Election Tampering
This is what I have found out. Greg Palast, an award winning journalist (follow the links) who may be best known for his investigations into Florida’s 2000 election results is saying that there is significant evidence of tampering in among other places, Ohio, and he believes that Kerry actually won that state.
The first indicator of this is that the exit polls suggest a clear Kerry victory. Exit polls have historically been accurate in the US, and that is because they aren’t guess work, they reflect what people say they actually did. Even in 2000, when based on exit polls ABC called Florida for Gore, they were right! Studies have since conclusively shown that a full recount in that state would have given it to Gore. That full recount, opposed by Katherine Harris and the Republican Party was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, but in an unprecedented intrusion by the US Supreme Court was stopped. That was the mechanism by which the Supreme Court gave the presidency to Bush.
In searching the internet exit polls, however, I found some other interesting info. In Venezuela, where the election on whether to recall Chaves was monitored by the Carter Center, the exit polls were also showing that Chaves lost. The Carter Center called those exit polls insignificant, because they can “often be biased.” Whereas that may be true there, in the US, they have always been accurate. But there was another reason the Carter Center certified that election: they had electronic voting machines that printed out a card with your choice after you voted, which the voters then dropped into a box. The boxes were sampled and found to be consistent with the results on the machines. There are critics that say more of the paper trail should have been verified, but at least they had a paper trail.
Why don't we have that paper trail? Because the makers of our machines, Republican supporters, and the Republicans that run the states that bought and used those machines didn’t want a paper trail. What else didn’t they want?
Exit polling.
The commissioner of voting in Ohio, a Republican, fought in the courts to ban exit polling. His lame reasoning was that if the results were published early, it could affect turnout and the election. The courts allowed exit polling, and it does what the Republicans were actually afraid of. It calls into question the vote count.
But the electronic machines are not the only problem. In Ohio's poorer (and blacker) communities the punch card ballots that were at the center of the controversy in Florida in 2000 are still used. These ballots and the machines that count them invariably produce a percentage of what they call “spoiled ballots”. These are ballots with hanging chads, or such, which cannot be counted by the machines. The issue over recounting these in the Florida election was really an issue over counting them in the first place. These are ballots that can be visually inspected and clearly determined to be for one candidate or another. Neither in Florida, nor in Ohio in 2004 were they counted at all.
And because they tend to be in poor, black communities, these “spoiled” votes, it is reasonably estimated, would go 90% to the democratic candidate.
There were also apparently issues in New Mexico where significant numbers of ballots were cast in Native American communities with no choice for President (??), and a precinct in a democratic county in Ohio that registered 25 million negative votes.
And that’s not even getting into the voter suppression techniques used before election day, discarded voter registration applications, flyers that incorrectly intimidated voters with threats (if they had parking tickets, if they – or any member of their family – was convicted of a felony), calls to misinform new voters about where their polling station was,etc…
At this point, the electronic results cannot be verified either way, but that should not be used as an argument to accept them. Any election results that cannot be verified should not be relied upon to determinate who should be put in office. Bush can’t verify the results any more than Kerry can. Well, except for the evidence of tampering in our favor.
Illegitimate then, illegitimate now, George W. Bush is the worst president never to have been elected.
Rise up people. Write letters. Ask the mainstream media why they won’t report on this. Write Republican delegates for Bush and ask them to recognize this travesty of democracy by changing their vote (then we can say the electoral college system worked after all). Write your congressmen/women and ask them for a full investigation, to bring to light the truth. Write Kerry and Edwards and ask them, despite conceding, to devote their efforts to the truth.
As long as they are stealing elections, we will never regain the power to fix this problem. The fight is now. This has to come out.
Comments (10)
Not to mention that one of the polling stations (I cant remember what state, but I saw it on CNN) was closed for two hours because someone had spilled salt and it was "mistaken" for anthrax. Yes, because Anthrax and Table Salt are so very similar.
Also, tires were slashed in vehicles used to transport poorer or rural voters to the polls when they would not otherwise be able to make it in to vote.
Gah! We need to do something...
This is great. Thanks for the links!
what about the ballot machines in pennsylvania that had all of those votes for kerry on the machines BEFORE the polls even opened? i'd say both sides were trying to get an underhanded piece of the pie. also, the exit polls only asked big cities, not suburban or rural areas, and weighted them 60% women and 40% men. i just think the exit polls were done poorly, whatever the result. not to mention the media has such a liberal agenda.
no, i didnt vote for bush and i'm not a republican, but i dont think that the republican side was the ONLY side to do acts of voter supression. maybe since i didnt vote for either i can see the double standard used by both sides, and i think the whole argument is simply pouting about the outcome of the election. boo hoo. it's only four years.
lovesaidgirl - remember what Dante said.
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
Don't worry. Hey, I don't believe in hell, I'm just saying.
But look, I'm arguing for a fair election and for doing everything we can to make sure that we had one.
There's a lot of misinformation out there, and so whether or not your facts are credible might depend on the source. Feel free to share it.
Bottom line is I would come down on democrats as well.
But who has been arguing for paper trails and verifiable results? Who has been arguing for exit polling? The Democrats. Who has been fighting these things. The Republicans.
It's the democrats that have been advocating fair methods, and the Republicans that have been fighting them.
Also, not for nothing, but the media that you so incorrectly call liberal isn't reporting any of this stuff I'm talking about. That's one of the problems.
This shows up how backward our great nation still is, in many respects. In Australia they use the McDonald's model of voting: all voting machines, processes, etc are the same in any precinct you walk into anywhere in the country. That's Australia, not exactly a superpower. Isn't ensuring accuracy in the process worth the expense? I simply can't understand why things like chads and antiquated punch cards are still tolerated. And I agree, electronic devices without a paper trail are just as bad. ANYTHING that provides ample opportunity for fraud on any side is bad...yet, we're forced to grin and swallow it, here in the "greastest nation on earth." The Boss Tweed mentality still plays a big hand in this country and that's a hard pill to take for anyone that wants to think good intentions are running the show.
I am no longer proud to be an American.
I just found that article a few minutes ago. Blech.
At least we can all agree on something.
i keep wishing when i go to sleep i will wake up to wolf blitzer breaking election fraud results and announcing kerry won ohio..it was all a bad dream..
Every nation is corrupt, and I think America is at the top of that list.
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