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September 15, 2008 at 13:50:05
Promoted to Headline (H2) on 9/15/08: by Kevin Zeese Page 1 of 4 page(s) |
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Will Americans Be Able to Trust the Vote Count in 2008? And, What Can We Do to Protect the Integrity of Elections? By Kevin B. Zeese The campaigns are in full gear, the candidates are picked, TV ads are running, and election corruption is taking hold. Around the country, particularly in swing states, there are stories of efforts to undercut voter registration especially by poor and African American voters. In addition, this summer has seen story after story of the potential corruption and likely dysfunction of electronic voting machines. The combination of corruption of the voter registration system and corruption of the vote counting machinery means that 1 + 1 is not likely to equal 2 when it comes to counting the vote. The public is better informed and more fed up than ever with these election shenanigans. It is time to get informed and organized so that Americans will join together and refuse to accept another stolen election.
Voter Registration Corruption: Suppressing the Vote in Key States
It is the season of intensive voter registration drives – Virginia, for example, just ordered 200,000 voter registration forms because of shortages – and of voter suppression efforts as well. Throughout the country, particularly in battleground states, Republican voter registration challenges are moving forward aggressively.
In the last two presidential elections voter suppression may have been the key to Republican “victories.” (Note: I am not a Democrat or Republican. I am a voter that does not support either of the major political parties manipulation of American democracy.) Many have concluded that the 2000 election was corrupted in Florida by operatives in the Jeb Bush administration who suppressed the black vote and undermined the vote count, as well as by the partisan Supreme Court justices who stopped the recount. But, now it is also evident that the 2004 election was corrupted by the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio who undermined voter registration in black communities and made sure that there were not enough election machines in Democratic Party-leaning precincts. (If you have any doubt that the 2004 election was stolen see the film “Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections” available at: www.uncountedthemovie.com or “Stealing America Vote by Vote,” www.stealingamericathemovie.org which document election theft.)
Now, we are seeing many of the techniques used in those elections to suppress the vote in 2008. The McCain-Palin campaign and Republican Party are aggressively seeking ways to reduce the number of Democratic voters. Here are a few examples:
- The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge voters on Election Day. Ohio Republicans are considering the same tactic. This mean-spirited approach to denying people their vote will not only intimidate voters but will create long lines in Democratic-leaning precincts. A coalition of faith-based, community and labor organizations protested outside of McCain-Palin’s Michigan office against this tactic.
- In Wisconsin, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen a Republican and co-chair of the McCain-Palin Campaign in Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit demanding Wisconsin election officials verify voters' identity before the November election. This could lead to frustration at the polls and exhausted clerks in a hotly contested state in the presidential race. One million people have registered since January 1 and if successful the lawsuit would require every new registrant be checked. - The Florida Secretary of State decided on September 8th to enforce the state's "no-match, no-vote" law, a voter registration law that blocked more than 16,000 eligible Florida citizens from registering to vote in 2006, through no fault of their own, and could disenfranchise tens of thousands more voters in November. Republican Secretary of State Kurt Browning's last-minute decision to implement the law in the final month before the registration deadline will post a significant hurdle to eligible Florida citizens hoping to vote in November. It will disenfranchise voters who do not send or bring a photocopy of their driver's license to county election officials' offices after voting, even though these voters will have shown their driver's licenses when they went to vote at the polls. The decision will put thousands of Florida citizens at risk due to bureaucratic typos that under the 'no-match, no-vote' law will prevent them from voting this November. - On September 11, 2008 Air America the Tom Hartmann Show received calls from people in swing states who had received “absentee ballot request forms” from the McCain campaign. These were being sent to people registered as Democrats or Independents, but there seemed to be errors in the forms, instructions and/or the return addresses on the envelope for mailing back the forms. - Also in Ohio, a Republican passed election law could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters. The Democratic Secretary of State describes it as an unconstitutional law that allows Ohio county election boards to cancel a voter's registration solely because some election notices mailed to a home address come back undeliverable. - In Colorado, Holly Lowder resigned from her post as elections director two months before one of the