 |
Add to My Group
2
2
1
View Ratings |
Rate It
Can the GOP Steal The Election Again? You Betcha!
By Ernest Partridge (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)
Publicizing the Electoral Integrity Issue
The looming probability of another stolen election must be made vivid in the public consciousness. To date, the corporate media has refused to investigate and report election fraud, and the Democratic Party, amazingly, has behaved as if it either doesn't know or doesn't care that it has been robbed of election victories time and again. All this, despite the fact that electoral irregularities have been staring us in the face: the "butterfly ballots" and "holocaust survivors for Buchanan" in Palm Beach, Florida in 2000, the "lost" 16,000 democratic votes in the 2006 Florida 13th District Congressional election, the Diebold President's "visit" to Atlanta just prior to the 2002 election that cost the highly favored Max Cleland his Senate Seat, the destroyed and "lost" evidence in the 2004 Ohio election, and much, much, more.
In the face of such irregularities, and despite the media embargo, much of the public is suspicious of the electoral process. A September, 2006, Zogby poll disclosed that less than half of the American public was "very confident," and about a third "not at all confident," that George Bush won the 2004 election "fair and square." This suspicion must now be amplified and transformed into a demand that the next election be "fair and square."
Validating the Vote
Independent exit polls must be employed in battleground states that use paperless "direct recording electronic" (DRE) voting machines. In these states, the Attorneys General and the Secretaries of State must secure evidence such as computer hard drives, ballots, registration rolls, etc. and make it abundantly clear that destruction or hiding of such evidence will be prosecuted, as will any vote rigging that might be disclosed by such evidence. (In Ohio, the unexplained and illegal destruction of the 2004 voting records of 55 of the 88 counties, and the disappearance of crucial computer hard drives, have gone unpunished. This lost evidence alone might have proved the theft of the Ohio electoral votes, and with them the theft of the national election).
There are other means of exposing and deterring election fraud which, unfortunately, are unlikely to be employed this close to the election. . In randomly selected precincts a few DRE machines might be removed and examined for accuracy, or voters might be asked to vote both on the DRE machines and on paper ballots with the totals subsequently compared. Independent and parallel means of totaling ("compiling") and transmitting election returns would uncover illegal alterations of the vote.
Absent these effective modes of validation, it is essential that a massive number of Democratic poll workers and poll watchers (equipped with video cameras) be on hand on election day.
The Stakes
John McCain has repeatedly betrayed an inadequate and confused knowledge of foreign affairs, as he refers to non-existent countries and non-existent borders, confuses Shias and Sunnis, and fails to recognize leaders of allied nations. His "economic policy" consists of recitations of discredited slogans.
Given John McCain's age and physical condition, it is likely that if the Republican team wins in November, Sarah Palin will one day become the President of the United States, either during or following McCain's term of office. As Palin proves almost every time she opens her mouth, no candidate in U.S. history has been less qualified for that office. Still worse, her repertory of bizarre religious beliefs is downright frightening. Beliefs in witchcraft, "Young Earth Creationism," the "end of days," a denial of anthropogenic climate change, absolute prohibition of abortion and stem-cell research all of these are profoundly discordant with the problems faced by a great power in the twenty-first century.
A Political Realignment
The traditional Republican power base of financiers, business people, corporate managers, etc., has seen control of their party slip into the hands of religious zealots and market dogmatists. The religious fundamentalists recruited by the Republicans to supply the votes required for political clout have taken over the party to the point of installing one of their own as the Vice Presidential candidate.
As a result, many influential conservative Republicans have declared outright that they can not align themselves with the religious right, and with Sarah Palin in particular. Among these apostates are George Will, David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer, Kathleen Parker and David Frum,.
No doubt, there are many more, some of whom will be heard in these final four weeks before the election. Many of these individuals are caught in a difficult dilemma, as they realize that in spite of what might be good for their party, the election of McCain and Palin, might not be good for the nation, its economy, and its international reputation. Those who place their loyalty to their country above their loyalty to their party may soon step forward and be heard: while the Republican Party, they might say, can survive defeat in November, the United States might not survive a McCain, and, eventually, a Palin presidency.
Summing Up
http://www.crisispapers.org
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Dan Balz
$32.95
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Thorndike Press
by Michael Nelson
$29.95
Lowest New Price $18.00
Number of pages: 204
Publisher: CQ Press
by James W. Ceaser
$24.95
Lowest New Price $15.00
Number of pages: 234
Publisher: Rowman
by John A Clark
$15.95
Lowest New Price $11.49
Number of pages: 28
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
| 14 comments |
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) 
Valuable (1) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
