Today in Austin David Van Os filed a suite to protect Texan's votes!
"Democracy belongs to all the voters."
Press Release below
PRESS RELEASE
June 14, 2006
Democratic Attorney General nominee David Van Os joined with the NAACP, two Travis County voters, and the Texas Civil Rights Project today in filing a lawsuit in state district court seeking to block the use of electronic voting machines that do not produce paper receipts. Attorney Jim Harrington, Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, represents Van Os and the other plaintiffs.
"Democracy belongs to all the voters. When every voter cannot be sure that a machine recorded his or her vote the way he or she intended, democracy is not fulfilled. These paperless machines are a direct threat to Constitutional democracy. We must have paper ballots."
The lawsuit claims that the paperless machines violate the public's right to a secure election and the purity of the ballot box under the Texas Constitution.
More than half the states have enacted legislation that requires voting machines to print a paper ballot when the voter casts his or her vote. The voter reads his or her ballot to make sure it recorded the vote he or she intended and then casts both the electronic and paper ballots.
The paper ballot can be counted in the all too often case when electronic ballots vanish into thin air or when there is a discrepancy between the number of people who voted and the number of votes recorded. Having a paper trail also makes fraud less likely.
For further information contact David Van Os at (210) 332-7070.
In his April 10, 2006 statement posted on his website, David explains how electronic voting with no paper trail violates the Texas Constitution.
Article 6, Section 2 states:
"The privilege of free suffrage shall be protected by laws regulating elections and prohibiting under adequate penalties all undue influence in elections from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practices."
Article 6, Section 4 states:
"In all elections by the people, the vote shall be by ballot, and the Legislature shall provide for the numbering of tickets and make such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box."
Now you tell me. How in the world can a system prohibit undue influence in elections from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practices when there is no way to verify whether the things that are going on inside the machine are even recording the votes as the voters intend? How in the world can the purity of the ballot box be preserved when even the voter who cast the ballot has no way of knowing what actually got recorded on his ballot in the interior of the machine? Clearly, it can't, and it can't.
These machines clearly violate the Texas Constitution.
Federal law does not require that there be a voter-verifiable paper trail, nor does federal law require that there not be one. The federal laws are silent. In the federal law's silence, the Texas Constitution governs in all elections conducted within the jurisdiction of Texas.
This blatant disregard of the Constitutional rights of all the citizens of Texas is the plain result of partisan, power-loving, one-party Republican rule. The manufacturers of the electronic voting machines are big corporate powers that are headed by Republicans who love Republican rule for the way it protects the divine rights of big corporations to profit as much as possible off the backs of working people. The Governor is a Republican who depends on money from Republican corporate America to feed his campaign chests. The Secretary of State is a Republican who depends on the Republican Governor for appointment to his job. The Attorney General is a Republican who depends on the strength of the Republican corporate-political power machine to turn out his votes.
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David Van Os gave a speech at the Texas Democratic Party Convention in Fort Worth last weekend that elevated him to rock star status. During his speech, he received several standing ovations and jubilant Democrats were dancing in the isles. Later when Van Os walked into a huge, two-story Chili's Restaurant in Downtown Fort Worth, diners gave him another standing ovation punctuated with screams of. "Give `me hell, David!" and "Fight, fight, fight!"
Listen to this inspiring speech
David doesn't write out his speeches--they're a spontaneous combustion. The transcript of his speech is available online. Below are some of my favorite quotes:
"...we here in Texas...we here in Texas are the ones that have to dig that evil up by it's roots because no where else can it be dug up and eradicated they way it's got to done. We Texans...we Texans have a moral responsibility to our fellow Americans in 49 other states to take care of it right here. Right here in Texas! Right now! This year!
You know, Ralph Yarborough went around the state saying, "Put the jam on the lower shelf so the little people can reach it." Well, hell! The jam is so high up now the little people can't even see it.
Your friends and neighbors...your friends and neighbors...your good neighbors and friends who have been voting Republican are not the enemy folks. They are the victims. The enemies are the ruthless political hustlers who've been tricking them and conning them out of their votes.
We Texans accept our responsibility for allowing the "robber barons" to take us over and then spread into Washington. We are all in this fight together though and we could sure use your help.
Very soon, we will put several of these signs up in Texas.
We only have enough funds to keep these signs up for two months. We need them up until November 7th.
Help David fight Big Oil!
Today I wore my Big Oil t-shirt into town to pick up soup for my sick kid. I drew a small crowd of people in the grocery store who wanted to know what the shirt meant. It gave me the opportunity to explain about David and his campaign for Texas Attorney General.
I told them about Greg Abbott and his hush money from tycoon homebuilder Bob Perry, the financier of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
I told them that Connecticut and California have Attorney Generals who are fighting Big Oil and that David Van Os will do the same for Texans.
Why should the people of Connecticut and California get representation and not the people of Texas? When in blazes is somebody going to get up and fight the giant oil monopolies on behalf of the people of Texas?
The best news I could give them was that David Van Os would make a visit to Wise County, Texas during one of his Whistle Stops. They made me promise that I would stop by the grocery store where they work and let them know the date.
You can see how important this Notice to Big Oil message is and this is why we MUST get the billboards up and keep them up.
Next stops on the Whistle Stop Tour:
DVO's Filibuster for Freedom in Galveston, and SE TX Courthouse Tour
12:00 Noon, Sunday, June 18
Filibuster begins at Galveston City Hall, 823 Rosenberg Street, and continues all night
David Van Os rides the momentum of his barn-burning convention speech in Fort Worth all the way to Galveston this weekend. To commemorate Juneteenth, the Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General will conduct a marathon Citizens' Filibuster for Freedom on June 18 and 19.
8:30 a.m., Monday, June 19
Attend the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at Ashton Villa, 2328 Broadway Street
11:00 a.m., Monday, June 19
Join the Juneteenth Parade beginning at 26th Street, two blocks from City Hall
David will then speak briefly at fifteen Southeast Texas county courthouses in three days. Here's that schedule:
CHAMBERS COUNTY - Anahuac
LIBERTY COUNTY - Liberty
HARDIN COUNTY - Kountze
ORANGE COUNTY - Orange
JEFFERSON COUNTY - Beaumont
Wednesday June 21
TYLER COUNTY - Woodville
JASPER COUNTY - Jasper
NEWTON COUNTY - Newton
SABINE COUNTY - Hemphill
SAN AUGUSTINE COUNTY - San Augustine
Thursday June 22
ANGELINA COUNTY - Lufkin
TRINITY COUNTY - Groveton
POLK COUNTY - Livingston
SAN JACINTO COUNTY - Cold Springs
MONTGOMERY COUNTY - Conroe
Come hear what democracy sounds like by catching David speak at one of these tour stops.
David Van Os, the next Attorney General of Texas.
Fight, fight, fight!
Fight-em' till hell freezes over,
Then fight-em on the ice.
FIGHTING FOR YOU TOO!