What They Did Last Fall (Krugman re: election fraud)

[swag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/opinion/19krugman.html

By running for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state, has stirred up some ugly memories. And that's a good thing, because those memories remain relevant. There was at least as much electoral malfeasance in 2004 as there was in 2000, even if it didn't change the outcome. And the next election may be worse.

In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.

But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration's legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation's feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan's supporters are camped in Crawford, and America is more bitterly divided than ever.

. . . MORE

[Spinzonner]

1. An illegitimate administration

launched an illegitimate war and continues to engage in repeated illegitimate action.

After committing the first and worst, why would they stop ?

[tiptoe]

2. "We aren't going to rerun the last three elections. But...the future?"

Our current political leaders would suffer greatly if either house of Congress changed hands in 2006, or if the presidency changed hands in 2008. The lids would come off all the simmering scandals, from the selling of the Iraq war to profiteering by politically connected companies. The Republicans will be strongly tempted to make sure that they win those elections by any means necessary. And everything we've seen suggests that they will give in to that temptation.

A sober warning.

Exclusive: Citizens Request Recount in San Diego Mayoral Race
Miriam Raftery

"Enron by the Sea" shows strange electoral anomalies - a 4 percent shift - ODDS OF SUCH A DISCREPANCY OCCURRING BY CHANCE ALONE ARE LESS THAN 7/100 OF 1%, STATISTICIANS REVEAL.

San Diego Democratic mayoral candidate, Donna Frye, may have been robbed of her mayoral seat in the July 25 local election as citizens' audit parallel election vote shows shift of 4 percent, Raw Story has learned.

...
Diebold's Un-Accu-Vote

Now, a nonpartisan citizens' group that conducted a parallel election has requested a recount of 11 precincts. This time, the issue isn't unmarked bubbles, but the accuracy of Diebold Accu-Vote optical scan voting machines and the Diebold GEMS central tabulator used to count votes.

The Citizens Audit Parallel Election (CAPE) asked voters exiting polls to vote again and sign a log book attesting to the accuracy of their second vote. Sealed parallel election ballots were counted at KGTV's studio with a TV camera crew filming the counting process.

Nearly 50 percent of all voters participated in the parallel election, which included five polling places representing 11 precincts. The sample included more conservative than liberal precincts, with participation as high among Republicans as among Democrats. The tandem election results showed what most feel to be startling results.

"There is a shift of four percent of the vote, consistently," Joe Prizzi, (engineer and physicist,) reported at a press conference held by CAPE in front of City Hall. Frye received 50.2 percent of the votes cast in the parallel election - enough for an outright victory if those results reflect the outcome citywide. CAPE also found that the official count added approximately 2 percent to each of Frye's two Republican opponents, Jerry Sanders and Steve Francis.

In addition, CAPE examined the only other ballot measure, a proposition over a war memorial cross on public land. The proposition's vote total also appeared to have been padded by 4 percent in the official election tally, which was certified Friday August 19 by San Diego County's newly appointed Registrar of Voters, Republican Mikel Haas.

Math is non-partisan

A team of statisticians from California State University- Northridge - have analyzed the data from CAPE, concluding that the probability of luck or chance as the cause of the observed four percent deviation is less than one in 1,300 - or .000678.

Activists suspect fraud. "I am troubled by the prospect that we are losing our democracy very quickly. We've been voting on machines that were never intended to be tools of democracy," said Brina-Rae Schuchman, media spokesperson for CAPE, noting that Diebold machines utilize "secret software."
...

[EC]

5. Agreed,

Although, the lids on all the scandals are off now, the difference would be if Dems get in then the penalties will be charged and will stick...

[pstans]

8. I told my wife the other night

that if Jeb Bu$h or Condi (the 2 most likely successors to the NeoCon throne in my opinion) then I am moving to Canada, Ireland, Germany, Austrailia, New Zealand, Mexico, no questions asked. She voted for W, but is more of an uninformed moderate and I am working on informing her. I told her that she could come with me if she wanted.

[SweetLeftFoot]

12. Moving to Australia?

With John Howard?

[pstans]

17. I'd have to do some research

I just rolled off a list of possibilities.

[SweetLeftFoot]

19. I left

Australia because it was turning ibnto such a right wing hole.

[wisteria]

3. I still feel Kerry won Ohio, but the body of this article is an eye

opener. It should serve as a warning to us all, be aware and be prepared for the worst possible actions on the part of the Rebubs as they battle to remain in control. We have got to get organized and concentrate on exposing and preventing the repubs from stealing more elections.

[Raster]

7. Kerry DID win Ohio. More and more the evidence points the way.

Once again the inhabitants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are illegal squatters.

[AlGore-08.com]

4. Krugman's a national treasure

eom

[Hissyspit]

6. yup n/t

[NYC]

10. He certainly is.

:)

[swag]

9. I do like that this column will be syndicated to many papers whose own

columnists have been too cowardly or uninformed to tackle the topic.

[texpatriot2004]

11. Krugman is right again. He is always right. Thank you Paul K. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

13. Yeah, but Paul drank the Donna Brazile/Terry McAuliffe koolaid on 2004,

in this article. Very disappointing--though I love Krugman most days.

See my post (#31) on Krugman and 2004, at

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4394512

But--new thought--maybe, by bypassing the egregious Dem Party corruption on electronic voting, and their UNBELIEVABLE FAILURE to cry foul on Diebold and ES&S counting all our votes with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--and going way back to 2000 to challenge the legitimacy of the Bush Junta, he can get the Democrats THINKING about what a legimate election IS...and, maybe, demanding one?

[electropop]

23. Right - "didn't change the outcome?"

Puh-leaze. The dirty tricks again succeeded in changing the outcome.
:grr:

[petgoat]

25. "didn't change the outcome?"

Nobody can know what didn't change the outcome.

35 million votes were unauditable. That's the word we should be using.
You wouldn't buy an unauditable Mutual Fund, why should you accept
unauditable votes?

The unauditable machines were installed after the legislation that would
have outlawed them was derailed by Republicans in Congress and the
Senate, and after the Election Assistance Commission that was supposed
to develop standards for the new HAVA voting machines was sabotaged
through inadequate funding. They only got enough to provide for a staff
of seven, and thus were unable to develop the standards.

[klyon]

30. How much of a standard is needed?

Either the votes are tabulated accurately or they are not. I do not see the Dems ever winning in a contested race again. So that means we are lost, democracy is over. One party rule is inevitable. Our children will suffer and bear the costs.

KL

[petgoat]

31. "Either the votes are tabulated accurately or they are not."

Accuracy is in the eye of the beholder, klyon.

While you or I or the eminent computer scientists David Dill, Avi Rubin,
Rebecca Mercuri and Doug Jones might say auditability is an essential
part of accuracy, getting the body politic to recognize this simple fact
is difficult.

Somehow the neocons have Americans believing that if we do not
unquestioningly accept the counts from buggy and insecure black-box
machines with secret hardware and software, we are indulging in "tinfoil
hat conspiracy theories" involving Area 51 and Bigfoot.

Apparently a staff of seven did not give the EAC sufficient intellectual
horsepower to assemble a politically-practical case for a requirement
for auditable machines.

< we are lost, democracy is over. >

Not necessarily. 24 states have enacted legislation requiring Voter
Verified Paper Ballot (VVPB) systems. 13 more have proposed it. You
can check the status of your state here: http://verifiedvoting.org/

We the People could probably demand the use of paper ballots even as
late as two weeks before the election if there were the political
will. All it takes is photocopy machines to print paper ballots, and
volunteers to count them.

[Demeter]

14. America's Real Test Comes Now

After a reputable source and a reputable reporter speak, will the nation hear, or will this news fall into the echoless, bottomless black hole of "Don't Even Think about It"?

[papau]

16. Will other voices in the media discuss this - or are the rest all cowards?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/opinion/19krugman.html?pagewanted=print

We aren't going to rerun the last three elections. But what about the future?

Our current political leaders would suffer greatly if either house of Congress changed hands in 2006, or if the presidency changed hands in 2008. The lids would come off all the simmering scandals, from the selling of the Iraq war to profiteering by politically connected companies. The Republicans will be strongly tempted to make sure that they win those elections by any means necessary. And everything we've seen suggests that they will give in to that temptation.

E-mail: [e-mail]

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

15. Reading Krugman this morning

I felt as sick as I did on 12/12/2000. What would this country have been like under a Gore Presidency?

[petgoat]

26. Under a Gore Presidency 9/11 Never Would Have Happened

No Iraq. No Patriot Act. No bloated military/security budget. Richard
Clarke had a plan to attack al Qaeda financially and militarily.
Expecting reprisals, the nation would have been on alert. Warnings from
11 foreign countried and 3 FBI offices would have been heeded.
Clinton's order to the CIA that they kill Osama would not have been
rescinded.

Bush ignored Clarke's plan, shut down FBI investigations into suspected
terrorist financiers, and ignored a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined
to Strike in US." But according to Rep. Cynthia McKinney he had 24 hour
fighter cover over Crawford while he ignored it.

[newscott]

18. I've heard these facts.

* has been illegitamite since day 1.

[autorank]

20. Krugman is Lord! He never lets us down!!!

Recommend and Kidk swag, :yourock:

[Jack Rabbit]

21. Without free and fair elections, we are a banana republic

(B)oth (the DNC and the Conyers) reports show that votes were suppressed (in Ohio) by long lines at polling places - lines caused by inadequate numbers of voting machines - and that these lines occurred disproportionately in areas likely to vote Democratic. Both reports also point to problems involving voters who were improperly forced to cast provisional votes, many of which were discarded.

