50 States Mislead Their Voters Part 1: Alabama

I'm going to try to take a look at election anomalies and accusations of fraud in all fifty states for Election 2004 (if anyone has any news or links...leave a comment or e-mail me...). Go to my blog, Why Are We Back In Iraq? at http://www.whyareweback.blogspot.com for Part 2-4. More to come.

ALABAMA

VOTE SUPPRESSION: A small flyer distributed in Jefferson County pre-election: "Attention: Jefferson County!!!!! See You At The Poles November 4, 2004." (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=613795§ion=news)

VOTE SUPPRESSION: Voter registration cards mailed out to residents in Madison County weren't explicit about which polling place voters should go to: "The confusion seemed to stem from voter registration cards that listed one polling place for Madison city elections and another for state and federal elections. The card indicates, but does not plainly state, which polling place to use Tuesday...Madison offers two polling locations in municipal elections, but the city is divided into three sites for state and federal races." (http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/109947695170780.xml)

WHO: Pat Meadows, the District's Election Officer (DEO) for the Northern District of Alabama, reported few problems in northern Alabama. He was appointed to this position less than a week before the election by United States Attorney Alice H. Martin (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/aln/Docs/October%202004/OCTOBER%2028,%202004%20STATEMENT%20OF%20ALICE%20H.%20MARTIN,%20U.S.%20ATTORNEY,%20NORTHERN%20DISTRICT%20OF%20ALABAMA%20REGARDING%20NOVEMBER%202,%202004%20ELECTIONS.htm). In May, 2004 Mr. Meadows indicted District Judge Ira Colvin for bankruptcy fraud just five days before a primary election. The case was three years old at the time of the indictment (http://theherald.pickens.net/news/52604_sp.htm). Mr. Meadows also happens to be a lay delegate for the United Methodist Church from North Alabama who believes that, according to the Bible, homosexuality is an "abomination and perversion" (http://www.reporterinteractive.org/features/GC04/GC04_k.htm).

Alice Martin was appointed to her position as US attorney by George Bush not long after September 11, 2001 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010919-13.html). In January of 2004, Ms. Martin was named to the Ashcroft advisory committee for a two-year term. In his remarks on the appointments, Ashcroft says he "will be calling on the advisory committee to continue its efforts to combat terrorism and corporate fraud, as well as to aggressively prosecute gun crime, drug trafficking, civil rights violations, obscenity and environmental matters." (http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2004/01/05/daily27.html). In addition, Alice Martin's name appears on this list of endorsed candidates by Alabama's Christian Conservatives in 2000 (didn't help much...she lost), along with Judge Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice who defied a court order to move a Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court building (http://www.ccofal.org/alabama/printlist1.html).

Secretary of State Nancy Worley is a member of the Democratic Party. Two days before the registration deadline Anita Tatum, the former State Director of Voter Registration was, supposedly, harassed and pressured to resign: This controversy might be the result of discrepancies found in the two different voter registration lists. The one from the Secretary of State's office which Worley says Tatum was in charge of has more voters listed that the state's official web site. Tatum says the difference occurred because her web site includes inactive voters, who have not voted in a while and the state's web site doesn't. (http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2464032).

Only two counties in all of Alabama did not use voting machines that keep both paper and electronic records. The racial makeup of the two counties, Mobile and Montgomery, happens to be nearly half African American and they comprised 13.8% of the state's registered voters. Worley attested the Shouptronic machines used in Mobile and Montgomery counties are secure and do not present the same dangers as touch-screen machines without a paper trail because they are not networked, and thus cannot be hacked into to alter the results (http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/01/4185d3b568b6b).

Democrat Governor Don Siegelman appeared to win his reelection on November 2nd, 2002. But later that night, after the polls closed, nearly 7,000 of Siegelman’s votes inexplicably disappeared, and the election was awarded to Republican Bob Riley. The votes were taken away from Baldwin County, a Republican stronghold; it was attributed to a computer glitch. Mr. Seigelman's recount request was denied (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2002-11-18-siegelman-concedes_x.htm). In May, Mr. Seigelman was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly participating in a bid-rigging scheme: "Siegelman has in the past claimed that the investigation was partisan, but U.S. Attorney Alice Martin denied that politics were behind the charges. "We don't ever look to see if there is an R or a D behind anyone's name," the Republican appointee said." (http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=1900602).

I was just coming over here to post a link to this thread:

From hedda_foil re Recounts and "friendly journalists," etc.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2745447

I believe what you're doing would be very hepful to the effort.

Please also take a look and see if there's anything you can use posted in the Compendium:

VOTE FRAUD LINKS - A DU Compendium - Thread #3
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x4927

VOTE FRAUD Links Compendium - Thread #2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x3223

VOTE FRAUD Links - a DU Compendium
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=201&topic_id=1984#

It's not absolutely complete, but it's got a lot in it.

Thanks.

Those links are definitely helpful. As are the links I've collected that are on my website...but most of my info is coming from arduous googling.

A few other bloggers are going to be helping me with this....time's ticking.

The scary thing I've been discovering is the religious right stranglehold on our electoral system...something I knew nothing about beforehand.

Peace

Watching The Watchers has joined the project. ~A!'s post on Wyoming can be found here: http://watchingthewatchers.org/index.php?p=176

Great idea. I'll be following your work.

They should send out flyers of their own. They also should coordinate to have a whole bunch of famous speakers remind these heavily African American communities of the dirty tricks one day before the election.

I have no doubt that the liberal half of the Democratic Party will soon join us in the struggle. The electoral system needs to be overhauled now!!!!

John Kerry said this last Friday:

"Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted -- and they will be counted -- we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles -- it is a time to stand firm. I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It's unacceptable in the United States that people still don't have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process. I ask you to join me in this cause."