biggest elections in Colorado history. She held that job since 2006. Colorado Ethics Watch had been pursuing documents from the state regarding Lowder's ties to John Paulsen whose company installed voter databases in more than 30 counties and recently got two contracts worth almost $184,000 with the secretary of state's office for data work related to the current election season. It turns out Lowder and Paulsen were living together. - In Virginia, students who are registering to vote for the first time are facing ambiguous new state rules about whether a campus address is sufficient for voter registration purposes. Two weeks ago, in Montgomery County, where Virginia Tech is located, the county election director said students who register to vote in Virginia could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents' tax returns -- which the Internal Revenue Service later said was incorrect -- and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents' car and health insurance. Student voting advocates said those remarks were intended to suppress student voting. There seems to be one reported incidence of the Democrats playing games to suppress Republican voter registration. This September in Ohio the McCain-Palin campaign sent out an absentee ballot request form to approximately one million Republican voters. The form had an unnecessary box where the voter needed to check that he or she was a legitimate voter. The Democratic Secretary of State is reading the law to say that if that box is not checked the voter is not allowed to vote. She has offered to contact people who did not fill out the box but the Republicans find that unacceptable and her reading of the law as too narrow. The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
An impressive job! Thanks, Brother Zeese by
abacus (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 73 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:37:33 PM
Will Americans Be Able to Trust the Vote Count in 2008? Of course not. You know that. Everyone knows that. And, What Can We Do to Protect the Integrity of Elections? Nothing. You can observe the election being stolen, but that's all. The only way to establish democracy is to stop voting in rigged elections. Election boycotts were successful in South Africa in delegitimizing the Apartheid regime, and in Cuba in showing that Batista had less than 10% support. Unless you want to grant your mandate, delegate your power, and give your consent to torture and crimes against humanity, you will not vote in an election where the government is asking for people to consent to continuing torture and crimes against humanity. Governments hold elections so that they can claim to be democratically elected and to have the support of the people. Without the consent of the governed, granted through elections, no government can claim legitimacy. Third party and independent candidates seeking power within the system are naive enough to believe that the system is something more than just a bureaucracy designed to shield the wealthy elite from our wrath. It isn't. Try reading the three featured discussion on the No in November website. If you claim to oppose war crimes, why would you vote in an election where your vote can be flipped to a war criminal and there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it afterwards except wait until the next rigged election? How many Presidential elections have to be stolen before you stop voting in them? If you had your wallet or your car stolen twice, would you put yourself in the exact same position for a third time so that they could be stolen again? Does your country mean less to you than your wallet or your car? There is no Constitutional way that we can do anything about a stolen election once it is stolen. None. The only possible way to prevent the election from being stolen in seven weeks, is to boycott it and refuse to vote. Or do you get your jollies watching elections being stolen the way that the election fraud industry opportunists do? They are urging people to vote in an election that they know will be stolen because they already have their book and video contracts for, "How the Election of '08 Was Stolen." Do you? by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008 at 2:25:49 AM
You haul out this weary excuse for protest every time elections and election fraud become a topic. Not voting was exactly what the protest was in Nazi Germany and did not one whit of good. A whit (should you be unfamiliar with the term) is a tiny or scarcely detectable amount. I am personally tired of those who would throw our republic into the toilet rather than do something about grievances. You are, therefore, beyond my contempt and, when they come to get you, don't call out in my direction. by
Jim Freeman (108 articles, 53 quicklinks, 227 diaries, 386 comments) on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008 at 9:49:35 AM
If there was an election boycott that didn't work in Germany, that doesn't mean that election boycotts can't work, Jim. You are, therefore, beyond my contempt and, when they come to get you, don't call out in my direction. Why would I call somebody who voted for them? If you vote for them, you'll probably be with them. The minority (48%) of Americans who still vote, believe that there is somebody on the ballot with a chance of winning who represents their interests (or they are willing to cast a protest vote for somebody who can't win, even though they know that in rigged elections that vote can be flipped to one of the major candidates). Since both major candidates are committed to continuing the wars of aggression, crimes against humanity must be what voters see as representing their interests. I can't stop you from voting for war criminals, or voting in elections where your vote can be undetectably flipped to a war criminal, but I don't consider people who vote for war criminals to be progressive. People who vote for war criminals are fascists, and people who vote in rigged elections don't care about democracy. by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008 at 12:30:45 PM
