How McCain Could Win
Monday 03 November 2008
by: Greg Palast, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
http://www.truthout.org/110308A
Two Obama canvassers prepare their pitch before knocking on registered Republicans' doors in Arvada, Colorado. (Photo: Kevin Moloney / The New York Times)
It's November 5 and the nation is in shock. Media blame it on the "Bradley effect": Americans supposedly turned into Klansmen inside the voting booth, and Barack Obama turned up with 6 million votes less than calculated from the exit polls. Florida came in for McCain and so did Indiana. Colorado, despite the Democrats' Rocky Mountain high after the Denver convention, stayed surprisingly Red. New Mexico, a state where Anglos are a minority, went McCain by 300 votes, as did Virginia.
That's the nightmare. Here's the cold reality.
Swing state Colorado. Before this election, two Republican secretaries of state purged 19.4 percent of the entire voter roll. One in five voters. Pfft!
Swing state New Mexico. One in nine voters in this year's Democratic caucus found their names missing from the state-provided voter registries. And not just any voters. County by county, the number of voters disappeared was in direct proportion to the nonwhite population. Gore won the state by 366 votes; Kerry lost it by only 5,900. Despite reassurances that all has been fixed for Tuesday, Democrats lost from the list in February told me they're still "disappeared" from the lists this week.
Swing state Indiana. In this year's primary, ten nuns were turned away from the polls because of the state's new voter ID law. They had drivers' licenses, but being in their 80s and 90s, they'd let their licenses expire. Cute. But what isn't cute is this: 566,000 registered voters in that state don't have the ID required to vote. Most are racial minorities, the very elderly and first-time voters; that is, Obama voters. Twenty-three other states have new, vote-snatching ID requirements.
Swing state Florida. Despite a lawsuit battle waged by the Brennan Center for Justice, the state's Republican apparatchiks are attempting to block the votes of 85,000 new registrants, forcing them to pass through a new "verification" process. Funny thing: verification applies only to those who signed up in voter drives (mostly black), but not to voters registering at motor vehicle offices (mostly white).
And so on through swing states controlled by Republican secretaries of state.
The Ugly Secret
Here's an ugly little secret about American democracy: We don't count all the votes. In 2004, based on the data from the US Elections Assistance Commission, 3,006,080 votes were not counted: "spoiled," unreadable and blank ballots; "provisional" ballots rejected; mail-in ballots disqualified.
This Tuesday, it will be worse. Much worse.
That's what I found while traveling the nation over the last year for BBC Television and Rolling Stone Magazine, working with voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This we guarantee: there will be far more votes disappeared by Tuesday night than the three million lost in 2004. A six-million vote swipe, quite likely, shifts 4 percent of the ballots, within the margin of error of the tightest polls.
Begin with this harsh statistic: since the last election, more than ten million voters have been purged from the nation's vote registries. And that's just the start of the steal.
If the noncount were random, it wouldn't matter. But it's not random. A US Civil Rights Commission analysis shows that the chance a black voter's ballot will "spoil" or be blank is 900 percent higher than a white voter's.
Does that mean the election's stolen and you should forget voting and just go back to bed for four years? Hell, no. It means you vote and vote smart, learn how to pry their filthy little hands off your ballot (there's a link at the end).
How to Steal an Election in Five Easy Steps
Here's how they can pull off the steal. Take out your calculator and add it up.
Step One: The "Dumpster" Vote - Purge Voters, Provisional Ballots
Ten million voters purged? What the hell is going on here? Why are we removing millions from the voter rolls?
The answer is the GOP's secret weapon, the Help America Vote Act, signed by George Bush in 2002. When Bush tells us he's going to help us vote, look out. But Democrats didn't. They signed on to the GOP bill, believing this "reform" law would prevent "another Florida." Instead, "Help America Vote" Floridated the entire nation.
Here's how: Help America Vote empowered secretaries of state to remove fraudulent and suspicious voters from the voter registries. It was the trick used by Katherine Harris in Florida in 2000 when she purged "felon" voters. Except they weren't felons. And now her GOP confrères are doing it in dozens of states, calling folks felon voters, "inactive" voters, suspect voters, whatever.
Take Colorado. The GOP didn't exactly trumpet it's erasing 19.4 percent of voters' names. It was, as detectives say, "hidden in plain sight," buried deep inside a US Elections Assistance Commission administrative report, among tables of mind-numbing stats through which I was trawling some months ago. (I used to teach statistics at Indiana University, so I enjoy reading matrices like others enjoy novels.)
