LAST WORD: Voting and Your ID

Elections are cutthroat times. A local candidate is being forced off the ballot while you are reading this blog because it is the week before the election.  In light of the fray, here is BeatTheChip's hard-knocks election experience at the polls. 

Here is what happened to me when I went to vote.

I voted early this election at a University campus.  Some say early voting is not a good time to vote because they focus too much on the results and some votes get thrown out.   Just know - I did vote. You may e-mail me[beatthechip@gmail.com]and perform an exit poll on who I voted for IN THE END.

Nevertheless, a poll worker was actually standing in line ahead of me.   The only way I knew he was a poll worker was when turned around and saw the mounting line behind me and then asked me for my I.D.   To which I replied knowing my facts, "There is no law in this state that demands that I show you my license."  

TRUE STATEMENT:  Most states do not have voter ID laws.  You only have to show a document (It could be a billing statement.) that shows your first and last name and an address. 

The poll worker then said, "Yes, you do!"  I reiterated that there is no law in the State of Texas that mandates that I show him my ID.  He then said, "Either that or a voter registration card."   Unfortunately, this is where I was duped.  I didn't need a voter registration card.   As indicated above... all I needed was a piece of mail substantiating my  residence.

I replied, "I don't HAVE to show you my ID, but I will oblige you."  This was an exercise in frustration.  I was asked 5 minutes later to show my ID, again, at the registration check-in : a red table to the right and a blue table to the left.  I immediately asked if there was any difference in the direction I went.   The clerk replied, "No."

Great. Onto the next hoop jumping contest. "May I see your ID?"   Annoyed, I handed the woman my California license.  She immediately flipped over the back of the license and scanned the bar code on the back.  I was really shocked when I saw this.   She then whined and said, "Ohhh... it's not coming up!"   That would have been the only benefit, in this case, to having an out of state license that wasn't recognized in their voter rolls system.

NOTE: It is intended for you to make the connection that the DMV or DPS motor vehicle database codes and records were available in voter recognition programs.  

I then replied, "It's alright. I know I wasn't purged from the voter rolls.  Would you like to enter my name so that I can vote?"  Annnd ..countershock in  3..2..1.. with raised eyebrows she flipped my license back over and then punched in my name.  Amazingly enough my name and Texas voter registration information came up.    Both attendants then squirmed in their seat and licked their lips like nervous cats.  One attendant had to resticker my name to the voter registration readout form because they weren't used to this type of computer evasion.

I just got lucky.   Had I cao-taoed to any one of these people with a Texas state ID, every action I took during my voting experience would have been recorded.

I then proceeded to the voter wheel-of-fortune where I dialed in my varied 3rd party campaign trail mix and then hit the red button.    A woman who had voted in the booth next to mine began to pace back and forth behind me saying, "Is that right?  Should I have to lose my vote because the machine didn't recognize my candidate?"    It was both distracting and disturbing.

VoteRescue.org has great advice on what I did both wrong and right when I voted and how you can preserve your vote on electronic-election day.  

May you do better than I did.

RFID chips, Licenses and The Real ID Act

BTC - It has come to our attention throughout the use and veritable abuse of our tax dollars at the the federal level, that RFIDs for every license everywhere (and in Texas)  is now a real potential.    If your State's Motor vehicle agency accepts grant funding for the Real ID, they will comply with the complete letter of the Real ID Act of 2005... down to the jot and tittle.  

What does that mean?  It means that the most sensitive keys to your conventional identity will be demanded , possibly scanned and stored in a vulnerable digital database and shared with international sources.  It also means your "license verification documents" may be stored on an RFID chip to prove you are a citizen wherever you go in the U.S.   It is either the RFID chip or the magnetic strip or the bar code on the back.   The bar code is the most secure of the three. All are covert and evil means to catalogue consumers habits.   If your ID keys are embedded in the license's RFID chip, trouble will be waiting to find you.  Anyone with a UPC reader with intent to hack the code, can get whatever is stored in your chip, including your SSN# and your mothers maiden name held on the birth certificate.

What is the point of all this again? Why would you need an internal passport verifying your citizenship? 