His postings and articles are increasingly parroting GOP talking points and tactics. An election boycott has got to be one of the dumbest strategies at this point. It is even worse than voting for Nader. At least if you vote you are participating and making your voice heard. The problem is for too long the American public was disinterested in politics and we still have never gotten much more than 50% of the total U.S citizens to even vote. This pales in comparison to almost all European countries which have much higher participation rates. The Republicans would love it if you didn't vote, in fact voter suppression has long been one of their main tactics. The less people who vote the less people they have to listen too and they can only worry about their corporate sponsors. And the opposite is true as well. The MORE that people vote the more you and I can drown out the corporations and lobbyists. This is why Barack Obama has been advocating a groundswell of people trying to change Washington from the bottom up. This is also why new voter registrations have doubled this year. by
E. Nelson (40 articles, 8 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 511 comments [57 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Wednesday, Sep 17, 2008 at 4:42:37 PM
E. Nelson, the Congressional Democrats have an 11% approval rating among Democratic voters. Do you have any idea of how hard the Democratic Party has worked to support the Republican agenda over the past seven and a half years in order to alienate almost 90% of their base? I don't think they'd appreciate you disparaging their efforts and crediting me instead. I was a lifelong Democrat like my parents before me until I could no longer stomach voting for a party that supported corporatism and genocide. Since then the Democrats have continued their old ploy of demonizing the Republicans so that they can pass themselves off as the lesser evil. But it isn't working any more. Democratic voters are telling the Democratic Party, "If the Republicans are so evil, why do you vote for everything that they want and why won't you impeach them?" A friend just sent me the link to the Whole World Pledge: ----------- The reason voter turnout is so low in this country is because the two major parties have a lock on U.S. politics and we don't have an opposition party. We have two parties representing the interests of the wealthy elites, the big corporations, and the military-industrial complex, but no party to represent the interests of the people. Most Americans want the war to stop. Where's our Peace Party to represent us? No point voting for some third party, because we don't have proportional representation like democratic countries do, so it would be a wasted vote. Most Americans want sound fiscal policy. Where's our Government Accountability Party to represent us? Oh yeah, no proportional representation, so that's out of the question also. Most Americans have to work for a living. Where's our Labor Party? Oh right, that would be Communist -- almost as bad as nationalizing a private corporation the way our government just did. So with rigged elections, nobody on the ballot to represent us anyway, and the guaranteed outcome of the election being more war, since the Democrats have funded the war until 2010 without regard to who wins the election, both Democrats and Republicans are just shills for the interests of the wealthy elite and the war profiteers, so why should we vote? The newly registered voters you've talked about are mostly young people who don't know much about politics and don't know that the elections are rigged. Their first experience voting in a rigged election is likely to be their last, once they realize that their vote wasn't counted. There may be another sucker born every minute, but you can't fool all of them with the same trick twice. And then there are a lot of people who registered to vote for Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul, and as infatuated with their heroes as they may be, a lot of them will not vote for pro-war Obama just because Kucinich tells them to, because they only reason they were supporting Kucinich is because they are anti-war, and similarly when Ron Paul throws his support to McCain, which he has stated that he isn't ready to do "yet," many of his followers, who were drawn to him because of his platform, will not vote for somebody with a totally different platform just because he says so. Both the Democratic and the Republican Party are fully aware that most Americans want peace now and fiscal accountability now. By taking those items off the ballot, they ensured a historically low turnout in November. Maybe they'll blame Ralph Nader again. Maybe they'll blame me. But when you know what voters want and you kick them in the teeth, don't pretend to be shocked when they don't turn around and vote for you out of gratitude. There's a very simple rule of show business: Give the people what they want. