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Departments Election Issues Will the GOP steal America's 2012 election? Six basic factors make this year's theft a possibility:
2. The Electoral College, which narrows the number of votes needed to be moved to swing a presidential election; 3. The systematic disenfranchisement of---according to the Brennan Center---ten million or more citizens, most of whom would otherwise be likely to vote Democratic. More than a million voters have also been purged from the rolls in Ohio, almost 20% of the total vote count in 2008; 4. The accelerating use of electronic voting machines, which make election theft a relatively simple task for those who control them, including their owners and operators, who are predominantly Republican; 5. The GOP control of nine of the governorships in the dozen swing states that will decide the outcome of the 2012 campaign; and, 6. The likelihood that the core of the activist "election protection" community that turned out in droves to monitor the vote for Barack Obama in 2008 has not been energized by his presidency and is thus unlikely to work for him again in 2012. The power of money is now enshrined by the infamous Citizens United decision. In at least 90% of our Congressional races and at least 80% of our US Senate races, the candidate who spends the most money wins. From the presidency to the local level, our elections---and thus control of our government---are dominated by cash. For more than a century, the ability of corporations and the super-rich to buy in directly has been legally constrained. But the concentration of media ownership in the hands of ever-fewer corporations has vastly enhanced their power. Already in 2012, the tsunami of dollars pouring in from corporations and super-rich individuals has soared to entirely new levels. Even the floodgates opened by Citizens United can't handle the flow. With its June decision denying Montana's attempt to keep some spending restrictions in tact, the John Roberts US Supreme Court has inaugurated an era in which virtually unrestrained "pay-to-play" money will re-define the electoral process. Republicans in the US Senate have also blocked attempts to require that these campaign "donations" be made public. It's not hard to guess where this leads. The June, 2012, recall election in Wisconsin saw at least 8 times as much money being spent on protecting Republican governor Scott Walker as was spent to oust him. Barack Obama has spent much of his presidency courting corporate interests. But he will be out-raised by the corporate/super-rich 1% backing Mitt Romney. A handful of high-profile billionaires will spend "whatever it takes" to put the GOP back into the White House. Just a dozen of them have already provided more than 70% of Romney's early campaign budget. Most of this corporate money is being used to persuade voters to oust Obama, which they may well decide to do. But US history shows that some of it can also restrict the ability of Americans to vote. It can then "bend" the vote count in ways the public may not want. Our nation's history shows that given the same chance, the Democrats would gladly do the same to the Republicans. And it's happened many times, especially in the Jim Crow south. But in 2012, it will be primarily Republicans using gargantuan sums of corporate money to take control of the government from Democrats, and democracy be damned. We are not writing this in support of Barack Obama or the Democratic Party. We are mystified by their unwillingness to fight for meaningful electoral reform. Both Al Gore and John Kerry were legitimately elected president, but neither was willing to fight for meaningful reform, or even to discuss it. When we broke many of the major stories on the theft of Ohio 2004, it was the Democrats who most fiercely attacked us. We're continually asked why the Democrats have been willing since 2000 to sit back and let the GOP get away with this. Frankly, we have no answer. But for us, the more important reality is that this electoral corruption dooms the ballot as an instrument of real democracy. A system this badly broken means a bi-partisan oligarchy can always deny third and other grassroots parties the use of elections to challenge the status quo, in this case one increasingly defined by war, bigotry, injustice, moneyed privilege and ecological suicide. Thus it's been a century since the last significant electoral challenges to the Democrat-Republican corporate domination of the political system. That challenge was staged by the People's (Populist) and then Socialist Parties. In rapid succession they rallied huge grassroots followings demanding core changes to the corporate domination of American politics. The 30-year upheaval they represented laid the groundwork for major changes. But it failed to crack the corporate domination of our political system. The Populists were shattered in 1896 with a combination of co-option by William Jennings Bryan's Democratic Party and election theft engineered by Mark Hanna's Republicans. (Republican strategist Karl Rove, a serious student of the 1896 election, considers Mark Hanna to be one of his great heroes). The Socialists were co-opted and divided in 1916 by the Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who then crushed them in the most violent wave of physical repression ever imposed by a US President on a mass movement that derived from the heart of America's working public. No third party has since risen up with enough real political clout to threaten corporate power through the electoral system. As long as our ballot box is corrupted and unaccountable, none will. That one party could steal an election from the other means our democracy, if it could still be called that, is essentially in shambles. Would the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, the Chamber of Commerce and their related billionaires spend tens of millions of dollars to win the White House but stop short of spending the relatively small amount it would take to flip the vote? In the larger view, the ability of either (or both) corporate parties to do this means no grassroots party will be allowed to force meaningful change in America---at least not through the ballot box. But we are citizens of a nation born with the bottom-up overthrow of the planet's then-most powerful king. As believers in grassroots democracy, we know that the survival instinct is ultimately more powerful than the profit motive. When it comes to the basics, we have no doubt the power of the people will ultimately prevail. For those working on the 2012 election, and for democracy in general, that will mean an extraordinary commitment to protecting the registered status of millions of Americans, getting them to the polls, guaranteeing their right to vote once there, and making sure there is an accurate vote count---electronic and otherwise---once those votes are cast. -- Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman are authors of WILL THE GOP STEAL AMERICA'S 2012 ELECTION?, their fifth book on election protection, an e-book at www.harveywasserman.ning.com and freepress.org/store.php#a2012. |
