Presidential Election: Investigate the Vote

Presidential Election: Investigate the Vote
Posted by : DavidSwanson on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 02:34 PM

Investigate the Vote


Questions are swirling around whether the election was conducted honestly or not. We need to know -- was it or wasn't it? If people were wrongly prevented from voting, or if legitimate votes were mis-counted or not counted at all, we need to know so the wrongdoers can be held accountable, and so we can prevent this from happening again.

Members of Congress are demanding an investigation to answer this question. The decision on whether or not there will be an investigation could come as soon as Monday. Join us in supporting the call for one now, at:

http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/

Then please invite your friends and colleagues to sign, as well. We need to show Congress that hundreds of thousands of Americans are serious about protecting the integrity of the vote.

We're all hearing the stories and wondering what's true and what isn't. But at least two cases of serious problems are accepted beyond doubt:

In Broward County, Florida, electronic voting machines counted backwards: as more people voted, the official vote count went down. <1>

In one Columbus, Ohio suburb, election officials have acknowledged that electronic voting machines credited Bush with winning 4,258 votes, even though only 638 people voted there. <2>

These are just cases where we know something went wrong. There were also lots of reports of people being denied ballots on Election Day. So far, these reports remain anecdotal, but they must be compiled and examined. And the Internet is abuzz with theories about why the official counts were so different from the exit polls.

Do you have a story? Were you prevented from voting? Tell us, at:

http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/

more
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=988&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Sorry, I've obviously been listening to Sister Randi a lot lately!

Seriously folks, I'm so glad to finally see something from MoveOn regarding this topic....I've been sending them emails all week asking them where the hell they are and to start getting on this....I believe that when they decide to move behind something, they are very effective at raising awareness and getting momentum....this is great news....not only does this mean that the email went out to their mailing list and base, but they have a way to offer the folks a quick and easy form to complete to sign the petition and letters. They also can raise money quickly and have access to some of the top advertising people and could even place an ad within a matter of days, either on TV (if stations allow them) and certainly radio spots and email/internet blasts. I admire Bev, but she doesn't have this kind of attention and media machine like MoveOn has established. I assume that they are going to work closely with her as they well should and same with her.

:kick:

PS: Just nominated this for the Homepage - DUers - nominate and meanwhhile go to the link and sign the petition - NOW!

Please donate to this.

http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=donate

Imagine what they could have done if the would have taken this seriously when I introduced Bev Harris to one of the Move On project directors.

During the meeting the Move ON rep riduculed us for thinking that the Bush family was a crime org and capable of the most serious offenses against our country.

It's great to see people pulling their heads from their asses but honestly it's a day late and a dollar short.

They wanted nothing to do with Black Boxes either. :tinfoilhat: :shrug:

seem to have no idea how deep the shit we are in is.

Another call to action came out today from PFAW (People for the American Way) who focus on constitutional rights of representation and who had organized teams of lawyers and poll monitors across the country for the election last week. I was actually a poll monitor with them in Ohio.

They sent out the following email today: (Follow their links also and advise and call to action...)

Amid the appeals over the last week for a healing of political divisions another call has been muted: the call for a full investigation of the election irregularities documented by Election Protection volunteers and others. We must let our voices be heard by Congress and the media so that evidence and testimony can be secured, examined and, ultimately, used to inform future efforts to protect voters' rights, whether they be a week, a month, or four years down the road.

You can help today by taking two actions. First, e-mail a letter to your members of Congress urging them to support an investigation of election problems across the nation by the General Accountability Office, Congress' independent and nonpartisan investigative arm.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/Election2004/supportGAOinvestigation

Second, write a letter to local media outlets that briefly describes election-day problems you witnessed and that encourages others to join the call for a complete accounting of the election failures on November 2.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/Election2004/LTEforinvestigation

Public pressure, led by Election Protection volunteers like you, is critical in the coming weeks. Simultaneously, PFAW Foundation's Election Protection team is supporting efforts to impound voting machines, or obtain back-up data from machines, in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico because of reported voting discrepancies and problems. We are also collaborating on public hearings in Ohio to take official testimony and input from voters and volunteers who observed problems there on November 2 (hearing details to follow in a subsequent e-mail). Last but not least, Election Protection attorneys are pursuing challenges to some troubling election incidents, including the failure of elections officials to supply absentee ballots to voters that requested them and the inconsistent application of voter identification and provisional ballot requirements.

