12/25 Election/Fraud/Recount thread

[dzika]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to the recounts/fraud. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping in this project.

[dzika]

1. Link to the thread from yesterday. - 12/24

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x193569

[dzika]

2. Friday 12/24 Highlights

Recap of stories from Friday 12/24

12/23 - Kerry to Enter Ohio Recount Fray
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122404Y.shtml

12/23 - MORE: Video Supporting Ohio Vote Fraud Claim Revealed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x190727

12/23 - Video Clip of Kerry Ohio Filing news on Countdown
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/Obermann_041223-01.rm (Real Media Video)

NY TIMES: There Were Problems on Election Day
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/national/24vote.html?oref=login

GOP's 'last hope' in Gov. Race...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041224/ap_on_re_us/governor_recount_49

Resent being conned, treated with contempt, and played for a sucker!
http://www.squadron13.com/politics/2004/doubter.htm

Cobb Asks Court to Preserve Evidence in Ohio Recount
http://www.votecobb.org/press/2004/dec/pr2004-12-24.php

Cobb Blasts N.M. Supreme Court Recount Decision
http://www.votecobb.org/press/2004/dec/pr2004-12-23.php

Election Results and Irregularities in Ohio - by Jesse Jackson
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1348&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Video - Voter Suppression - Higher quality version
http://www.jeff04.com/

Hearings expose conspiracy in November voting
http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/ohio1230.php

Video - David Lytel on Hannity and Colmes
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/David_Lytel_FoxNews_041223-03.wmv (Windows Media)

Listen to Our New Radio Advertisement on the Ohio Recount
http://www.recountohio.org/recountohio_60.mp3 (MP3)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x194347 (DU Thread)

The mechanics of Phantom Votes in New Mexico
http://helpamericarecount.org/NewMexico2004ElectionDataReport.pdf (PDF)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x194057 (DU Thread)

That “get over it” attitude……
http://bluelemur.com/tess/index.php?p=18

AP Story: "Only 63 Challenges In Florida Nov. Election"
http://www.wftv.com/news/4023331/detail.html

Ex-hostage: Rebels wanted Bush re-elected
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2004/12/24/ex_hostage_rebels_wanted_bush_re_elected/

BRAD BLOG: FEENEY ATTORNEY THREATENS HOMETOWN PAPER WITH LEGAL ACTION
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001076.htm

Legitimacy of Ohio Vote Recount Called Into Question After Probe
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ohio_voting_bombshell.html

Computer Programmer Reveals Scheme to Steal 2000 Vote
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/florida_election_stolen.html

Exchange On David Cobb and the Ohio Recount
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec2004/Bobier-Frank-Sharma1224.htm

FreePress: Lawsuit Before the Ohio Supreme Court
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1028

FreePress: Update from the Ohio Frontlines
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1027

FreePress: Kerry votes switched to Bush and ballots pre-punched for Bush
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1032

FreePress: Uncounted votes in Cuyahoga County
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1033

BreakForNews: Kerry Preparing Grounds to Unconcede
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/KerryPreparing%20GroundsToUnconcede.htm
http://www.kathymcmahon.utvinternet.com/mrn/audio/InsideTrackNews041224.mp3 (MP3)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x194892 (DU Thread)

TV Networks Officially Refuse to Release Exit Poll Raw Data
http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/articles/1222-media.html

Greens Ask Feds To Preserve Evidence
http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2732810&nav=LQlCUXqj

FOCUS: Election Reform
http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/000120.php

ES&S quote: "touch screens...can be easily manipulated"
http://www.bentoncourier.com/articles/2004/12/24/news/46tnews.txt

Strong paper trails needed
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Stories/0,1413,91~3080~2617235,00.html

Election Fraud Software Whistleblower Update
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41b862e1c8b9d.html

[dzika]

3. Protesters seek more inauguration permits

Protesters seek more inauguration permits
Accuse government of blocking them out
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | December 25, 2004

Antiwar activists are accusing the National Park Service of trying to block mass demonstrations along the route of President Bush's inaugural parade next month, opening a new front in a simmering dispute between anti-Bush groups and the government over access to visible public space.

International ANSWER, an umbrella group of antiwar protesters, yesterday contended that the Park Service is bending its own rules to deny anti-Bush demonstrators a permit to gather directly on Pennsylvania Avenue, the main promenade between the Capitol and the White House. The group, which applied for a permit last January, expects "many thousands" of people to participate in the planned demonstration.

"They're trying to make it a sanitized and pristine route and to disaggregate protests so that there is not a mass assembly of opposition sentiment that flows along the parade route," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer for ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.

Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/25/protesters_seek_more_inauguration_permits/

[dzika]

4. Voting protest didn't go far enough

Dec. 25, 2004 12:00 AM

Regarding "Let's, unh . . . protest" (Editorial, Dec. 17):

-snip-
The Republic's editorial belittled the importance of protests over the recent election. I say we need many more protests.

The media-conducted recount in Florida showed that Al Gore would have carried the state in 2000 and thus would have become president. Also, we mustn't forget the tens of thousands of African-American voters who were purged from voting lists in Florida. Since Blacks vote overwhelmingly Democrat, they are sitting ducks for voter racial profiling.

-snip-
The Ohio exit polls on Election Day showed Kerry was clearly winning. Exit polls are almost always reliable in predicting a winner but for some reason they didn't work this time. I have yet to hear a credible explanation for this.

The saddest part of all this is the lack of protest from the Democratic Party. Without more protests our system of democracy will continue to be in jeopardy.
- Richard Boren, Tucson

Link:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1225satlets5-255.html

[dzika]

5. Presidential election is Ohio's top story in 2004

Posted on Sat, Dec. 25, 2004

Presidential election is Ohio's top story in 2004

JAY COHEN
Associated Press

-snip-
President Bush's narrow win in Ohio easily topped the state's most memorable stories of 2004, followed by the intense campaigning in the state that ultimately determined the election outcome.

-snip-
Bush, challenger John Kerry and their surrogates returned to the state time and again to campaign, and their ads were staples on radio and television. Lawsuits were filed before and after the Nov. 2 election, over the handling of backup ballots, voter challenges, a recount and alleged voting irregularities.


Link:
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10495274.htm

[dzika]

6. Officers to provide inaugural security

Officers to provide inaugural security

12-25-04

By Ellica Church Staff Writer
News & Record, Greensboro NC

GREENSBORO --The Greensboro Police Department will help provide security during next month's presidential inauguration.

