OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: "Fooled Again" Series: Exclusive Interview with "Diebold Whistleblower" Steve Heller

Confusion was everywhere. Rumors about whether or not you needed ID to vote, and what kind of ID was acceptable. Rumors that you would be arrested if you had outstanding parking tickets or outstanding child support payments and tried to vote.

Two of the precincts had polling places in the same location, a high school gymnasium, without any clear signs identifying which side of the room was which precinct. Some people had waited in one line for hours only to be told, "oh you're in the wrong precinct, you need to be in that other line." Understandably, many people left in frustration.

All of this is described and documented in Miller's book Fooled Again, and having seen it with my own eyes, reading his book last week reminded me how terrible it was, how intensely distressing it was to see this being done to our democracy.

What I saw was, quite simply, Jim Crow. It made me feel physically ill. I wanted to cry at what I saw being done in my country. In the 60s in elementary school they taught me that Jim Crow was dead. Bullshit. Jim Crow is alive and well and under the control of the Republican Party. There is a difference between the old Jim Crow and the new version - Jim Crow used to be: "Let's keep the 'N-words' from voting." Now it's "Let's keep the Democrats from voting." Everyone knew the 2004 election would be very close, so disenfranchising a small percentage of Democratic voters could completely swing the outcome of the election.

Of course impoverished people have very little political power. It's a lot easier to disenfranchise poor inner-city African-American Democrats than it is to disenfranchise Caucasian middle class Democrats. That's why they targeted black voters; historically African Americans tend to vote Democratic.

Fooled Again also goes into details regarding the exit polls in Ohio. I was there to witness that, too. All day long the exit polls had been showing Kerry in the lead by two to three percent. And Between 6:00 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. the exit polls completely flipped. Within less than 45 minutes, suddenly Bush was in the lead. Allegedly. But Mr. Miller's book shows that to be a lie. Bush didn't win in Ohio in 2004 any more than he won in Florida in 2000.

The fact is, the man serving his second term as president has yet to be elected! It's terrible, and it makes me so mad! I just can't understand why more Americans aren't outraged by this.

In the 70's there would have been people in the streets over this kind of thing. Maybe too many of us have just become numb under the constant deluge.

Q. So what's the answer to these problems?

Sometimes I feel like I don't know what the answer is.

But really, I do know the answer.

It's us.

I have always believed that American soldiers have a duty to defend our nation, but American citizens have a duty to defend our democracy.

We all need to get busy and fulfill our duties as citizens. And just about the best place to start is with the Election Integrity (EI) movement.

We ALL need to get busy in the EI movement. The very existence of our republic depends on it.

For example, who owns our elections?

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