For BBC TV and Rolling Stone, I asked the current Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman, "Why all the purging?" No answer, not a word, stonewalled even when I flew into Denver and stood outside his door. He was, I guess, too busy preparing to count his own votes as Republican candidate for Congress.
So, where are the Democrats? That's the really scary part. I spoke with Paul Hultin, appointed by Colorado's Democratic governor to the state's Election Reform Commission. Hultin's a terrific attorney. He knows, and says, that Help America Vote was a law "born in corruption," but he's spent his time on Colorado's voting machines, which he knows are busted. He's the Democrats' expert, and he didn't know that a fifth of his state's voters had vanished from the voter rolls.
Well, don't worry. Hultin's official committee will be holding hearings on the voting debacle in Colorado ... on November 19.
Then there's New Mexico, with those one in nine Democrats missing. I spoke with San Miguel County elections supervisor, Democrat Pecos Paul Maez, who was none too happy that 20 percent of his voters, the majority poor and Hispanic, were not on the voter rolls, especially because he was one of the missing. He blamed the state for using a suspect contractor to tag names for the Big Purge, as required by the Help America Vote Act. The contractor that conducted the New Mexico purge, Electronic Systems and Software (ES&S), was founded by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.
The company and state choose the purging "algorithms," those mathematical formulae that, depending on how you tweak them, can go through a voter roll like a hot knife through cream cheese.
So, what happens to the purged voters? They're told to scram when they arrive to vote or, if they squawk, they get a "provisional" ballot on which they can pretend to vote.
Now, here are the facts about provisionals: they don't get counted. And there are lots of them. The great unreported story of the 2004 election was that there were more than three million voters shunted to provisional ballots. Over a million (1,090,000) were never counted, just chucked in the dumpster. That's what caused Kerry to lose New Mexico, Iowa and Ohio. This time, because of Help America Vote and a Republican campaign to challenge voters, the number of provisionals will rise, as will rejections.
Whatever keeps you from getting a real ballot - purged name, for example - keeps you from having the provisional counted as well. That's because Democrats won the right of every voter to get a provisional ballot, but not the right to have that ballot counted. And how many will go uncounted? Double the 1.1 million loss in 2004 - not just because of the GOP's purge-mania, but because of a vicious little codicil in Help America Vote that went into effect since the last election ...
Step Two: "Verification" (and Elimination) of New Voters
For the first time in US history, new voters will face special new obstacles to voting. When we say "new" voters, let's be clear - we mean Obama voters. A Wall Street Journal poll shows new voters prefer Obama by an eye-popping three to one (69 percent to 20 percent).
So, the Republican game plan is simple: don't let new voters vote. There are three steps to this block-and-steal tactic. First, under the new law, states can deny new voters registration on the grounds their names can't be verified against government data files. Sounds reasonable, but it's not, because we don't have Soviet-style citizenship files in the US. The Social Security Administration is rejecting nearly half of the names submitted because there is no multi-state compatible tracking system. Of course, the Republicans know that.
New voter verification losses are huge. In California, a Republican secretary of state rejected 42 percent of new registrations, a trick discovered by his Democratic successor, Debra Bowen. She told me most of the rejected vote applicants had Hispanic, Vietnamese, Islamic and other "odd" names - odd, that is, for Republicans.
It used to be that you filled out a registration card and, bingo, you were registered. Not any more. That's also what happened in Florida to the 85,000 new registrants. They were victims of strict "matching" algorithms. Other states are also playing the "match" game. The result is voters will find themselves simply missing (or in some states, required to show extra ID - another horror show we'll discuss below). But don't worry, a of couple million new voters will get provisional ballots. That way, they can practice filling out their ballots for the day when democracy returns to America.
Step Three: New ID Laws
Karl Rove said, "I go to the grocery store and I wanna cash a check to pay for my groceries I gotta show a little bit of ID. Why should it not be reasonable ... at the voting place they ought to be able to prove who they are by showing some form of ID." And so, while buying his Pampers, Rove came up with a game-winner for the GOP.
Karl, let me answer your question. The reason, according to several studies by the Bush administration itself, is that lots of folks don't have government ID. Some are nuns, some are poor, lots are brown or old. I was on Fox TV with Lady Rothschild a couple of weeks ago. The lady, a McCain supporter, approved of the ID requirement - and was truly surprised to find out that some poorer Americans don't have passports. "Why don't they?" her Fox-mates asked, incredulous. Well, not every barrio kid has just returned from his estate outside London.
