Global
Right now, in Darfur and Chad, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is facing huge challenges. Due to a steady increase in violence, the number of refugees is increasing daily. At the same time, UNHCR is facing unbudgeted expenses due to the increase in the prices of fuel and food this year. "When we screen new arriving refugees, we hear many similar stories of burned villages, kidnapping, and murdered family members," says Mari Sveen, a UN Refugee Agency protection officer in Chad. The good news is that you can help twice as much as before. An anonymous donor has promised to match your tax-deductible donation, dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million!
Matching Gift Challenge. Double your Impact This is such an extraordinary opportunity for you to double your support of the refugees who are suffering every day and who desperately need your help to survive.
Matching Gift Challenge. Double your Impact This is such an extraordinary opportunity for you to double your support of the refugees who are suffering every day and who desperately need your help to survive.
Columbus, Ohio, 2p.m.: In Franklin County, there have been three reports of vote flipping by Free
Press election protection volunteers – at Jones Middle School in Upper Arlington where a voter reported a vote flip from Obama to Nader – and two others not verified yet.
Election Integrity and Mitofsky-Edison exit pollsters were being harassed at Tabernacle Church on Woodward in Columbus. The Franklin County Board of Elections directed the presiding judge not to interfere with the pollsters. Exit polls are the gold standard for detecting election fraud.
A spot check of inner city precinct vote totals as of 11am or so, reveals that there is an extraordinarily high number of people being forced to vote provisional ballots. The three reasons for the provisionals, as explained by the pollworkers, are names not the pollbook, people who requested absentees but decided to vote in person, and ID problems where the addresses do not match. It is not clear if all the pollworkers know the policies regarding provisional ballots.
Election Integrity and Mitofsky-Edison exit pollsters were being harassed at Tabernacle Church on Woodward in Columbus. The Franklin County Board of Elections directed the presiding judge not to interfere with the pollsters. Exit polls are the gold standard for detecting election fraud.
A spot check of inner city precinct vote totals as of 11am or so, reveals that there is an extraordinarily high number of people being forced to vote provisional ballots. The three reasons for the provisionals, as explained by the pollworkers, are names not the pollbook, people who requested absentees but decided to vote in person, and ID problems where the addresses do not match. It is not clear if all the pollworkers know the policies regarding provisional ballots.
Columbus, Ohio, 10:45a.m.: Election observer Werner Lange reported from Trumbull County that there was a “major problem in my precinct, 3A.” Lange wrote, “All of the votes cast using a paper ballot between the hours of 6:30-8:15am (when I pointed out the flaw to the pollworkers) are invalid because none of the voters were asked, as required, to sign the pollbook.”
Lange estimates that anywhere from 30-80 voters lost their vote due to a pollworker’s “colossal mistake.”
Observer Robert Bowers reported from Lucas County (Toledo) that he was being physically intimidated by a precinct judge. Bowers, an appointed observer from the Constitution Party, was stopped from observing machine security seals and recording machine serial numbers. Ohio law allows appointed observers like Bowers to record various serial numbers since they are public record. Bowers told the Free Press that the precinct judge, who he identified as Matthew Perkins, raised his hand to Bowers’ face. Bowers left the polling site and went home. He called reporters and plans to return to the polling site with the reporters.
Observer Robert Bowers reported from Lucas County (Toledo) that he was being physically intimidated by a precinct judge. Bowers, an appointed observer from the Constitution Party, was stopped from observing machine security seals and recording machine serial numbers. Ohio law allows appointed observers like Bowers to record various serial numbers since they are public record. Bowers told the Free Press that the precinct judge, who he identified as Matthew Perkins, raised his hand to Bowers’ face. Bowers left the polling site and went home. He called reporters and plans to return to the polling site with the reporters.
Barack Obama is heading to Election Day with a razor thin 6 point lead in the popular polls in Ohio, according to the usually reliable Columbus Dispatch poll. This means that the Buckeye state could again decide who enters the White House in January, despite the fact that nationwide Obama's lead has been registered as high as 11-12 percent.
In a country with truly fair elections, a reliable vote count, and no electoral college, ssuch a lead should be commanding.
But in the America of 2008, it will be enough only if tens of thousands of grassroots election protection activists, rallied primarily through the independent internet, can protect voter registrations, guarantee the ability to vote at the polling stations, and somehow procure an accurate, un-tampered with vote count.
In short, it will depend on YOU and your willingness to protect American democracy. It will not be the punditocracy or the campaign managers who decide Tuesday's outcome---it will be the get-out-the-vote activists, the poll workers, the monitors and observers, the election protection attorneys, the video-the-voters, and the vote count investigators. Will you be among them?
In a country with truly fair elections, a reliable vote count, and no electoral college, ssuch a lead should be commanding.
But in the America of 2008, it will be enough only if tens of thousands of grassroots election protection activists, rallied primarily through the independent internet, can protect voter registrations, guarantee the ability to vote at the polling stations, and somehow procure an accurate, un-tampered with vote count.
In short, it will depend on YOU and your willingness to protect American democracy. It will not be the punditocracy or the campaign managers who decide Tuesday's outcome---it will be the get-out-the-vote activists, the poll workers, the monitors and observers, the election protection attorneys, the video-the-voters, and the vote count investigators. Will you be among them?
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.
I’d thought little about Ralph Nader’s potential electoral impact until I read recent polls suggesting he was drawing 3% among likely Ohio voters, 4% in Nevada (plus 1% for Cynthia McKinney), 3% in Pennsylvania, and 5% in Missouri. This means he might once again help tip an election.
Most of Nader’s supporters suggest their votes won’t make the critical difference. Or explain “the lesser of two evils is still evil.” Or list Obama stands they disagree with, some of which I disagree with as well.
But let’s assume that the current election still hangs in the balance: that between Republican voter suppression, last-minute attack ads, latent racism, and the uncertainties of turnout among new registrants, McCain and Palin just might be able to win. If you’re a Nader or McKinney supporter, I’d like to address this article to you, and ask how you’d feel if, by not voting for Obama, you ended up helping electing them.
Most of Nader’s supporters suggest their votes won’t make the critical difference. Or explain “the lesser of two evils is still evil.” Or list Obama stands they disagree with, some of which I disagree with as well.
But let’s assume that the current election still hangs in the balance: that between Republican voter suppression, last-minute attack ads, latent racism, and the uncertainties of turnout among new registrants, McCain and Palin just might be able to win. If you’re a Nader or McKinney supporter, I’d like to address this article to you, and ask how you’d feel if, by not voting for Obama, you ended up helping electing them.