*****

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE RANCH...

Forget Whether The Nov. 2004 Was Stolen - What We Gonna To Do About It If It Was?
or...
A Proto-Theory On The Karl Rove Strategy For Keeping GOP In Control In Congress
An exclusive speech in DU Election Forum by DUer Althecat
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=431596&mesg_id=431799

*****

US... election time is coming fast... first summer, an abundance of hurricanes and a president playing with his cactuses… and then come September/October it will hit us all in the face like the train wreck that we all know it will surely be.

And then before we have time to collect our thoughts, it will have happened again. Election Theft 2006. http://www.ameratsu.com/media/vid/cnn/cnn_sr_kennedy_stolen_election_060602a_320x240.flv&width=320&height=240&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240">Terry Holt said as much to Wolf Blitzer yesterday.

At present the conventional wisdom among Democrats who think they lost fairly in 2004 (plus a bunch of those who thought 2006 was crooked too) is that the good guys cannot possibly lose in November 2006 with a President so unpopular, events in the real world playing so badly for the administration (The War and the Climate) and a GOP so out of tune with reality.

This is a mistake....

The combination of skillful media management (Karl Rove's true genius) combined with wide scale election theft is an unbeatable combination unless it is actively opposed at both a grass roots and central party committee level.

Meanwhile most of the grass roots and all but a tiny minority of party leadership are still on a planet where election integrity remains fully intact. As of yesterday even though major networks had covered the story Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum & Markos Zúniga had not personally commented on the piece by JFK Junior.

So lets for a moment suspend discussion of whether JFK Junior is right and 2004 was stolen. Rather lets simply assume that it was and then think what that means. Principally:



For those of us who have studied this subject inside and out we knew it was going to happen in 2004. We knew there would be vote theft and vote suppression. We knew it would be widespread and massive.

But we did not know exactly how it would be accomplished and we thought – MISTAKENLY – that if we proved it had happened people would now at last listen to us.

We watched it happen on the very night. Raw Story, DU (special mention TIA = "truthisall") and Scoop reported it. Live.

When we saw the exit polls stats we thought it was a smoking gun (as it was.) But we did not know how it happened. We were BETRAYED BY JOHN KERRY AND HIS SPINELESS ADVISORS.

Senator Barbara Boxer later believed in John Conyers fantastic efforts sufficiently to save Congress from the ultimate humiliation of having the result certified unopposed. But for all the coverage this generated in the media it might as well have been.

Now, thanks to Greg Palast, Fitrakis and Wasserman, Mark Crispin Miller, John Conyers and countless activists we know how the election was stolen. We know where it happened. When and to some extent who was involved. We can pinpoint the counties where it took place if necessary.

Last week RFK Jnr – following in the footsteps of Gore Vidal and several authors at Vanity Fair at least one of whom is more often known as right wing reactionary Christopher Hitchens – reported yet again that it was not our lying eyes that deceived us but the talking heads on the TV.

So let me ask again.



Of course it isn't.

************

I therefore present the following proto-theory on what the future holds for the US 2006 mid-term elections.

See this story on Lou Dobbs reporting of immigration matters.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0606/S00036.htm

…& recall that Lou Dobbs also jumped on this report about Sequoia and Venezuela.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0606/S00012.htm

Dobbs is right to be concerned about the ownership of voting machine companies, we all are. But this story stinks. Finally the MSM is concerned about the ownership of voting machine companies… but not by the ownership by GOP stalwarts. But by the possible ownership by South American dictators.

There have always been rumours/stories about South American rigging of US elections circulating in the background since I was introduced to this subject. Now it seems there is proof.

And a bit of Government bungling to boot of supervision of these things it seems. This is all too convenient.

But when read in light of Mark Crispin Miller's extraordinary findings in Fooled Again it is positively disturbing. These stories create a very interesting nexus.



This is Freeper fantasy par excellence. Of course they need to respond by stealing the election again themselves. The future of the republic is at stake.

Which brings me to some political analysis and how I now suspect the ELECTION THEFT 2006 game will be played.

***********

Immigration (i.e. the political playing of the race card) was what was launched at *s big prime time speech last month.

Troops were sent to the border and Halliburton was given huge contracts to build concentration camps.

