The world has now endured the horrific consequences of two consecutive stolen presidential elections. So millions of Americans are asking how to stop it from happening again.
There are many things the average citizen can do. But much of it boils down to three simple phases:
1) BEFORE THE ELECTION: REGISTER PEOPLE TO VOTE, CONFIRM THEIR REGISTRATIONS, AND HELP THEM GET PHOTO ID
There are millions of eligible American citizens who have never voted. They are young and old, black and white, men and women, ethnic and native, Republican and Democrat, green and otherwise.
The nation has now been subjected to a focussed national campaign to keep these folks from registering. There have also been mass purges of voter rolls staged through shady computer operations and by other means. In Florida 2000, more than 100,000 alleged ex-felons were purged from the voter lists, almost certainly giving George W. Bush his first term. In Ohio 2004, more than 300,000 citizens were purged from the registration lists, a significant factor in giving Bush his second term.
In the lead-up to election day 2008, your commitment to registering new voters and working with ones who believe they are registered to confirm that belief could make a huge difference. Some states have gone to the trouble to suppress voter registration drives, which gives an indicator how important this really is.
By all means, spend as much time as you can getting people signed up and confirming the validity of the registrations from those who have voted before---or who were denied the vote in 2004.
In Florida's 2000 presidential election, people with names similar to felons or ex-felons or the same date of birth were not able to vote, even thought they never committed a crime themselves. One-by-one, these people must be re-assured, and registered or re-registered. In Ohio in 2004, 22 counties gave former felons bad information concerning their voting rights. Many were told incorrectly that they couldn't vote if they were on probation or in a halfway house, or they needed a judge to sign off on their registration.
Now, with the blessing of the US Supreme Court, a new barrier has been added: photo ID. In states such as Indiana and many more, photo ID will be required for voting this fall for the first time. We have already witnessed too many voters being excluded from the spring 2008 primaries due to a lack of ID never before required.
So election protection activists are needed to help as many registered voters as possible to obtain the necessary identification for casting a ballot this November.
You can also work at or monitor the local board of elections to make sure that everyone who requests an absentee ballot is mailed one.
2) ON ELECTION DAY: BE A POLL WORKER
Ultimately, there is no better way to monitor the conduct of an election than to help do it.
The need for poll workers increases every election year. Poll workers have historically tended to be elderly, and their numbers are diminishing.
That won't PREVENT the election from being stolen...
...at best it will only prove that a third presidential election in a row was stolen.
There is only one possible way to PREVENT the election from being stolen and that is to refuse to vote.
Sure the political parties will still install whichever candidate the machines are rigged to "elect," but they'll have no more legitimacy than Mugabe does.
The way to discredit an illegitimate government is the way the Apartheid regime in South Africa was discredited: an end to Apartheid was not on the ballot, so people refused to vote.
Is peace on our ballot? What about fascism? The United States already meets all fourteen points of fascism. Is an end to fascism on the ballot? What about an end to corporate rule or at least an end to corporate personhood?
Nothing?
So you know the election is rigged and you know there's nothing on the ballot you want. Why vote?
To help an illegitimate fascist tyranny already engaged in two wars of aggression, the worst crimes against humanity there are, pretend, despite the overwhelming opposition of the American public, that they were democratically elected and have the consent of the people?
Many of us are planning not to vote. We're calling it "No in November."
We may seem small in numbers but we are all activists working in our local communities throughout the country.
Half the eligible electorate already doesn't vote. In the only poll that ever asked them, a Zogby poll commissioned by Paul Lehto, many said that the reason that they didn't vote was because there was nobody on the ballot to represent their interests. Do any of the millionaires on the ballot represent your interests?
Many more people have stated that they will not vote because they're hip to the old bait-and-switch that the political parties have been pulling for so many elections, where they give us popular candidates who all drop out by the primaries leaving us with candidates we never wanted.
So it looks like in November we will have a lower turnout than in the June primaries, when peace was still on the ballot, and possibly the lowest ever turnout for a presidential election.