Next month, 45 to 50 officers will travel to Washington for President Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration.

-snip-
About 2,000 out-of-town law enforcement personnel have been asked to help with security during inaugural events. Most of the agencies lie east of the Mississippi, Flynt said, except some sending officers from Bush's home state, Texas.


-snip-
Greensboro police will likely provide security along the parade route, during the ceremony and at other events that day. The officers will arrive several days early for briefings on their assignments.

They will be temporarily sworn in as federal agents because they will be outside their jurisdiction, Flynt said.

Link:
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/inaugurate_122504.htm

[dzika]

7. YES, KERRY WON.

(this story was posted yesterday by BreakForNews)

This is about to break wide open. Something's got to give. A great deal of accurate information has been organised on the internet. Start, for example, here: - Democratic Underground - here: - freepress.org - or here: - truthout.org - or here: - stolenelection.org - or here: - redefeatbush.org -.
(Rebuild the links below if your email program cuts them short them.) - Edited on Sat Dec-25-04.

YES, KERRY WON.

RECOUNT FRAUD = ELECTION FRAUD: KERRY PREPARING GROUNDS TO UNCONCEDE, AS TRIAD VOTE CRIMES DETAILED
Election Challenge likely on Jan 6th

BreakForNews.com, 24th Dec, 2004 23:00ET
by Fintan Dunne, Editor EXCLUSIVE

If you haven't been following John Kerry closely, get ready to hear of surprising developments. The vote-defrauded, potential president-in-waiting has just indicated through his lawyer that the validity of George Bush's reelection is no longer a given.

On 23 December, 2004 Kerry's lawyer confirmed to MSNBC's 'Countdown' that John Kerry will be seeking (likely on Monday 27 Dec.) to expedite court proceedings in an ongoing recount suit by the Green and Libertarian parties. That might sound like just another "count every vote" exercise by the Kerry campaign, were it not for two important details.

Continued...
http://canarias.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9891/index.php

Full article with source hyperlinks and audio:
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/KerryPreparing%20GroundsToUnconcede.htm

Audio mp3
Kerry Preparing Grounds To UnConcede
Incl. Audio Clips and more details...
http://www.kathymcmahon.utvinternet.com/mrn/audio/InsideTrackNews041224.mp3

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x194892

[dzika]

8. Hope in the Dark

December 24, 2004

Hope in the Dark
By Rebecca Solnit

Introduction by Tom Engelhardt

I want to end 2004, as is seasonally appropriate, on a note of constrained hope and who better to call on to make the case for hope than Rebecca Solnit, the author of Hope in the Dark. Below she updates her book, small in girth but mighty in scope (and recommended at this site many times). Her new piece, "Hope at Midnight," suggests ways in which a widening of the lenses through which we've been taking in our post-election world might free us briefly from the confines of The Last Empire, and remind us that elsewhere on this modest planet people are at work on futures imagined quite differently from the grim ones the Bush administration offers us all.

If it weren't for one factor, I would, even in the wake of the recent election, be quite optimistic. After all, we are the creation of George Bush. In a mere three years, the flickering of a historical eyelash, he almost single-handedly has given life and vitality to the political Internet, while creating an antiwar and anti-him movement of surprising size, one that nearly lifted a recalcitrant candidate into the presidency. What took the right in America years and years after the Goldwater debacle of 1964, we -- whoever or whatever we are in this strange, new world -- seem to be doing at a double-march pace. It's invigorating to watch. Imagine, then, along with all the expectable destruction and mayhem, what our President might be capable of producing in the four years to come.

-snip-
Hope at Midnight
By Rebecca Solnit

Most of the acute despair felt in the wake of the U.S. election has faded into general depression or a sense that all the effort, or even any effort, is futile, but I still wonder about the intensity of that gloom. And I'm still an advocate for hope.




continued...
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2004/12/12_584.html

[dzika]

9. Washington Governor's Race May Not Be Over

Washington Governor's Race May Not Be Over
Dec. 25, 2004


The exhausting, exasperating, excruciatingly close Washington governor's race might be the worst thing to happen to democracy since Florida's pregnant chads. Or, it might be no big deal. The votes are in (for now) after being counted three times since Election Day. The courts have spoken (for now). Democrat Christine Gregoire won the final recount by a mere 130 votes out of 2.9 million cast, after losing the first two counts to Republican Dino Rossi by as little as 42. Gregoire says it is over, but even those whose most fervent holiday wish was for a decided election don''t really believe that. The Republicans are pushing hard for counties to reconsider ballots they believe were wrongly rejected. The whole mess will probably head back to court, and it is not at all clear whether Washington will have a governor by inauguration day, Jan. 12.

continued...
http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/18191.asp

[dzika]

10. Candidate asks federal court to preserve evidence

Candidate asks federal court to preserve evidence

Saturday, December 25, 2004 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — One of two minor-party presidential candidates who paid for a recount of the Ohio vote has asked a federal court to control access to voting machines and election records used in the recount.

Green Party candidate David Cobb made the request in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Thursday.

“It is time for the federal judiciary to step in and ensure the integrity of the recount in Ohio,” Cobb said in a statement.

continued...
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=13&ID=199514&r=1&external=&newCookie=yes&userID=176029
(free subscription required for viewing)

[dzika]

11. Editor for Canadian TV Observing Elec. Nite from ABC Headquarters

(thanks to Karenca)

The ABC's of Bush Country
Sean O'Malley, CTV Foreign Editor

.....In the morning, political director Mark Halpern presided over a conference call with all the political reporters, producers and editors. (His daily note, posted on the ABC website by 11 am, had such cult status among Washington insiders that it was the subject of a New Yorker magazine feature). He indicated that the overnight polls had given Bush a bump, but everyone remarked how downcast Bush seemed when he met the press outside a polling station near his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Did Bush know something we didn't?

The closest we came to outing ourselves was when the late afternoon exit polls began to seep out. Kerry was winning in every contested state. Not only did it look like Kerry was going to win, it looked like it wasn't even going to be close. As it turned out there was no need to be at ABC to get the inside dirt.

