Kerry may be working for voting reform but NOT Election FRAUD

I just read the post from the Daily Democratic and it does explain that Kerry is working to reform elections. Good. But more has to be done.

Kerry must address the issue of the stolen election...or election fraud. It will hang over him like pig pen's dark cloud otherwise; just like the concession. He can't have it both ways. He's playing politics as usual and what is necessary is a radical departure from that.

He wants to run in 2008 but he won't get the support he had in 2004 unless and until he addresses the issue of election fraud it's not enough to try and reform the process (that's important but it's a secondary issue). The fact is that these Rethugs are in office under false pretenses. They have no credibility. It's an illusion - one that needs to be shattered.

I supported Kerry, I worked tirelessly in his campaign. I was crushed by the concession. I got over it. I have continued to support him until today...after this, I just don't know.

... by Mark Miller. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't.

But if Kerry is going to say it publicly he will say it publicly. No politician is going to have a major view revealed through second-hand sources and of course he's going to have his press secretary contradict him.

As Mass said, NO Democratic politician or political figure has outright said that the '04 election was stolen. And frankly, I don't think we have the proof that it was. We have a LOT of evidence that shows there was major vote suppression and a LOT of evidence that many Kerry votes were lost. But how many, what the margin was, whether it was enough to tip the balance are all unknowns.

This shows the need for verifiable voting. But any public claim by Kerry that the election was stolen is going to be disregarded by the political establishment and the vast majority of the country as sour grapes. If Democratic figures believe the election really was stolen, then Kerry is the last person who needs to say it. If he were the only one to say it it would only marginalize the cause and discredit it.

And frankly in this case, I'm happy with him working behind the scenes where he can actually have some influence. Kerry himself stating publicly that he thinks the election was stolen will set back the cause for voting reform, not help it.

It appeared he wasn't working on it before and that didn't bother you before. Miller mentions a conversation that, while I don't doubt happened, may have been misinterpreted by Miller. I fear that Miller heard what he wanted to hear.

Why would this be Kerry playing politics? What would he gain from "yes I am/no I'm not". Whatever he's doing, he's still doing. Whatever he wasn't doing before, he still isn't doing. If you supported him yesterday, what has changed so that you don't support him today, except that Miller opened up a wound?

A flip-flop would be a public declaration by Kerry that he believes it was stolen and then backpeddaling. If the conversation with Miller did occur, it sounds like it was off-the-record and was never a public stance.

This appears to be a big issue with him. I fear he is getting a bit desperate to have someone come out in a big way and really go after it.

However, I fear that he's trying to DRAG Kerry to the front. That's NOT going to work. And as some have said, Kerry is exactly the wrong person to come out anyway. Maybe someone who is planning to run in 2008 could do it.

It is an important issue. But if you want legislation, you go to Kerry. You want activism, you go to an activist. Much as I love him, Kerry is NOT an activist, at least not anymore.

And I do see evidence on Kerry's site that he's working on the issue. There's the legislation in Congress, the action teams he's forming, and just the general rhetoric on his site that talks about partisan election officials and antiquated machines.

The lawsuits are about the election fraud. They have to play out. Perhaps because it's a pending case it can't be discussed publicly. Did you think about that.

And I reiterate - where the fuck is everyone else on this? Hello? What about the rest of Dem Senators backing him up? What about the House backing him up?

It's not just him - we need a friggin consensus!

flighty sensationalist or an exaggerator. I had no indications from Miller that I should not believe him.

I am the person who keeps repeating the same phrases and sentences:

We cannot allow Republican manufactured voting machines, Republican software, Republican technicians, Republican networks paying for the exit polling, thus owning the data to manipulate any which way they want, Republican networks who call the vote, Republican tricks of telling people the wrong day, setting up detours to nowhere, unmder-supplying and hiding voting machines, playing tricks with absentee ballots.

Where is the government oversight.

I think election reform is citizen-lite.

I want investigations by more than volunteers.

If Dems are finally gaining courage then they have to attack this.

It is wishy-washy to not settle it for the sake of history and the future of our country.

How can our Dem leaders allow Republicans to call the shots when it comes to voting? It makes me sick to my stomach.

