Interesting Article on Possible Prop 8 Fraud

I found this courtesy of a poster on waynebesen.com. I love how he refers to the Religious Wrong as "Christianists". Quite an accurate description as these guys are no better than the "Islamists" they condemn--in fact they are worse, IMO.


Was Prop 8 Actually Defeated??

by Mark Crispin Miller
www.opednews.com




Well, well, well. First we find out, happily, that We the People may not be incorrigible racists after all, as Election '08 has debunked the (feeble) theory of "the Bradley effect."

And now it turns out that Americans--at least those in gay-friendly California--may not really be as hostile to gay marriage as the outcome of that state's election has apparently suggested.

As we think about the possibility that Prop 8 was not really passed by California's voters, let's note something that the press, and others, won't discuss: i.e., that the entire apparatus of computerized voting in this country--the e-voting machines and op-scans and central tabulators, etc.--is largely owned by members of the Christianist far right.

Diebold and ES&S were both begun by Bob and Todd Urosevich, two ardent
Oklahoma theocrats, while Triad, which makes the central vote tabulators used in Ohio in 2004, is owned by the Rapp family. SmartTech, the company that helped Bush/Cheney steal that state, is owned by evangelical Jeff Averbeck; and his associate Mike Connell, owner of GovTech Solutions, which also helped to steal Ohio, among other races, was motivated to such work by his desire "to save the babies," according to Stephen Spoonamore.

Why are there so many Christianists among the owners of those companies?
Because the rigging of elections is the only way that that fringe movement ever could impose its theocratic program on the rest of us. As Paul Weyrich used to say out loud, the Christianists despise democracy. After all, that system, if allowed to stand, would put the sinful secular majority in charge--and that can't be allowed.

And so, whether or not it turns out that Prop 8 was rigged to pass, we need to take a good hard look at those machines, and at the companies that own them--and keep them out of our elections.

Meanwhile, let's all stop assuming that last week's outcome was legitimate, and look closely at the evidence around Prop 8.

MCM
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Election Irregularities Surfacing Re: California's Proposition 8!
Exit Poll Shows DEFEAT of Same-Sex Marriage Ban!
Volunteers Needed NOW to Monitor Post-Election Procedures
Link Below to Flyer: Please Print and Circulate at Tomorrow's Protests!
The Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) Community and its supporters nationwide are mourning and organizing in the wake of last week's announced 52-48% passage of Proposition 8, which eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. But an accurate count of the votes may not yet have occurred, according to early indications.
The integrity of an election takes time to investigate, and it's far too early to draw conclusions. However, consider the following:
Around the world, exit polls are used to determine the need for investigation of elections. In the U.S., the National Exit Poll (NEP, also known as Edison/Mitofsky) now adjusts results to match vote counts before issuing its final polling numbers. Election Defense Alliance downloaded NEP numbers from the internet on election night, however, before poll results were changed to match the official vote count.
This is the exit poll from early in the evening of election night. There were 2,168 respondents, and they break down as follows (a "yes" vote is a vote against same-sex marriage):

Males:
Yes on Prop 8, 48%
No on Prop 8, 52%
Females:
Yes on Prop 8, 48%
No on Prop 8, 52%
View actual screen capture
This is the exit poll from later in the evening. There were 2,240 respondents -- 72 more respondents than in the earlier poll -- and they break down in a very different way:
Males:
Yes on Prop 8, 53%
No on Prop 8, 47%
Females:
Yes on Prop 8, 52%
No on Prop 8, 48%
View actual screen capture
This discrepancy should be ringing alarm bells. Something doesn't add up.
Because exit polls adjusted to match election results are of limited usefulness, this year independent exit polls were conducted in several states by a group including Ken Warren of the Warren Poll, Jonathan Simon of Election Defense Alliance, and Steve Freeman of Election Integrity. This team is still analyzing results of their exit polls, but Simon told Velvet Revolution that their California exit polls, some of which were conducted by Judy Alter and Protect California Ballots, tend to corroborate the findings of the above exit poll that show a defeat of Prop. 8.

What is proven by discrepancies between exit poll results and official vote counts? That an investigation must be conducted to determine whether the vote count is accurate.
Article continues at link.



Mark's new book, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008, a collection 14 essays on Bush/Cheney's election fraud since (and including) 2000, is just out, from Ig Publishing. He is also the author of Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform, which is now out in paperback from Basic Books, with over 100 pages of new material. He may be reached through his blog at markcrispinmiller.com. A movie based on his off-Broadway show, A Patriot Act, is available on DCD at www.patriotnation.com.
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No, I am sure the machines, even tho owned by fundies, counted the votes correctly. If the fundies believe in anything, they believe in justice. What's right is right.

So, don't worry about the machines. Trust me.

BTW- have all the votes even been counted yet? anyone know?

Two counties stood out like sore thumbs in the prop 8 election: Alpine and Mono counties. They were the only inland counties to reject prop 8. Question would be if they are using voting systems different than those surrounding counties that passed 8.

As we learned from Ohio in 2004, county registrars can exert their partisan powers over precinct counts, especially wrt invalidating ballots and throwing out provisionals. This too needs to be looked at county by county.

P.S., according to the last Sec of State's report, 1.8 million votes are yet to be counted.

The "yes" votes are still leading however by over 500,000 votes, but in LA county alone, there are over 400,000 mail-ins and hand ballots yet to count...

trustworthy enough to secure a do-over of a flawed election, but ours are dismissed out of hand.

I seem to recall seeing a video (by someone who should not be named on DU) that clearly showed a Windows-based tabulator system running Access where vote totals could be easily "flipped" changing the Yes totals to No, and the No totals to Yes (or in the case of multiple candidates, swapping the totals between 2 candidates). This leaves the overall total number of votes the same. It seems like Republican-run vote tabulation systems, which are not directly seen or used by most voters, could be the weakest link in the entire process.