Miami Herald article compares US to Ukraine election!

[helderheid]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10802297.htm?1c

Posted on Thu, Feb. 03, 2005

ELECTIONS
Ukraine vote yields important lessons for U.S. democracy

BY LANCE DEHAVEN-SMITH
[e-mail]

Ukraine's 2004 presidential election offers important lessons for American democracy. U.S. election laws and national opinion have yet to catch up with recent developments in election technology and administration. In particular, they are blind to what the Ukraine Supreme Court referred to as ''massive fraud,'' where the integrity of an election is subverted by many small problems that are mutually reinforcing.

When the Ukraine Supreme Court invalidated Ukraine's presidential election, the Court said that a variety of flaws made it impossible for the election 'to determine the voters' will.'' Problems cited by the court included inaccurate voting lists, precinct totals that exceeded the number of registered voters, and a host of bugs in the electronic system for counting votes.

These and similar problems were equally prevalent in the U.S. presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 and probably altered the election outcome in both cases.

• In Florida and Ohio, not enough voting machines were placed in the inner cities, which resulted in long lines and multi-hour delays that inevitably discouraged Democratic turnout.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[ottozen]

1. Springtime

should make it easier to line the streets with disgruntled, disenfranchised American voters, demanding democracy.

[demodonkey]

2. WOW! Great Article! This is the spirit we need!

We have to get the message out, I think people just don't have a clue because they think the USA is totally above anything like this. Um, wrong... DEAD wrong.

Anyway this is a great article that lays it on the line nicely, IMHO.

[helderheid]

3. I was so glad to see it was in a major US paper!

[marions ghost]

8. GET THIS OUT THERE

send thanks to the professor for this article and to the Miami Herald for printing it. Thanks to you helderheid for posting here.
FORWARD THIS WIDELY--It's very clearly written and gets at the real issues in terms that people can understand. This is the most concise statement on the reasons why fraud is going unpunished that I have seen so far --strong article for our case.
SEE LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS:

"One factor that has contributed to this shift from the conspiratorial tampering of the past to the massive fraud that is so prevalent today is the poorly conceived effort to remake government in the image of the private sector. In recent years, civil-service protections for government employees have been greatly weakened, and many governmental functions have been contracted out to private corporations.

These changes in American public administration have created a new spoils system that makes massive fraud likely in today's elections because it effectively ties public employment and government contracts to election outcomes. In Florida and Ohio, for example, many corporations, public officials and government workers had a vested interest in the reelection of President Bush. No conspiracy was needed to orchestrate their activities. Multiple biases with cumulative effects could be (and were) introduced into the election system through the independent efforts of numerous individuals acting on their own initiative in the pursuit of the same objective.

Until U.S. election laws are reformed to guard against massive fraud, our elections will remain vulnerable to systemic abuses. To be sure, bias in election administration could probably be prosecuted today under existing laws. Certainly, officials in Florida and Ohio appear to have violated their official oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of their states. They may have also broken federal civil-rights laws by intentionally weakening the voting power of African Americans. However, these acts of massive fraud have gone unpunished -- and, indeed, uninvestigated -- because most Americans have yet to recognize the new form of election tampering that is undermining our democracy."

-----------------------
***Maybe one of yall in Miami area could let us know if there are any LTTE or reactions to this article?

[AtLiberty]

4. YES!!!

Would you please post the entire article? I'm having password problems.

[helderheid]

9. done!

[helderheid]

14. .

[meganmonkey]

5. Great article!

Do we know if it was printed, or just online?

Oh man, what a good read!

[tex-wyo-dem]

6. Kick for a MUST READ!!!

Great article!

We are the Banana Republic of America...

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Wow!

:kick:

Be sure to send him positive email feedback!

[RaulVB]

10. Great article!

Fraud has taken place in both countries. Just THE REACTIONS WERE DIFFERENT!

I'm sending this everywhere!

Keep kicking!

[AtLiberty]

11. Would someone please post the entire article?

Thanks

[helderheid]

12. I did

I edited the original - it's now complete

[helderheid]

13. What I wrote him

Bravo! I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to see your article. You did a fantastic job!

I found your article online and don't live in Florida. Was it also printed in the paper or was it only published online?

Again, thank you! I am forwarding it on far and wide!

Sincerely,

_______

I'll let you know how he responds!

[helderheid]

19. his response

It was published in the printed edition of the Miami Herald.

Thank you for your supportive e-mail.

