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Departments Election Issues Why Romney has already won this electronic election, unless… The big loser is not Barack Obama, or the corporate Democratic Party. It is democracy itself. Unless YOU act now, and are prepared to fight this out for years to come, whatever remains of American democracy is done. Finished. Over. No nation that suffers the theft of three out of four consecutive national elections can harbor the illusion that it is run by the will of its people. Those who would have it otherwise must work from now to Election Day and beyond, to: • Check your registration -- millions of us need to confirm that we are still registered voters and haven’t been purged from the polls. You can do this by checking with your county board of elections either by phone or online, or by contacting you secretary of state’s office; • Occupy the polling sites – come out in droves on Election Day to guarantee that EVERY citizen can fairly vote. Make sure there is no voter intimidation or other repression of voting. Look for broken machines, proliferation of voters forced to vote provisionally, and other irregularities. If something happens to your vote, report it to us; • Document the vote count – help implement a national network of precinct-by-precinct monitoring systems to track as closely as possible the voter turnout as a check against the final tabulated electronic vote count. Take photos or video of the final precinct voting results posted at polling sites; • Stop voting machine rigging – Observe the polling stations to monitor which technicians come to “service” the electronic voting machines and how they do it. Take photos or video of them and their vehicles; • Gear up now for post-election legal and direct action strategies to resist an electronic tally almost certain to be rigged on election night in at least nine swing states...or however many it may take. Though all the pieces are in place, the GOP theft is not inevitable. But the realities are harsh and demanding: There are no meaningful, legally binding public checks and balances on the tabulation of votes cast electronically. • Exit polling has proven accurate to within 1% of the vote – the gold standard for detecting vote tampering in other countries such as Germany, which uses paper ballots. In the U.S., when exit polls don’t match the vote count, there’s no investigation into tampering. Exit polls are always “adjusted” late election night to conform to the ultimate “official” vote count, even though shifts in Ohio 2004 and elsewhere were virtually statistically impossible. This election, exit polling will not happen in 19 states. • Despite an almost total blackout from the corporate media, the Romney family has a personal ownership (through the investment firms Solamere and H.I.G. Capital) in Hart Intercivic, which owns, maintains, programs and will tabulate alleged votes on machines in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado. Despite various official disclaimers, the election could be decided on Hart machines producing "vote counts" with little connection to how 18 million people actually voted. • It is inconceivable that the Romney chain of ownership in Hart Intercivic will not influence how that goes. The story has gotten widespread circulation on the internet, but has been ignored or dismissed by most of the corporate media and attacked by the Democratic Party. Petitions at Moveon.org and elsewhere call for a Department of Justice investigation. Tens of thousands of citizens have signed on. But there is no legally binding way by which a professionally rigged electronic vote count can be overturned or even definitively discovered except through the use of unabridged but legally inconsequential exit polling. • Scytl, a Barcelona-based e-voting company, has been contracted to count votes in 26 states through the easily rigged Federal Overseas Voting Program. FVAP is ostensibly geared to let military and other overseas Americans vote absentee by electronic means. But Scytl is positioned to intercept and redistribute such overseas electronic votes as needed through its spyware sister company, CarrierIQ. In a close race, these "votes" can be distributed at will to make the difference in critical swing states. • Other key voting machine companies, such as ES&S, Dominion, Command Central and more, are controlled by major corporations, some of whose owners are outspoken in their support for the Republican Party. Such support is reminiscent of Diebold owner Walden O’Dell, whose election software and machines helped give George W. Bush a second term in 2004, as O’Dell promised. • Republicans hold the governorships in the nine critical swing states of Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Mexico and Arizona. They also hold the secretaries of state offices in all of those states but Wisconsin. Electronically flipping the vote count in any or all of them, with Hart Intercivic, Scytl, Dominion or other technologies, can be done quickly, simply and invisibly, with no public recourse. • The GOP’s systematic “high-tech Jim and Juan Crow” disenfranchisement of millions of Americans continues to lengthen the odds against a Democratic victory, with millions of citizens being deprived of their right to vote. These voter ID and other laws have been focused on disenfranchising Hispanics, Hispanics, African-Americans and others suspected of leaning to the Democrats. • Though some of these laws have been turned back by the courts, Tea Party activists, True-the-Vote zealots and other Republicans will be at the polls to challenge voters they suspect of being likely Democrats. Many of these challenges will be illegal, but effective unless countered by the physical presence of election protection activists. • At least one Virginia GOP operative has already been arrested for destroying voter registration forms in a tactic that would deprive citizens of their right to vote, as reported at BradBlog.com. Also, there is a criminal prosecution underway in Florida over the destruction of voter registrations. • Republican-controlled election boards in Ohio are already deceiving potential voters with mailed misinformation about dates and locations for casting a vote. Such mailings were used throughout Ohio 2004 and elsewhere. Also, phone calls are being made to voters in order to mislead them on the day, time and location of voting. There is much more. The idea that the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP's horde of billionaire backers would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to capture the White House and Congress but stop short of a few electronic key strokes is nonsensical. Unfortunately, we cannot count on the Democratic Party to do much about this. Al Gore and John Kerry have said nothing about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004. When the Free Press first broke many of the stories about the theft of the 2004 election, we were attacked first and most consistently by the Democratic Party, which hired a lawyer from the state's leading Republican law firm to attack our reporting. This year the Free Press is coordinating an on-the-ground monitoring of the vote in Hamilton County, where the election could be decided on Romney's own Hart Intercivic machines. Please contact us at freepress.org if you'd like to help or contribute. In the meantime, wherever you are, do all you can to turn the electronic tide. As Rev. Jesse Jackson has put it, "We can afford to lose an election. We can't afford to lose our democracy." -- Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman have co-authored five books on election protection, including the new e-book WILL THE GOP STEAL AMERICA'S 2012 ELECTION? Freepress.org |
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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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