The immigration policy * adopted is classic "wedge politics". (Ironically this speech took place on the very day we were fixated on the prospect of Karl Rove's imminent indictment.)

In the game of politics – and I am by profession a political journalist here in NZ - immigration & playing the race card is in political terms the equivalent of playing the joker.

The political use of a race card to gain power to implement a fascist agenda is also what Hitler did. It is inherently dangerous... and it is inherently evil politics… but we live in an immoral world and it has been used to spectacular effect all over the world in recent years.

Recent elections in Australia, New Zealand, Holland and Austria all indicate that when done tastefully in a nation with a racist underbelly the race-card is the ultimate vote generator. It works a treat and confounds the punditocracy by the bucketful.

It has been played thrice in the last decade with spectacular effect in NZ politics including the most recent two elections in NZ where the card was played by a parachuted in neo-liberal economist who is presently the leader of the NZ equivalent of the Grand Old Party (if only it still was!!!).

This most recent NZ election – September last year - also saw:
- widespread allegations of US GOP political consultant involvement;
- the bizarre involvement of a Christian Right sect (the Exclusive Brethren who also recently backed Mel Martinez in Florirda) in an underground dirty tricks campaign;
- the involvement of Australian consultants who worked recently with the Tories in London when they too played a mild version of the race card (it failed).

In NZ our race-relations policy dominated election was marked by:

1. Huge volatility in political polling numbers (a spread of 15% in the week before the election)... sufficiently large much so that any result could have been demonstrably possible at the ballot box.

2. Huge gains for the National Party over their past performance...

3. An ambitious last minute run at the prize from the right... including a bid for an absolute majority (which under our proportional representation system – MMP – Mixed Member Proportional - was fortunately assured to fail. Historical Note: NZ's electoral system is the same as Germany's which was specifically designed to counter the achievement of absolute majority by a fascist minority.)

************

So lets apply this political meme to the current situation in the US.

Whether the playing race-card actually changes public opinion sufficiently or not is not the issue for the 2006 US elections.

When you have the ability to modify the count with some degree of subtlety what is important is creation of the political cover to justify your victory in the face of evidence to the contrary. In other words you need to confound the punditocracy and keep them confused.

The race card in NZ was effective but it did not actually result in victory for the National Party – but it did come close…. similarly an anti-immigration card failed in the most recent UK elections though again there was significant conservative traction from it. It did however work well for John Howard in the last Australian federal elections. (One downside of playing the race card is that it also mobilizes the opposition because they recognize fascism when they see it – not that it is particularly hard in the US these days.)

So while the race-card may not be able to deliver the GOP the house in 2006-2008 what it is indisputably capable of is creating a great deal of confusion over the issue of who is leading in the build up to the election.

I do not think Lou Dobbs is deliberately acting as a tool of right wing propaganda. This is far more subtle than that. And the fact that a mainstream commentator - generally thought of as somewhat kindly and a bit liberal - is potentially being co-opted in this fashion gives a very strong steer on the caliber of the opposition media strategising.

The management of public opinion has become an art and the interests that back the Bush Administration have control of both the message and the media.

Combined the memes in these two stories

1. IMMIGRATION: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0606/S00036.htm
2. SEQUOIA: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0606/S00012.htm

Have the potential to provide:

1. a) Justification for a sudden shift in apparent voting intentions between now and autumn (which you call fall).

and

b) Credible cover for the creation of huge poll volatility.

(i.e. this be the effect.... confirmed in the exit polls this time - but which will be kept under wraps this time most probably but I would think sophisticatedly manipulated to justify the result – they will not make that mistake again ...this in turn will justify even greater numbers of GOP votes being found nationwide in 2006 - and further undermining of the "conventional wisdom" of the usefulness of polling as a check method against election results.)

2. a message to the base of the GOP - the 1000s of activists who actually ran the dirty tricks campaigns and stuffed the ballot boxes in 2000 and 2004 who will be called upon to do it again in 2006 and 2008.

The beauty of this strategy is not only in that it can be used to blindside the media and the public. It will also blindside the Democratic Party.

It will do this precisely because this sort of fascist politics really does stand a chance of working.

When in September and October 2006 the published polls (and remember back to 2004, and who precisely is conducting many of these polls, and how easy they are to screw with these as soon as you start sampling different ratios of registered republicans and democrats) start going haywire the DNC and DLC will doubtless conclude that they have over-estimated the moral fibre of the electorate. They will conclude that the race card is working.