---Lance d-S

Dr. Lance deHaven-Smith
Professor of Public Administration and Policy

[marions ghost]

20. Glad to Hear That!

:bounce:

[skids]

15. Oh, it's in the OPINION section... that explains it.

I was wondering, what the heck is the Miami Herald up to? Usually their coverage is badly slanted against us.

[helderheid]

16. wonder if it got printed

and not just online

[marions ghost]

17. yeah I agree the Herald has been badly slanted

on these issues too. But the editors still have total control over what goes in opinion sections. So for them to decide to print this means they thought it a well-presented "opinion." This allows the paper a little more neutrality. Whatever. People will read it. DeHaven Smith puts words to what a lot of people may instinctively feel. It's good to see academics with his knowledge and perspective speaking out. His article is certainly resonating around here.

I guess I'm assuming this was printed, but like you say helderheid, maybe not. Need to find out.

Kick so others will read and distribute this article.

[helderheid]

18. true

I sure hope people read it!

[myschkin]

21. Sensational!

[greenmutha]

22. Thanks for finding this helderheid!

I sent it to John Conyers, Keith Olbermann, ABC, CBS, NBC, The AP, LA Times and NY Times with my comment of:

"Three cheers for somebody brave enough to speak the truth!"

W00T!

[davidgmills]

23. Little out of date

With Freeman's 250 Million. Hate to see that.

[Peace Patriot]

24. Thanks, Helderheid! Kick! nt

[frictionlessO]

25. Thank you so incredibly much!! This on top of all the other news

has really made my day!!

You rock Helderheid!:yourock: :headbang:

[helderheid]

27. ahhhhhhhhh!

Thanks!

:)

http://www.cafepress.com/hasnomandate

[marions ghost]

26. KICK

one more time

[seafan]

28. This piece deserves widespread attention.

Glad someone finally cut through the censorship. And in the Miami paper, too.

Thanks for posting this!

[berniew1]

29. My documentation and that of Freeman, Hout, Phillips,etc. support this

Widespread systematic vote machine fraud;
and dirty tricks and suppression of minority registration and voting in Florida through manipulation of registration, absentee ballots, and provisional ballots; and similar in at least 20 states in 2004 Election:
summary of some of the documentation

http://www.flcv.com/usssumall.html


the other analysts studies links are included in my summary

[helderheid]

32. thanks for that link berniew1! n/t

[kster]

30. I have

a good feeling about this. Thanks Helderheid.

[helderheid]

31. My pleasure!

I have a google news alert - sends me any article with "election fraud" in it. :)

[mirandapriestly]

33. What a Terrific Article!

that is one of the best articles I have read on the subject. This is a great way of describing what happened: "where the integrity of an election is subverted by many small problems that are mutually reinforcing."

[helderheid]

34. Be sure and write the author

we are the majority!

[Farah]

35. =D

:kick:

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

36. kicking for joy

[helderheid]

37. just in case you hadn't seen this

[GetTheRightVote]

38. This is a great posting, thank you, about time news media join in

:kick:

[helderheid]

40. It's in the editorial section but it WAS printed!

Hoorah!!! Let's all write our own and send them in to our papers.

[Rocky Top]

39. "kick"

[seafan]

41. A Saturday night KICK! n/t

[Moderator]

42. helderheid

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.



Thank you.


DU Moderator

[helderheid]

44. Sorry

I had originally done just that but some people couldn't get to the article without a password and they were having trouble accessing it and requested I post the entire piece. I put a note at the bottom of it explaining why I re-edited to ad the whole article. Again, sorry if that caused a problem.

[McCamy Taylor]

43. kick

:kick:

[NationalEnquirer]

45. Amazing, you found this in that fish wrap?!

I have never found much of worth in the Miami Herald, not even their lingerie adds :)

[helderheid]

46. LOL!

Yes, they printed it in the editorial section! Hoorah!

[NationalEnquirer]

48. Will wonders ever cease....

Now maybe I can go back and check out those adds as well :)

[Imagevision]

47. I believe John Kerry said it all when he stated that...

John Kerry told FOX News' senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera that he believes he lost because the Osama Bin Laden video tape released a few days before the election may have scared the American electorate.

"It was that Osama tape — it scared them ."
http://www.perspectives.com/forums/forum4/20609.html

I believe John Kerry has been acting as though computer fraud- Kenneth Blackwell - Disenfranchisements of voters rights were things that were the figment of imagination of countless millions.

Kerry said ALL your votes would be counted? -- being realistic? we now know this simply wasn't the case and never happened.

Sad to say, I believe Mr. Kerry ended up being nothing more then the great white hope!