Your source for alternative media coverage of the 2008 election alongside the 2004 elections and the related voter irregularities in Ohio.<br><br>Additional articles about the elections by <a href=http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3>Bob Fitrakis</a> and <a href=http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7>Harvey Wasserman</a> are in the <a href=http://www.freepress.org/columns>columns</a> section.
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Those interested in contributing statistical skills to the project may want to contact <a href=mailto:truth@freepress.org>The Free Press</a> and <a href=http://uscountvotes.org target=usvotes>uscountvotes.org</a>.
Election Issues
We are seniors at the Social Justice High School in Chicago, and in our math class, we have been working to understand whether or not something went wrong in the 2004 presidential election. We have used statistics, facts, and formulas to demonstrate that some of the election results did not happen by chance. During our analyses, we discovered that the differences between the exit polls (random confidential surveys done immediately after voting) and the recorded votes did not match. Although we expect some differences, due to sample variation, the numbers were mathematically improbable or basically impossible!
A former Montague resident and plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit says he's "100 percent certain" that the 2004 presidential election was stolen, and believes the Republican Party is attempting to steal the 2008 election as well.
Harvey Wasserman, who lived in Montague for 14 years and is now editor of the online Freepress.org as well as author of four books on vote-tampering and disenfranchisement in Ohio four years ago, predicts that Democratic candidate Barack Obama will need a 10 percent vote margin to compensate for election manipulation and racism if he's to win the presidency.
Harvey Wasserman, who lived in Montague for 14 years and is now editor of the online Freepress.org as well as author of four books on vote-tampering and disenfranchisement in Ohio four years ago, predicts that Democratic candidate Barack Obama will need a 10 percent vote margin to compensate for election manipulation and racism if he's to win the presidency.
Obama supporters are exuding a potentially fatal air of confidence and expectation. Intoxicated by favorable polls and a gusher of campaign spending, many are, in John McCain's phrase, "measuring the drapes in the White House."
It is a classic error, made lethal by the Democratic Party's on-going unwillingness to face the realities of electronic election theft.
In fact, the twin towers of pre-election disenfranchisement and rigged electronic vote counts make an Obama victory at best an even call, no matter how far ahead he may seem in the polls.
As reported by Bradblog, Greg Palast, Robert F. Kennedy, Mark C. Miller and others, the Republicans are waging all-out war to purge hundreds of thousands of Democrats from the voter rolls. The now-familiar attacks on ACORN are a smokescreen to cover highly effective state-by-state assaults on computerized registration lists. These lists are often privatized and run by Republican-connected companies like Triad in Ohio.
It is a classic error, made lethal by the Democratic Party's on-going unwillingness to face the realities of electronic election theft.
In fact, the twin towers of pre-election disenfranchisement and rigged electronic vote counts make an Obama victory at best an even call, no matter how far ahead he may seem in the polls.
As reported by Bradblog, Greg Palast, Robert F. Kennedy, Mark C. Miller and others, the Republicans are waging all-out war to purge hundreds of thousands of Democrats from the voter rolls. The now-familiar attacks on ACORN are a smokescreen to cover highly effective state-by-state assaults on computerized registration lists. These lists are often privatized and run by Republican-connected companies like Triad in Ohio.
Sarah Palin has been associated all her adult life with churches and political groups that are way out of the theological and political mainstream. Her extreme policy views as Governor reflect this background and raise questions about what kind of vice president John McCain seeks to have voters endorse.
It has been widely reported that McCain barely knew Palin and his team never fully evaluated her to determine her fitness to be vice president.
A recent report in The Anchorage Daily News stated that evangelist Franklin Graham made the Palin connection to McCain, not Republican professionals. Graham, the once-estranged son of Billy Graham, has strong ties to the various strands of the religious rightwing. He met with McCain on June 30 at his headquarters in Boone, North Carolina, after which Graham issued a statement praising McCain’s "personal faith" and prayed for "God’s will to be done in this upcoming election."
It has been widely reported that McCain barely knew Palin and his team never fully evaluated her to determine her fitness to be vice president.
A recent report in The Anchorage Daily News stated that evangelist Franklin Graham made the Palin connection to McCain, not Republican professionals. Graham, the once-estranged son of Billy Graham, has strong ties to the various strands of the religious rightwing. He met with McCain on June 30 at his headquarters in Boone, North Carolina, after which Graham issued a statement praising McCain’s "personal faith" and prayed for "God’s will to be done in this upcoming election."