We wrote last week that Election Protection was a success because of what you put into it. That success instills in us a deeper obligation to keep striving for an election when every eligible voter will be able to cast a ballot that counts. You helped put democracy to the test -- now we must sort through the results, pinpoint the problems, and find the answers. All of the wonderful comments we've received from volunteers have assured us that you are committed to the same goal.

Please speak out today for a thorough investigation of the 2004 election. Election Protection still has much to do, and we'll make sure that you stay up-to-date with regular e-mail alerts.

Thank you,
Ralph G. Neas
President
People For the American Way Foundation

P.S. - Many of you took the time to e-mail us at ephotline@pfaw.org with constructive comments and suggestions for improving Election Protection and our nation's elections system. Even as Election Protection's work continues, we are taking the time to evaluate the program, and your feedback is very helpful. We do want to re-emphasize, however, that Election Protection remains completely nonpartisan and 100% focused on safeguarding the rights of each voter. Our post-November 2 efforts are not intended to change election results for any issue, party or candidate.

GO TO MOVEON LINK AND SIGN THE PETITION AND PASS IT ALONG TO FRIENDS

WE NEED TO GET MOMENTUM GOING ON THIS!


http://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/

:kick:

The author of the earlier petition, Rick Gagliano, posted the following on his website where he updates the status of his petition. http://www.petitiononline.com/cgi-bin/mlk?http://www.dtmagazine.com/

"Here's the comment I sent to moveon.org:

Nice going guys. Two days after I contacted you, asking you to promote the petition I started, you start your own. That's fairly counter-productive and also cheap grandstanding. I also note that you did not mention my effort, which has resulted in over 21,000 signatures.

See: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?uselect&1

We're all working toward the same end. Too bad you feel a need to take all the credit.

Rick Gagliano
Downtown Magazine"

I signed the first petition. I have to admit that moveon.org does have a lot more power and presence, but it seems harsh to take the petition idea and leave Rick in the dust.

I will never trust them again. It is no surprise they stole this guys idea. Like I said up top, I introduced Bev Harris to one of the top people at Move On and they failed to take her seriously.

Now after she was proven correct and we have 4 more years of Bush they chose to get serious about this issue?

They were even more rude when the subject of reopening a 9-11 investigation came up.

There seems to be a byzantine but legal reason why all those discrepencies aren't really. What to believe?

states, not including the smaller problems and glitches that have run in the 1000's....In my opinion, one thing that shows any possible disenfranchisement of a voters right to vote and especially any sign that shows there may have been something wrong with the integrity of the voting machines, whether by mistake or deliberate, is very serious and demands an immediate investigation.

Just because the Washington Post has debunked or explained a few of those discrepancies away, doesn't mean the other 638 ones are irrelevant and also not factual.

*****The unexplained exit poll discrepancy - Debunking the debunking?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x43917
and here:
Huge article: The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy -- Buzzflash.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x981903
and here: JUST LET THE WHORE MEDIA TRY TO DEBUNK THIS.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=39583
Link (pdf): http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/The_unexplained_exit_poll_discrepancy_v00k.pdf

I Smell a Rat...odor of Republicanus floridius
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x44112#44122

can figure to the penny exactly how much tax I owe, including penalties and interest but the US government can't figure out how to run a reliable voting system.

the IRS is only guessing!

Really, the tax code is so complex, and until recently the data collection so sketchy, that it was guilty until proven innocent with the IRS---probably still is, actually. So why not have an electoral process to match? Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds (and I defy you to find smaller minds than in the GOP!)

Welcome Newbie :hi: ....we love freethinking people to join our party here on the DU! :toast:

Why has DU stopped locking non-LBN threads?

ILCA press release

Just seems a little dangerous to allow all press releases as news...

sign the MoveOn.org petition! They too are looking into mobilizing folks and looking into the voting issues!

DU this is picking up speed....very important to spread the word as much as we can....

that the buzzline "moveon should move on" is going to come back to bite them in the arse?

damn time!
Two irregularities?
Those two are the tip of the iceberg!

sign it!

:kick:

but Homeland Security says it knows nothing!!!!

WHERE ARE THE MEMOS?

WHO SENT THEM?

---------


AMY GOODMAN: Can you summarize your piece in today's Cincinnati Enquirer?

