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(Article changed on November 8, 2012 at 00:50)
(Article changed on November 7, 2012 at 22:33)
We worked our asses off -- and it worked!
Though we could not entirely prevent fraud in the 2012 election, public awareness of voter suppression, ballot tampering, and the potential for electronic vote rigging was historically unprecedented in 2012.
The effect of our efforts should not be underestimated.
The issue of American election fraud broke into the mainstream media en masse for the first time ever. Alarms were raised by Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, Forbes, Esquire, Wired, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and on blogs and radio shows nationally, and internationally.
Based on my family's 42 years of experience, I can tell you that this pre-election attention to the voting process has never been seen before. We can only imagine the affect it had on would-be election thieves like Karl Rove (and it's fun to imagine it - try it now!)
Meanwhile, the cavalry arrived as a national network of citizen Election Integrity activists worked online and in their communities:
*registering voters
*alerting voters to the need for massive turn-out, educating them on how to avoid having their ballot discarded, and how to monitor the voting process at their polling place
*training millions of new eyes on the voting process in key swing states, particularly Florida and Ohio
*filing a lawsuit in Ohio against the use of uncertified voting software
*setting up multiple reporting sites and phone lines for voters who experienced problems
*placing lawyers on the ground ready to take action against fraud
*announcing mass protests and direct action on November 7th if elections should be stolen
*in the case of the hacker group Anonymous, warning Karl Rove that he was singled out to be monitored for attempted fraud (I admit to enjoying that one the most)
Our goal was to break Americans out of self-destructive apathy, and dissuade the kind of blatant election manipulation that has led to so many "surprise upset" victories in the past.
Our goal was to break Americans out of self-destructive apathy, and dissuade the kind of blatant election manipulation that has led to so many "surprise upset" victories in the past.
