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
The percentage of uncounted votes in the allegedly "fraud free" 2006 Ohio election is actually higher than the fraud-ridden 2004 election, when the presidency was stolen here. A flawed voting process that allowed voters to be illegally turned away throughout the morning on Election Day may have cost the Dems at least two Congressional seats and a state auditor's seat.
The evidence comes directly from the official website of GOP Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell Blackwell website. But researchers wishing to verify the number of uncounted ballots from that web site should do so immediately, as Blackwell is known for quickly deleting embarrassing evidence. In 2004, Blackwell deleted the evidence of excessive uncounted votes after the final results were tallied.
The evidence comes directly from the official website of GOP Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell Blackwell website. But researchers wishing to verify the number of uncounted ballots from that web site should do so immediately, as Blackwell is known for quickly deleting embarrassing evidence. In 2004, Blackwell deleted the evidence of excessive uncounted votes after the final results were tallied.
And the voters went "Ahem."
Even with a 40 percent national turnout, which, I know, is good for a midterm election in the world's oldest and most complacent democracy, I find myself battling doubt and skepticism a day later that the criminally incompetent Bush administration has actually gotten its comeuppance. At the very least, I know that those of us who want to reclaim the country still have a lot of work to do. Our celebration at wresting back the House and maybe even the Senate will have to be a brief one.
A White House spokesman, commenting on the president's reaction to the withdrawal of his mandate to dig the holes into which he has thrust the country still deeper during the remainder of his term, said: "But he's eager to work with both parties on his priorities over the next two years."
Yeah, I'll bet. What I wonder is, have we elected bipartisan appeasers who want to "work" with W, or will the newly powerful congressional Democrats reflect the outrage and horror of their constituents and begin shining a moral spotlight on this criminal regime? Will they tell the president where to stick his priorities?
Even with a 40 percent national turnout, which, I know, is good for a midterm election in the world's oldest and most complacent democracy, I find myself battling doubt and skepticism a day later that the criminally incompetent Bush administration has actually gotten its comeuppance. At the very least, I know that those of us who want to reclaim the country still have a lot of work to do. Our celebration at wresting back the House and maybe even the Senate will have to be a brief one.
A White House spokesman, commenting on the president's reaction to the withdrawal of his mandate to dig the holes into which he has thrust the country still deeper during the remainder of his term, said: "But he's eager to work with both parties on his priorities over the next two years."
Yeah, I'll bet. What I wonder is, have we elected bipartisan appeasers who want to "work" with W, or will the newly powerful congressional Democrats reflect the outrage and horror of their constituents and begin shining a moral spotlight on this criminal regime? Will they tell the president where to stick his priorities?
The real winner in the November 7 election is the grassroots voter
protection movement.
That the well-oiled, well-funded Rove/Bush theft machine lost control of the US House with the Senate as close as it is says just one thing: somebody was watching. In 2006, that would be thousands of volunteer grassroots activists who left no stone unturned to expose rigged voting machines, Jim Crow registration roadblocks, trashed provisional ballots, manipulated absentee voting processes, and much more.
A nationwide movement has been born to apply the lessons of the stolen elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004. In the lead-up to 2006, activists and independent experts scrutinized voting machines and electoral processes as never before. Mainstream media reports from the New York Times to CNN's Lou Dobbs to hundreds of radio talk shows finally paid attention to "glitches" and "problems" and "long lines" and "disputes" that just an election cycle ago were dismissed as "business as usual" or the stuff of conspiracy theory.
That the well-oiled, well-funded Rove/Bush theft machine lost control of the US House with the Senate as close as it is says just one thing: somebody was watching. In 2006, that would be thousands of volunteer grassroots activists who left no stone unturned to expose rigged voting machines, Jim Crow registration roadblocks, trashed provisional ballots, manipulated absentee voting processes, and much more.
A nationwide movement has been born to apply the lessons of the stolen elections of 2000, 2002 and 2004. In the lead-up to 2006, activists and independent experts scrutinized voting machines and electoral processes as never before. Mainstream media reports from the New York Times to CNN's Lou Dobbs to hundreds of radio talk shows finally paid attention to "glitches" and "problems" and "long lines" and "disputes" that just an election cycle ago were dismissed as "business as usual" or the stuff of conspiracy theory.
I went to vote this morning. I made sure that I looked respectable, tamed
my ethnic hair,
put on nice clothes and wore my good coat. I had decided to try to vote
using a form of ID available to
someone who does not have a drivers license or state ID, and I didn't want
to inadvertently set off any red flags
among the poll workers by looking like... a scary Mexican? Anyway, I
reread the card sent out by the Lucas Co.
Board of Elections spelling out what I needed to do to comply with the new
voter ID law. I put that in my purse
along with my water/sewer bill, one of the only utility bills that I have
which comes in my name in addition to my
Husband's, since according to the notice is sufficent identifiaction. It
has both my name and my husband's and
our address. Of course I also had my Ohio drivers license but was
committed to not using it.
We are holding our parallel election at Whetstone Recreation Center, 3923 N.
High Street, Columbus (Franklin Co.) Ohio. Franklin County uses ES&S
iVotronic touch screen DRE machines. We've been rained on all morning.
By 10AM, there were over 200 parallel voters.
This polling site accommodates four precincts: 19C, 19D, 20A, and 20D totaling over 3,400 registered voters. I obtained the serial numbers for all the machines, and the names of each Presiding Judge.
19C – 901 registered voters and 5 machines;
19D – 1097 reg. voters and 6 machines;
20A – 533 reg. voters and 3 machines;
20D – 897 reg. voters and 5 machines
(Total: 3,428 voters on 19 machines)
National media arrived a little after 9 AM, interviewing folks inside, as well as our PE workers. Marj Creech gave a TV interview to CNBC. CBS also covered us. Info they provided includes Franklin County's forecast that there will be 106,000 absentee voters and about 200,000 in-person voters.