AH!  Yes..this is to move us closer to the North American Community,  a continental shift in both borders, monetary systems and a slam dunk for the globalized government.   Also known to Canadians as the SPP or the Secured Prosperity Partnership for the Americas.  They want one guy on top, so one person can run the few guys at the top.  It's  not a power structure we can relate to when we are paying for it.  There's still the a functional Constitution for them to overcome.

Do we obsess much? We have to.  Identity theft trends are at an all time high in organized crime rings.  The people aren't going to be cut a break.   Real ID's as currently regulated are a threat to citizen's personal security. Hence, there is the a problem reconciling public security in the name of  Homeland Security.

RFID readers will become integrated into your day to day and if someone hacks a RFID reader camera and they get your info, they get your info.  Thanks for playing ...good luck to you? 

Word from the 5-11 Campaign has brought us to a new policy for licenses requiring birth certificates.

THE LOOK-BUT-DON'T-TOUCH POLICY

The point of the look but don't touch policy is to provide the adequate qualifying documents to quell the demands for both citizenship and identity documents, but to not surrender your documents to an insecure database.  This is to keep copies of your most sensitive information from also being embedded into the now infamous Radio Frequency ID chip (RFID).    This information will be broadcasted wherever it can be found and sussed out by organized crime rings to steal identities by either hacking into RFID readers on street corners or just planting criminals with UPC readers in strategic places where that information later becomes a source of both unique information and revenue.

How the policy works is when a license administrator asks you for a birth certificate or Social Security card or other relevant proof of national citizenship, you show them your documents with the caveat that the information not be entered into an database, scanned, copied or recorded for recollection.  You are present with the document as verification so they may verify it, but not record it.  So the administrator may look, but not touch the document in terms of verifying it, but not to record or to have on record.

If they contest this, ask to speak to a manager.  If the license administrator or their manager will not concede to this process, call your Congressman.  They have the right to verify your documents for accuracy, but not to retain copies for their personal sense of wellbeing, security and emotional ease or to satisfy a quota supplied from an information sales contract. Somewhere in the chain-of-command is a professional who will be reasonable and understand what you are doing.

WHATEVER YOU DO... do not allow them to walk off with your identity documents.  Unless the Real ID Act and it's heinous regulations are fully repealed you will need to be concerned. 

Don't let the sense of bureacratic entitlement cheap shot you out of your security.  Stand your ground and get your license.

WAKING UP ORWELL on 91.7FM KOOP -Austin, TX

Beat The Chip is proud to announce a radio magazine version of this blog, called Waking Up Orwell. The show will be available canned or in retrospect of being aired live on the 5-11 Campaign's website - mainly because I can upload player media and do archiving, as the technology allows.

Waking Up Orwell will air Thursdays 2:30- 3:00 PM on KOOP.org (for online listeners) CST.

The first show will feature some local DPS news and a talk with Naomi Wolf  a constitutional progressive who is exploding at the seams with content.  She is playing a key role as a supporting activist in the American Freedom Agenda- a legislative effort penned by Rep. Ron Paul.  In this episode we spend time discussing Wolf's new film directed by Avram Ludwig, inspired by her book and talk series, The End of America AND her new book Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.

 
At the end of the show we feature an unlikely compatriot in the struggle to stop Real ID, Lisa Scheps of theTransgender Education Network of Texas (formerly Transgender Advocates of Central Texas (TACT).  She is a founding member and current Board Chair of TENT was instrumental in getting Gender Identity added to the City of Austin’s Human Rights Ordinance. Not limiting her advocacy to Queer issues, she was appointed by Mayor Will Wynn to serve on The City of Austin Human Rights Commission and was recently elected as Vice Chair.  She also had a LOT to say about what is being required from persons who are pulled over whose license doesn't match what is in front of them and Real ID.

For a preview of the show please visit 511Campaign.org and click on the bottom tab that says WAKING UP ORWELL for a preview of the show.

For show or podcast ideas, please contact BeatTheChip@gmail.com .

RFID Readers Installed on WA Streets

Personal Identification Driver's License RFID Reader:

1600 Ellis St, Bellingham, WA 98225 Cross Streets

(Near the intersection of Ellis St and N State St)

FAIR WARNING

Don't Get an Enhanced Driver's License/Border Speed Pass

In the following report from The Resourceful Bear, cites both studies and physical evidence of the use and instillation of RFID license readers by the City of Bellingham, Washington.

They will follow the chip they give you.

