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CODE RED: Computerized Elections and The War on American Democracy: Election 2020 Edition Kindle Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

CODE RED is about what has happened to American elections, American politics, and America since computers took over the vote counting at the turn of this century.Its subtitle reflects our grave plight and this new, expanded ELECTION 2020 EDITION brings the story up to date, including how we got to the Age of Trump, what COVID means for our hopes to heal our broken democracy, and what we need to do NOW.

There are many books explaining how we got here: the Clinton campaign this, the economy that, the white suburban voters without college the other thing... As varied as they may be, what all these accounts have in common is the assumption that, one way or another, we VOTED our way here. That is, Americans collectively cast the billions of ballots that, over the past half-dozen or so elections, added up to where we are now. As if we all got behind the wheel of the national car and somehow steered it over the cliff. That is not the account offered by CODE RED.

CODE RED challenges the fundamental assumption that we voted our way over the cliff. It instead explores the possibility that, since the dawn of the computerized elections era--with votes counted in the partisan, proprietary, pitch-dark of cyberspace--the national car has behaved more like a self-driving car, programmer unknown.It examines those elections and the veer in American politics, culminating in the Age of Trump, that they have produced—reaching conclusions about who or what has been driving the car that are both more chilling (it’s not us) and more encouraging (it’s not us) than anything else you are likely to read.

Most important, it’s a book to read if you’re asking how we can re-take the wheel. Because, while it may be of some comfort to realize that we did not vote our way to this terrible place, the correlate is that there is serious and urgent work to be done if we are to be able to vote our way out of it.

“CODE RED is unique, easy-to-understand, and vastly important.” - Andrew Kreig, Justice Integrity Project

"CODE RED is a modern-day call to action for all Americans concerned about the integrity of our voting process." - Ion Sancho, Leon County (FL) Supervisor of Elections 1989 - 2016

“As a professional statistician, I found CODE RED’s data, analysis, and conclusions compelling.” - Dr. Elizabeth Clarkson; Chief Statistician, National Inst. For Aviation Research

"CODE RED is both a prescient history and a clarion call to fix the way we vote before government by the people is a fading memory." - Sue Halpern; Staff Writer, The New Yorker“

Simon’s research is thorough and his case is more than compelling … He has provided an important public service.” - John Zogby, The Zogby Poll

Other democracies have moved away from computerized vote tabulation but America continues to entrust its elections to privatized and concealed vote counting despite mounting evidence that its vulnerabilities to manipulation are being exploited, with profound political consequences. CODE RED shows how America came to embrace such a system and why we have been so resistant to any serious reconsideration of its safety. We examine the role of election administrators, politicians, and the media in stifling investigation of suspect American elections and the corruptible system that has produced them.

Like the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, CODE RED sets a Doomsday Clock. The good news is that it’s not quite midnight. We can turn this country around--COVID-19 notwithstanding--but only if we first restore public, observable vote counting to our elections. It is a simple thing, but until we do it we will continue putting everything we value at risk.

CODE RED combines analysis and advocacy and concludes with this call to action: "We need only to break a spell that has been cast on us--a spell of convenience, passivity, helplessness. We need only remember that democracy is not something that we watch, it is something that we do."

CODE RED: Read it and Act!

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A spirited, data-driven argument that our computerized voting system is frighteningly vulnerable to corruption.

About the Author

Dr. Simon's expertise in polling and statistical analysis derives from his former employment as a political survey research analyst in Washington, DC. He has also authored, both individually and in collaboration, numerous papers related to various aspects of election integrity. He has been active in election integrity efforts since 2001, appearing in several election integrity-related films and as an interviewee on several dozen live programs.

Dr. Simon is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law. He is admitted to the Bar of Massachusetts and holds membership in the legal honor society Order of the Coif.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B087L8PWZP
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CRPublishing; 7th edition (April 22, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 22, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3071 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 505 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 61 ratings

About the author

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Jonathan Simon
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Jonathan Simon, author of CODE RED: Computerized Election Theft And The New American Century, is a co-founder and currently Executive Director of Election Defense Alliance (www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org), a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 to restore observable vote counting and electoral integrity as the foundation of American democracy.

Dr. Simon's expertise in polling and statistical analysis derives from his former employment as a political survey research analyst in Washington, DC. He has also authored, both individually and in collaboration, numerous papers related to various aspects of election integrity. He has been active in election integrity efforts since 2001, appearing in several election integrity-related films, as an interviewee on several dozen live programs, and tweeting @JonathanSimon14.