Revealing internal polling to outsiders was verboten anyway at ABC, but in the age of Internet bloggers the news was everywhere if you knew where to look. All ABC did was let us know it was time to start looking. We all told our newsrooms what we knew and waited for the polls to close and make it official. Paul Dolan, the ABC executive who had invited us to New York and whose office we were working it, immediately began receiving calls from newsrooms around the world. The appearance of neutrality in foreign newsrooms turned out to be as illusory as that debate at the UN. One European editor told Dolan the champagne was chilling and the corks were ready to pop.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Kerry's coronation. As the hours ticked by and the official results poured in, the numbers weren't jiving with the exit polls. Bush started strong and stayed strong. The phone stopped ringing. When ABC called Florida for Bush an hour before midnight (the exit polls had Kerry ahead), my colleagues in the foreign press looked like they had been punched in the stomach. One of them started furiously playing around with an interactive website that allowed you to click each state red or blue to tally possible Electoral College final result scenarios.....

continued...
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1103937048108_3

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x195336

[dzika]

12. INVALID EXIT POLLS? BLAME THE BLOGGERS

(thanks to TruthIsAll)

Invalid Exit Polls? Blame the Bloggers.
by Kurt Nimmo

Fox News, the most favored outlet for the Bush Ministry of Disinformation (with Roger Ailes’ inside track to the Bush White House through Karl Rove), is running an Associated Press report that places blame on “bloggers for spreading news that gave a misleading view of the presidential race,” in other words reporting polling data that suggested Kerry was ahead of Bush. According to Bill Schneider, a so-called polling expert at CNN, thousands of ordinary Americans were fooled by the numbers reported by mischievous bloggers, who everybody knows have a genetic propensity to spin wild rumors and calculated untruths. “I think people believed them, and it’s particularly the case with Internet bloggers,” said Kathy Frankovic, CBS News’ polling director. “That’s unfortunate because it sets up expectations that may or may not be met. I think it’s a good exercise because it reminded people that early exit polls can be unreliable.”

Fox News, of course, did not believe the exit poll data (since they knew Bush would win), and “bluntly addressed the polls early on election night, at about the time Bush campaign officials were alerting reporters that their analysis of the actual vote count showed they were doing better than the exit polls indicated.” ABC and NBC, far less savvy—and part and parcel of the liberal elite, don’t you know—were fooled by the numbers, thanks mostly to bloggers, many of whom are of course useful idiots for the Democrats.

SNIP

Right. In other words, the same guys who eagerly disseminated Bush’s lies about Saddam’s non-existent WMD and his non-relationship with Osama are counting votes and conducting exit polls. I really trust these corporate swindlers, don’t you?

Seems to me AP is shifting blame to a convenient scapegoat, the bloggers, who use a medium everybody knows is rife with pornographers and Russian mafia scam artists (and terrorists, of course).

Moreover, I guess it is asking too much to ask the Associated Press and Fox to seriously address the issue of massive vote fraud, or that foreign vote monitors were denied access to the polls, or the 1,100 separate incidents of problems with electronic voting machines, or that the kingdom of vote fraud, Florida (where Dubya’s brother rules the roost and helped fix the 2000 race), rejected absentee ballots, or the reports of voter suppression, intimidation, and confusion that poured in from battleground states around the country, and dozens of other incidents (see the 2004 Collected Vote Fraud page).

Naw. It’s easier to blame the bloggers.

Link:
http://progressivetrail.org/articles/041104Nimmo.shtml

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x195297

[dzika]

13. Best Of 2004: Election Irregularities

Best Of 2004: Election Irregularities
TomPaine.com Editors
December 24, 2004

Democracy requires constant vigilance and regular participation. Elections are the tool for this and ours are endangered. Redistricting, electronic voting machines, voter suppression campaigns, provisional ballots. If your vote doesn't count, neither does our democracy. Here's a collection of the best of our post-election coverage.

continued...
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/best_of_2004_election_irregularities.php

[dzika]

14. 2004 Retrospective on What We've Learned About How an Election was Stolen

Friday, December 24, 2004

As the Year Ends, a Retrospective on What We've Learned So Far About If/How an Election Was Stolen, and How It Was/Not Reported

By ADVOCATE STAFF

What Democratic Representative and Ranking Minority Member of the House Judiciary Committee, John T. Conyers, Jr., Has Learned

Not to trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hocking County Prosecutor's Office, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and (though undoubtedly he already knew this) Fox News Channel.

Shortly after the F.B.I. publicly announced that it had not yet decided whether to open an investigation into Triad GSI's post-election activities in Ohio, and shortly after Hocking County Prosecutor Larry Beal declared that he "felt better" about the prospect of criminal election fraud in Hocking County after a Triad GSI re-enactment of pre-recount "repairs" to Hocking County tabulation systems, Conyers asked his staff to review the video and transcript of said re-enactment. What he and his staff learned, and what they did about it, would likely have taken a less competent outfit, like the National Election Pool, several months to untangle, and a less professional outfit, like the F.B.I., several years to investigate.

In a word, fraud.


continued...
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2004/12/news-election-2004-as-year-ends.html

[dzika]

15. Resolutions Passed By Electors in VT, MA

Friday, December 24, 2004
Resolutions Passed By Electors in VT, MA
As GuvWurld reported on Sunday, duly recognized members of the Electoral College have joined the discussion of election fraud in a meaningful way.

In Massachusetts, electors unanimously passed the following resolution:

We believe that as electors we have a unique opportunity and obligation to insure that justice does not again become so delayed as to be denied. We call on the Congress of the United States and most especially our own honorable representatives, the members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to:

1. Act to commit Congress to investigate all voting complaints that might have any validity that they receive.
2. Act to commit Congress to remedy any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts.
3. File in Congress and commit their resources to passage of systematic remedies.

And in Vermont, electors passed the following...

continued...
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2004/12/resolutions-passed-by-electors-in-vt.html

[dzika]

16. Meet in Santa Monica, CA, Tues., 12/28; About Fraud and What You Can Do

December 23, 2004

Meeting in Santa Monica, California, Tuesday, December 28th; Learn About Voter Fraud and What You Can Do Now About the 2004 Election
Voter fraud presentation and action planning session. Thursday, December 28th, 7:00 P.M., at the Unitarian Church, 18th and Arizona, Santa Monica, CA. Sponsored by "We Do Not Concede".

Link:
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/meeting-in-santa-monica-california.html

[dzika]

17. Harvey Wasserman to Speak about Ohio Election Fraud -- Thurs. 12/23

December 23, 2004

Activist Harvey Wasserman to Speak in Beacon, New York, about Ohio Election Fraud -- Thursday, December 23rd, at 7:00 P.M.