ERICA SOLVIG: Well, the story that ran today is reiterating the County Commissioner’s stance of Homeland Security concerns. They say, as you have already mentioned, that the county was facing a terrorist threat that ranked 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. We talked to several officials with the homeland security department as well as the FBI. They knew of no increased terrorism concerns in Warren County in particular, and just, again, raising the continuing concerns regarding Homeland Security and being locked out of the building. The primary focus of all of the articles has been on, you know, the First Amendment issues and the open government issues that are raised when the public and the media are locked out of the process.

AMY GOODMAN: You have interviewed a number of people for your pieces; among them was a news director at a local TV station?

ERICA SOLVIG: That's correct.

AMY GOODMAN: What did he say?

ERICA SOLVIG: He called this a red herring. Bob Moreford, the News Director at channel 9, CWPO TV, the ABC affiliate here said he had never seen anything like it, and WCPO as well as the Associated Press and the Inquirer all received the same response when they tried to get into the building on election night, and that was being locked out. Moreford said that he considered it a red herring. He continued to say, “That’s something that's put up when you don't know what else to put up to keep us out.”

AMY GOODMAN: We're taking a look at Keith Olbermann's blog from MSNBC. He was quoting the statement given out by Warren County Commissioner Pat South to MSNBC. You have also been quoting her a great deal. It's quite a remarkable quote. It says, “About three weeks prior to elections, our emergency services department had been receiving quite a few pieces of correspondence from the office of Homeland Security on the upcoming elections. These memos were sent out statewide, not just to Warren County, and they included a lot of planning tools and resources to use for Election Day security.” Pat South went on to say, “In a face-to-face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency Services, we were informed that on a scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of southwest Ohio was ranked at a high 8 to a low 9, in terms of security risk. Warren County in particular was rated at 10, 10 being the top highest risk. Pursuant to the Ohio-revised code, we followed the law to the letter that basically says no one is allowed within 100 feet of a polling place except for voters, and that after the polls closed, the only people allowed in the Board of Elections area where votes are being counted are the Board of Election members, judges, clerks, poll challengers, police, and that no one other than those people can be there while tabulation is taking place.” And yet, Erica Solvig, now the Department of Homeland Security and FBI are denying that they ever talked about a security risk here?

ERICA SOLVIG: They're saying that they were not aware of any increased security risk in Warren County on Election Day. The county has declined to give us the agent's name who told them this, because they haven't talked to this agent - this is an FBI agent - anytime recently. But the Homeland Security officials that we have talked to in the area, as well as the FBI, are unaware of any increased security risk on Election Day. Again, the primary concern was being locked out of a public building on a night when the entire nation was watching, waiting for the results.

AMY GOODMAN: Is Warren County, Ohio, republican or democrat?

ERICA SOLVIG: It is Republican, but politics aside this was an unprecedented action on their part. As far as we know and as far as the Ohio Secretary of State's office knows this is the only county in the state that locked the public out of the building.

AMY GOODMAN: One more time, as you point out in today's Cincinnati Inquirer piece, Pat South the commissioner describes the FBI agent coming to her?

ERICA SOLVIG: The FBI agent apparently spoke with some county officials who then relayed the information to the commissioners. He actually spoke directly to Frank Young, who is quoted in the article as well.

more
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/1536254

Someone else may have posted this but it's REALLY COMPELLING!

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/The_unexplained_exit_poll_discrepancy_v00k.pdf

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I mean why did they wait until after the election when in 2003 we were screaming at them to look into and do something to start a campaign to get Congressmen Holts Bill through congress if they would have got involved back then we might not be talking this stuff right now in fact we would be preparing for a new president! I will go as far to say maybe it would have been another democratic contender since those machines were used in the primaries how do we even know for sure Kerry got all the votes he was credited for and was not the preferred candidate to run against Bush preferred by Rove that is? Had the swift boat ideas ready and waiting! If you don't believe me then you really need to read the Black Box Voting book @ www.blackboxvoting.org ! There were plenty of us writing our reps and posting on MoveOn's forums yet when they did say something it was way to late already! Just some thoughts! also read the chapter about how to get your self elected to the senate as a darkhorse candidate that never held any public office just controlling interest in a Electronic Voting systems company!!!!!!Yes I'd love to see media coverage of Sen. Hagels affiliation that was hidden from the public and also ask the people that were denied the right to a recount since the election was such a landslide!!!!

down. Bev Harris personally warned them of this and they blew it off. They should be addressing this stuff and 9-11 but instead they treated these subjects like they were exclusively the domain of the lunatic fringe.