Dr. Simon is a graduate of Harvard College ('78), New York University School of Law ('86), and New York Chiropractic College ('90). He is admitted to the Bar of Massachusetts, holds membership in the legal honor society Order of the Coif, and since 1993 has directed an interdisciplinary healthcare facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
61 global ratings
Crucial, well-written information for voters in the United States
5 Stars
Crucial, well-written information for voters in the United States
I've read several books on election integrity, about the various problems with the voting systems in the United States. Of all those books, Jonathan Simon's is my favorite. That's because he's the one to most hammer home the point that ultimately we need and deserve the underlying evidence of elections: for honest, transparent elections, we need fully public counts of hand-marked paper ballots. Not a faith-based system. Plus, Simon goes beyond describing the problem to prescribing multiple possible solutions. These include "opscan parties," recounts requested by election victors, and more. The accompanying photo shows some of Simon's sentences I highlighted in my copy. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2016
Modern technology has presented us with many a Faustian Bargain in
which we are offered great convenience...but at a cost. We have
become accustomed to giving away privacy and autonomy over and over
again. Technology enchants us. But here is where the price is never
ever worth it: in the process we use to elect our government
representatives. Our only non-violent power as citizens over our
government's actions is, after all, our vote. If the power to put them
into office as well as to remove them when we are dissatisfied is
taken, then what is the incentive for government to pay any attention
to us? We then become virtually helpless.

Voting is different from any other computer transaction that we engage
in. It is incomplete, as we can never follow it as we do with say a
bank deposit. Because of that incomplete nature of casting a vote,
total and complete transparency in the count become essential. Trust,
hope and faith just will not do. What is at stake here is just about
all the money and all the power in the world, and with such
temptation, we may expect vulnerabilities in the system to be
exploited. The only workable election system must be cheat proof.
Jonathan Simon shows how to make it that way in a simpler, cheaper way
than you can imagine.

In this marvelous book, Jonathan Simon points to a way to fix what
remains of our Democracy. Democracy starts with and absolutely
depends on an open and honest system for voting.

Once you take the time to read this eminently readable book, you may
well find that your assessment of our current political system has
changed. Now it becomes clear that right here is where remedy
starts. The system in place used to count our votes can either
sustain democracy, ....or kill it.
13 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2020
Read this book.
Ever wonder why the U.S. is the only wealthy developed nation without universal healthcare? Why cut Veterans' benefits? The cutting of SNAP is an example of hurting military families, as about 23,000 rely on SNAP for food security.
Why is the federal minimum wage leaving people below the poverty line? Why is the GOP refusing to lift or remove the payroll Medicare/SS/Medicaid cap?
It is not because people are stupid or single issue voters. The answer is simple. Elections are a rigged game. Not all, but enough to keep a certain party in power. OK, I'll say it, the Republicans. The voter suppression specialists. The gerrymandering masters. The Riggers.
Seriously, please read this book. There are only a few companies that supply voting machines, e-poll books, and vote tabulators. This book explains how it all works. How elections are rigged, and why there are not at least twenty or more people in prison for manipulating our election outcomes. Here's an interesting answer - the developers and vendors of the electronic voting machines have made it illegal for anyone to investigate the machines. They have created a feature that the book's author coined, 'Permission to Cheat', and many now have your vote printed as a Bar Code that humans cannot read. What do you think of voting machine developers and vendors that don't want you to see who you voted for, and who install an ability to cheat in their program? There is only one reason to do that.
Now you know why Georgia just spent millions on new voting machines going against the voters and election specialists.
The best part of this book is If you read it you will be told how to overcome rigging. There's a great story in it. And hopefully, you will be motivated to make a big dramatic scene about the fact that we have been cheated out of the winning candidates being those committed to working for us, for the people, NOT the big corporations and super wealthy who only want one thing - to not be taxed at all on their billions of dollars.
I do hope you read this upsetting, maddening, depressing, yet energizing book, so we can start working on smashing this corrupt system and get back to honest, free, and safe elections. Even the Republicans will thank you. Soliciting bribes all the time and trying to deliver on the payoff has to be exhausting.
13 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2014
It took me a whole day after the election travesty of November 2014 to realize what happened. Then I immediately looked online and found Jonathan Simon's superb book. His writing on the subject is crystal clear, and it confirms everything we suspected and dreaded about anomalous vote outcomes. I was active on this issue in 2004, but we got used to swamping the election cheats with Democratic turnout. Meanwhile our fellow Dems ignored us, and the media remained in denial. But now America and the world itself are in danger from the corrupt incompetents that have supposedly been "elected." Wake up, Democrats and right-thinking people! We were not stupid enough to elect these throwbacks and place them in power. We must restore vote counting, exit polling, and election transparency. Recommend this book to all your trustworthy friends.
Remember, right-wingers don't hesitate to use every dirty trick to distort elections--dark money, purging voter rolls, costly and restrictive ID requirements, and gerrymandering district boundaries. Since they own and control the voting machine companies, and do so with secret proprietary software, would they really hesitate to distort the results? This book shows conclusively that it has been done.
22 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2016
A must-read for EI (election integrity) activists and all others interested in what we are "griping" about, and if they are not convinced by Simon's compelling narrative, I will be very surprised. Simon has updated his commendable 2014 edition of "Code Red" with footnotes contextualizing previous events through the lens of what has happened since! There are so many important milestones the media have totally ignored. It is an up-to-date history of not only what happened but why, in expert detail accessible to all interested readers. A gem that must survive all the corruption and explain it to posterity and garner support in the present. Accessible and articulate as well as witty and engaging. See my review of the 2014 edition at [...]
17 people found this helpful
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