A critical US Supreme Court decision against GOP voter meddling in Ohio may prove temporary.
In its on-going campaign to inject chaos and confusion into the voting process, the GOP has sued Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, demanding that she release to county boards of elections lists of registered voters whose information does not precisely match government data bases. The right to vote of such registrants---by most estimates as many as 200,000 in Ohio alone---could then be challenged on a case-by-case basis. George W. Bush was awarded Ohio's 20 electoral votes in 2004 with an official margin of less than 119,000 votes, though more than 100,000 votes cast in that election remain uncounted.
The 200,000 voters targeted by the Republican Party were all registered since January 1, 2008. News source estimates suggest 75-80% of these newly-registered voters are Obama supporters.
In its on-going campaign to inject chaos and confusion into the voting process, the GOP has sued Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, demanding that she release to county boards of elections lists of registered voters whose information does not precisely match government data bases. The right to vote of such registrants---by most estimates as many as 200,000 in Ohio alone---could then be challenged on a case-by-case basis. George W. Bush was awarded Ohio's 20 electoral votes in 2004 with an official margin of less than 119,000 votes, though more than 100,000 votes cast in that election remain uncounted.
The 200,000 voters targeted by the Republican Party were all registered since January 1, 2008. News source estimates suggest 75-80% of these newly-registered voters are Obama supporters.
The latest polls seem to have created a tidal wave of euphoria among Obama supporters.
Excuse me if I don't get swept away along with it.
I still remember going to bed thinking Gore was elected in 2000 after the networks called Florida for him. In 2004, I read through exit poll numbers the afternoon of the election and discovered that John Kerry would defeat George Bush.
As a political consultant I've been in more campaigns than I would like to count where minority candidates underperformed final polling expectations.
I'm expecting a squeaker on November 4.
Support for Obama looks too fragile to expect otherwise. We've yet to hear from Osama bin Laden, who weighed in, you'll remember, on the eve of the 2004 election. We've yet to see any last minute action by the White House that could change the national conversation in McCain's favor.
There are some powerful unplayed cards still in the deck----the most powerful being vote suppression.
Excuse me if I don't get swept away along with it.
I still remember going to bed thinking Gore was elected in 2000 after the networks called Florida for him. In 2004, I read through exit poll numbers the afternoon of the election and discovered that John Kerry would defeat George Bush.
As a political consultant I've been in more campaigns than I would like to count where minority candidates underperformed final polling expectations.
I'm expecting a squeaker on November 4.
Support for Obama looks too fragile to expect otherwise. We've yet to hear from Osama bin Laden, who weighed in, you'll remember, on the eve of the 2004 election. We've yet to see any last minute action by the White House that could change the national conversation in McCain's favor.
There are some powerful unplayed cards still in the deck----the most powerful being vote suppression.
On Tuesday, Oct 7th, I attended a Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (CCBOE) meeting. I wanted to make sure absentee-vote totals were going to be separated from election-day vote totals. What I observed was a witch hunt.
This is what I, and many others, believe:
The GOP is applying pressure to the county board of elections to "sniff out" questionable voter-registration cards, especially those by very effective and successful voter-registration projects, and call it "Voter Fraud." Probably like the pressure on 9 fired U.S. Attorneys (Google "Iglesias Voter Fraud").
ACORN, a highly respected community organizing agency, was called in to answer questions about "fishy" and duplicate voter-registration cards. During the increasingly hostile interrogation, ACORN admitted "we don't have the resources to catch every fraudulent voter-registration card". (Brings back memories of Bob Bennett's "No election is perfect!" as he and Vu pushed e-voting down our throats!)
The next day's Plain Dealer: "ACORN: Possible Fraud"--"ACORN admitted to the BOE they can't eliminate fraud from their operation."
This is what I, and many others, believe:
The GOP is applying pressure to the county board of elections to "sniff out" questionable voter-registration cards, especially those by very effective and successful voter-registration projects, and call it "Voter Fraud." Probably like the pressure on 9 fired U.S. Attorneys (Google "Iglesias Voter Fraud").
ACORN, a highly respected community organizing agency, was called in to answer questions about "fishy" and duplicate voter-registration cards. During the increasingly hostile interrogation, ACORN admitted "we don't have the resources to catch every fraudulent voter-registration card". (Brings back memories of Bob Bennett's "No election is perfect!" as he and Vu pushed e-voting down our throats!)