Rove knows that. He certainly knows that, for example, Professor Matthew Barreto of the University of Washington found that 10 percent of white voters in Indiana don't have the needed ID. And, for blacks, it's about double - 19 percent lack the ID required to vote. New ID laws will add to the turn-aways, provisionals and rejecteds on Tuesday by at least two million - and that's way conservative, assuming the new laws in swing states are only one-fourth as restrictive as Indiana's.
Step Four: Spoiling Ballots
Your chad gets hung. The touch screen doesn't like your touch. Or, your paper ballot had that extra mark that made the machine spit out your ballot like day-old beer with a cigarette floating in it.
In the last election, 1,389,231 ballots were zeroed-out, "spoiled," because the machines lost them, couldn't read them, mangled them or simply didn't register them. But it's not random, not by a long shot. In New Mexico in 2004, I found that 89 percent of blank and spoiled ballots were cast in minority precincts - a sum of uncounted ballots way over the Republican "victory" margin in that state.
Another study shows that Hispanics' vote choices are six times as likely to fail to be recorded when they vote on computers versus paper ballots.
In the primaries and in 2006, the "spoilage" and blank ("undervote") totals were horrific. There is every reason to believe the "spoilage" total will be as high as in the 2004 election. That is, no less than one million votes, overwhelmingly in minority districts, will just vanish. ("Spoilage" is not the same as vote tampering. There is the concern that "black-box" computers will switch your vote via an evil software hack job. That's another matter completely - and more votes lost if it happens, a sum I'm not including here.)
Step Five: Rejecting Mail-In Ballots
You've mailed in your ballot. Last time around, over half a million mail-in ballots were junked: everything from postage due to not liking your signature to a circle checked, not filled in. Mailing in a ballot is playing Russian roulette with it. About a tenth get junked.
This time, the GOP has a new game for trashing your absentee vote. In states like Florida, some FTFs (First-Time Federal voters) will have to include a photocopy of their ID in with the absentee ballot. Bet you didn't know that. They're counting on you not knowing that. In Florida, for example, you have to place the ID photocopy outside the inner envelope, but inside the outer envelope - Got that? - or your vote is toast. I've spoken to one student voter, who lost his vote for failing to use the two envelopes - though he only received one. (Have a mail-in ballot in hand? Then, for God's sake, walk it in to the polling place or local board of elections. Sign, seal and deliver it in person.)
You may get it right, but historic data suggest that, when combining the FTF games with the usual mail-in cock-ups, Obama will lose another million votes to mail-in disqualifications.
Exit Polls and Exit Stratagems
These millions of uncounted ballots - spoiled ballots, provisional ballots rejected, absentee ballots disqualified - fully explain the difference between exit polls (which, for example, gave Kerry Ohio in 2004 and Gore a win in Florida in 2000) and the official count. Exit pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" They never ask, and can't know, "Did your vote count?"
How would they get away with it? Well, they begin explaining away how the "pollsters" get it wrong, how pollsters didn't figure the "Bradley Effect" of lying, racist voters. They'll tell us the new, young and Black Obamaniacs gave money, went to rallies - but never bothered to vote. But the real reason will never be whispered: They cast votes that just weren't counted.
Will the election be stolen on Tuesday? No, it's already been stolen. That is, several million voters are doomed to lose their ballots; most won't even know it. Overwhelmingly, they are the poor, minorities, new voters - Obama voters. Does that mean McCain's got it in the bag and you're helpless? Not at all.
Don't Steal Your Own Vote
In 2004, I and other investigators wrote, long before Election Day, "Ohio's stolen." We were deadly right.
It's happening again. For six years, the Democratic Party has been snoozing through a quiet, brilliantly executed Republican operation to block, stop and purge voters by the millions. As New Mexico voting rights attorney John Boyd put it, "I don't think the Democrats get it. All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."
Karl Rove once said, "We have elections like those run in countries where the guys in charge are, you know, colonels in mirrored glasses." He wasn't complaining; he was boasting.
I know that the Obama campaign is not happy that I bring up the issue of a possible theft of the election. They fear voters will be "discouraged" by the possibility that the election is fixed.
Well, frankly, if you're too bummed out by this recitation of facts and statistics to vote, then maybe you don't deserve to vote, or to drive or to reproduce. Did Martin Luther King say, "I have a dream ... so I'm going back to sleep"?
Votes can't be saved by "hope" alone. There are simple ways to protect your own vote, from walking in your "mail-in" to refusing a provisional ballot. (You can download the list at StealBackYourVote.org, written with Bobby Kennedy, a professor of law.)
