 |
Thu May 15 2008 | |||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Departments Election Issues Tuesday's outcome may depend on the power of the election protection movement by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman November 5, 2006 On Election Day 2006, the American people will almost certainly vote to give the Democratic Party one or both houses of Congress. We will vote to restore at least some of the checks and balances written into the Constitution of the United States. We will vote to end the reign of terror and error imposed on the nation and world since the stolen election of 2000. State by state, governorships and legislatures should return to the opposition party. All the polls, and all the instincts of credible students of American politics, indicate this will happen. Anyone familiar with the history of the American electorate can be reasonably certain that the issues of war, deficits, economy, environment, scandal, sexual imposition and more will overwhelmingly favor a traditional rejection of the party in power. But in 2006, the party in power has installed a nationwide system of election theft. And the outcome of Tuesday's election may depend on the ability of the grassroots American citizenry to overcome this infernal machine. The GOP engine of vote theft is built primarily on two pillars: First is the massive disenfranchisement of mostly urban Democrats, including millions of people of color. Second is the simultaneous inflation of mostly rural and suburban Republican votes, including the mythological influx of "last-minute evangelicals" who may well exist primarily in the memory cards of rigged electronic machines. Throughout the country, a concerted effort by the Republican Party has crippled voter registration drives. In Ohio some 500,000 citizens who were already registered --some ten percent of the electorate---have been deleted (many without notification) in the Democratic strongholds of Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton and Lucas Counties. With easily manipulated electronic registration books now in place, or private partisan vendors controlling registration rolls, throughout the US, millions more may have been deleted or flagged in other largely Democratic urban areas. Based on what we know from Florida 2000, stolen Senatorial races in 2002, and Ohio 2004, here are some of the things we can expect from the GOP on Tuesday: Disenfranchisement of alleged "ex-felons," even in states where it is not illegal for ex-felons to vote, or their intimidation through anonymous phone calls; denial, misprinting and failure to send absentee ballots; denial of voting rights at polling stations through unreasonable or illegal demands for identification; insufficient numbers of voting machines and/or paper ballots at inner city and college town precincts; malfunctioning of those machines and misprinting of those ballots, rendering them erroneous or deliberately confusing; misrepresentation of requirements to obtain regular or provisional ballots; outright trashing of ballots at the voting stations; declaration of phony Homeland Security alerts to remove ballot counting from public scrutiny; outright refusal to count ballots (as in Ohio, where more than 100,000 cast in 2004 have yet to be tallied); termination of the traditional posting of outcomes at precincts; subversion of the recount process. All this and more was used to steal the elections of 2000 and 2004, and has been documented and broadcast through the internet, at sites such as blackboxvoting.org, freepress.org, bradblog.com and many more. Despite a mainstream media blackout and the unwillingness of the Democratic Party to face this issue, there is no reason to be surprised on Tuesday. It will not be enough to rely on polls indicating victory, or to call voters to turn out, or to merely vote on Election Day. No citizen should be turned away without an election protection monitor documenting it. No monitor should be turned away without full documentation and a call to the police. No ballot should be trashed without sworn affidavits as to why. No recount should be conducted without total public scrutiny. In all cases, we ask anyone involved to send a report to democracy@freepress.org, with at least your publishable e-mail address included. We further urge that throughout the states, public post-election hearings be convened in the presence of a court stenographer, so that sworn testimony and affidavits can be available for later litigation. Such documentation has proven crucial in the lawsuits that have preserved the Ohio 2004 ballots and other voting rights here. It will be at the core of continued efforts to restore American democracy. Electronic voting machines remain problematic. There is no magic bullet except for absolute scrutiny, persistence, and a willingness to fight it out over every electron. Even with high tech thievery, if the People are vigilant, the Truth can eventually win out. The higher the voter turnout, and the greater the vigilence by voters, the more difficult for Bush and Rove to steal the election, and the more likely we are to catch them if they try. We expect more tricks we've not yet seen. Even as we write this, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, is imposing new regulations for obtaining a ballot. But there is no excuse for throwing up one's hands in despair. Or for doing nothing in the face of the obvious. As with the recent rise of the movements for civil rights, peace, social justice and ecological survival, the public campaign for election protection has exploded from the handful to the many to the multitudes. The power of pro-active grassroots democracy will be sorely tested on Tuesday. The stakes could not be higher. -- Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, just published by the New Press. They are of counsel and plaintiff in the King Lincoln voter protection lawsuit in Ohio. Bob is an independent candidate for governor of Ohio, endorsed by the Green Party. Harvey's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030, is available at www.solartopia.org. Ed. Note: blackboxvoting.com has been changed to blackboxvoting.org. Email this article to a friend |
Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008
"Renowned computer security expert agrees to meet California county supervisor's '1000 to 1' challenge to 'manipulate' Sequoia voting machine!"
