Doing what we Can?

On Sep 24, John wrote to tell me that I am fooling myself if I think that the people will be voting "them" out in November. Don't I realize what's up with electronic voting machines opeating with proprietary source code?

John Says: fyi: 40% of americans will be e-voting this november, and the
source code which tells the machines how to tally votes will be
kept in the hands of private coporations.

fyi: in the last presidential election, for the first time in our
electoral history, exit polls were flipped in precincts with e-voting.

I reply:
I KNOW this crap! Anybody does, who has been paying attention! How do you suggest that we, as writers, grab the attention of people who haven't been paying it, or who just don't care? What do you suggest I do that I haven't done? Signed the petitions, letters to editors, praised the angels-side support of ALL the Massachusetts congressmen and senators, sent thanks and encouragement to my painter friend in Brookline and my playwright friend in Ohio who have taken a year out
of their lives to work full time on this issue, Verified Voting.... What next? Short of hara-kiri on the steps of the Election Commission? Or of ABC News?

I was a poll worker in Tuesday's Massachusetts primary. Huge turnout for a primary-- 50% voted even though there were no real contests on the Republican side. 20% is usual. Among the Democrats, the most liberal candidates won, almost across the board.
People who had not voted since optical scan replaced the old lever machines did ask about a paper trail, and we poll workers were glad to assure them that even though Diebold made the machines, this model uses hand marked paper ballots which are preserved in locked boxes for recount in case of any suspicion of irregularites.