Contributed by Stuart Thompson
This year of 2016, we must act to preserve our country and state’s spirit. It is something that only individual Alaskan citizens can do, since depending on money and authority and our existing political organizations has been proven worthless at accomplishing it. Apathy about this is a clear admission of being a slave, regardless of propaganda on how docility and submissiveness and looking the other way (by unreservedly trusting government officials) creates “freedom”. Ask any ordinary government employee about rampant corruption beating up on their personal honesty.
I call on my fellow citizens to coerce and supervise every oath-bound public servant in Alaska at protecting the reporting and counting of our votes this election time. At no other time in US history has election-rigging and vote-counting fraud been so widespread, made painfully obvious even through the slanted media.
It is public record that Alaska runs all its opti-scan vote-reading equipment through manufacturer-affiliated service vendors for maintenance. That’s right. Without independent oversight, partisan access to the software of our vote recording equipment is possible before elections. Anybody with software training can tell you multiple ways how computerized hardware designed to record, tally and digitally report vote totals to Juneau Election Division Central can be manipulated. The easiest way is through the use of manufacturer-designed testing modules. That way, even so-called bonded maintenance vendors are victimized along with citizens at large. What we need is independent, software review of our vote recording and counting equipment shortly before they are used this fall.
Do you still hold the delusional viewpoint that God or our “noble” government bureaucracy (under the control of lobbyists and special interests, who grab what’s best for them with virtual bribery or rank propaganda) protects us from election rigging?
Example: The Ted Cruz campaign in Iowa falsely disseminating that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race to get Carson’s Christian Conservative votes. Hey, Mr. Cruz! Ever heard of God’s Commandment “Thou shall not bear false witness?
Example: Hilary Clinton’s campaign and its insider supporters in Iowa winning the only 6 tied precincts by successive coin tosses. Do you know the mathematical odds of having such a perfect outcome? Or the single voter in one precinct who voted for Sanders—only to have his vote recorded by his party for Clinton! Lying and cheating doesn’t begin to describe such behavior. No point in raising this with Mrs. Clinton. She’s the one with most of the New Hampshire “Super-delegates” (whose votes are independent (!) from the will of state Democratic voters) in her pocket. The list with the other candidates goes on!
Daunting isn’t it? We don’t actually experience that level of corruption in Alaska. It’s mainly because the big-bucks special interests, and the national party aristocrats don’t need our relatively fewer convention delegate votes to pre-determine national convention outcomes. We’re not immune though. Ask ordinary state Republicans about manipulations to control their state party leadership. Also, as Alaskans are by and large quite discerning, Alaska’s largest political affiliation (outnumbering Republicans and Democrats combined) is non-partisan/undeclared.
So why does election to state public office almost always require membership in either the Democratic or Republican parties? Or having to generally vote with one of these parties to get committee assignments in our Legislature? I don’t see anything close to “one man—one vote” in this, do you?
Finally, look at it this way. It’s taken several hundred years for American governments to mutate all out of recognition to what the Founders created. Consider this: The Founders intentionally created the constitutional Amendment process to rationally take care of what they may have missed or will miss. Does it get used? At the state level, yes it’s paid attention to—somewhat. But at the national level it’s pissed on by fishy Supreme Court decisions and dictator-like executive orders from the reigning (as in king) president. In other words, we have had a lot of time to screw up what makes our form of government sensible and workable. We are now faced with at least a generation of dedicated citizen work to clean it up.
All history bears witness that leaving government up to charismatic and supposedly ethical or “God-anointed” leaders doesn’t work. If you want freedom and sustained opportunity to be happy, you must participate in your government. Demanding in 2016 that your votes are honestly counted and recorded is a simple start.