The Velvet Revolution:
Divestiture For Democracy
87 Citizen Groups Launch Nationwide Campaign
To End Secrecy In U.S. Voting Machine Companies

The Lone Star Iconoclast    08 March 2005

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? A coalition of more than 87 citizen groups nationwide have united to address the problems created by secret vote-counting inside the newer electronic voting machines.
Under the banner of the Velvet Revolution, mainstream and activist groups have organized to demand re-institution of vote-counting procedures so that all American citizens can verify with certainty that democracy is indeed working accurately.
Congressman John Conyers (D), minority chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has endorsed the campaign with a strong letter to nine vote machine companies, telling them that if they fail to implement the requested steps, he will urge members of Congress to pass legislation to deny them funding under the Help America Vote Act.
Brad Friedman, co-founder of the Velvet Revolution, told The Iconoclast in an interview Friday that it is important for Americans to take an active role in supporting this cause since it represents a renewed commitment to an electoral process that is both just and crystal clear.
Friedman, who investigated several voting irregularities in the past presidential election, explained that several groups were doing the same thing, but found it difficult to attain a united voice to do something about them.
?Since Nov. 3, I had been reporting on all this on my blog (<www.bradblog.com>) and there sprang up all of the different groups who were trying to do the same thing, get the news out, do something about it, so I have been trying to bring them all together as sort of a central repository, an unbrella organization, so we can support their groups,? said Friedman.
?We?ve set up an easy-to-use e-mail link (on <www.VelvetRevolution.us>) where you can come to our site, fill in your name, and it will send out an email to all nine of these companies saying, ?Hey, we stand with the Velvet Revolution and want you guys to do the right thing for our country, and if not, we will join the massive divestiture at the end of 60 days.
?We would love folks to send mail to those companies. We have made it easy for them. Of course, we would love donations to better help support the effort and the education campaign and get the word out far and wide so they really understand there are millions of Americans, more coming on every day? who want change, said Friedman.
?Right now there?s all this election reform legislation that?s going through Congress. Most of it is put forward by Democrats, so it probably won?t get very far right now. We are letting them all wrangle over that and we?re sort of taking matters in our own hands, saying ?Hey, we?re the people, we?re the citizenry, and we?ll let the Congress worry about what they?re doing.? We?re going to go straight to the companies and say, ?Hey, enough is enough. You?re doing a function of the government. You are a government function, and so you need to operate as a branch of the government would, which is be open, have transparency, and institute a corporate policy so your executives can?t go out and say we will deliver the state of Ohio to George Bush.??
Friedman continued, ?It?s time for them to do the right thing, so we calling on them to do that, and we would love for folks to jump in, bury them with e-mails, sending them the message that we stand with the Velvet Revolution and we need to restore confidence in the world?s most important democracy which is quickly becoming a laughing stock. Even Putin or one of his deputies told Bush, ?Why are you lecturing us about democracy? Look at your own elections,? which is troubling, I think.?
Problems with electronic voting machines have been documented by more than 50,000 complaints received in the 2004 election concerning observed malfunctions, he said.
According to a recent online survey on election reform:
? 87 percent of those surveyed advocate the expansion of early voting programs,
? 95 percent favor the creation of a public campaign to educate voters on voting rights and anti-intimidation laws, and
? Nearly 99 percent asked to ensure that every voting machine has a verifiable audit trail.
According to Friedman, ?Velvet Revolution was a term that was used in Czechoslovakia when Havel came to power and the people hit the streets en mass and demanded to throw out the corrupt government through non-violent demonstrations...a peaceful revolution of the people, a people?s brigade. It brought down the government in Czechoslovakia, USSR, South Africa, and most recently, in the Ukraine, which would be the best example of a velvet revolution.?
In February, <VelvetRevolution.us> (VR) sent letters to the nine major vote and vote tabulation companies ? Diebold, Sequoia Voting Sysstems, Election Systems and Software, HartInterCivic, MicroVote, Danaher-Guardian, TriadGSI, UniLect, and Advanced Voting Solutions ? urging them, within 60 days, to open themselves up to transparency and accountability or face a massive and sustained divestiture campaign from hundreds of organizations representing millions of Americans.
VR is demanding verifiable paper ballots for all votes cast, a paper trail of all vote tabulations, open software and hardware that is subject to independent analysis, machines that are not, and cannot be networked, no involvement in elections or politics by company executives, and independent observers of that tabulation process, Friedman explained. These are required under existing law because the vote machine companies are merely extensions of the government in that they are performing a purely governmental function ? vote counting ? and are being compensated using taxpayer funds.
Friedman added that VR will broadly recognize the companies that publicly state within 60 days that they will comply with the patriotic concerns of the Velvet Revolution members. Those who choose against doing the right thing for the country will have to deal with a sustained campaign of boycott against their companies, affiliates, and clients, he added, noting that VR will also launch a broad education, advertising, and public relations campaign for the American people explaining precisely the dangers that these companies represent in regard to democracy.