It comes down to this: Can the margin of trickery, vote suppression and ballot destruction - three to six million votes - be overcome? Yes. Because they can't steal all the votes all the time. Two days before the election, John McCain is down by only 4 percent in some polls. But these are polls of "likely" voters. They exclude first-time and many low-income voters.
So, the answer to vote suppression is for something unlikely to happen - for the "unlikely" voters to simply overwhelm the statistical assumption of their laziness. As I'm sure Mr. Obama, a professor of constitutional law, could tell you: the best legal response to systematic vote suppression is to get off yo' ass!
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Greg Palast is the co-author of "Block the Vote," in this month's Rolling Stone Magazine, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Palast and Kennedy are also co-authors of the investigative comic book, "Steal Back Your Vote." Palast, who reports on election fraud for BBC Television, is a Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation fellow for investigative reporting. Prior to his becoming a journalist, Palast was a forensic economist, fraud investigator and taught economics and statistics at Indiana University. palast@gregpalast.net
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COMMENTS
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Greg--PLEASE print the list
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 05:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
Greg--PLEASE print the list on your website...right now it just says to donate and download the comic. I did that awhile ago, but now I'm on another computer and I just want to access the list so I can send it to people. PLEASE MAKE IT EASY TO FIND!
America can change the mask
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 05:21 — David (not verified)
America can change the mask in front of the real people running the show, but until the Federal Reserve is dismantled and left on the curb, the wars will rage on, and capital manipulation will continue at the direction of the others who are out of sight (think Rothschild or Rockefeller, to start). Palast has been writing about voter fraud and corruption for years, and giving people the lowdown on Chicago School economics, and the late Molly Ivins warned Americans repeatedly about what an abhorrent crook and incompetent thief GW Bush was, but no one paid any attention. But this big-business take-over of America has been escalating for over 200 years, and really ramping-up since Woodrow Wilson almost 100 years ago. Still, Americans remain unable to see the road ahead. Even when the country is insolvent, it still pats itself on the back, chanting "We're #1!".....as Bugs would say, "what a bunch of maroons".
To those who discount Greg
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 04:44 — Anonymous (not verified)
To those who discount Greg Palast's work, or find it "too depressing"...this is the guy who figured out how 2000 was stolen from Al Gore. And he got proof directly from Karl Rove, Katherine Harris' office, and front desk people in a variety of election related offices. If you think the neocons who have created this "silent coup" over the past 8 years, and have been openly destroying our Constitution and waging illegal wars in order to gain complete corporate power, are going to give this all up just because a few million poor, working class and black or Latino voters say so...well, I've got a Bridge to Nowhere to sell you. The only cure is to A) Get out and vote like your life depends on it and B) FIGHT afterwards if/when you see the "results" come up mysteriously against the exit polling again. To the ones who say Obama's already ahead in early voting--these are NOT COUNTED YET. The only thing we know is that those voters who are registered Democrats are turning out in far greater numbers than those who are registered Republicans. But none will be "counted" until tomorrow after the polls close. Don't be fooled again!
Regardless....Obama will win!
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 04:33 — Anonymous (not verified)
Regardless....Obama will win!
100,000 people at an Obama
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 04:26 — Anonymous (not verified)
100,000 people at an Obama rally Monday in OHIO. 1,100 people at a McCain rally in FLORIDA on the same day. DO THE MATH. OBAMA WINS EVERY STATE BUT TEXAS AND MAYBE ARIZONA.
I think John MC Cain told us
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 04:24 — Anonymous (not verified)
I think John MC Cain told us how he was going to steal this election. He said he was going to win this election, and it would be late at night when he won. Now-- what happens on voting day, late at night? If you can figure that out, we can stop him. Thanks, Robert
Greg's article is excellent,
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 04:06 — citizen 10 (not verified)
Greg's article is excellent, but I don't feel as pessimistic as some since this election is a different animal than 2000 and 2004. First of all, Obama is a much more inspiring candidate than Gore (who really hit his stride after the campaign unfortunately) and Kerry (yawwwn then and now). So turnout wasn't historic, new voter registration wasn't huge like this time. It will take a lot more in the way of dirty tricks to throw this election. There will be a ton of scrutiny at the polls (pollwatchers, lawyers, and regular citizens ready to call foul, armed with cellphones to document irregularities). I distributed Obama doorhangers today and they cover all the info on what you need to bring and where you need to go to vote. And the increased new voter turnout should more than make up for the purges and destroyed ballots. I think a lot of voters felt powerless to do anything about the government sanctioned fraud during the last two elections--this year, all hell will break loose if anything like that starts to happen again. I just don't think people will stand for it after 8 years of stewing about Florida and then Ohio. So get out to the polls tomorrow, and drag your lazy friends and neighbors along. Bring something to read because the lines will be long. Charge your cell phone because you might need it to document something. And look forward to 2012, because it's in Obama's interest to have maximum voter turnout--so he *will* get it fixed!