(ALSO NOTE WELL: The starting point for the pollsters in deciding on the sample sizes for the the 2006 polls will be the ballot stuffed numbers for the 2004 election which are still "officially" the best basis for making this assessment. i.e. This means that the polls will already be inherently biased towards overstating the GOP vote in all areas where votes were stolen in 2004.)

Then fearing they have again be out maneuvered Democratic Party leadership and candidates will respond by going all spineless as is their want - and just as Karl Rove is planning and expecting.

All the while behind the scenes the silent army of election stealers - who believe that a liberal corrupt society has handed over the keys of the electoral system to a South American dictator - will be preparing to steal the election from under their noses again.

Here endeth the rant.

Althecat

be involved in '06 elections.

We're going to have to find the evidence, publish the evidence to ALL Americans, and make some examples.

WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?

We desperately need independent exit polling.... Mitofsky will probably do it this year as usual but the results will be under lock and key. Professional exit polling is vital for efficient election stealing... otherwise you do not know how many votes to steal and how many ballot boxes to stuff.

We need the exit polling to be professional, credible and non-partisan - this probably means using a leading unimpeachable european outfit. We need a PAC set up for this purpose or adopt one - Like President Carter's that is already in the business and convince it to do it - we need to get it funded.

they were not going to have official exit-polling this time. But as you say it gives them certain advantages. I'd like to know whether this is scheduled to take place or not.

Yes, the answer is Independent Exit-polling. We need to know the status on that too. It's been talked about ever since November 04.

1. Hostile
2. A carpetbagger for the election stealers
3. A secretive arrogant jerk

In 2006 he will be conducting the main "official" network exit polls almost certainly if there are any (were there any in 2002). My bet is that mitofsky will remain on the plot until he starts to smell too bad.

I have the same low opinion of Mitofsky and was hoping he would be out of the picture. I am unsure what happened in 2002. When I googled "2002 exit polls" I found this:

VNS cites problems with exit polls
Service finds exits polls unreliable

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Voter News Service, a vote-counting group used by major news organizations, cited dissatisfaction with its exit poll analysis Tuesday and said it would not release any "national surveys of voter attitudes" on election night.

Because of this, CNN decided it will not rely solely on exit poll projections to project winners in any state with a competitive election. Other news organizations indicated the development at VNS could slow projections during the night.

CNN, the other TV news networks and The Associated Press will rely more heavily on returns from state election officials and their own analyses of VNS sample precincts. In addition, CNN has its own sample precinct system in 10 of the states with the closest races and will use those as a backup to VNS in making projections in those states.

VNS issued a statement saying it was "not satisfied with the accuracy of today's exit poll analysis and will not be in a position on election night to publish the results of state and national surveys of voter attitudes."
<snip>
Americans are not going to have the kind of insight into this election as they have had in the past," said Jim Norman, USA Today's polling editor.
<snip>
VNS said the data it was collecting from exit polls was "not being properly analyzed by the organization's new computer system" developed after the 2000 election debacle when various news organizations projected Democrat Al Gore the winner, then retreated from that statement.

more at:
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/05/elec02.exit.polls/index.html

The exit polls were wrong in 2000 as well. 2002 was a test which went badly wrong and no figures were released but in an election which was almost certainly fixed on thebasis of the exit poll data.

whether they will make the polls public. There will be exit polls.

and I get the feeling they inserted various novel ways to see what works and what doesn't. For instance in Ohio several hunders of voters complained that after selecting Kerry, Bush lit up.

Several hunderd voters is of course not significant. On the other hand, they could have programmed X machines to act in that way, and then note how many complaints come in so they can get a picture of the 'complain' rate.

but what do we do when that exit polling indicates fraud? Will the media take it seriously? They'll use the fact that they're European to smear them, or they'll have "experts" make misleading statistical arguments that will sound plausible to non-statisticians.

Do we fight for recounts? How do you recount when there's no paper?

Step 1: Credible exit polling detects the fraud.
Step 2: ...
Step 3: Victory!

What's step 2? I'm not trying to discredit your suggestions in any way. I agree that we need credible exit polling, but we need to have a plan for what we do with the results. What is that plan? I don't know, but hopefully someone has some good ideas. We need to start discussing and implementing those ideas.

