Letters to the Editor/<br>  Free Press Forum

I was a state legislator in Arizona for many years and I specialized in election law. I'm worried that all of the recount efforts will be wasted on activities that SUGGEST fraud, but don't really PROVE anything.

Why doesn't somebody select a very suspicious small precinct(s) in Ohio and just call (or go to see) everybody that voted, tell them you're testing the accuracy of the voting system, and ask them who they voted for? It's easy to do... I suspect that every registered voter was called (or visited) SEVERAL TIMES before the election.

You'll have the ultimate exit poll, and if the results varied from the official results, you'll have a list of people who would probably be willing to sign affidavits. These would be convincing proof that you could take to a courtroom. This method is really the only one that will work where there is no paper trail.

We're trying this in a couple of precincts in Tucson, AZ .... but we don't have any touch screens here and AZ wasn't a "battleground" state so I doubt if we'll find anything.

If you can't follow up on this, please suggest it to someone who can... thanks, and good luck with your efforts.

In all the fulsome talk about rigged elections, I never see mention of a new election. The people who rig elections are not going to stop work when a new count is ordered; they'll rig that, too. The only way to be sure is to redo the disputed elections, but no one says so. "The cost," officials would say, if compelled to comment. Given the cost of seeing American democracy subverted, the price tags for new elections--especially low-tech ones that don't involve voting machines but do involve focused human examination and counting of ballots--is inconsiderable. This doesn't apply only to Ohio. The world's holding its breath.

Mitch Clogg
Mendocino, CA

Much has been written about America’s role as the world’s policeman-that it is a part no one has asked us to play, that we do so ineptly, etc. But even a cursory examination of the behavior of the United States for the past three years will reveal that our country has not acted in such a manner during that period. Consider that Bush is now beginning his prewar rampup to a war in Iran by sending Colin Powell onto stage to claim that those evil Persians are building missiles and warheads to deliver nuclear (nucular to you, Mr. President) weapons against America. Then Mr. Bush started talking tough against North Korea again, warning it that no nuclear weapons would be tolerated within its borders. Watch out, Mr. Kim Jong Il, he’s got a mandate in his pocket. Then, to top things off, our chief executive demanded an explanation from President Putin of Russia as to why he had taken actions that Bush felt were undemocratic. I guess the latter didn’t realize that he had been reelected President only of our country, not the world. Vladimir had better shape up, or George W. will “preempt” him.

According to Benito Mussolini, "Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power."

Well, this is a good point about the media spin.

Regardless of how much control the Bush family has over the glossy magazines, (Barbara Pierce Bush's father owns the interlocking directorate glossies of the Eat Coast) it's true that the NYT is usually not as easily controllable, though the Washington Post was somewhat reined in in the years after Watergate by vindictive pro-Republican corporate advertisers and is now much more soft-spoken about GOP misdeeds.

However, even though the Bushs don't own the _Times_, they have succeeded in getting their spin machine in place there and in the OH papers, as well as the NH papers, as these recount proceedings begin. Meanwhile, NV papers and TV are a little more free-wheeling, while the FL papers, facing possible audits of some county computers, are cringing, fearing they're again going to have to defy their corporate advertisers and, to an extent, their OWNERS.

Regarding this quote from freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/900

 "The reason that slightly fewer were processed per machine in high-D precincts could be because of differences in poll worker training and/or inefficiencies due to the large lines."

Another factor that would affect this is the actual number of working machines in each precinct.  Many reports from precincts with long lines stated that not all machines were working at all times.  How many reports of nonworking machines were received on election day and what was the response in each case?

Liberal piece of shit. Time is short. You fuckers lost. Fantastic. Get over it.

What is inspiring people throughout the United States to consider emigrating to places like Canada and Sweden is the fact that more Americans than not support what Bush is doing throughout the world, and to people and their rights right here at home. We are totally disheartened not because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their fellow travelers have gotten away with their crimes. We are depressed because, in the eyes of a majority of Americans, no crime has been committed.

We are not expatriating ourselves because George W. Bush is the President of the United States, but because, for all intents and purposes, George W. Bush is the people of the United States, and they are he in their essential radicalism and lack of character. We do not, in other words, view the Bush Administration as the political version of Frankenstein. We see it as Night of the Living Dead. There are millions of Bushes abroad in the land tonight.  

I voted for Peroutka. I didn't want either one of the creeps. But how is it that you just don't understand that the "two-party system" is a joke on you and the rest of us?

Don't you get it? Both candidates are members of the Brotherhood of Death. Both do the bidding of their shadow handlers. We are not represented by those we elect. It's the super-rich globalists who run everything. And they don't care what we little insects do to each other. It only matters that we keep toiling and paying our taxes, buying their crap and watching their movies and TV garbage, listening to their crummy "music". As Americans are weakened and our economy is lowered to bring us closer to that of the third world countries our "duly elected" representatives take our money and enrich themselves. Don't you believe Carroll Quigley's writings?

Hi

Thank you for the 11/18/04 article "Hearings on Ohio Voting Put 2004 Election in Doubt." We need all citizens aware and involved in this issue - if we do not put a stop to voter intimidation, black box voting and scanners, we'll never have a legitimate election again. I am so very afraid where the nation is headed - does democracy still exist??

Sincerely,
Susan Kerwin
Goldendale, WA