I've been saying for some time that I think that the
the greatest crime against democracy is not the privatization
our prisons although that's pretty bad it's not the privatization of seventy
percent of our intelligence that's pretty bad
it's at the privatization love so much of our military perhaps
is certainly well over 50 percent our military functions that's pretty bad
is the privatization of what thomas paine referred to as the beating heart
of democracy
our boat and have all the journalists
in all the world who have been on this case
more than any other who would walk into this bar
art but Brad Friedman over publisher the brat blog
were blog bullet Brad blog dot com had to order the Brad blog's
and at Brad Friedman Brad welcome back to the program
hey Tom great to be here by the way I'm not at Brad Friedman so we gonna punish
whoever that might be on the twitters
told by by sending them he tweets as I usually get okay so it's at Bob read
blog
that's correct that's correct okay great are
to aid tell us what is the current state
up the information that we have about the difference
between the exit polls that were doing in
and the actual results that are being recorded on our electronic voting
machines we know that these numbers
um before electronic voting machines the exit polls
were quite accurate in predicting the outcome of elections that with the
advent
electronic actually what you go through that rather than me
well is very yeah I mean concern really
began to focus on the exit polls versus the election results back in 2004 when
you had
all of the state's the swing states that were supposed to go for John Kerry
ended up going to George W Bush and of course the time they said
it was the it was the exit polls that were wrong it wasn't the actual results
they had no real evidence for that in fact they had bad events that they tried
to present
and then what you've seen over the years is
fewer and fewer exit polls and less access
to the data in those exit polls they're really keeping them
the secret from the public to use them when they want to use them for the
purposes they want to use them but they don't let fear
but you know when you talk to in your introduction there
about the privatization up the voting system itself
that's really at so hard here and I would go
so far said not just a privatization but with it secret is Asian
if you will up our voting system and
the inability for voters to actually
oversee the result and that's exactly what we're coming crashing
up against I'm afraid I in virginia today the day after yesterday's election
there
particularly now in this virginia is
Attorney General's race so what is the spread what is the difference between
what the exit polls said happen in Virginia and what the electronic voting
machines that happen in Virginia
actually we don't know we don't know yet and we probably won't know
the difference between the exit polls and the actual
election results because they don't release that raw data is very selective
data
that they now release you heard you know young voters
a a you know it but turned out in a higher percentage than know they did
four years ago
that's already for the 2004 election so they routinely release that Rod
data did you know you'd you'd be able to get a ride demi was that raw data that
leaked out on election night on 2004 that everybody pointed to and and you
know and to look
this is how we know State John Kerry likely won the state's all but
exit polls are not perfect don't get me wrong they are
better than the pre-election polls but because the other asking people when
they walk out other
out at the polls how did you vote by arm
you know so but they're not perfect but when you see in state after state after
state
all of them quote-unquote failing in one direction
it certainly gonna raise eyebrows but it also underscores Tom
the need to oversee our own
result so that we don't have to guess were the results right where the exit
polls right
and you know I mention Virginia we're looking at a Attorney General's race
there this is the only one that the republicans
maybe pull out we'll see 2.2
million votes cast about 300 votes last I checked separated the republicans and
the democrats
almost certain to have I recount or just a quote unquote recount because most up
the state of Virginia cast a ballot on one hundred percent
on verifiable touch-screen voting systems there's nothing to recount
Tom it's been privatized you can't look at the machines
but even if you could the there's no way to know that any single vote cast on one
of those machines
actually reflects the intent up the voters
so I mean it's going to be a good
really a pretender recount in the state of Virginia the voters will never know
who really wanted who really lost that race a virgin alone we have that same
problem
all over the country now Brad I'm I'm guessing you probably had an experience
similar to this
I have sat down with
mmm fairly heavy hitters in the democratic party
choice a in and said
you guys should do something about this i mean you know this
to and I'm not trying to be paranoid here but
you're just in principle just the principal
that the vote has been privatized is wrong we should
make the vote once again party the Commons I mean I've my mom was one of
those
a election people were issue mail went down as she checked your name into the
book in
they would stay up until the wee hours that I counting kinda hot something they
were just that's what they did
and it was just you know it was the it that the the the people in the
neighborhood did it they volunteer people volunteered
and they were overseen by you know share republican over one shoulder democrat
over the other
issues counting ballots arm we no longer do that we no longer has been
and the response I get from the democratic party officials and from
elected Democrats
is we don't want to talk about that as if people don't trust the vote
they won't show up to vote now republicans have made
an article of faith about not trusting the vote
all for republican lost its because there were 10,000 latinos illegal
illegal aliens were bused in an illegally voted nay corn did alright
I mean that the republicans made this article of faith and have gotten laws
passed in
in you know double-digit States
to suppress the vote as a consequence of it they actually turned
you know dalhin the vote into their favor
yeah yate you know is there anybody who's talking about this there was
you know point I am bernie sanders people call the show and bernie's on
Friday and you will always say
we need to scrap the machines go back to paper but I don't know anybody else
who's really doing this is an issue to you
I as far as elected officials yet no
you know they are concerned or they say they're concerned about things like
lines things like voter suppression and you know rightfully so they should be
concerned about it and it's interesting
by the way that republicans actually turned the idea I love
lacked up confidence in voting in two reasons
to Institute these laws they created this lack of confidence by
set by pretending that people were illegally voting at the polls
and then the supreme court said well you know what people are afraid the
illegal people are voting at the also it's okay to institute these laws
even without evidence that they're doing so so the republicans
used this lack of trust that they made up out of whole cloth to get the laws
they needed past
while the democrats you're right it's really prove first
when they say we don't want to talk about this because people won't rush to
vote and they won't show up to vote
I mean I have seen over the years as politicians continue to not talk about
this
stuffed i've seen last and last
confidant's I in the results a
in election after election you constantly hear people screaming for a
recount
a you know charging that there was problems with electronic voting systems
if you want to instill confidence in the results of Elections
I would argue let to people
oversee their own result I think that right only way to all the other thing
I'd like to know is you know there is a fifty thousand votes
voter purge in Virginia just a week or two ago
and an exit poll would show how many those people who were purged were given
placebo ballots
and a Best Buy knowledge that question isn't showing up on I so there's so much
data that we could be getting with the axe Apollo
am Brad Freeman for our listeners on KPFK in Los Angeles be sure to stay
tuned
is after our show's over brads gonna be back on on KPFK discuss this issue bread
thanks so much for being with us
but knock it down great talk with you brad has is the Thom Hartmann program
its Twitter at Bob read blog on a personal website is Brad blog dot com
Bradford
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