& you are correct that without some form of redress just knowing that the election has been fixed will not be enough. That's what happened this year.

In the end a legislative solution will have to be forthcoming to enable proper audits etc. Current proposals are toothless and as we saw in Ohio can be worked around effectively anyway. Meanwhile the judiciary cannot be relied upon in any real way.

However without independent exit polls we will not even get that far. Without independent exit polls we will have no credible evidence of tampering full stop. The debate will be even easier to shut down than it is now. If we are to convince the DNC that this issue is killing them then we need evidence. If they get hosed in November and there is no evidence for them to look at they will just assume it is because they are not good enough at the game - just as they do now.

We also have a HUGE case of of cognitive dissonance to overcome here.

With three elections already rigged for the media, election officials and elected representatives to acknowledge that fact is a HUGE ASK... it is to ask them to admit that they have been asleep on the watch and allowed their democracy to shrivel on the vine.

I have no disagreement with that. Proving the fraud is half the battle. We do need to proceed with that no matter what, even if we have no plan on how to proceed afterward. Maybe having our own exit polls visibly in place would even dissuade the more blatant attempts.

But we do need to at least try to come up with a plan. How about this - we publicly announce that we will be doing specially designed exit polls. We do not announce any specifics such as what locations will be polled, only that they are designed specifically to detect fraud or machine error. We also announce that there will be lawsuits against election boards and voting machine manufacturers in any precinct where fraud or error is detected. That in itself may discourage some activities. Of course we would need some guaranteed financial backing so that it's not just a bluff.

With the public visibility that Robert Kennedy Jr. has brought to the issue, we may even get some support from the general public on this.

Just announcing them would not work methinks :)

They can and should be announced as clearly and as loudly as possible - and the law suit idea is a GREAT ONE.

As for public support there are already a huge number of grass roots americans behind the effort for election integrity. Millions I would tink.

Moveon has made it one of their key planks for this years efforts as I understand it and there are significantly active groups operating in many states. I see no reason to think that a PAC created for this purpose this would not attract considerable public support and money. Corporate and media money could also be solicited for it.

What is vitally needed for any of this to happen however is for people to start moving now. There is now five months to go and counting....

Obviously I didn't mean that we should just announce them. We announce them and then actually do them. By announcing the polls and the followup lawsuits we may, at the very least, dissuade laziness and carelessness on the part of election boards and thus make them more vigilant. I think the plan needs to include poll watchers along with exit pollsters. We should be ready to launch legal actions over any significant irregularities that are noted. We should also be ready to launch legal actions against any attempts to suppress voting or registration. We should somehow ahead of time be monitoring expected turnout versus available voting equipment. We should very visibly and publicly single out and question any individuals who are obviously engaged in any kind of suppression. We should also launch an educational publicity campaign, telling the general public what to look for and where to call.

I think an important part, since we can't possibly hit every precinct in the country, is to somehow hide exactly where we will poll. We should have polling teams ready for general areas and then give them their specific locations immediately beforehand. That may even be how exit polls have been done in the past, I don't know.

We need to get as many groups involved as possible. This includes the obvious political and civil rights groups as well as less obvious ones like AARP, veterans, environmental groups, and unions. Basically any group that is fed up with the current administration, even if voting rights hasn't been on their agenda in the past.

Any idea how to go about creating a PAC or getting an existing one, like Moveon, interested in our ideas?

... I would be inclined to ask him.

Read the Robert Kennedy article... "Was the election Stolen"

Tell everyone you know to read it and be ready for those who try to refute his findings.

Go to your local elections office and tell them what you think about the way they count your votes.

The best way to organize and spread the word is to talk to people, one on one.

Get involved with a local election protection group near you.

Talk to candidates.

That ought to be enough for one day, eh?

Thanks for encouraging this post BTW befree...

That is certainly enough for one day..

But much much more than that is necessary to combat this in November 2006. I think it is more or less clear that the MSM WILL NOT EVER WAKE UP ON THIS ON THEIR OWN... SHOUTING WAVING PLACARDS AND WRITING LETTERS WILL NOT WORK.