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Recent Election Issues Articles Story notes For television producer Shonda Rhimes Timeline 2004 – One more look at the Ohio election Dysfunction at Maricopa County Elections department disenfranchises tens of thousands SWING STATE: How the Fix was Nixed in Ohio Romney may have lost, but the voting system is still broken OPINION: Your vote got counted. Here's why Matrix of Deceit: Forcing Pre-election and Exit polls to Match Fraudulent Vote Counts Bifani rap on the state of the elections in the USA An America Yet To Be Born Voter Supression In Center City Allentown PA An Election Protection Agenda for 2016 Vote totals for Obama and Romney inexplicably decreasing in three Ohio counties Opening of polls in Franklin County on Election Day Fitrakis returns from federal court hearing on Ohio voting machine software patch Good news for OSU students trying to vote Video of vote flipping in Pennsylvania Bob Fitrakis from the hearing today Reports from election observers and voters: Broken scanners and too many provisionals Nearly 1000 voters forced to vote provisional in a single Franklin county precinct Breaking News: Judge denies request to stop illegal software patches Election watch report from Columbus Ohio Action at the Driving Park polling site The Battleground States: True Vote Sensitivity Analysis Woman not allowed to vote Breaking News: Results of today’s hearing in state court on the uncertified and untested software Election Protection News Conference - Pt. 1 Election Protection News Conference - Pt. 2 Another Husted dirty trick in Ohio: Secretary of State's Office admits direct reporting function of untested election software OHIO – VOTE HEIST 2012? Invoices prove Romney-related voting company Hart InterCivic does maintenance on Cincinnati voting machines Columbus Free Press Editor and Publisher files suit in federal court to stop suspicious software November 5 Press Conference: FEDERAL E-VOTING LAWSUIT FILED VS. OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN HUSTED GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL NOMINEES REVEAL DETAILS The electronic architecture of voter suppression As Ohio Faces vote-rigging lawsuit, are dems, liberals, election officials ready to safeguard votes? Busting election theft attempts Will Your Vote Even Get Counted? The Free Press confirms installation, secret justification of uncertified last minute election tabulation reporting software in Ohio Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote? Why we fight to prevent stolen elections in 2012 and beyond Mike Connell: Man in the Middle Gripping documentary exposes voter suppression and election rigging in the 2004 presidential election Thom Pintello: I Just Want My Vote to Count" Why Romney has already won this electronic election, unless… Partisan lies about the security of Hart e-voting machines continue to flow from Hamilton County Romney family and friends will help tabulate the vote count in Cincinnati: Hart Intercivic holds maintenance contracts on their own machines Election software company Scytl on the run from the Free Press, from one fake address to the next The case for irrational voting Why are legal scholars dismissing election fraud?: Manufactured skepticism and exit polls Jamia Shepard: Advocate for Voter Rights Does the Romney family now own your e-vote? Secretary of State’s directive allowing early voting during three days before Election Day long overdue: Lawsuits and voter confusion could have been avoided “It’s Ok to leave your abuser,” says Green Party VP candidate Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House? Ignore debate zingers, focus on issues Bob Fitrakis speaks at Neighborhood House candidate forum Last three days before election early voting reinstated in Ohio...sort of Book Review: A Must Read for All U.S. Citizens Vote counting company tied to Romney Will 9 GOP governors electronically flip Romney into the White House? Ohio Elections Commission finds probable cause that anti-Issue 2 ad is misleading Who owns Scytl? George Soros isn’t in the voting machines, but the intelligence community is Will the GOP steal America's 2012 election? Pragmatic Racism Four ways the Ohio GOP is already stealing the 2012 election Gubernatorial Recall Ballots Saved from Destruction in Waukesha County, WI - For Now... What Paul Ryan has and Obama wants Playing field is tilted against voters Colonels in mirrored sunglasses The new Jim Crow: Massive disenfranchisement returns Mishandled Redistricting disenfranchises 3,000 voters Corporate vote theft and the future of American democracy PART ONE New certifications, planned expansion Progressive morality Was the election stolen in Wisconsin - what are the odds? Columbus Free Press in the news: A million voters purged Wisconsin: New year, same stench Republican retreat - Ohio House Republicans defeat their own voter suppression bill Elections: What are they good for? The peace movement needs Kucinich, with or without Congress Ron Paul, "Progressive" for who? Do We Approve of Murder Based on Political Party? Pollsters Don't Want You to Know The State of Obama's 2008 Promises The election we should be following Booing the Golden Rule Six Problems with New Hampshire Elections The hollow democracy Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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