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans even bother to put on a phony show of giving the American people what we want, not even in campaign lies. They just blythely continue kicking us in the teeth and expecting us to vote for them anyway, because what other choice do we have? They'll find out in November that we have another choice. Both parties have worked hard for almost eight years to alienate the American people and they'll reap the reward they justly deserve. Congress has a lower approval rating than the President, so the parties gave us two Members of the most despised Congress in American history as Presidential candidates, thinking that since we endured Bush, we would be willing to endure people we like even less than Bush. If the Democrats would stop shilling for the Republicans, they'd get a turnout that even European countries wouldn't believe. Everyone in America who opposes war and wants fiscal accountability, and that's almost every living soul among us, would vote for them, even if the election is rigged and likely to be stolen for a third time in a row. But since they don't want our votes, why should we vote for them? Because they've got nice smiles? So do a lot of Republicans. Because they're wealthy which means that God has chosen them? God apparently chose a lot of Republicans also. Because they claim to be less evil? Well darn it, they forgot to fund our educational system, so most Americans can't even use a micrometer to measure that infinetesimal difference they claim, even if it really exists. Political party operatives may be loud, shrill, and vicious, but this is one election where they're not going to be able to deliver the vote, not even a flipped vote. There are still seven weeks to go before the election and many would-be voters are going to find themselves out of work, their homes foreclosed, and their pension plans worth pennies on the dollar. You think they're going to vote just because you call me names? Think again, buddy. by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 at 5:41:46 AM
E. Nelson, your whole premise is based on a factual inaccuracy: At least if you vote you are participating and making your voice heard. I guess you haven't been listening to what Mark and many others have been saying. Our voices are NOT heard. I voted for Gore and Kerry. Was MY voice heard? NO! Why didn't we stop those elections from being stolen? Now we are to either sue after the fact in 2008, or stop what we all know has been going to happen for the past 4 years in in less than two months! And the reason none of it will work is that the Democrats are complicit. In spite of all their fine words, they allowed it to happen and they will allow it again. I am not a GOP shill, just a disgusted citizen who has voted in good faith for many years and got no good faith in return. I can't in good faith vote for any of them again. by
Sharon Froehlich (0 articles, 9 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 32 comments) on Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 at 11:57:23 AM
Comment from Ratings: The changes that are taking place are impressive. Do I actually think it's enough? No. There is still the electoral college, the
fact that the U.S. Supremes took it upon themselves to decide an election and of course the fact that Congress can appoint a winner over and above election results. These things must be done away with before I will feel that any vote I might cast could actually count.
(As an unabashed fan of Mark Smith's ability to tell it like it is, I commend him for speaking out. A shill he isn't.) by
Marian Elliott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments) on Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 at 1:32:47 PM
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I am personally tired of those who would throw our republic into the toilet rather than do something about grievances.
And I am personally tired of the people who proudly boast that they would continue to vote even if the only federally approved voting mechanism was a flush toilet.
The only explanation I can think of is that they support fascism, torture, and genocide, so they don't care which of the two candidates committed to carrying on the crimes against humanity in Afghanistan and Iraq is elected, and they are so dedicated to supporting fascism that if the only way the government let them show their support was by flushing their ballot down a toilet, that's what they'd do, with pride. (0+)
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http://wholeworldpledge.org/gp/in...?option=com_jambook&Itemid=89
I shall always do my best to neither take part in nor knowingly support any action that requires anyone to suffer harm.
They let you leave a comment when you sign the pledge. My comment was:
Voting is an action. Voting in an election of a country like the United States which is engaged in wars of aggression, which are the worst crimes against humanity and cause great suffering and harm, would, in my opinion violate the pledge. If people in the United States, understanding that our wars of aggression have already killed more than seven million innocent people, and that the only presidential candidates with a chance of winning are committed to continuing the genocides in Iraq and Afghanistan, simply refrained from voting, the government of the United States could no longer claim to be a democratically elected government with the consent of its citizens. This could easily lead to peace. (0+)
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