So much of our energy and indeed MCM's and JFK Jnrs has gone into pointing out the deficiency of the media. They remain deficient and will continue to do so. Even the online media have their heads in the sand on this.

Ron Baiman's response to Farhad Manjoo - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0606/S00037.htm - succinctly and completely rebuts everything that Manjoo says. You do not have to bend credulity to understand his arguments the numbers speak clearly for themselves. It is not a question of "were votes" stolen in the 12 dodgy counties. Mitofsky's numbers show that they were stolen.

And yet JFK Jnr. is getting a right kicking on the networks. Wolf Blitzer makes me want to puke. "Robert Kennedy asserts that Exit Polling is an exact science... but that isn't what the pollsters say"...... this COMPLETELY MISREPRESENTS THE ARGUMENT. And it is deliberate. Blitzer is a disgrace to his profession and a traitor to his nation. But we can say that as much as we like and we will not be heard.

THEREFORE

We have to assume that the media will not come on board prior to 2006. I do not think they will come on board prior to 2008 either... but we can fight that battle later.

Right now we have to formulate a plan which will at least guarantee that this time we do have the evidence when the argument restarts in full on November 3rd.

My pleasure... great missive!

Granted I live in a small town, but my local rag is paying more attention to the way the vote is counted, because I asked them to. We can all keep telling our own local rags what we want to read and it will make a difference. It can grow.

As to this election coming up, yes, we need to be capable of creating an accounting procedure. Did you know 26 states have paper trails and audits on the books? That's a big start, and one that will require some organizing.

Baiman rocks! Folks need to read his work to get another piece of the puzzle, and get it passed on. Remember when right after Nov. 2004, all the rage was "being the media", well we need to bring that back.

Too, like you said, calling the opponents of election reform: Traitors, is gonna get us some headway. I kinda like the idea of calling the whole thing a scandal. People take notice when they hear Scandal! And a scandal it is, eh?

Good to see you hanging with us some more. NGU

That is sort of what this is I suppose.... a plan from me to be back on the case more closely from now till November. RFK's peice was kinda inspiring, but actually it was Will Pitt's mea culpa (and Autorank's outstanding enthusiasm) that has really made me feel like this place still has plenty of the magic it has always had.

stick it out through November. Gonna need all the help we can get, esp from those who know the real story about the election of 04. :)

Parties need to perform their own Exit Polls. Get a local Marketing Research firm...or work with a professor at a major university. WE MUST DO OUR OWN EXIT POLLS.

I watched that Lou Dobbs tonight about Sequoia...and that story just has a stink about it. Of course it would be Venezuelians that are involved with that company in Florida. Yep....smellls like Karl.

... we need to be working together.

There have been a couple of conferences on the subject already. There should now be another one out of which a national coordination cmttee should perhaps be formed.

the truly unbelievable Bushite "comeback" that Diebold and ES&S will manufacture this November. That's what shaping up. With "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY vote tabulation programming code in virtually all the central tabulators in the country, and Bushite corporations owning and controlling this code, the capability is there to secretly tweak any given election, without leaving a trace (one hacker, a couple of minutes--and they can change millions of votes). They may add a third cover: terrorists--although they have to be careful about that, because any SUCCESSFUL attack may be blamed on them. They have also combined this OUTRAGEOUS new control they have gained over vote tabulation with boffo efforts at massive vote suppression--purges of the registration rolls, "voter ID." And I don't see a plan yet in place to overcome any of these huge handicaps for candidates who truly represent the majority in this country.

We need to think LONG TERM. I think it's going to take awhile to restore election transparency and get our country back. I do think we will win, in the end. But we can't count on one election, in these conditions, to do it. Here are some of my action recommendations:


----------

OVERVIEW: AMERICAN REVOLUTION II

What we now have --in addition to outright illegal suppression of Democratic votes by Bushite election officials and other operatives--is several big electronic voting corporations with very close ties to the Republican Party and rightwing causes--Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia-- 'counting' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--with virtually no audit/recount controls. This is the result of the infamous "Help America Vote Act" of 2002, a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle engineered by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney (and abetted by Bilderberg 'Democrat' Christopher Dodd).

