( – promoted by buhdydharma )
On the day before leaving for Netroots Nation, I voted for Jim Martin for U.S. Senate in the July 15 General Primary Election here in Georgia.
At the polling place I was the only voter but there were a dozen or so poll workers. After voting (on one of those damned Diebold machines) I asked if I’d get a receipt. In lieu of one I was given a cute little sticker with a graphic of a Georgia Peach with ‘I’m a Georgia Voter’ printed on it. I laughed and said that makes me feel better…there were some chuckles.
I said I wanted a receipt for my vote. This is what they gave me.
So I asked, “How do we know that our votes are being accurately counted?” There were some uncomfortable looks but no one said anything. I said, “After the last two presidential elections ya have to wonder.” To my surprise there were quite a few murmurs of agreement.
Someone said, “Yeah, you do have to wonder.” This occurred deep in Newt Gingrich country where I am a rare democrat. I’m still a little amazed.
Maybe reality is starting to sink in.
Will the Republicans try to steal the upcoming presidential election?
You bet your ass they will.
There is one thing we should know with complete certainty – the Republicans will definitely try to steal this election. It’s how they play the game, it’s what they’re good at, they’ve gotten away with it twice – they don’t know any better. The only real questions are: have we found the courage to stand up to them, and can we stop them?
We have not shown that we are capable of standing up to them. Just look at Pelosi and Reid, and all the other paper tigers we have up on Capital hill just capitulating their little asses off. Doesn’t exactly inspire one with confidence.
Furthermore, we have not done our due diligence in assuring the integrity of our electoral system and the mechanisms the Republicans used to steal 2000 and 2004 remain firmly in place in many parts of the country.
Will GOP Election Theft Machine Do It Again in 2008?
With record low approval ratings for the Bush/Cheney regime and the albatross of an unpopular war hanging from the GOP’s neck, do you think that a Democratic presidential candidate will win the White House, get us out of Iraq, and end our long national nightmare?
Think again – the mighty election theft machine Karl Rove used to steal the US presidency in 2000 and 2004 may be under attack, but it is still in place for the upcoming 2008 election.
Please take a moment to watch this critically important video if you haven’t already seen it:
Princeton University Exposes Diebold Flaws
More information can be found at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University.
From their AccuVote-TS Report FAQ:
Why did you publish all of this information about security attacks? Aren’t you just teaching the bad guys how to cheat?
We could not in good conscience withhold this information from citizens and public officials. People need to know that there is a serious problem. Details help people understand the problem and evaluate the credibility of our conclusions. They also help our colleagues in the research community understand the implications of voting machine design and evaluate new ideas.
The vendors have been claiming their systems are secure, and elections are now depending on these claims. Our report points out that the vendors have significant problems and helps create momentum toward solving those problems. Citizens paid for these systems and deserve to know what they got for their money.
Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University
People need to know that there is a serious problem. Indeed.
Proof of voter fraud in the USA – from the horse’s mouth
“Exit polls should not be significantly different from the vote,” says Clinton Curtis, expert voting machine programmer, in the above video.
That raises red flags about the 2004 Presidential election.
To this serious problem of actual vote theft, add all their other favorite means of gaming the system and scamming the people and it spells big trouble:
Voter Disinformation Campaigns
* this is but a partial list
You have to hand it the Republicans though. They’re clever…in an evil-genius sort of way. They have even turned the ‘voter fraud’ thing on us. (They love to accuse others of that which they are themselves so blatantly guilty – it’s semi-brilliant political misdirection and classic Rovian strategery.)
Karl Rove’s big election-fraud hoax
Republican manipulation of the polls long predates the U.S. attorneys plot — and the U.S. voting system needs an overhaul.
(snip)
At least part of the U.S. attorneys plot seems to derive from the “election fraud” hoax that Republicans are trying to perpetrate in order to gain control of the country’s voter lists. So nailing this inept crew of thugs won’t be good enough. We need laws protecting the right to vote from the kind of phony, partisan prosecutors that Gonzales, Rove and Co. were trying to put in place, and from the punitive, restrictive voter-ID laws that are a prominent part of the far-right political agenda.
When I first started writing about Republican election theft at dailykos over two years ago, I was met with a fierce wall of resistance from those kossacks who felt I was undermining confidence in our electoral system. But I wasn’t trying to undermine anyone’s confidence so much as I was asking is it wise to be confident in a system so deeply flawed and so obviously compromised? I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
I hope we’ve all learned by now.
Please hear this…
Watch for the steal.
Some essential links:
Further Reading:
Election Fraud and Tyranny: Part 1
The Strange Death of American Democracy: Endgame in Ohio
Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not ‘Take the Fall’ for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney
48 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
who are they going to blame this time?
the mythical voter, the real Americans, the heart land folks, the so called middle, the perpetual 50 49? split we always are faced with. This primary was a good example with the does Obama have a white ignorant voter problem? and all the pandering to both side does not help either. The political fictions continue on both sides. Seems it would be harder to steal with a landslide for the Democrats but Obama seems hell bent on keeping this election fought within these mythical lines. The one that says to most Coke or Pepsi. Why did the Democrats in the Senate all leave the floor after the 2000, coup when the disenfranchised voters from Florida tried to plead their case?
Here we are – nearly 3 months away from our next federal election – and still no real changes out of the 110th Congress on this issue.
That’s great!
You even get to take it home and fill in your own name later? Cool!
… 2004 ballots in Ohio …
… destroyed the ballots. “By mistake”.
Oops.
You are a rebel, I surmise.
You are a revolutionary.
Are you a leader?
Can you create a march? Just a question.
Or do you prefer political approaches to problems?
because you have obvious skills.
Some of those here also have obvious and maybe-not-so-obvious skills.
Maybe altogether those here can make a difference in addition to being a community.
Mao said the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
I don’t think the Republicans are going to be able to do much election fraud this time around.
I think the Republicans are currently out of favor with the dominant clique in the ruling class. My guess is that the Republicans have been told that if they try to steal the election again the propaganda organs will turn on them.
Just FYI, some major league political operatives for the Republicans don’t think McCain can win–I heard it from their own mouths when I was working a tech job in the K Street area recently. They are concentrating on working issues for corporate clients rather than candidates–I don’t think they see a Dem sweep as much of a big deal. At least that was the small slice I saw.
agreed 100%. They will try for the steal – after all, they haven’t a prayer without it and it worked so well before…
The election poll graphic is really interesting, and a surprise! I hadn’t realized the major news stations even conducted them! In 2000, mysteriously, they decided not to because the results were “unreliable”. Then in 2004 I remember searching for the results and couldn’t find them anywhere.
What to do? Well some places have lobbied to return to paper ballots, but in others the investment in the Diebold machines was very great, so they’re determined to use them, damn the scientific mumbo jumbo!
A while back I wrote a letter to the Carter foundation about international monitoring of key swing states on election day, but received a standard thank you back. Am thinking it might be the right time to start a petition about this (maybe DD is the place to start), and then send that.
BTW thanks for calling VC. I’ll bet she was surprised!
I was given the option of a touch-screen or a paper ballot to be scanned. Chose the scanner: at least then there’s a paper trail (I also got the tab, with #, from the bottom of the ballot). Probably not everyone in PA has that option; was glad to find it locally.
What I’m wondering is: Doesn’t the U.N. have a group that checks to make sure election results are fair? Could we appeal to them to monitor our election? Anybody know? It might be worth a try….
I just checked over some of the comments to your diary at DKOS and I saw very few of the “conspiracy theory” comments that accompanied election diaries after 2004. I think times have changed and more people are connecting the dots a little bit even over there.