Oh-No Ohio! What happened to the Vote?
A SPECIAL EVENING With
HARVEY WASSERMAN
AN ACTIVIST IN COLUMBUS, OHIO in the struggle to expose voter fraud and irregularities in the Ohio presidential election

THURSDAY EVENING
DECEMBER 23RD AT 7PM
Howland Cultural Center, Main St. Beacon, NY

"OHIO: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR VOTE?"
Contributions are welcome at the door
-Refreshments and Music-

Harvey Wasserman is the Free Press Senior Editor and "Superpower of Peace" columnist. Harvey Wasserman is also senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service. He is author co-author of six books, including four on nuclear power and renewable energy, and two histories of the United States.

Link:
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/activist-harvey-wasserman-to-speak-in.html

[dzika]

18. Calendar of Upcoming Events

December 25, 2004

Calendar of Upcoming Events


Sunday, December 26th.
* 4:00 PM. Kansas City, Missouri. No Stolen Elections, Rally and Caroling.

Monday, December 27th.
* 6:30 P.M. Eugene, Oregon. TruthInVoting.Org meeting and planning session.

Tuesday, December 28th.
* 7:00 P.M. Santa Monica, California. Voter Fraud presentation and Action planning session.

Monday, January 3rd.
* 2:00 P.M. Columbus, Ohio. Capitol Theater. Pro-Democracy, Count Every Vote Rally
With Rev. Jesse Jackson sponsored by Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Progressive Democrats of America, C.A.S.E.-Ohio, DoNotConcede.
* 7:00 P.M. Kansas City, Missouri. Reclaiming Democracy Meeting.

Tuesday,January 4th.
* 10:00 A.M. Start. Baltimore, Maryland. "Save Our Votes" Rally
and Start of March on Washington January 4th to January 6th.

Wednesday, January 5th.
* Maryland to D.C. "Save Our Votes" March continues.

Thursday, January 6th.
* 10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. Washington, D.C. Defend Democracy Rally and Vigil.
* Transportation notices for January 6th.


Visit site for links to events:
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/calendar-of-upcoming-events.html

[dzika]

19. Open Letter to Senator Byrd: HINT HINT, GA Has Election Fraud Evidence

Friday, December 24, 2004

Open Letter to Senator Byrd: HINT HINT, GA Has Election Fraud Evidence

An Open Letter to Senator Robert Byrd:

RE: Elections Fraud & the hope he contests the election of Bush

It is Christmas eve and unlike the past 39 years of my life, I cannot go to bed excited tonite. I feel a grave sense of danger about this country's future and it's hard to go to sleep knowing I am no longer living as a free American. I am embarrassed and ashamed of my country.

There are many reasons why I feel enslaved by my American government and many good examples where the majority share my sentiment. Once you get past the rigged polls, the rigged elections and the rigged media, there really is a huge grassroots of discontent and it is the majority of America contrary to popular belief.

continued...
http://rigel2020.blogspot.com/2004/12/open-letter-to-senator-byrd-hint-hint.html

[dzika]

20. More Washington Ballots – In Alaska

Saturday, December 25, 2004
More Washington Ballots – In Alaska
Posted by James Joyner at 08:14

98 ballots end up where? (Seattle Times)

Alaska's elections director said yesterday she has 98 uncounted ballots from Washington's Nov. 2 election and would like to send them back here. Dino Rossi's campaign wants to see them. Washington officials say the ballots were cast as provisional ballots by people who said they were Alaska residents, and then the votes were sent north. Provisional ballots are given to voters on Election Day when they go to polling places other than their own, or their names don't appear in lists of registered voters. Washington, with one of the country's most liberal provisional-ballot laws, sends ballots to the voter's home state in hopes they can be counted in the presidential election, said Washington's director of elections, Nick Handy. "I actually had a number of calls from election directors from around the country that said, 'Why am I getting provisional ballots from Washington?' " Handy said.

Link:
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/8549

[dzika]

21. Bush administration hopes for democratic process free of fraud

(the irony)

Bush administration hopes for democratic process free of fraud
BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

Saturday, December 25, 2004

An AP News Analysis

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration expects a cleaner election on Sunday in Ukraine and while it professes to be above the contest for president, it is hoping for a pro-Western outcome.

...

The Bush administration had called for an investigation, joining with European and other critics of the way the campaign was conducted.

...

He also praised the administration for synchronizing its call for election reform with European governments and said, "We should try it more often."


Link:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/25/national1244EST0459.DTL

[dzika]

22. Democrats own the issues, lack the scope

By Larry Womack | RAW STORY COLUMNIST


...If you think global warming and poverty are too big to tackle, you’re probably not going to like this one, either: National election reform. Thousands of voters were sent home in Ohio—the state that decided this election—after waiting in line for over four and a half hours. Not so far, far away, people in suburban areas got to walk in, vote and leave in a few minutes’ time. Every voter in every precinct should have equal access to the ballot, or it is, quite simply, not a Democracy. We’re still living in the days of the poll tax. The poor, quite clearly, are being denied their right to vote.

I can see the 527 ads right now: broken-hearted, hard-working, honest Ohio residents sharing the story about how Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell took advantage of poorly-worded court ruling to send them home at midnight after having waited in line since seven.

Voting machines must be greater in number and distributed strictly according to population. There should be no subjectivity, here. All voting machines in the United States must be optical scan—it’s efficient, but leaves a paper trail and allows for hand counts. Anyone objecting to this, for any reason, has something to hide. If need be, a Constitutional Amendment should be called for....


Link:
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/avery/mandate_121504.htm

[dzika]

23. Mathematics and Elections

(thanks to The Straight Story)

Mathematics and Elections

The 2004 Presidential election has provided an excellent opportunity to get students interested in the American political system and mathematics. Many of us here at the Math Forum have been sharing links to resources and interesting discussions, and would like to give others an opportunity to share more publicly.

What resources have you been using with your students to study and explain the mathematics involved in the election process?

We are compiling this page of resources and will continue to update it as more resources are suggested.



Link:
http://www.mathforum.org/t2t/faq/election.html

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x195938

[dzika]

24. Video - The Myth of a Divided America

(thanks to rainbow4321)

<snip>

Throughout 2004 Americans hit the streets in protest. Corporate controlled media ignored this and instead tried to sell us whiter teeth but the protests continued.

