Joseph Stalin, of all people, is credited with a rather infamous comment: It’s not who votes that counts.  It’s who counts the votes.  Maybe he said it, maybe he didn’t.  It’s still an important idea and it’s one we face in this country on a regular basis.  I’ve said this before and I feel a need to say it again – with a bit more…urgency.  Do NOT cast your ballots on a computerized or electronic voting machine.  Use paper ballots.  The reason is simple enough: we, the people, cannot trust the integrity of electronic voting machines.  The “fix” is simple enough as well: cast absentee ballots.

I suspect, on some level, we all know the machines are easily rigged.  Americans should have demanded the removal of voting machines early on.  We should still.  We SHOULD have been suspicious the moment we were told by the manufacturers – the same companies that build ATM machines – it’s not possible to build a voting machine that creates a paper trail.  What?  They can do it for an ATM but not a voting machine?  That seems odd.  I can make deposits, withdrawals, and payments on an ATM and when I’m done I collect a little receipt that summarizes my transactions.  The machine also keeps a paper copy and updates it’s computer with the current information.  So what happens when the total on the paper doesn’t match the computer total?  Time to review the footage.  (Oh, yeah, the ATM can even take your picture while you do whatever it is you’re doing…)

So, how hard might it be to set up the same system – the one they already use so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – to provide a paper copy to the voter and keep a paper copy in the machine while updating the computer count?  Not much of a challenge, I imagine.  BUT…if, at the end of the day, the paper count doesn’t match the computerized total, it would prove something was amiss.  How would the people who control those machines successfully control the outcome of “elections” if the paper trail betrayed the vote flipping inside?  Simple solution: eliminate the paper trail.  Pretend it’s “not possible.”  Prattle on about the “integrity of the election.”  Repeat as necessary.

We the people, can…should…MUST refuse to use those machines.  But I do NOT support the notion of simply not voting.  We have one teeny tiny glimmer of hope remaining to recover our once-proud nation from the grips of the one percent without bloodshed: voting.  But if the one percent control the voting machines, they control the votes.  So…get out and vote – specifically because someone out there doesn’t want you to.  But don’t use their equipment.

Cast an absentee ballot, instead.  It’s paper.  It’s a written hard copy.  It can be manually counted and recounted if necessary.  The machines?  You get a total.  You have to trust it.  There’s no double-checking because there’s no paper trail.  Think of it this way: perhaps Donald Trump didn’t even “win” the Electoral College, but there’s no way to prove that because it happened on voting machines.  The internal numbers can be changed, easily, as it happens, with no evidence such changes occurred.  (Look, don’t take my word for it.  Search ‘Vote Flipping Video’ and behold the avalanche of information…)

So vote absentee.  Cast a provisional ballot if you must.  Whichever, don’t use the machines.  Create a paper trail.  The key is, a HUGE number of people have to participate in this process in order to be effective.  There must be enough absentee ballots to force the “counters” to count them BEFORE an announcement of a “winner” can be made.

I’ll tell you this:  In November, 2018, you need to vote and you need to vote on paper ballots.  Tell your friends.  Tell your friends to tell their friends.  (Maybe just forward this essay to everyone you know…)  This needs to become a “thing.”  It should become a wave.  A movement would be better.  At this point, America needs every vote it can get and the votes had better be on paper…