Our elections are now NON-TRANSPARENT and UNVERIFIABLE, and under the control of partisan corporations. The $4 billion--and also millions in lavish lobbying--were used to corrupt election officials from one end of our country to the other. And those they have not been able to corrupt, they have driven from office (Kevin Shelly in California), or sought to intimidate (Ion Sancho in Florida, and others). This pervasive corruption, and bullying by the Bushite Feds, has resulted in the widespread purchase, by states and counties, of extremely insecure, unreliable and hackable--and very expensive--election theft machinery.

Restoring TRANSPARENT elections is a MUST DO, PRIORITY ONE, MATTER, if we want our country back. Without the right to vote, we can do little or nothing to restore lawful government. We can protest. We can be appalled. But if the will of the majority--which has always been for peace and justice, and good government, consistently over the last six years, in ALL the issue polls--cannot be enforced, then we might as well be shouting to the wind.

--------------------------------------

SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Practical suggestions for the immediate future:

1. ABSENTEE BALLOT VOTING. Promote absentee ballot voting. It's not the ultimate solution, by any means, but it at least provides a tangible paper record for challenging suspicious election results, and for recounts and investigations. (Absentee ballots were a great help to investigators in 2004.) Absentee ballot voting is also a form of protest against the machines. 50% of Californians are now requesting Absentee Ballots. If enough people do it, the machines will be obsolete; then we can work on getting rid of the central tabulators.

2. MONITOR THE ELECTIONS. Join with others to closely monitor the coming elections and gather and document evidence. See www.UScountvotes.org, and other resources, below. UScountvotes.org needs donations!

3. DEMAND INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Demand that the Democratic Party fund INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Exit polls are used worldwide to verify elections and check for fraud. The war profiteering corporate news monopoly exit polls cannot be trusted (they are doctored to match the results from the voting machines' secret programming code; rather than being used to verify elections, they are used to confirm NON-TRANSPARENT "official results"). The Democratic Party owes us, big time, for their lack of vigilance--and in some cases corruption--on electronic voting. This is one critically needed thing that they can do to help.

4. THINK LONG TERM. Saving our democracy promises to be a long hard struggle. We obviously can't get rid of these machines before the '06 elections, so focus on doing our best with the Diebold/ES&S handicap (a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Bushites and warmongers), and getting rid of these machines afterward, for '08 and beyond.

5. TELL PEOPLE THE TRUTH. They NEED to know it. Engage them in the fight. Bumper sticker: "Help Us Beat the Machines--VOTE!" There is nothing more demoralizing and disempowering than constantly losing and not knowing WHY. There is evidence that the machines CAN be beaten by massive turnout. Get people involved! Help them to SEE what's happening! THEY will solve the problem, ultimately--if they can only IDENTIFY what it is!

6. PRESSURE LOCAL/STATE ELECTION OFFICIALS. Right now, the best place to fight this fight is at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. Bush's Congress is NOT going to give us back our right to vote--they are the ones who took it away (with the collusion of some corrupt Dems). Don't look to the Feds--look to your local county registrar, your state election boards, your secretaries of state. Demand TRANSPARENT elections. Also educate and mobilize your local Democratic Party and other political party groups.

The first priority in this historic fight for American democracy is restoring our right to vote--the mechanism by which we exercise our sovereignty as a people. Without it, we have no power. We MUST change this.

Never give up on our right to vote! NEVER!

----------------------

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties have promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

(Tide turning?) New York Times: "New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems" (5/12/06)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2278829

-----

INFORMATION AND ACTIVIST RESOURCES for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)

(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)

www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of the movement from around the country--caveat: $$$ connections to Choicepoint)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550 (many DUers support the bill):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html

(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

exit polling..its our only insurance policy...its all in the polling..i have told people with voting activism it is in the polling ..to watch the polls coming up to the election..we will know where the steal will come by the polling..its how they have done it in fla for 3 election cycles...

this is where the dem party should be putting big time money!

fly

It needs to be non-partisan, independent, supervised and overseen by both parties and above reproach.

but 6 it is.

Great rant. Sadly, all of it sounds right on.

agrees with the SCOTUS decision in Bush vs Gore or if the court actually had legal authority to do what they did! That was 6 YEARS AGO!

The death of a republic takes no amount of time or real effort to destroy. The will of the citizenry has to be right for such a loss to occur, kinda like now. Look on the bright side, even with the decline of Rome, it still lasted 500 years as an empire! I'm sure America won't even scratch that number with GOPers rigging elections (some who actually believe in what their doing).