This video shows the real America, uncensored and unmonitored by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX or any other corporate "news" agency. While this video was being edited, "Time" named G. W. Bush their person of the year. See what America really thinks when allowed to speak without censorship.

<snip>

http://colorado.indymedia.org/feature/display/9777/index.php

[dzika]

25. Kerry backer questions Cuyahoga recount

Kerry backer questions Cuyahoga recount
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Diane Suchetka
Plain Dealer Reporter

John Kerry's presidential campaign criticized the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Wednesday night for its handling of the presidential recount and said some parts of that recount should be conducted again.

..

Taylor, for example, complained that some provisional ballots were thrown out because the signatures that voters used on Election Day were in cursive while the signatures they had on file with the board were printed. Those ballots, Taylor said, should count.

..

Taylor also complained that some provisional ballots - ballots cast by those whose names do not appear on voter rolls - had been rejected because election workers determined voters cast them in the wrong precinct.

But Taylor said the board's own records show they were cast in the right precinct.


Link:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/110379794240050.xml

[dzika]

26. News Analysis and Action Memo, from Solar Bus

December 25, 2004

News Analysis and Action Memo, from Solar Bus
Fellow defenders of democracy,

Merry Christmas and greetings from the Solar Bus. There is much to report.

The big news of the day (and the month!): Break For News reports that Kerry is seriously considering un-conceding on January 6th, if and when several Representatives and Senators stand up to contest the Ohio (and possibly other states') electors. Kerry's legal team has become more directly involved in several lawsuits over the last few days, primarily in regards to evidence that the recount is being conducted fraudulently. Because there was added scrutiny during the recount, it seems a few people got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. There appears to be enough evidence for the Kerry legal team to jump in. Yesterday one of Kerry's lead councils said on national TV that "Senators Kerry and Edwards are very concerned that the law for conducting the recount should be uniformly followed. Only then can the integrity of the entire electoral process and the election of Bush/Cheney warrant the public trust."

continued...
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/news-analysis-and-action-memo-from.html

[dzika]

27. Tell Dino Rossi to Concede - Use this email form

Take Action! Send a Message

Tell Dino Rossi to Concede in the Washington Governor's Race

For months, Republicans have been calling on Chris Gregoire to concede before all the votes are counted. They've gone to court to prevent the counting of more than 700 valid ballots from King County. But now the results are in, and even without those ballots, Chris Gregoire has won the hand recount. Now it's time for Dino Rossi to concede.


Link to the email form:
http://involve.progressivemajority.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=23586

[dzika]

28. NYT: Restoring Confidence in Voting (5 Letters)

Restoring Confidence in Voting (5 Letters)

Published: December 26, 2004

To the Editor:

Re "Count Every Vote" (editorial, "Making Votes Count" series, Dec. 20):

As demonstrated in Ohio and elsewhere, people with access to the machines, and the proper motivation, can change the election result. Paper trail or no paper trail, until this problem is confronted, an election conducted on electronic voting machines, including the one this November, is not to be trusted.

..

Americans of both parties must demand that only a fair and impartial entity manage the voting process, that all software in use produce a paper trail and be subject to scrutiny by all parties in the election, that voting booths be equally accessible to all qualified voters, and that all rules regarding voter qualification are openly published and adhered to.

Finally, there should be serious criminal consequences to anyone violating the voting rights of an American citizen.

..

As a technologist and a student of computer science, I can tell you that I will never willingly cast my vote on a computerized voting machine. What a computer prints out and what it actually records are two different things, and tampering with the voting software to rig an election is a trivial task, even with a paper trail.

..

There are serious charges that voters in Ohio were systematically disenfranchised by violations of state and federal voting laws through, among other things, manipulation of the vote tabulator by a representative of the company that created the software.

Our American press, inexplicably, has been thunderously silent.


Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/opinion/l26vote.html?ex=1104642000&en=1484e2325d37306d&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1

[dzika]

29. A Smoking Gun? Operatives in FL Suddenly Avoided Poll Challenges; Why?

Saturday, December 25, 2004

A Smoking Gun? R* Operatives in FL Made Suddnly Avoided Poll Challenges; Were They Instructed? to Hold Off?

By ADVOCATE STAFF

As the attention of progressive recount activists remains fixated, and understandably so, on the State of Ohio, a stunning development in the State of Florida -- which Al Gore would have won in 2000 with the benefit of a statewide manual recount, but which George W. Bush mysteriously carried by more than 380,000 votes in 2004 -- has engendered new questions about whether and how top G.O.P. officials orchestrated the theft of a presidential election on November 2nd, 2004. News of this development nearly escaped the attention of The Advocate, released as it was (quite inadvisably, some would say) on Christmas Eve.

Observers of national politics will recall that, before the 2004 election, there was a good deal of chatter about a prospective G.O.P. effort to place so-called "poll-watchers" in selected precincts in battleground states. These "poll-watchers" were to be tasked with one mission, and one mission only: to challenge any and all likely Democratic-leaning voters whose registrations or identities could be challenged were they to appear in person at a polling place. The tacit purpose of these challenges would be to either disqualify the affected voter or else force him or her to vote by "provisional ballot" -- a form of voting in which the voter's ballot has (if recent trends are any indication) a greater than 20% chance of being thrown out post-election. The placement of poll-watchers was seen as an ideal opportunity for Republicans, under the cover of the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and state election statutes, to substantially reduce and/or intimidate large blocks of heavily-Democratic, largely-minority voters at polling places around the county. The BBC even obtained a copy of a so-called "caging list" from a county-level G.O.P. office in Florida. The list -- allegedly one of hundreds or thousands of such lists -- identified a long roll of voters the Republican Party intended to challenge at the polls on election day.

Then, just seventy-two hours before polls were set to open on November 2nd, 2004, something changed -- and it changed most dramatically in the State of Florida, unquestionably the most hotly-contested state in the entire election cycle, the state which nearly cost Republicans the presidency in 2000. The state which the G.O.P. had lavished more time, money, and attention on than any other.