By 10AM, there were over 200 parallel voters.
This polling site accommodates four precincts: 19C, 19D, 20A, and 20D totaling over 3,400 registered voters. I obtained the serial numbers for all the machines, and the names of each Presiding Judge.
19C – 901 registered voters and 5 machines;
19D – 1097 reg. voters and 6 machines;
20A – 533 reg. voters and 3 machines;
20D – 897 reg. voters and 5 machines
(Total: 3,428 voters on 19 machines)
National media arrived a little after 9 AM, interviewing folks inside, as well as our PE workers. Marj Creech gave a TV interview to CNBC. CBS also covered us. Info they provided includes Franklin County's forecast that there will be 106,000 absentee voters and about 200,000 in-person voters.
Cuyahoga County is filing criminal charges against me because I asked some volunteers for the Vote Count Protection Project to call some of the Election Day Technicians, and ask them if they would be willing to write down some of the Voting Unit election results on a data-collection form, to used for vote-count verification purposes.
We were doing this because Blackwell’s directive on 11/1 said that we could not add any more “Observers” to the list of observers, so we could not get “inside access.”
We were doing this because Cuyahoga County was NOT going to post results for the public to see.
We were doing this because of Cuyahoga Board of Elections' dismal record of the May Election debacle, secrecy and law-breaking,, and, in general, 92% of the public distrusts electronic voting!
We were doing this because the proposed post-election “audit” being paid for by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is a total SHAM! The audit will NOT be counting actual ballots, but sub-totals of ballot counts, and will not be counting all precincts, but a subset of the precincts. Their proposed “audit” is nothing of the sort!
We were doing this because Blackwell’s directive on 11/1 said that we could not add any more “Observers” to the list of observers, so we could not get “inside access.”
We were doing this because Cuyahoga County was NOT going to post results for the public to see.
We were doing this because of Cuyahoga Board of Elections' dismal record of the May Election debacle, secrecy and law-breaking,, and, in general, 92% of the public distrusts electronic voting!
We were doing this because the proposed post-election “audit” being paid for by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is a total SHAM! The audit will NOT be counting actual ballots, but sub-totals of ballot counts, and will not be counting all precincts, but a subset of the precincts. Their proposed “audit” is nothing of the sort!
GOP trashes exit polls & builds barricades as election day proceeds
Watch out for the stop sign when you go to vote today. Not the one on the street, the one in the pollbook next to your name.
The new voting requirements under Ohio's HB 3 may lead to unexpected upsets by the GOP in the ongoing election. The Republican Statehouse rushed through a bill earlier this year that is causing the "flagging" of up to 1.2 million Buckeye voters.
Free Press reporters have observed a "Stop Sign" icon next to the name of between 20-40% of the voters in inner city precincts in Columbus. The stop sign is outlined on page 50 of the Franklin County Board of Elections "Precinct Elections Training Manual." The stop sign is the result of a "60-day election notice" sent to voters, but being returned as "undeliverable." Voters with stop signs next to their names throughout the inner city are being allowed to vote provisionally at the poll. These votes are being electronically recorded as provisional, according to the Training Manual and many are likely to go uncounted because the voter is in the wrong precinct.
Watch out for the stop sign when you go to vote today. Not the one on the street, the one in the pollbook next to your name.
The new voting requirements under Ohio's HB 3 may lead to unexpected upsets by the GOP in the ongoing election. The Republican Statehouse rushed through a bill earlier this year that is causing the "flagging" of up to 1.2 million Buckeye voters.
Free Press reporters have observed a "Stop Sign" icon next to the name of between 20-40% of the voters in inner city precincts in Columbus. The stop sign is outlined on page 50 of the Franklin County Board of Elections "Precinct Elections Training Manual." The stop sign is the result of a "60-day election notice" sent to voters, but being returned as "undeliverable." Voters with stop signs next to their names throughout the inner city are being allowed to vote provisionally at the poll. These votes are being electronically recorded as provisional, according to the Training Manual and many are likely to go uncounted because the voter is in the wrong precinct.
Here's how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen.
Note the past tense. And I'm not kidding.
And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.
For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We've found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here's how they'll do it, in three easy steps:
Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind.
Note the past tense. And I'm not kidding.
And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.
For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We've found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here's how they'll do it, in three easy steps:
Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind.
To the congressional winners of Campaign 2006: as you savor your victory and prepare to take office in January, consider this bit of free advice on how to make those tough decisions you’ll soon face on the war: pick a number.
It’s simple. Pick a number. Any number. It doesn’t much matter which number, as long as it’s greater than 47,615 – the number of U.S. troops killed and wounded so far in Iraq. Now pick another number, something over 650,000 – the latest estimate of how many Iraqis have died in the war. But, I suppose we should keep it simple, so let’s just stick to the only number that really matters politically, the one for U.S. casualties.
Got your number?
OK. That’s all there is to it. That’s the only tough decision you’ll have to make on the war.
It’s simple. Pick a number. Any number. It doesn’t much matter which number, as long as it’s greater than 47,615 – the number of U.S. troops killed and wounded so far in Iraq. Now pick another number, something over 650,000 – the latest estimate of how many Iraqis have died in the war. But, I suppose we should keep it simple, so let’s just stick to the only number that really matters politically, the one for U.S. casualties.
Got your number?
OK. That’s all there is to it. That’s the only tough decision you’ll have to make on the war.
2 Machines were faulting/ needed to be worked on or rebooted by
election staff at the Harrison Twp. Garage Licking County