I suppose massive corporate
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 03:49 — Anonymous (not verified)
I suppose massive corporate subsidies, politician buy-offs and bailouts are more your idea of how we should redistribute wealth. Just after a $700 billion dollar bailout? Go "sell crazy somewhere else". Don't worry though, Obama is just another corporate pawn-just follow the money. In response to: "Why Obama shouldn't win - Economics 101: He is a classic example of one having a 'Steal from the rich and give to the poor' mindset. Wake up America - it is the people who have money that can afford to invest and start businesses, which ultimately creates jobs. That is how in a democratic society true 'redistribution of wealth' occurs. Quite different from the socialist that we have crouching at America's doorstep with Obama."
Great article but, forgive
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 03:26 — Lance Roseman, BC, Canada (not verified)
Great article but, forgive me if I am wrong (notice the .ca in my email), I was under the sneaking suspicion that America was a Republic, not a Dumbocracy? Who knows, I don't read the MSM or watch TV anymore. Maybe there was a change since last I left my igloo. But wow anyhow.
I read your article with
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 02:52 — Anonymous (not verified)
I read your article with interest. And all I can say is "WOW! I SURE HOPE YOU'RE RIGHT!!!" Unfortunately our forefathers overlooked the prospect of retards voting. If you can't handle registering and voting properly why should you get a say? If we had a "true" democracy we'd see tyranny of the majority in perpetuity -- just ask ten people at the grocery store if "they" should take millions from Wall Street execs and hand it to them -- why, of course! Now I know there are consummate sh*theads on Wall Street as elsewhere, but the simplistic Obama even-it-up approach is dangerous for America, given the Dems control of Congress. Why don't they "fix" education? Doesn't anyone want to change the ONE THING that really matters in the long term (human capital). The LAST PLACE primary education system in the developed world -- the US. The FIRST PLACE college education system -- the US. The difference? Choice. Of where to go. If you can get in. To play football or study. Simple. The obstacle? Unions, self-interest ... teachers! Who desire better conditions for THEM, not the students! Shocking. But it's human nature and the Dems pander to their votes.... Repeat this 1000 times over 1000 issues and you have the mess we're in as a country. On both sides. The problem with democracy is too much of it. The founding fathers knew that and limited the vote. Sorry, but it's true. And the only answer with universal suffrage is to limit the GOVERNMENT outright, a la Switzerland. End the spoils system by rendering it far less important -- get the government out of our lives or watch this country slide into second-class status. Just my two cents; I hold three passports....
WASHINGTON, Nov 03, 2008 -
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 02:37 — Anonymous (not verified)
WASHINGTON, Nov 03, 2008 - The following is an excerpt from the concluding paragraph of an article by Glenn Harlan Reynolds that appeared in the New York Post and was released today by the Republican National Committee: "...so, too, may no-doc voting and dubious financial controls lead to a political crisis that, quite possibly, will make the financial crisis look mild."
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/11032008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/stealing%5fan%5felection%5f136579.htm ----------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjFq0_g93k&fmt=18
This is depressing as hell.
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 02:36 — Scott (not verified)
This is depressing as hell. I had to stop reading halfway through it.
Why Obama shouldn't win -
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 01:17 — Anonymous (not verified)
Why Obama shouldn't win - Economics 101: He is a classic example of one having a 'Steal from the rich and give to the poor' mindset. Wake up America - it is the people who have money that can afford to invest and start businesses, which ultimately creates jobs. That is how in a democratic society true 'redistribution of wealth' occurs. Quite different from the socialist that we have crouching at America's doorstep with Obama.
Obama,Mccain, McCain, Obama,
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 01:16 — DocReality (not verified)
Obama,Mccain, McCain, Obama, you people are really banging your heads over nothing. You are pontificating over apples and oranges. America is a de Facto dictatorship, do you think your vote means a thing? You have got to be kidding. I think by now any fool can see through all of this. It is outright insanity. You are being led around with a rag of ether.If you must vote and you really want this ' change' the great messiah Obummah likes to spew about, then why aren't you taking about Cynthia McKinney or Nader or anyone else from the rat infested corporate system? Ogama and McLame are controlled puppets for the same entities. look for another 911 false flag, look for more war, more financial rape, even then I doubt the majority of this country will ever get the reality through their thick brainwashed skulls.
lol Dems talking about
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 01:00 — Stevo (not verified)
lol Dems talking about stealing elections? What about ACORN? What about the FL primary voters that only got half a vote.. All Democratic Party. I'm not democrat nor republican so I see what's wrong on both sides.. But come on people.. Obama? Really?