There is no way to determine whether or not Bush carried Ohio fair and square. Nevertheless, the vote in Ohio was far from a free and fair election. That is enough of a concern.

[electropop]

24. Didja see the inaugural?

I'm pretty sure it was Peter Jennings (RIP) who describing the heavily armored motorcade, said "It looks like a banana republic." I about jumped through the ceiling. :rofl:

[petgoat]

27. "no way to determine whether or not Bush carried Ohio"

The fact that the recount was completely crooked and illegal is a nice
bit of circumstantial evidence. The precincts for test sampling were
supposed to be randomly chosen. They were cherry picked. Why would
they cover over an honest election with a blatantly dishonest recount?

[Jack Rabbit]

29. Point taken

Why would they cover over an honest election with a blatantly dishonest recount?

Because they didn't want to know the truth.

[iconoclastNYC]

22. John Aravosis at AmericaBlog picked this up.

But DailyKos, Atrios, MyDD? Nada.....I guess this issue is still a baseless conspiracy theory up until someone is indicted (if ever.)

I emailed John to thank him and asked him whey DailyKos and Atrios didn't cover this and he kinda responded with a cagey: "there is so much to cover" type answer.

I guess he didn't see that post on Dkos where he dismisses all of this as wacko conspiracy stuff. Remember that post?

Sigh.

[dchill]

38. DailyKos, Atrios, MyDD ...

all have way too much "credibility" invested in there NOT being election fraud and/or a stolen election to ever back down now. They have helped the Republican smear campaign against those who RIGHTLY BELIEVE that the evidence amassed shows atleast probable cause for fraud.

[loudsue]

28. Anybody who questions the THEFT of the 2004 election has their head

in the sand. Thinking people everywhere, even in rural areas, questioned the legitimacy of the 2004 election. It never made sense to people....except the freepers, who think they're right about everything in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

:loveya: I love Krugman! :loveya:

I wish some high-profile person, talking on a news show that is being watched by the whole world for some reason, would just throw it out there about the massive fraud that took place by voting machine companies. This needs to be a huge debate, and the sleezy bastards that have done this to our democracy need to be outed.

On edit: I wish someone on the Hollywood front would write/produce a movie w/ a stellar cast that shows the workings of the massive theft. One that would be a blockbuster just due to the casting, but one that would also be a ball-buster for the chimp in chief and his snarly minions. I want Ron Howard to play Andy Stephenson! :applause:

:kick:

[petgoat]

32. "I wish someone would write a movie that shows the workings of theft"

Write it yourself, loudsue. Excellent idea. How would you do it?

Done from the perspective of a newspaper reporter who gets an idea
what's going on and proceeds independently after her investigation is
squelched by superiors?

The perspective of a computer programmer who was involved and starts talking in his sleep?

The perspective of his wife--a former techie herself until she quit to
raise the kids, but knows what she's looking at when she hacks into his computer?

A techie high school kid whose father is high up in the BCFOL?

The perspective of a statistician with proof of patterns of fraud in certain precincts?

Take the idea to the Writer's board here at DU if you want to find
people to work on it with you.

A screenplay is only a hundred and ten pages.

[loudsue]

36. Thanks, Petgoat!

But...but...I've never written ANYTHING, except here on DU, and maybe a few term papers, about 35 years ago!

I really do think it would make a GREAT movie! But someone besides me is going to have to write it!

How 'bout YOU?? You came up with some great plot-twisting ideas! :applause:

:kick:

[rasputin1952]

33. Hot Stuff...Krugman on electiions and their theft:

<snip>

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.

But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration's legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation's feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan's supporters are camped in Crawford, Texas, and America is more bitterly divided than ever.

<snip>


The Conyers report goes further, highlighting the blatant partisanship of election officials. In particular, the behavior of Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell - who supervised the election while serving as co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio - makes Harris' actions in 2000 seem mild by comparison.

And then there are the election night stories. Warren County locked down its administration building and barred public observers from the vote-counting, citing an FBI warning of a terrorist threat. But the FBI later denied issuing any such warning. Miami County reported that voter turnout was an improbable 98.55 percent of registered voters. And so on.

<snip>

More:



http://iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/protected/articles/2005/08/19/opinion/edkrug.php

This is a pretty good rundown of just how desperate the GOP is, and how it will stop at nothing to keep the lid on what has been going on.

[wli]

34. I can't follow that link

It says "This is a protected article and can not be viewed in this manner"

[rasputin1952]

35. sorry...it was the "print" page...

anyway this is a dupe thread, I have asked that it be deleted.

original here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x148355

[reprehensor]

37. "Election Fraud: It's Time to Make a Stand"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4369575&mesg_id=4369575