How can any country on this earth whose leaders claim we have a democracy not arrange for voting integrity?

Yes, election reform by Dems is citizen-lite, rights-lite. It doesn't do anything for me - so far.

Disgusted in the heartland. How can you expect election reform if you can't show that reform is gained BY NOT ALLOWING REPUBLICAN OWNED EVERYTHING AND THAT THE VOTES WERE STOLEN.

I saved my little red button that said 'I Voted'. I look at it every day and remember how euphoric I was on that morning when I stood in line to vote for Kerry. Now I feel anger because I believe with every molecule in my being that it was stolen and I want someone to prove it, not dilly dally.

up to vote - FOR CHANGE (ie for Kerry/Edwards) - for this issue NOT to be investigated and revealed.

I am so sick of hearing it has to come from the people or Kerry isn't the one to come out on this issue....whatever.

Most people in America now have no faith in our "election" system, rightfully so. This is America and that cannot stand.

Higher Class you are so right about the Rethugs owning it all and therefore controlling it all.

Everyone I know believed they would try to steal it again...in fact, they believed they would and they did. Two in a row...yet here we are.

I just can't figure out what he is supposed to address. There's no evidence of an orchestrated conspiracy to steal the election. And if anybody actually read the GAO report itself, they'd know it doesn't say that either. It says that the machines are open to being hacked, NOT that there is any evidence that they were. The only thing that anybody can do is go forward with reform. If there were evidence of a concerted strategy, we'd have known it by now. It's exactly why even Jimmy Carter didn't say Bush lied about the war, but rather he misled the country. I don't understand why it is such a great thing when Carter used the word misled, but Kerry used it two years ago and it wasn't good enough. People want Kerry to be say things that no other poltician is saying or doing, it's absolutely bizarre. If the blogosphere would focus on election reform ONLY, he would be right there in a heartbeat.

People who believe Mark Crispin Miller's account: He specifically said that Sen. Kerry was trying to get another Senator to believe that election fraud occurred and to bring that Senator on-board for reform.

Gawd people, he is working to get something done in his day job as a US Senator. Isn't this what you want, a change in the Dem leadership so that they recognize and support the idea that election reform is needed because election fraud occurred. Well, isn't that what Miller says he did?

working on voting reform...good. If he's talking to Dodd...good.

about fraud continuously this year. He believes there were problems with last year's election. He may not believe it was stolen. He is working to convert other Dems to the cause of election reform.

What else do you want? If he doesn't believe the election was stolen, or, more crucially, that it can be proven that it was stolen, then are you still mad at him. Can people acknowledge a common goal, but different methods of getting there without one side believing the other has false motives?

Also, which other Democratic Senators, that you know of, are actively trying to do this in the Senate? Don't we need to pressure them all to do this or is Kerry the only voice that matters in this regard.

was the candidate. He said he would fight for all votes to be counted. Kerry is smack dab in the middle and he needs to come out and fight. I know he has it in him. I know he can do it.

He will never get the support he wants or needs until he does. He wants to have it both ways. He's a gentleman and he's trying to do the right thing but the situation is too dire and the other side isn't following the rules.

Numerous e-mails. Numerous mentions in about every speech he gives. Now word that he is talking to other Senators, behind the scene, to get something going on election fraud and reform. (You try to prove that fraud happened in order to get reform.)

What else, specfically do you want him to do? He might not believe it was stolen or that an actual theft can be proven. He might have a legitimate difference of opinion on that one point. But he is fighting for reform. Has been all year.

I don't want to be told one more thing that is limited to long lines, supply of machines, absentee ballot problems, mis-information. THose are all solvable if people want to do it themselves - in advance.

What I want is someone to tell me why we should submissively accept Republican made voting machines, Republican software, Republican networks buying and owning exit polling, Republican networks calling the vote. Where is Democracy in that? Where are all our leaders in that?

Especially with Mark Crispin Miller's book out now.

We need to talk the "Truth" NOW about Election Fraud in '04 AND '00 before we can move forward to "hoping" for future "honest" elections.

The public, middle-America is now disillusioned enough with the current Admin., and the War, and the Economy, etc. to FINALLY listen.