State Republican operatives in Florida received word that a decision had been made not to challenge Democratic-leaning voters at the polls; in the final accounting, of the millions -- and millions -- and millions -- of Florida voters (over 7.5 million total), only 63 were challenged at the polls.

continued...
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2004/12/news-election-2004-smoking-gun.html

[dzika]

30. An Open Letter to All Prospective Triad, Diebold, and ES&S Whistleblowers

Saturday, December 25, 2004
Editorial: Election 2004: On Christmas Day, An Open Letter to All Prospective Triad, Diebold, and ES&S Whistleblowers
By ADVOCATE STAFF

Dear Sir or Madam,

We would be remiss if we did not, first and foremost, acknowledge that any fears you have of public exposure are indeed warranted. The crimes (or mere malfeasance) you have committed or are committing, or have abetted or are abetting, or are merely cognizant of, are of such a scope and gravity that those whom they benefit and those whose good name they implicate would certainly issue grave consequences to any man or woman who held such actions to public scrutiny. To assume the office of President of the United States at this point in history is to be first and foremost among all members of the species; to have at once the power to command, compel, coerce, aid, or enjoin any endeavor one chooses, to craft a unified but nevertheless intimate vision into the workaday circumstances which govern an entire planet. If a man would kill for oil, would kill to feed his family, would kill to save his people, would kill to save himself, would kill to achieve the utmost letter of his destiny, he would kill -- or allow others to kill -- to obtain the Presidency of the United States. Perhaps you fear such a consequence for exposing what you know and revealing who else it is that knows the things you know; perhaps you don't. Perhaps you think this warning is needlessly vainglorious; perhaps you think the identifying mark of an adequate warning is whether or not it issues notice of all that is possible, whether or not any of it is, in the final accounting, certain or even probable. So perhaps you would not face physical harm as an election-fraud whistleblower -- but if you are an election-fraud whistleblower, you know as well as we do you've considered the intimate details of such an eventuality.

So why take the extraordinary step of informing on a sitting presidential administration? Why aim to shock the world when you still have hope of dying in peaceful obscurity?

continued...
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2004/12/editorial-election-2004-on-christmas.html

[MasonJar]

31. I went to Cincy to work election day for Kerry and the Dems, the

last of several trips we Louisvillians took to help in Hamilton Co. I was assigned a precinct to check up on. After the polls closed, another lady and I went to follow the ballots to the drop off place. Only one person was taking the ballot boxes downtown, which in Ky. is illegal; she was also going to go by her house before the delivery, which seemed a little . We waited for almost two hours. When the poll workers came out, they proceeded to put "stuff" in several cars, then take them out and put them in other trunks instead. This musical chairs charade went on for twenty minutes. At that point we had no idea which car to follow. They all started going out at the same time and could not, or would not, tell us which one to follow. We asked but the ones we talked too acted totally perplexed so there we were without the chance to make sure the ballots were delivered. If that happened to me, think how many others must have met a similar misadventure.

[dzika]

32. Monday 12/27 Rally at FBI in White Plains, NY to Investigate Ohio

Monday noon NY rally to investigate Ohio; Leg Lois Bronz to attend

Here is a notice from Nick Mottern about Monday's rally. Please come if you can and urge others to come and support this very important rally.

Monday, 12/27 Investigate the Vote Rally 12:00-1:00 PM
FBI Office, 222 Bloomingdale Road at Mamaroneck

Monday's FBI Rally Is Extremely Important

Please do your utmost to attend the rally planned for next Monday, Dec. 27 at noon at the White Plains office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, located at 222 Bloomingdale Road. This is an extremely important rally for at least two reasons:

1. The rally will focus on the evidence of a widespread conspiracy in Ohio and Florida to disenfranchise black voters. This was done in Florida in the 2000 election, and the scheme spread to Ohio in this election. A central part of the scheme was to deprive polling places in black communities of adequate numbers of voting machines. The press has not given adequate coverage to the whole issue of vote rigging, as we know, but the black vote disenfranchisement has been even less a story. This, inspite of Michael Moore's dramatic sequence in Fahrenheit 9/11 in which black Congresspeople sought objection to the 2000 election, and not one senator could be found to join them.

Lois Bronz, the first woman and first African-American to chair the Westchester County Legislature, plans to attend Monday's rally, as does Charles Coca, president of the Ossining National Associationn for the Advancement of Colored People and Sundiata Sadiq, former president of that organization. Joanne Robinson, a long-time worker for civil rights and economic justice, will also attend. Other political leaders have been invited.

2. A strong turnout at this rally is critical not only to gaining press attention but to building political pressure on Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer to stand to join the Congresspeople on Jan. 6 who will object to the 2004 election.

We recognize that this rally comes in at a time when many people will be away for the holidays, but we felt that it is absolutely critical to make a showing now because of the approaching elections deadlines, notably Jan. 6. Many of us have sent email petitions and in other ways have been using the internet to assist in getting vote justice. However, there is no substitute for getting out into the street. That is how civil rights were won, and that is how they are going to have to be defended.

As noted earlier, so far the FBI has not answered the letters and email that we have sent to them, imploring the agency to investigate the evidence of 2004 vote rigging.

We will gather on the Mamaroneck Avenue side of 222 Bloomingdale Road, where the sidewalk is widest and there is plenty of sunshine. Coffee will be available. There will be a permit for the rally.

If you need more information, please call [phone]. Wishing you very happy holidays, Nick

Please circulate this as widely as possible.

Allegra Dengler
60 Judson Avenue
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
914-693-8023

[dzika]

33. FreePress: Another third rate burglary - at Ohio Dem Offices

Another third rate burglary

by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
December 25, 2004

On December 9, 2004, I posted an article on Lucas County. I noted with deep suspicion the voter turnout data for the City of Toledo. Of the 495 precincts in Lucas County, the 88 precincts with the lowest turnout, all in the City of Toledo, were won by John Kerry. Of the 8 precincts with less than 50% reported turnout, 4 are located in 2 wards. Of the 29 precincts with less than 55% reported turnout, 20 are located in 4 wards. Of the 63 precincts with less than 60% reported turnout, 34 are located in 4 wards, 39 are located in 5 wards, and 43 are located in 6 wards.

When the precinct numbers are combined into totals for each ward, a clear and unmistakable pattern emerges. The 14 wards with the highest reported turnout were won by John Kerry by a margin of 11 to 7 in the aggregate. The 10 wards with the lowest reported turnout were won by John Kerry by a margin of 6 to 1 in the aggregate. The more competitive the ward, the higher the reported turnout. Conversely, the less competitive the ward, the lower the reported turnout.

