[Lyrics]

    1776 - 2004
    Rest in Peace
    The American Democratic Experiment

    How do you know your vote's been cast?
    How do you know your vote's been counted?
    "You don't."

    "Democracy is too important to be left to the people."

    "These machines are secure and reliable.
     These machines are failsafe"

    We have machines to count the vote.

    "Anyone who talks about voter fraud
    is a Conspiracy Theorist"

    Chessmaster, make your play

    Move your Bishop down to Washington
    Queen's Knight to Florida
    King's Castle to Ohio
    Pawns forward
    Pawns forward

    "Democracy is too important to be left to the people."
    "Democracy is too important to be left to the people."

    "Now anyone who says there is some kinda voter fraud going on
     is some kinda tin-hat, nutcase, Conspiracy Theorist."

    "We have complete confidence in these machines,
     They are very reliable
     cross-checked for safety
     These direct voting machines are completely reliable.
     Totally trustworthy"

     As CEO of Diebold
     "I'm committed to helping Ohio deliver its Electoral votes
      to President Bush next year."

    Chessmaster, make your play

    Pawns forward
    Queen's Knight to Florida
    King's Castle to Ohio

    Checkmate
    Checkmate

    Chessmaster

    Move your Bishop down to Washington
    Queen's Knight to Florida
    King's Castle to Ohio
    King's Castle to Ohio

    Checkmate

    "Game Over"

Sources:
  Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

  http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/sample/photograph.cfm
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=African%20American%20History
  http://illinoisleader.com/content/img/f13072/vote2.jpg



Artist's Statement

  People have died for the right to vote.  The Patriots, the Suffragetes, Blacks and Whites
  in the Voting Rights and Civil Rights movements.  And now many Americans feel the political
  situation is so hopeless or beyond effect that they simply don't vote.

  But this year, voting participation was up.  Yet the most corrupt, most corporate-controlled,
  most environmentally destructive, most warmongering, most Constitution-hacking administration
  in our lifetimes was not defeated at the polls.  Some accept that Karl Rove's
  wedge politics and campaign of fear paid off big.  Others claim massive voter fraud.  Still others
  witnessed voter intimidation.

  But the worst part is that due to some backroom dealings, Congress passed the Help Americans Vote
  Act, and the counties were forced to implement some kind of solution before it was secure or tested.
  So Ohio and Florida, and many of the other Swing States used substandard machines for polling and counting.

  At the very least, the machines and (planned?) incompetance caused outrageously long lines (up to 7 hours)
  at polling stations, especially concentrated in minority and poor districts, in the tradition of Jim Crow.
  Republican poll monitors intimidated voters inside the polls.  Provisional ballots were recorded
  but are being thrown out by the Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell.  Mr. Blackwell served as
  Bush's campaign director in Ohio.  He has yet to recuse himself from the proceedings.

  These things alone are obvious and documented.  These facts call the election into question.

  But possibly worse, is the knowledge that many of the machines miscount.  A lot.  None of the mainstream
  candidates or media will touch this.  But if we are to believe in our Democracy, if the government is
  to have any legitimacy, the vote must be impecable.  Right now it is not.

  The Ohio Greens are getting a recount.
  Bev Harris and BlackBoxVoting.org are getting poll records via Freedom Of Information Act requests
  [please support her with donations]. Sadly, nothing can be done for Florida.  There is no paper
  trail in Florida, so we must believe the numbers spit out by machines designed a deployed by a
  Republican-owned company, one said:

  “I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year.”
    - Wally O’Dell, CEO Diebold

   Listen to my song Little Black Box about these machines.

   I have a page that documents Diebold's misdoings .
   Diebold got into hot water in California by installing code in the machines after they were certified,
   but before the Primary election.  This was illegal, and they got caught.  Instances of overcounts
   by thousands of votes were documented.  Computer analysts found that their secret, secure code base
   was neither secret, nor secure.  The counting machines themselves are hackable by anyone with access to
   the Windows machine they run on, and many of those machines were accessible by modem.

   This song expresses my outrage that though brave citizens went before us, were beaten, and even killed,
   to secure the right to vote, we simply trust the corporate media to tell us the truth about a lying
   private firm that counts our public votes, and a lying administration that splits our votes with
   messages of fear and hate.

   Please share this link with everyone you can to help stir up some outrage, so we can demand
   a full investigation of this election and fix our voting systems for future elections.


      http://LaramieCrocker.com/chessmaster.html

  Please be patient.  The web page will load, then the Flash movie will
  load in a minute or so on cable or DSL, or in about 5 minutes on dial-up.
  I think you'll find that it is worth it.

  Peace,
  Laramie Crocker

  First posted: November 16, 2004