ACLU Reports Privacy And Security Concerns For Washington's Enhanced Driver's License
SATURDAY, 25. OCTOBER 2008, 15:02:52

Christina Drummond for

The Resourceful Bear News Service

Christina Drummond reports that Researchers from the University of Washington and RSA Labs just published a paper on the privacy and security vulnerabilities of the RFID tags embedded within Washington’s Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) and the U.S. Passport Card. In addition to confirming that the EPC Gen2 RFID tags in these documents can be remotely copied (i.e., cloned), this paper uncovered a number of concerns. The ACLU of Washington has been watching the EDL’s development closely, submitting comments on the administrative rule and highlighting privacy concerns at an RFID policy roundtable. With the support of the Department of Licensing we worked to pass HB 2729, the first state law to deter RFID tracking by making it illegal to read the RFID tag on an EDL when not at a border crossing.

The Resourceful Bear News Service is reporting that Bellingham Washington has been installing personal identification, driver's license and border-crossing ID card readers on many streets since April 2008.

Apparently these devices will be used for homeland civil security identity, real-time ID identification, wireless, DMV, geo-location, GPS, biometric, facial recognition, secure credentialing, information purposes, to track the movement and whereabouts of individuals in Bellingham.

Throughtout the whole city we have something beyong REAL ID, we have total RFID ID. Here is a photo of a street corner Personal Identification Driver's License RFID Reader located at 300 York St.

Texas DPS Applies for $171.2 million in Real ID Grants

DPS Commission Hearing on Implementation Readiness for Real IDs

A BeatTheChip Exclusive

AUSTIN -- Texas Department of Public Safety License Administrator Chief Judy Brown briefed the Public Safety Commission Thursday, October 16th on DPS’s application status for $171.2 million in FEMA/DHS grants to implement recent rules and technologies Real ID compliant license standards. Chief Brown discussed the public-private business model including staffing commissioned officers in a new proposed license administrator hierarchy, amid priorities to implement the federal mandate.

Brown indicated there was significant reluctance from State Legislators and resources to move forward with financing the new licenses with State funds. If the FEMA/DHS grants are accepted in the State of Texas, proposed rulemaking would standardize new licenses to for federal purposes such as: applying for social programs, entering federal buildings, and flying on regulated aircraft by the next deadline of 2009 and state the driver’s nationality.

C. Tom Clowe Jr. , DPS Comissioner, asked Chief Brown about her rationale for employing comissioned officers over civillian clerks.

“Civillians will argue with another civllian [clerk]. They will not argue with a uniform,” said Chief Brown during her commentary for incorporating a new job title, “Civillian Manager”.

Other topics covered during the meeting included a response from DPS Chairman Allen Polunsky to those giving public input regarding license inspection checkpoints. Citizens expressed opposition during public input to random license checkpoints and a new rule requiring citizenship documentation in order to attain a drivers license. Immediately following the testimony from members of the 5-11 Campaign, Polunsky said, “There are no plans... to instill public checkpoints at this time.” He added that concerns over the checkpoints were premature.

Later in the meeting, Chairman Polunsky submitted a letter from Texas Senator Juan Hinajosa concerned about the rulemaking for license requirements and license examination checkpoints.



September 8th, 2008 the DPS sought permissions from the Attorney General in the form of an opinion request document to allow license checkpoints in the State of Texas. Checkpoints have been illegal in the state of Texas since 1994.


YOUTUBE FOOTAGE OF DPS MEETING:

Classic Oppositon to Real ID

Lest we forget, Representative Ron Paul opposes The Real ID Act of 2005.

What the Police Sate Looks Like

The U.S. military "is not a Swiss Army knife," ready to fight the Taliban one week, respond to a hurricane the next and put down a major political protest the third week, Healy said. - CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States military's Northern Command, formed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, is dedicating a combat infantry team to deal with catastrophes in the U.S., including terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Soldiers preparing for a mission coordinated by Joint Task Force North, the U.S. Northern Command unit.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry, which was first into Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003, started its controversial assignment Wednesday [October 1, 2008].

NAOMI WOLF SOUNDS THE ALARM

A DHS Checkpoint in Texas

"Is this voluntary or involuntary?" - An answer to the police.

If it is voluntary : "Am I free to go?" 

The answer is always yes.