You're dreaming, Greg.
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 00:52 — Joe Neri (not verified)
You're dreaming, Greg. Obama is already leading in early voting, what makes you think that trend will change? As to the Democrats not being ready, please visit the DNC website, which describes Howard Dean's establishment of a network of lawyers around the country monitoring voting sites.
I agree with Jack's comments
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 00:31 — Fred (not verified)
I agree with Jack's comments - there is 99% fear-mongering in this article (and in the comic book) and 1% real possible 'solutions'. I am not diminishing in the least the real threat to our freedom to vote. Palast and Kennedy are doing the socially-minded right thing, and we all need to channel that anger into coordinated civil disobedience if it (ever) becomes clear that the election was stolen. Best of luck to us all.
McCain's presidency would
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 00:19 — Kirby (not verified)
McCain's presidency would guarantee a new war in the making! He is more interested in WAR than anything else. He has no interests, no vigor, and no intelligence, no understanding... to deal with everyday economy of ordinary folks.
Whatever happens, the
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 00:03 — Anonymous (not verified)
Whatever happens, the cheat-or-lose Republicans will have a much harder time trying to steal this election than the ones in 2000 and 2004. My guess is that their efforts will fall short this time and an important power shift will emerge. We all can thank Bush for this opportunity! His near destruction of this country laid the groundwork for the miracle that may occur tomorrow.
why not just throw it open
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 23:50 — horizontal_hold (not verified)
why not just throw it open to the highest bidder? after the amount spent on the election by BOTH parties it would seem the most sensible thing to do. as it is, the banks will pretty soon own all the property in the us, everything will be out-sourced to 3rd world contries (how about vote counting?), and eventually the power / corporate oligarchy will suddenly realise there's no one to buy their products, be it tv's or insurance. sort of self-destructing in a nice sort of way... in australia we worry about 2nd rate ministers touching the knee of a staffer or swearing at bar staff while our governments are run by self-confessed 'managers' who could organise a piss-up in a brewery. ain't life grand.
It is not who votes it is
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 23:38 — imhotep (not verified)
It is not who votes it is who counts the votes -Stalin I think he would have known a thing or two about stealing a election. It appears Rove went to the Stalin/Nazi School of Political Science. Palast is on point with his observations, I just hope we've been hoodwinked and bamboozelled enough to learn our lessons. If not we'll learn it again, the hard way. If you didn't vote early, you probably haven't learned your lesson yet.
I'm 77. Obama is the best
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 23:24 — Anonymous (not verified)
I'm 77. Obama is the best candidate we've had since FDR. I believe he has it within him to turn the country around. If he loses, we are lost. I won't have to live in this country long, after Tiesdaubut my grand-daughter will. I've contributed what money I could afford and canvassed for Obama though I am in the middle of the "god'nguns" country. I have spread the word of the vote theft. I will vote early tomorrow. These are bad people doing this, so I pray they don't succeed. Thanks for seeing it and reporting it.
In response to "badbf"'s
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 23:22 — Anonymous (not verified)
In response to "badbf"'s comment "If they steal this one (and they certainly seem to have all the machinery in place to do it) they might just have to call out that "posse comatatus" army brigade against American citizens for the first time": I hope you realize that the US Army has a division specifically stationed in the US for the first time ever for that very purpose. Check out this link:
http://www.alternet.org/story/101958/ One thing is for certain, in spite of how the Army's website tries to spin it, they aren't stationed here to rescue kittens from trees.
Greg, your arroance and
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:54 — Jack (not verified)
Greg, your arroance and megalomania may be tolerable but this fear mongering is the last straw. The black helicopeters are coming, the government blew up the twin towers, the international banking cabal is plotting the one world order. Give it a rest man. Yes there is good reason to suspect dirty tricks but scaring the crap out of everyone with all this doomsday conspiratorial end of the world predictions does not help. Take that silly fedora off and go make a few phone calls for Obama.
If they steal this one (and
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:43 — badbf (not verified)
If they steal this one (and they certainly seem to have all the machinery in place to do it) they might just have to call out that "posse comatatus" army brigade against American citizens for the first time, and open up those Halliburton-built concentration camps in the Midwest for business.... because the people who will not stand for another stolen election will be rioting in the streets!