December 13, 2006
Brad Friedman
"100 phantom votes found in one precinct; DelCo board of elections hinders investigation"
December 12, 2006
Stephanie Frank Singer
"Think globally, protect the vote locally"
December 1, 2006
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Will they or won't they: last chance for Democrats"
November 17, 2006
David Swanson
"The vote protectors"
November 16, 2006
Robert C. Koehler
"Ohio's 2006 vote count now includes a higher percentage of uncounted ballots than in 2004, and a statistically impossible swing to the Republicans"
November 14, 2006
Bob Fitrakis, Harvey Wasserman and Ron Baiman
"The drama of empty numbers"
November 9, 2006
Robert C. Koehler
"A monumental victory for the election protection movement"
November 8, 2006
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Pick a number 2006"
November 7, 2006
Mike Ferner
"How they stole the mid-term election"
November 7, 2006
Greg Palast, The Guardian ( UK ), Comment
"STOP Blackwell, what's that sign: Everyone look what's going down"
November 7, 2006
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Parallel election midday report"
November 7, 2006
Rady Ananda
"Tuesday's outcome may depend on the power of the election protection movement"
November 5, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The power of a social movement can beat the GOP double Chickenhawks"
November 2, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Check out We Count for a great TownHall confrontation between Vicki Lovegren of Ohio Vigilance and Michael Vu, Supervisor of Cuyahoga County BOE"
November 1, 2006
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D.
"Official states electronic voting system added votes never cast in 2004 Presidential election; audit log missing"
November 1, 2006
Peter Peckarsky, Ron Baiman, and Robert Fitrakis
"Repairing the U.S. system of voting: 50 concrete steps"
November 1, 2006
Harvey Wasserman, Bob Fitrakis and Steve Rosenfeld
"Will a shocking new GOP court victory and Karl Rove's attack on Ohio 2006 doom the Democrats nationwide?"
October 30, 2006
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Renoite sue Sequoia Voting Systems"
October 28, 2006
Patricia Axelrod
"Severe election problems seen in ten states"
October 27, 2006
Jason Leopold
"Direct material proof of massive election fraud in Ohio in the 2004 U.S. presidential election"
October 26, 2006
Ron Baiman
"A talk with Mark Crispin Miller about what voters can do to prevent another stolen election"
October 26, 2006
The Ostroy Report
"Will Ken Blackwell find the ways to steal Ohio 2006 as he did in 2004?"
October 25, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Important voter activism"
October 22, 2006
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D.
"A loaves & fishes/Holy Ghost victory for the GOP in November?"
October 17, 2006
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Why is the man who stole Ohio campaigning with a white supremacist?"
October 9, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"This cannot be"
September 28, 2006
Robert C. Koehler
"Court victory lets preserved Ohio 2004 ballots tell new tales of theft and fraud as indictments and convictions mount"
September 25, 2006
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Unfit for use in ANY democracy"
September 20, 2006
Rady Ananda
"An open letter to Gov. Robert Taft and Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell"
September 8, 2006
Harvey Wasserman, et. al.
"Coshocton County complaint"
September 3, 2006
Tim Kettler
"Saving the ballot evidence from Ohio 2004"
September 2, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"San Diego suit’s second hearing: Judge to rule next Tuesday on constitutional and jurisdictional questions"
August 25, 2006
Rady Ananda
"New Zogby Poll: It’s Nearly Unanimous"
August 24, 2006
Michael Collins, “Scoop” Independent Media
"How the last presidential election awoke me from an unsound sleep"
July 22, 2006
Jeanne Norris Weinberg
"PFAW's Neas praises advance of Voting Rights Act, Calls on Bush Administration to start enforcing the law"
July 22, 2006
People For the American Way
"Why Democrats don't count: lessons from the un-Gore of Mexico"
July 16, 2006
Greg Palast
"Resolution of no confidence in current U.S. elections"
July 16, 2006
J30 Coalition
"An open letter from Ohio to the people of Mexico"
July 13, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The stolen election of 2004"
July 11, 2006
Michael Parenti
"The Democrats must now say "We Do Not Concede" in the U.S. as it's being said in Mexico"
July 9, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Project Vote, voting rights organizations, file to overturn restrictive voter registration rules "
July 7, 2006
Brian Mellor
"BBV: Unredacted Hursti Diebold reports, photos released"
July 4, 2006
Bev Harris
"Ignore that man behind the screen, Dorothy"
July 1, 2006
Greg Palast
"Bob Fitrakis for Governor -- he is now on the ballot"
July 1, 2006
Fitrakis campaign
"Alameda County supervisors embrace election fraud"
July 1, 2006
Allen C. Michaan
"San Diego’s run-off election aggregate results are plausible"
June 18, 2006
Ron Baiman
"A vote of no confidence: democracy left to languish in living rooms, garages"
June 15, 2006
Robert C. Koehler
"Kennedy's challenge: Salon, Mother Jones & the tortured dialogue"
June 15, 2006
Michael Collins and
"Warren County revisited"
June 12, 2006
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Something smells fishy in San Diego!"