The next day's Plain Dealer: "ACORN: Possible Fraud"--"ACORN admitted to the BOE they can't eliminate fraud from their operation."
As Goes Ohio...Election Protection Conference
Bob Fitrakis and Steve Rosenfeld on pre-Election Day Board of Elections Monitoring Project
Link: Fitrakis & Board of Election Monitoring
Keynote Address - Mark Crispin Miller delivers the keynote speech at the As Goes Ohio...Election Protection Conference, held Sept. 24 and 25 in Columbus.
Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University and author of the books: "Loser Take All," "Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections" and "The Bush Dyslexicon." He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform.
YouTube Link: Mark Crispin Miller Keynote (second one from left)
Mark Crispin Miller Interview:
The 'Trinity' of Reform
Interviewed by EON's Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle, author, activist MARK CRISPIN MILLER talks about meltdowns, bailouts and what he calls the 'trinity' of reforms necessary to restore voting integrity in America: Election, Media and Campaign Finance reform.
Bob Fitrakis and Steve Rosenfeld on pre-Election Day Board of Elections Monitoring Project
Link: Fitrakis & Board of Election Monitoring
Keynote Address - Mark Crispin Miller delivers the keynote speech at the As Goes Ohio...Election Protection Conference, held Sept. 24 and 25 in Columbus.
Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University and author of the books: "Loser Take All," "Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections" and "The Bush Dyslexicon." He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform.
YouTube Link: Mark Crispin Miller Keynote (second one from left)
Mark Crispin Miller Interview:
The 'Trinity' of Reform
Interviewed by EON's Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle, author, activist MARK CRISPIN MILLER talks about meltdowns, bailouts and what he calls the 'trinity' of reforms necessary to restore voting integrity in America: Election, Media and Campaign Finance reform.
One should rightly assume that the weight of the US financial crisis, the full impact of which is just beginning to unravel, and the widening military debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, would compel new thinking amongst leading US politicians. And then again, maybe not.
Aside from tactical and rhetorical differences, presidential candidates and their vice-president-hopefuls are yet to strictly champion and act upon a truly different leadership strategy: Barack Obama’s current foreign policy visions are more or less those of President Bush in his second term. Republican candidate John McCain, however, advocates a less solid and increasingly confusing set of principles: he strives to distance himself from a discredited, unpopular president, position himself as a man of experience and resolve, yet pander to the religious right and defend a hawkish strategy that is no less destructive than that championed by the neoconservative-designed Bush Doctrine, which led to two major wars and a near-complete loss of US credibility and leadership abroad.
Aside from tactical and rhetorical differences, presidential candidates and their vice-president-hopefuls are yet to strictly champion and act upon a truly different leadership strategy: Barack Obama’s current foreign policy visions are more or less those of President Bush in his second term. Republican candidate John McCain, however, advocates a less solid and increasingly confusing set of principles: he strives to distance himself from a discredited, unpopular president, position himself as a man of experience and resolve, yet pander to the religious right and defend a hawkish strategy that is no less destructive than that championed by the neoconservative-designed Bush Doctrine, which led to two major wars and a near-complete loss of US credibility and leadership abroad.
The GOP assault on American voters has hit full stride as the economy and John McCain tank in synch.
With just over three weeks until election day, the Republicans have mounted an all-out attack against newly registered voters and the organizations working to sign them up. As many as 75% of these new voters are expected to vote Democratic, but the attacks have also spread to long-established voters as well. Recent calculations show more than a million more newly registered Democrats in Ohio than Republicans.
The usual drumbeat claiming massive voter fraud has become ceaseless at Fox "News" and other right wing media mouthpieces.
As expected, the assault centers in Ohio, which once again could decide the presidency, but has manifested throughout the nation:
With just over three weeks until election day, the Republicans have mounted an all-out attack against newly registered voters and the organizations working to sign them up. As many as 75% of these new voters are expected to vote Democratic, but the attacks have also spread to long-established voters as well. Recent calculations show more than a million more newly registered Democrats in Ohio than Republicans.
The usual drumbeat claiming massive voter fraud has become ceaseless at Fox "News" and other right wing media mouthpieces.
As expected, the assault centers in Ohio, which once again could decide the presidency, but has manifested throughout the nation: