Don't Back Down

It is hard to speak the truth when grave consequence flows from it. But it is wrong to respect the official reports of the recent national election. The only reliable data, exit-poll results, indicate that George Bush did not win. There are no other creditable data.

Digital voting machines are not locked boxes. They are highly flexible processors obedient to everyone in position to deliver data or instructions. They do not preclude error. They do not preclude tampering. They do preclude verification, by eliminating traces of inputs. So how would we know whether to credit the results? The one reliable calibration is the exit poll. If the official result varies far from the exit poll, then the new system has failed to deliver an honest, accurate count.

This is a stark and simple matter. We must protect it, and ourselves, from the inevitable cloud of cacaphony deployed to distract attention away from the central issue. In this, it is most important that we not offer up any theories about what actually did happen. We don't know. We only know that the offical story is clearly and materially false.