June 11, 2006
Ron Baiman
"Response to Salon Magazine"
June 6, 2006
Ron Baiman
"Analysis of Connally spreadsheet and other documents"
June 5, 2006
Ron Baiman
"RFK and Rolling Stone nail Ohio's stolen 2004 election, but much more must be done"
June 3, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Pick a card, any card"
May 27, 2006
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Will the major media finally cover the electronic election fraud issue?"
May 15, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The money pit: Diebold vs. America "
May 15, 2006
Denis Wright
"Worst security flaw ever - 3 states invoke Diebold emergency procedures"
May 15, 2006
Black Box Voting
"Cranks and Kooks: Kerry won in '04"
May 11, 2006
Greg Palast
"Ohio 2004 election thief grabs Gov nod while (surprise! surprise!) voting machines malfunction"
May 5, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Hand counted paper ballots in 2008"
April 14, 2006
Sheila Parks
"Busheviks connected to New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme"
April 14, 2006
The Ostroy Report
"Are mainstream churches finally standing up to the GOP’s hateful “Christian” blitzkrieg?"
April 9, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Thousands march in New Orleans for right for Katrina survivors to vote in the city’s April 22 election"
April 7, 2006
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
"Shocking Diebold conflict of interest revelations from Secretary of State further taint Ohio's electoral credibility"
April 6, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Faith-based voting"
March 30, 2006
Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services
"Targeting the voters in Toledo"
March 30, 2006
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Targeting the voters in Cincinnati"
March 30, 2006
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Through a glass Darkely"
March 30, 2006
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Is the Mainstream Media finally getting half the rigged voting machine story?"
March 29, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Please help Clint Curtis"
March 23, 2006
Robert Lockwood Mills
"Utah testing of the Diebold touch-screen reveals new problems"
March 19, 2006
Black Box Voting
"Trust us"
March 17, 2006
Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services
"Harman vs. Winograd, tough choice?"
March 17, 2006
David Swanson
"Why did J. Kenneth Blackwell seek, then hide, his association with super-rich extremists and e-voting magnates?"
March 10, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Did 308,000 cancelled Ohio voter registrations put Bush back in the White House?"
February 28, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Statisticians recommend new measures to ensure vote count accuracy, release "Ohio’s 2004 exit poll analysis for novices”"
February 17, 2006
Kathy Dopp
"As Alito takes Supreme Court seat, Ohio GOP guts election protection "
February 1, 2006
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"The Harri Hursti hack and its importance to our nation"
January 29, 2006
Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition
"Programmer Jeff Dean worked for chief of White House Plumbers unit"
January 26, 2006
Bev Harris, Kathleen Wynne, and John Howard
"Free Press Editor in Film at Sundance"
January 23, 2006
Free Press Staff
"PA activists sue to vote on machines"
January 20, 2006
Rady Ananda
"Important documents"
January 20, 2006
Free Press staff
"The gun is smoking - The gun is smoking - 2004 Ohio precinct-level exit poll data show virtually irrefutable evidence of vote miscount"
January 18, 2006
Kathy Dopp and Ron Baiman
"Recipe for hacking ES&S and Sequoia, Hursti-style"
January 4, 2006
Black Box Voting
"What’s all the fuss about Diebold in Florida and California?"
January 4, 2006
John Washburn, for VoteTrustUSA
"New info may take out Diebold touchscreens"
January 1, 2006
Black Box Voting
Read Articles by Year:
2007 2006 2005 2004
2003 2002 2001 2000
All content © 1970-2008
The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer