Interesting new article:Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1742/

December 10, 2004
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

By Joel Bleifuss

Did the Bush-Cheney campaign engage in electronic vote fraud to ensure that George W. Bush would be president for another four years? That is a question every small-d democrat should be asking.

Much has been written on the Internet alleging that the election was stolen. Some writers are members of the tin-foil hat brigade, but others provide sober analysis of the election results that raise disturbing questions.

Unfortunately, thanks to the herd instinct in our current media culture, anyone who publicly raises this question is immediately labeled a conspiracy theorist.

:tinfoilhat:

that's insulting

But I think this is more of a nod to the traditionally labeled tin-foilers like David Icke etc...

democracy is important and that 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians is immoral. I'm in bad shape.

tinfoil cowboy hat to honor our pResident. So stylish with my red gloves.

-Hoot

You attribute those observations to a tin-foil hat, whereas they're just reality!

on our side.....
when he says

"but others provide sober analysis of the election
results that raise disturbing questions"

I don't think he meant that to hurt the cause.
Keith O also makes many a tin hat joke.

I am always thrilled to see new voices question this election.

question the way the election/voting was handled, the better chance we have of at least having the issue looked at. Regardless of who won, the questionable fraud has to be addressed.

anybody have a way of making this an emote for a tinfoilgrouphug?

did you design those ?
They do need to be animated , is that what you mean by emote?

Nice work by the way, ver clever

heh i wouldn't know how to animate it anyway. just thought it could be a static smiley, if some admin thought it was groovy enough.

Global Communications?

You have some misinformation in your 12/10 column, “Was the 2004 Election Stolen.” In the column, you stated that “In Ohio, more than 35 counties used Diebold machines...” in the 11/2 election. For your information, Ohio decided earlier in the year that there was not adequate time to implement new voting systems prior to the election on November 2. If you read our announcement in which I believe you’re referring (which is nearly a year old) closely , it clearly states that “Half of the 71 Ohio counties eligible to select an electronic voting system provider have preliminarily chosen Diebold Election Systems.” To date, these systems have not been installed. In the interest of accuracy in reporting, we would appreciate a clarification in your publication.

Also, Diebold had systems in only 2 counties in Ohio on election day—Lucas (which went to Sen. Kerry by a wide margin) and Hardin (a very small jurisdiction in NW Ohio). Both used paper-based optical scan systems. Elsewhere in the country, our touchscreen systems were used predominantly, and with very positive feedback, in Georgia, Maryland, California (Alameda County), Texas and Kansas. None of which were swing states in the presidential election.

Also, as of June 2, 2004, Diebold’s Board of Directors authorized a change to the company’s corporate ethics policy to address the importance of the issue of political bias. In recognition of the necessity for strict neutrality concerning political candidates and issues, the chief executive officer, president, and chief financial officer of Diebold, Incorporated and those Diebold, Incorporated executives identified by the Company as responsible for the oversight of its election systems companies, as well as all employees of those companies, may not make contributions to, directly or indirectly, any political candidate, party, election issue or cause, or participate in any political activities, except for voting.

To view the Diebold, Incorporated business ethics policy, visit:
http://nocache.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?tic cker=DBD&script=2250#top

Also, FYI, there has been another statistical study that refutes the findings of the earlier Cal-Berkeley study, re: electronic voting in Florida. You can read about this at http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65896,00.html. You may need to clarify this as well.

Mike Jacobsen
Director, Global Communications
Diebold, Incorporated

"In recognition of the necessity for strict neutrality concerning political candidates and issues, the chief executive officer, president, and chief financial officer of Diebold, Incorporated and those Diebold, Incorporated executives identified by the Company as responsible for the oversight of its election systems companies, as well as all employees of those companies, may not make contributions to, directly or indirectly, any political candidate, party, election issue or cause, or participate in any political activities, except for voting."

Seems that the little quote given by Diebold's CEO about getting Ohio in the * column would be a direct conflict of interest as well as thier own internal ethics policy. Also seems that I rememeber seeing his contributions to the Rep ticket...anyone have that link?

Put quite simply, until strict bipartian governmental oversight is put on these companies and thier products, this includes detailed reviews of thier hardware and software design and strict adherance to security specifications, I have no reason to put my faith in election outcomes.

thread in the 2004 election forum discussing this very response from Diebold.

Of course there is always a hack job...

This alone is reason to question the challengers' integrity:

"There was something unusual that went on in two counties, but there are many other things that could give rise to this anomaly," Stewart said. "Most of them are things that we're pretty sure affected this presidential election -- such as get-out-the-vote efforts by Republicans and special efforts at mobilizing Jewish voters over the issue of Israel and terrorism."

From the Kim Zetter article in Wired. The quote is from "Charles Stewart, an MIT political science professor, called the study "the type of exercise that you do in a graduate data-analysis class" rather than as an academic paper."

Maybe he is a member of the CalTech-MIT Voting Project...funded by voting machine companies?

It stops mainstream media garbage from interfering with the truth! :)

to make a tinfoil hat and wear it in protest of the stolen election.