Sick and sad.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121804I.shtml
& Washpost coverage of it....
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/102004I.shtml

It is truly shocking.

America is a nation that, like nero, is fiddling as the constitution is being burned.

thanks for the links! :hi:

in almost any other nation in the world such overwhelming evidence of election rigging would lead to riots on the streets - actually Australians probably wouldn't we're pretty apathetic too be there'd at least be some protest.

it's like you all just bent over and handed them the vaseline

Tis quite so Djinn.... quite so.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/06/ca_50_immigration_stance_put_b.html
CA 50: Immigration Stance Put Bilbray in Perfect Position

It would be a bit of a stretch to say public concern about illegal immigration was the decisive issue that earned former three-term Republican Rep. Brian P. Bilbray a return to Congress, with his narrow but clear victory in the special election held Tuesday in California’s 50th District.

The San Diego-area constituency has a conservative lean that naturally benefitted the Republican nominee, even though the contest was the result of another Republican’s scandal: former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham had to resign after his conviction in a massive bribery scheme.

Republicans enjoy a 15 percentage-point voter registration advantage over Democrats in the 50th. And, as Democrats are quick to point out, Bilbray’s 4 percentage-point margin over Democrat Francine P. Busby was well below the norm for Republican candidates in the district.

stolen elections.

"And, as Democrats are quick to point out, Bilbray’s 4 percentage-point margin over Democrat Francine P. Busby was well below the norm for Republican candidates in the district."

I would add to all that... that any election conducted in the wake of the Duke Cunningham fiasco ought to be winnable....

When it happens they will say that it was Immigration & Gay Marriage that won it for them. And the DNC, the media and the blogocracy will all nod.. and say yes yes yes... the of course the machines are hackable "BUT THERE IS NO ACTUAL PROOF THAT THEY WERE HACKED".

Now that I have your attention :D

We could have the best independent exit polls in the world, but the *real* problem lies in the blind faith that a majority (I'm guessing %75) of us have in the "system".

We are taught at a very young age to trust authority, never question it, and it is a form of brainwashing that saps the desire for independent critical thought.

The point of my argument here is that if people are trained to believe (and do believe) what the media and those "honorable" government officials say, we would never make any headway with independent exit polls for a single election in 2006, because most people will dismiss the poll numbers.

I do believe it is worthwhile to continue hammering on this issue -- as one of voter confidence, there are finally some stories in the MSM about how the electronic voting machines have problems. But the word "fraud" or "potential for fraud" doesn't get to the front page yet.

:hi:

..one of the truly old crew :) And you are dead right that the "blind faith that a majority of us have in the 'system'." is a serious problem to overcome (did you really mean to include yourself in the us?). However like Robert The Bruce's spider we must try and try again until we succeed.

You say:



I say:

The point of independent exit polls is multi-fold
1. Convincing the media..
2. Convincing the honourable govt. officials..
3. Alerting the vote stealers to the fact that they are in danger of getting caught...
4. They would provide a seperate stream of data with which to critique the mitofsky poll - which will doubtless continue as it is needed to provide the data to feed into the election stealing planning
model.
5. They would provide a stream of data which can be used to pin point where the election is being stolen more precisely
6.....

I am sure others can provide more reasons such an exercise would be useful.

-- since I live in this country, though the training never impacted me (blame it on couple of college degrees in science). (But it wouldn't be hard to convince me to come to NZ again for some green-lipped mussels!)

And I do think the exercise is very useful -- I just think we've got deeper and more systemic problems in the populace that will require a lot of serious "whacks on the head" before they get jolted into reality -- enough reality to recognize the value of an independent exit poll and why it shouldn't be dismissed as easily as the 2004 exit polls were dismissed.

There was a time when enough of us knew about "conflict of interest" to not trust what anyone said or wrote, but find other truly independent sources to verify facts. That time is long gone, I personally believe it left about the time the "dual working couple" family came into being as a majority, and the average Joe & Jane don't have the psychological energy to do the research after work hours and family affairs efforts it takes to be an informed voter.

Cheers Mr. CAT!

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/062006/06082006/197522

Could Rove be that machiavellian... to motivate the base?

Just a thought.