It was, and still is, my professional opinion that the election in Lucas County was rigged. I speculated that someone may have gained access to the central counting devices for the optical scanners without anybody at the precinct level knowing about it. The vote totals for candidates could be altered in this manner. But at each precinct there is supposed to be a count of total ballots cast, and it was difficult to imagine how access to a computer could have altered or affected the reported voter turnout without serious risk of exposure.

Shortly after I posted my article I received a phone call from Toledo. My source, who had been an observer at polling stations on Election Day, told me of insecure and chaotic conditions there. I was also referred to a newspaper article in the Toledo Blade, posted online at
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004410130378

The article, written by Robin Erb, published October 13, 2004, is entitled: “Thieves hit Democratic Party offices; computers containing sensitive data removed.” I take the liberty of abbreviating it here:

continued...
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1037

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x196135

EDIT: subject, link

[sunshinekathy]

34. Florida - the Miami Herald recount.

I wonder why the Miami Herald recount of 2.6 opscan counties never made headlines.

While it is not a valid calculation necessarily, if the number of changed votes that shifted from Bush to Kerry in the recount of the 2.6 counties that the Miami Herald chose to recount had been extrapolated based on population proportion, to the rest of Florida, the shift in votes would have come very close to shifting enough votes to change the FL results to a Kerry win.

In addition the counties that the Miami Herald selected were not counties with the highest likelihood of vote count errors.

The huge problem of course, is that there is no way of recounting the DRE touchscreen voting machine counties.

The biggest push in FL should be for local Dems to run for the position of local Election Officials, but then how does one win an election that is counted using possibly rigged touchscreen voting machines?

The only answer may lie with a complete mathematical study using demographics of the entire 2004 election in every state. Such a study is almost complete for New Mexico and the results there may make a real splash as far as the correlation between high rates of "undervotes" (ballots for which no candidate was recorded) in the presidential race in precincts using DRE electronic style voting machines.

There is a lot of hard work involved and we will need many volunteers to help, in order to collect the detailed data we need to study all 2004 election results so that patterns between states can be compared.

Please join our effort by going to http://uscountvotes.org and sign up for our main email announcement list or any of the state lists where you have some time to help wrest detailed data from state and county election officials:

http://uscountvotes.org/fairelection/statesubscribe.html

Perhaps we can all get ready to do this analyses much more quickly by 2006.

Regards,

Kathy Dopp
http://uscountvotes.org

[dzika]

35. Prosecuting The Election Fraud Conspiracy

(thanks to HR_Pufnstuf)

by somtum, rumormillnews.com

The Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus is confident that at least a few U.S. Senators will join House members on January 6 to question the fairness of the November 2 election. John Conyers, Jr., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Salon.com he doesn't believe the Senate will repeat its performance of four years ago, when Black lawmakers sought in vain for one senatorial objection to "official misconduct, deliberate fraud, and an attempt to suppress voter turnout by unlawful means" in Florida, as Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) put it at the time .

"No, I think the Senate is going to go along with an inquiry this time," said Conyers. "I don't think they would embarrass themselves to let this happen two times in a row... I just don't think the Senate would get caught in that position." Conyers is careful not to name names, claiming he hasn't spoken directly to a single Senator, but adding, "there are Republicans who support what I'm doing who haven't been willing to come forward."

Conyers is the indispensable person among the righteous Grinches who are casting a shadow over the Republicans' holiday. Through his hearings in the Capitol and Ohio -- unsanctioned and unattended by Republicans -- and his engagement of the Government Accountability Office to study election "irregularities," the 75-year-old Detroit lawmaker has thrown an institutional spotlight on GOP crimes and misdemeanors. How "high" these crimes can be connected is another story, but there is no doubt that massive violations of a variety of laws occurred on the ground. Conyers prefers to call them "things that went wrong" in swing states like Ohio:

"It depends on what part of the state we're going to examine. In Hocking County, a private company accessed an election machine and altered and tampered with it in the absence of election observers. It disturbed a deputy chair of the election in the county so much that she has given a sworn affidavit that has been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and we're in the process of running that down. But what about in Cleveland, Ohio? There, thousands of people claimed that their vote for Kerry was turned into a vote for Bush. Poll workers made mistakes that might have cost thousands of votes in Cleveland. And in Youngstown, machines turned an undetermined number of Kerry votes into Bush votes as well. Provisional ballots were thrown out. There were several conflicting rules. There was mass confusion. In Warren County, they talked about terrorism might close down the election. I mean, please."

Conspiracy? Conyers understandably avoids using a word that corporate media so eagerly associate with nut cases. Instead, Conyers employs a less loaded term:

"Well, you know, orchestrated attempts don't always require a conspiracy. People get the drift from other elections and the way talk about how they're going to win the election. When you have the exit-polling information discrepancies that occurred in 2004, where the odds of all the swing states coming in so much stronger for Bush than the exit polls indicated - they say that that is, statistically, almost an improbability."


continued...
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=61858

DU Thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x196136

[dzika]

36. NYT: Recounts and Partisan Bickering Tire Washington Voters

Recounts and Partisan Bickering Tire Washington Voters
BY SARAH KERSHAW and ELI SANDERS

Published: December 26, 2004


-snip-
Tim Lundquist, 48, a Seattle schoolteacher who said he voted for the Democrat, Christine O. Gregoire, said he was pleased that his candidate seemed to have won but well aware that finality was still elusive.

"Where does it stop?" Mr. Lundquist said. "If this were another country, we would be asking NATO to come in and count these votes because we can't seem to get it right."

-snip-
Ms. Golant said that she received notice that election officials had trouble verifying her signature and that Democratic Party election workers had tried to contact her five or six times to have her complete an affidavit showing her signature was valid.

"My signature has always been the same," she said.


Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/national/26gov.html

[dzika]

37. Nation gets better at vote counts

Nation gets better at vote counts
By THOMAS HARGROVE Scripps Howard News Service
December 26, 2004


The nation's $2.2 billion investment in new voting machines and other election reforms reduced the number of ballots that failed to count in last month's presidential election, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study based on final or nearly complete election data provided by 43 states and the District of Columbia.

-snip-
Full election data is not yet available from South Carolina, but in North Carolina this year 58,223 ballots failed to register a presidential vote.

A few other states with historically high rates of undervoting showed little or no improvement this year, including the key battleground state of Ohio. Some 96,580 ballots in the Buckeye State failed to register a presidential vote this year, up from 93,991 four years ago.

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, noting that 68 of Ohio's 88 counties still used punch-card ballots last month, said the results underscore the need for updated voting equipment. But Blackwell also suggested his state's 1.7 percent undervote - more than four times higher than Florida's this year - could be caused by the voters themselves.

"Given human nature, when you're talking about 5.8 million people casting a vote, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that you have a small percentage of people who would say, 'A pox on both of your houses,'" Blackwell said.

The Scripps Howard study found that there were at least 1,126,562 ballots that failed to register a presidential vote last month, based on complete information from 40 states and partial data from three others. This is a dramatic improvement from the 1,605,263 ballots that didn't register presidential votes in 38 states that reported complete data (including number of ballots cast) in 2000.

Link:
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_3425406,00.html

Note - these are the same people that published "Election study finds widespread ballot-counting problems"
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=MISCOUNT-ELECT-12-20-04

[dzika]

38. FreePress: Hacking the vote in Miami County

Hacking the vote in Miami County
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
December 25, 2004

On Election Night, when 100% of the precincts in Miami County had reported, only 31,620 votes had been counted. George W. Bush was reported to have won Miami County with 20,807 votes (65.80%) to 10,724 votes (33.92%) for John F. Kerry. These numbers did seem low. In 2000 there had been 42,841 ballots cast. Bush had won Miami County with 26,037 votes (60.78%) to 15,584 votes (36.38%) for Al Gore.

Somehow the final total came in later that night at 50,235 votes cast, giving Bush a margin of 16,000 votes, exactly – 33,039 to 17,039. Moreover, as has been widely reported, even with the addition of 18,615 new votes, Bush's percentage was almost unchanged (65.80% to 65.77%), and Kerry's percentage was exactly the same (33.92%). This led some observers to believe that the optical scanner had been programmed to come out that way, to provide the desired 16,000-vote plurality.

-snip-
Now the 1,609 provisional ballots have been examined, 1,542 of them have been counted, and the results have been certified. Bush now claims victory in Miami County with 34,005 votes (65.68%) to 17,611 votes (34.01%) for Kerry. Officially there were 51,777 votes counted for president, an increase of 20.86% over the 2000 presidential vote total.

This represents an astonishing increase in voter turnout. The population of Miami County is reported to have grown from 98,868 to 100,230 since the 2000 census, an increase of only 1.38%. The number of registered voters has risen from 66,765 in 2000 to 72,169 in 2004, an increase of 8.09%.

How did the Republicans do it? To answer this question I have compared, on a precinct by precinct basis, the presidential vote totals for 2004 with those of 2000. Since turnout was key to Bush’s impressive margin in Miami County, I have organized the data according to voter turnout.

continued...
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1038

[dzika]

39. Stolen Election - A brief introduction to the facts...

Solarbus

Stolen Election - A brief introduction to the facts...

Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?

This is not conspiracy theory. This is not hearsay. There is evidence. There are witnesses. There is an investigation. If what appears to be true is true, there will be convictions. And there just may be a President Kerry.

The election was stolen with not just one tactic, but with several. Some of the things we know for a fact are true. We know they tried to suppress the vote; there are documented cases of shredding of Democratic voter registration cards in several states, and flyers sent out to Democrats telling them they could not vote. On other things, the evidence is certainly pointing towards fraud and we are waiting for more conclusive results and analysis. The biggest question is about the use of electronic voting machines. If the allegations are true, they were able to change the will of the people, right under our noses, on computers that were never tested for security.

Below is a brief summary of the key points, followed by links to articles with more details and information. This website will updated as more information becomes available.

continued...
http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/stolen-election-intro.html

[AntiFascist]

40. It's Christmas Night and there's a Full Moon out....

* may be tied in closely with Moonies and other far right extremists including those with Nazi leanings. This may be important for election fraud investigations. I know you may be tired of hearing this but....


STAY TUNED!

[dzika]

41. Governor's race to make many voters feel cheated

Governor's race to make many voters feel cheated

Mike Fancher / Times executive editor

Like Howard Beale, the crazed newscaster in the movie classic "Network," Washington voters may be ready to throw open their windows and shout discontent.

"Do you have ANY idea how fascist you west-siders seem, as we all head into this west-side-instituted Gregoire government?" raged an e-mail I got this week. "Every single true east-side Washingtonion knew this governor's race would never end until you west-siders had your way. ...

-snip-
"I can't remember a story that generated as much ongoing reader response as this recount," says David Postman, Times chief political reporter. "Lots of people who I'm willing to bet didn't pay attention during the campaign were watching every little move in the recount.


-snip-
Voter discontent is probably inevitable when the closest election in state history includes counting ballots three times with differing results. But discontent is especially corrosive if the public doesn't trust the process or those running it.

Link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002130803_fancher26.html

[dzika]

42. It's not easy beingblue: Buck up, liberal weenies; we're all Americans

Sunday, December 26, 2004

It's not easy beingblue: Buck up, you liberal weenies; we're all Americans -- right?

By Chuck Sigars
Special to The Times

Guest columnist

-snip-
You gather the trash, the wrappings and the packaging and what stray tinsel the dog didn't eat, and you pile it all into the garbage can on top of those Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers you finally peeled off the Prius because other drivers were making fun of you. It's not so easy being blue.

-snip-
You note that 46 percent of the Washington electorate voted for George W. Bush. So did 40 percent of Massachusetts voters, right there smack dab in the middle of liberal land, home to Kerrys and Kennedys. And nearly the same percentage of Texans voted for the Dems. I mean, really. Texans.

"C'mon, guys," you say with a weak smile. "We're not blue or red. We're purple people, just like the rest of the country," but Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Kentucky are having none of it.

-snip-
Sure, you may be a sushi-eating liberal Seattle weenie and they may be red-necked hillbilly reactionaries, but we're all Americans, right? Red and blue and purple mountains' majesty. Can't we just toss the maps and get along?

OK, maybe I'm too optimistic. Maybe we'll just stay mad. But, hey: At least we finally know who our next governor is.

All right. Never mind.

link:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002129503_sigars26.html

[dzika]

43. Don't ignore voting irregularities

December 26. 2004

Don't ignore voting irregularities

Joe Simonetta | Sarasota, FL

The irony is thick. Mainstream U.S. media are in an uproar over fraud in the Ukrainian election. Hardly a peep do we hear from them as evidence mounts of widespread fraud in our Nov. 2 election:

-snip-
Democracy -- our way of life -- is at stake. Why is this not front-page news?


Link:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041226/OPINION/412261013/1029