2may03

Dear Barbara,

I'm writing to you about a situation of the greatest urgency. Last year, I narrated a film called "Unprecedented" by American journalist Greg Palast (currently writing for the London Guardian). This film documents the illegal expunging of 54,000 black and overwhelmingly Democratic voters from the Florida rolls just before the presidential election. We interviewed the computer company that did the work, filmed their explanations of the instructions they received and their admissions that they knew that their instructions would produce massive error. That figure has now been revised to 91,000.

Jeb Bush was sued, and was supposed to have returned these voters to the rolls, and did not, which explains his last re-election. The Republicans have something far worse in mind for the next presidential election and Democrats need to be prepared. The recent elections of Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel, the loss in Georgia of Max Cleland, wildly popular Vietnam vet, and the victory of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, along with a handful of other Republican victories, (all predicted to have been losers by straw polls which our nation has refined to a high-art) points to an ominous source: corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machine, recording and tabulating ballots.

You'd think in an open democracy that the government--answerable to all its citizens, rather than a handful of corporate officers and stockholders-- would program, repair, and control the voting machines. You'd think the computers that handle our cherished ballots would be open and their software and programming available for public scrutiny. You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, which could be followed and audited if a there was evidence of voting fraud or if exit polls disagreed with computerized vote counts. You'd be wrong.

The Washington, DC publication The Hill http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska. When Democrat,Charlie Matulka requested a hand count of the vote in the election he lost to Hagel, his request was denied because Nebraska had a just-passed law that prohibits government-employee election workers from looking at the ballots, even in a recount. The only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska, he said, are those made and programmed by the corporation formerly run by Hagel.

When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander Bolton pressed the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee, (the man responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete), asking him why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 failures to disclose the details of his ownership in the company that owned the voting machine company when he ran for the Senate, the Director reportedly met with Hagel's office on Friday, January 25, 2003 and Monday, January 27, 2003. After the second meeting, on the afternoon of January 27th, the Director of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his job.

Hagel's surprise victory is a trial-run for the presidential election. Election 'reform' laws are now prohibiting paper ballots (no trail) and exit polls, effectively removing all trace and record of votes, making prosecution of voter fraud virtually impossible. For whatever reasons, the Democrats decided not to pursue the issue of fraudulence in the last Presidential election. The three Supreme Court Justices who should have recused themselves (Scalia, Thomas and O'Connor) were allowed to stand unchallenged and pass a bizarre one-time only ruling. That they were in place long before the election demonstrates how clearly the end-game of such moves was thought out.

Unless the issue of voter fraud is elevated to an issue of national importance, not only is it highly probably that Democrats will lose again and again, but eventually voters will "sense" even if they cannot prove, that elections are rigged, and the current 50% of those boycotting elections will swell to the majority. Privatization of the vote is tantamount to turning over the control of democracy to the corporate sector. I urge you to use your considerable powers and influence to address this issue.

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Subj: Fwd: Peter Coyote letter verified
Date: 5/2/2003 5:13:26 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: DISMO
To: Marcialart

Hi M,

Persistence pays off. Looks like Peter Coyote did pen that letter, and the info is factual. I'm forwarding the verification.

xo B ----------------- B,

Here's the response from the guy who sent it . . . to me.

Rgds, RS

Right from Coyote's site http://www.petercoyote.com/news0902.html

I *think* that this film may have been subsumed in the larger film "Counting on Democracy" available on Greg Palast's site http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=200&row=0. Anyhow, that's all I have time for...it was not an easy track. All the scrub facts are chronicled in the American edition of "the Best Democracy Money Can Buy", available at Amazon or wherever Ari Fleischer don't go.

Greg rocks!

W

Update - October 14, 2002Another film narrated by Coyote has currently surfaced and is now being featured in several areas including film festivals. "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" is a one-hour documentary focusing on Florida's role in the election battle for the Presidency. This film discusses the exclusion of 57,000 black and Democratic voters from the Florida, contrary to Supreme Court mandate. The entire sweeping of the voter-rolls for "felons" was done so carelessly that even the company doing the work warned the Governor's office that it would be highly inaccurate and were told, "We don't care." Furthermore, there's photographic evidence and identification of Republican Congressional staffers rioting outside the counting rooms and closing down the vote recounts. The Los Angeles premiere will be at The Directors Guild Theatre on October 15th at 7:30 pm while San Francisco can look forward to a screening on October 16th at the UCSF Laurel Heights Conference Center at 6:30 pm. Those wishing to purchase this film can obtain a copy by sending a $30 check or money order payable to: Alernavision, PO Box 1107, Santa Monica, CA 90406-1107.