:kick:

:toast: :dem: :headbang:

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

... Langston Hughes

:hi: sattahipdeep

"To charge the enemy or enter a battle when one knows that there is no hope of success, requires courage of a much higher order than when the soldier is sustained by the enthusiasm born of hope."

-- Colonel St. Clair A. Mulholland, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry

Winter was setting in as the first units of the Army of the Potomac gathered above the banks of the Rappahannock on November 15, 1862. The army, 130,000 strong, was in need of a rest, none more than the Irish Brigade, but the new commander of that army was under political pressure to act, and act he would.


In terms of strategy, tactics, and generalship, the resulting battle of Fredericksburg, fought on December 13, was probably the most poorly conceived major engagement fought during the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee took up a strong defensive position on the south side of the Rappahannock River with his Army of Northern Virginia and dared the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, Ambrose Burnside, to come and try to take it.


Fredericksburg was the most one-sided major defeat suffered by either side in the Eastern Theater during the War. The Federal army sustained an estimated 13,000 casualties, nearly three times the Confederate total of 5,000. But within these unequal casualty figures lies the reason this battle, in spite of its foregone outcome and uninspired tactics, continues to fascinate those who study Civil War history.

This epic battle, coming less than three months after Antietam, profoundly established the courage of the common soldier in blue. When the battle's smoke lifted, all could see that what stood between the Federal army and victory was its commanders, and not the pluck of the men in the ranks. And though many units in the Federal ranks demonstrated that fortitude on December 13, none surpassed the performance of Meagher's Irish Brigade.


....

In terms of strategy, tactics, and generalship, the resulting battle of Fredericksburg, fought on December 13, was probably the most poorly conceived major engagement fought during the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee took up a strong defensive position on the south side of the Rappahannock River with his Army of Northern Virginia and dared the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, Ambrose Burnside, to come and try to take it.

The wait under fire must have seemed interminable, and then the order rang out "Irish Brigade, forward at the double-quick, guide center, MARCH!" The smallest of 15 brigades to make the attempt that day, Meagher's Irish Brigade, now stepped off as one man, with the 69th New York, already on its way to immortality, holding the right.

more
http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/fredpt1.html



DECEMBER 13 IS WHEN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE MEETS. KERRY'S "CONCESSION" IS NOT LEGALLY BINDING, AND HIS "PHONE CALL" IS NOT A WRITTEN CONTRACT. JOHN KERRY WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

describing the coming anti-fascist revolution:

"The revolting section was, roughly, bounded by Sault St Marie, Detroit, Cincinnati, Wichita, San Francisco and Seattle, though in that territory large patches remained loyal to President Halk, and outside of it, other large patches joined the rebels. It was the part of America which had always been the most "radical" - that indefinite word, which propably means "most critical of piracy." It was the land of the Populists, the Non-Partisan League, the Farmer-Labor Party, and the La Follettes - a family so vast as to form a considerable party in itself.

"Whatever might happen, exulted Doremus, the revolt proved that belief in America and hope for America were not dead."



I'm as stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay.
I'm junk, but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the USA!

So Doremus rode out, saluted by the meadow larks, and onward all day, to a hidden cabin in the Northern Woods where quiet men awaited news of freedom.

And still Doremus goes on in the red sunrise, for a Doremus Jessup can never die.


http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/l/lewis/sinclair/happen/chapter1.html

yesterday or the day before, depending on when you read this. I've been wondering where they've been as well.

So I'm kicking and hoping that this will stay UP all weekend! :)

:kick:

:kick:

:kick:

Here's what I wrote when I signed--

As a working computer professional and registered Republican for over twenty years I am concerned to see the serious issues of a "hackable" democratic process marginalized as a partisan issue, as if this was just about who won the presidency.

It is not. The glaring security holes, lack of transparency and auditability, and resultant civil distrust of the process is the biggest national security issue we presently face. We need not only to see that things are done fairly and openly, but do it in such a way that the whole country, even the whole world, can see for themselves that the process is open and honest.

-- MarkusQ

:kick: