Foes Press Audit of Venezuela Recall Vote

[mountebank]

By JUAN FORERO

Published: August 18, 2004

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 17 - Venezuela's opposition movement, crushed by its failure to oust President Hugo Chávez in a recall referendum, pressed ahead Tuesday with efforts to delegitimize the results of an election it insisted was fraudulent.

In an effort to calm opposition concerns, former President Jimmy Carter said his Atlanta-based Carter Center and the Organization of American States would on Wednesday begin monitoring an audit by electoral authorities of a sampling of recall results, as opposition groups are demanding.

<snip>

"We have no reason to doubt the integrity of the electoral system or the accuracy of the referendum results," Mr. Carter said at a news conference on Tuesday. "There is no evidence of fraud, and any allegations of fraud are completely unwarranted."

<snip>

"We think that the results - the preliminary results - show that a majority of the voters voted no to the question posed in the referendum," said Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, in Washington. "Based on these preliminary results, we think that the issue is settled."

more....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/international/americas/18venezuela.html

Can't you just FEEL the excitement at the State Department???......

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. Let em count and recount - the smell of desperation is in the air

as is the breeze over the beach!

[curlyred]

2. since they have both the money and the media in their pockets

It doesn't surprise me that a recall is being requested. I do think if any fraud occurred it was perpetrated by the rich and powerful, not Chavez supporters.

The one thing they don't have in their pockets is the majority of the people.

[DulceDecorum]

3. Wolf Blitzer says:

Get over it.

[genius]

4. I wonder if the Bush thugs are going to try to change the computer

results. They've done that before.

[stickdog]

5. AUDITS ARE GOOD THINGS REGARDLESS OF WHO IS WINNING

and who is whining.

Seriously.

Without a decent percentage of random manual audits, electronic voting machines are Fraud-o-Matic machines.