This might sound farfetched,
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:36 — Gerardo (not verified)
This might sound farfetched, but it's what happened in Mexico in 2006. More than a million votes were not counted and many suspect that they were systematically chosen from areas that favored the left-wing candidate.
So why aren't the Democrats
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:20 — CounselorTroi (not verified)
So why aren't the Democrats taking action? And why haven't they been doing so in preparation for the Rethuglicans' predictable attempt to steal yet another election? Could it be that both parties have been bought, body and soul, by the big corporations and the wealthy oligarchy? Maybe the Democrats don't really care if they are in or out, as long as the corporate money keeps rolling in.
McCain won't be able to
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:16 — granny (not verified)
McCain won't be able to steal the vote IF all of us refuse to take the stealing sitting down. If there is any hint of purging or manipulating of the actual votes, we MUST get on the streets, on the phones, on the Web, in the offices of the news media, in front of the National Mall, as close to the White House as wq can get insisting on re-counts and even a new election. We cannot allow any more of the GOP dirty election strategies. And we MUST make sure that tomorrow all voting places are watched, protected, documented and reported.
SoS Coffman in Colorado was
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 22:13 — windskull (not verified)
SoS Coffman in Colorado was told first by Governor Ritter then again Friday by an angry District Judge Kane to reinstate ALL the names purged within 90 days of the election ALSO the post office has ordered all mail in ballots to be sent in even with partial postage Coffman may be toying with the courts but his actions demonstrate he fully intends to throw this election in nothing short of a cowardly act of domestic terrorism and must be treated as such if we are a nation of laws
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10866716
This time there will be no
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:51 — Anonymous (not verified)
This time there will be no surrender by President elect Obama!Get your rice and beans ad get ready to stop buying the corporate crap. sir overtone
The neocon thugs have been
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:46 — Anonymous (not verified)
The neocon thugs have been in control for too long to allow Obama to win. I am in the worst depression of my life because if Obama does not become President it will be the end of the US. Oh, the country will still be here, but any respect the world may have given us would be gone. Can you even begin to imagine a Pres. Palin? Take a good hard long look at McCain. He is an old man, barely walking around and he looks cruel. He will bring back the draft and more of our sons and daughters will die IF you allow him to take them. We have a shining moment. It won't be perfect, far from it, but it will be a start because that is all we have left--we have to start over from what has almost destroyed our country.
It won't be the "Bradley
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:46 — Tom Camfield (not verified)
It won't be the "Bradley Effect." If the worst scenario does come to pass it will be due to successful disenfranchisement of voters, sabotaged voting machines and rulings by right-leaning courts.
Passports are not valid ID
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Passports are not valid ID in Arizona because they don't confirm current address.
This is why the McCain camp
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:39 — karenT (not verified)
This is why the McCain camp is so confident that they are going to win tomorrow. They are quite aware of the tactics that have been going on for the past 8 years. The Obama campaign has done so much to try to combat this....I only hope it's enough.
If they think they can steal
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:22 — brian (not verified)
If they think they can steal yet another election and not be dealing with a full-scale rebellion and civil war they are kidding themselves. They can pretend that we all became kkk-ers all they want but we all know that the truth is that we're the usa not the kkk. I expect nothing less than street riots nationwide if they steal another election. They will have to murder thousands of citizens in order to retain power and continue treating our country like an empire. They will have to kill more of us than Osama ever (supposedly) did.
I think we should have
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:13 — Elliot Krane (not verified)
I think we should have election observers from Guatemala and Nicaragua, and maybe from Georgia and the Ukraine to certify our election. Were we ever the shining light of democracy, or was that merely an illusion?
Hey, everyone, this has been
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:12 — fmouse (not verified)
Hey, everyone, this has been in the news for weeks, or months. Please don't express surprise because you just read it on Truthout today. The proper question might be why haven't YOU been paying attention until the day before the election. See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAr4PKwo5Kg, or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxG0gHbuZIU&NR=1.
If Obama wins, maybe we can
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
If Obama wins, maybe we can stop the Republican fraud. No matter how the ballots were recounted in Florida in 2000, Gore won. In 2004 the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio did everything in his power to engineer a Bush win -- long lines in Democratic precincts, etc. If Kenneth Blackwell had not been Secretary of State in Ohio, I think the counted vote would have elected John Kerry. (Don't forget that the Ohio votes were counted in Tennessee on a computer running GOP software before they were reported.) With this history, it is no wonder that we won't believe Obama is elected until it actually happens.
www.popblogculture.blogspot.c
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:08 — dj41326 (not verified)
www.popblogculture.blogspot.com Voting for DEMS or REPS is an exercise in futility because they couldn't give two shits about the American people. They only care about the large corporations. We must have a viable third, fourth or fifth party.