That will tell the world that although our government is a rogue state with no regard for treaties, laws, or conventions, we the American people do not support it, do not support torture, do not support genocide, and we do not give our consent.
It also has the advantage of giving us the possibility of honest elections. We can't demand honest elections without a way to back up that demand. To say, "Give us honest elections or else we'll continue to vote in rigged elections," isn't going to cut it. But saying, "Give us honest elections or we won't vote," is a way to back up our demand.
Join us, Harvey and Bob. You guys are in the business of collecting evidence of stolen elections, so you have a vested interest in allowing another election to be stolen. But with it goes our country and we don't think it's worth it just so you can write a dozen more books. Millions of innocent people have already died and we think that's enough. More than enough.
Obama is pledged to continue the war in Afghanistan in perpetuity, and to maintain U.S. control of the Green Zone, the U.S. embassy, and the International Airport in Iraq forever, which means continuing the war there forever, however he plans to draw down the troops and accelerate the Bush/Cheney agenda of privatizing the war by using more private military contractors like Blackwater. McCain's agenda is identical. So which are you voting for, perpetual war (Obama) or eternal war (McCain)? Which of them is so worthy of your vote that you'll risk another stolen election to cast it?
Grow up. Become a responsible citizen. If we can do it, you can do it. Take a look at our No in November pledge. If you like it, sign it. Publicize it.
The only way we can take this country back is to stop giving it away. Once we give our mandate to somebody else, they can do with it as they wish and no longer have to ask our permission. That's not even a republic, no less a democracy.
our votes may not get counted in 08, but shattering the illusion that they are is a good step towards getting an electoral system that is secure, transparent and accountable
by
Better World Order (4 articles, 417 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 881 comments)
on Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 9:51:01 AM
our votes may not get counted in 08, but shattering the illusion that they are is a good step towards getting an electoral system that is secure, transparent and accountable.
Not if we continue to vote.
A successful demand has to be credible.
If we say, "We demand secure, transparent, and accountable elections, and if we don't get them we will continue to vote in insecure elections" do you think that is a credible demand that anyone would take seriously?
How about, "We demand secure, transparent, and accountable elections, and until we get them, WE WILL NOT VOTE!"
There is nobody left in this country who thinks that our elections are secure, transparent and accountable, or that they can't be rigged and stolen. The educational part has been successfully accomplished. Go anywhere in the country and speak to anyone you wish, and try to mention the name Diebold without getting a laugh. I've even had people who insisted that our elections weren't rigged, make jokes about Diebold, so they know better.
As long as we're willing to vote in rigged elections, we won't get honest elections. The people who run this country can see that we're not going to do anything but complain, and that we'll keep right on voting and collecting more and more evidence that our votes weren't counted, and keep right on voting and collecting more and more evidence that our votes weren't counted, and keep right on voting and collecting more and more evidence that our votes weren't counted, so it is clear to them that we don't really care if our votes are counted or not and that they don't have to worry about having honest elections.
If I was a violent person, BWO, and I didn't like you for some reason, and I wanted to hurt you, and I walked up and slapped you upside the face, and you didn't duck, block me, or do anything else to stop me, but just stood there and let me, I'd probably do it again and again and again. Unless you did something to block me or stop me, I'd figure that since I wanted to hurt you and you didn't care if you were hurt, why not keep doing it?
Stealing our country is much worse than a slap in the face. Do we like it? Will we continue to stand for it? Are we going to just get a notebook and write down how many times we get slapped in the face? Ow! You just slapped me in the face. Okay, that's one. Ugh! Okay, that's two. I'm writing this down now. Arrgh! That's three. See I wrote that one down too. Unnnh! Look--I wrote down that you slapped me a fourth time. You do it again and I'll write that one down too. And I'm going to continue to stand right here and let you slap me in the face as many times as you want and I'm going to write it down every time.
Is that the Better World Order you envision?
If you want honest elections, stop voting in rigged elections.
How hard is that to figure out?
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 3:46:44 AM
6 comments
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