866-OUR-VOTE/888-VE-Y-VOTE h
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:05 — Anonymous (not verified)
866-OUR-VOTE/888-VE-Y-VOTE
http://www.866ourvote.com Please publicize this number - volunteers are standing by there to give information, help clarify election laws and empower voters to vindicate their rights, and in some cases, to send mobile field units directly to the polls or to contact election officials to address problems.
McCain will be seeing blue
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:03 — Anonymous (not verified)
McCain will be seeing blue tomorrow my friends. They cannot purge enough votes.
Obama can still win. He
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:03 — Ron (not verified)
Obama can still win. He will win if he gets the white, middle class and higher vote. It does seem that this demographic is the only one left which is allowed to have their votes counted without dispute in an America where Jim Crow voting has been established as a national policy by the GOP.
I know the GOP stole 2000
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 21:01 — Anonymous (not verified)
I know the GOP stole 2000 and 2004... and I am sure they will try and probably succeed in stealing 2008. It is hard to believe this is the United States of America. I wonder if we will every be a true Democracy? Seems to me the answer is NO :(
I'd refer you to both Nate
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:56 — Stephen (not verified)
I'd refer you to both Nate Silver's recent piece on fivethirtyeight.com, as well as the October 24th podcast of NPR's On The Media. Silver did a very studied deconstruction of why there isn't a "Bradley Effect," and OTM spoke with Tom Bradley's own pollster, as well as George Deukmejian's pollster of why no kind of latent or unspoken racism governed the outcome of that election. The entire idea of race being an outcome in that election came from Mervyn Field, who couldn't accept that his polling data didn't account for a large amount of absentee ballots from the predominantly Central Valley and then said that race had to be the reason his polls were incorrect. If you remove the absentees ballots from that region, Field's data was correct. So his failure of imagination created what's largely become an urban legend, and the press is too lazy to do their home work.
Ever hear of landslide
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:53 — Anonymous (not verified)
Ever hear of landslide Lyndon? Ever wonder who Alzheimer patients in nursing homes vote for? Ever wonder where the term "stuff the ballot box" came from? Folks, there are no perfect elections. There has been voter and election fraud since elections were invented. Interests/political parties/candidates are served by the election outcome and many will do whatever they can get away with to improve their odds. A solution to this is probably as likely as victory in the war on drugs.
The laws that you so
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:49 — Todd (not verified)
The laws that you so summarily dismiss as unfair were mostly put on the books to fight against voter fraud practiced my Democratic operatives. You complain about almost 20% of the voters getting wiped off the books, but how many of those voters are fraudulent or from illegal aliens? Or, since criminals are most likely to be Democrats, is that ok with you to let them vote?
Lisa, Greg Palast, RFK Jr.,
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:46 — Thel Fergison (not verified)
Lisa, Greg Palast, RFK Jr., and others (see
http://www.bradblog.com/ ) have been writing about these issues for months. The fact that the great majority of U.S. citizens (including you) haven't heard about it before stands as incontrovertible proof that the carefully coiffed, lapdog stenographers in the MSM press corpse have TOTALLY failed to do their jobs.
While I think Obama will win
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:44 — Observer (not verified)
While I think Obama will win tomorrow, I still won't be surprised if McCain comes from behind and pulls it out of the fire. I think a lot of people are playing it close to the vest and will vote for McCain, but will keep quiet about it, because throughout this long campaign Obama's surrogates have been too quick to accuse people of racism if they don't support the Senator from Illinois. So, rather than be accused of being racist, people are just telling friends, colleagues, and pollsters what they think they want to hear.
I've been hearing about this
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
I've been hearing about this all election long. Its about time we stand up against this sort of fraud. Great article.
Why has this not been taken
Mon, 11/03/2008 - 20:41 — Anonymous (not verified)
Why has this not been taken seriously until the day before election?As far as all this talk of stealing elections goes, , if we are just talking about what ifs then we really deserve what we get. after two previous elections and then here it is another election and we have a real leader, someone we have been yearning for for more than 8 years...Utterly ludicrous that there is even a threat of stealing elections at this point. There should be a plan b or something, but just going, oh no, what if they steal the election, and there is no recourse, then is seems the possibility of the election being stolen is very real. If they can get away with it, why not, right? sucks. We are obviously not ready for a real leader. Hopefully this country will be around in 4 years for us to have another election.
