It's too late to fret over Diebold but we can still DO something about it!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Electronic election fraud depends on close races, where only a few votes have to be changed or ignored. With death tolls going through the roof in Iraq and all this Republican corruption in mind, most voters are ready for real change.

On November 7th, what will you be doing?


Dr. Dean has a plan:

Dr. Howard Dean writes:

On November 7th, America will vote. All the polls say that people have had enough. We're poised to win historic victories up and down the ballot -- but only if we follow through and make it happen.

So we're doing something we've never done before.

We're asking every Democrat who can do so to take the day off from work on Election Day to be part of our 50-State Turnout operation.

If you commit to taking the day off on Tuesday, November 7th, our staff will commit to making sure you have the resources and contacts you need to spend a full day immersed in our democracy.

We're asking now so that you have plenty of time to make arrangements. Whether you're new to politics or a seasoned volunteer, if you can afford to spend all or part of Election Day working to elect Democrats, tell us here:

http://www.democrats.org/page/content/volunteer/

This final-day push will be the final piece of our 50-State Turnout operation. The first piece happened this past weekend, when we had an incredible series of events.

In every single state we had important volunteer events that connected people on the ground and got everyone to work.

It's all part of the broadest get-out-the-vote operation that our party has attempted in a generation.

In past election years, when the party focused on a few battleground states and abandoned candidates everywhere else, we would not have been in a position to turn growing Democratic support in the polls down the homestretch into victory on Election Day.

But thanks to the 50-state strategy, we've been in local communities over the past year-and-a-half building the infrastructure and networks of volunteers necessary to win.

No matter where you live, there is important work you can do that will directly affect this election. Let us know if you can afford to spend all or part of Election Day making democracy happen:

http://www.democrats.org/page/content/volunteer/

If you can spend one day of your time working for Democrats, we can win this.

When we do, we'll finally have some leaders who will spend their time working for the American people.

Thank you.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

Let's go from this:



to this...

[Iwasthere]

1. Massive turnout !!!

An overwhelming turnout and the polls, our evidence.

[Benhurst]

3. There was an overwhelming turnout at the polls in Ohio in 2004.

People were not allowed to vote, lines were kept purposely long, votes were switched via Diebold, challegend votes were never counted.

Most "landslides" are by less than 10%.

I hope this isn't the fourth national election to be stolen; but I'm not holding my breath.

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. OK, try this for a different hit on how to manipulate an election

"I wouldn't put this past Rove"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2884952

[Jeffersons Ghost]

12. I can't dispute what your link says Tom, in fact, I TOTALLY agree!...

which is one of my reasons for posting this OP

[cosmicdot]

18. and, the final results were 'staggering', 'astonishing'

as reported by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

... who considered The Columbus Dispatch's pre-election polling as "uncannily accurate for decades" ... The Dispatch called the initiative not related to election reform correctly within 1% ... but, things changed drastically on the election reform initiatives, i.e.:

~snip~ "The November 6 Dispatch poll showed Issue Two passing by a vote of 59% to 33%, with about 8% undecided, an even broader margin than that predicted for Issue One.

"But on November 8, the official vote count showed Issue Two going down to defeat by the astonishing margin of 63.5% against, with just 36.5% in favor. To say the outcome is a virtual statistical impossibility is to understate the case." ~snip~

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1559


Fritakis/Wasserman's report was additionally blogged by Brad Friedman:

"The Staggeringly Impossible Results of Ohio's '05 Election"

~snip~

"On those four issues, which Blackwell and the Christian Right were against, the final results were impossibly different -- and we mean impossibly! -- from both the Dispatch's final polling before the election and all reasoned common-sense. Take a look:

ISSUE 1 ($2 Billion State Bond initiative)
PRE-POLLING: 53% Yes, 27% No, 20% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 54% Yes, 45% No

ISSUE 2 (Allow easier absentee balloting)
PRE-POLLING: 59% Yes, 33% No, 9% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 36% Yes, 63% No

ISSUE 3 (Revise campaign contribution limits)
PRE-POLLING: 61% Yes, 25% No, 14% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 33% Yes, 66% No

ISSUE 4 (Independent Commission to draw Congressional Districts)
PRE-POLLING: 31% Yes, 45% No, 25% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 30% Yes, 69% No

ISSUE 5 (Independent Board instead of Sec. of State to oversee elections)
PRE-POLLING: 41% Yes, 43% No, 16% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 29% Yes, 70% No

"Now, you tell us...What could possibly explain such unheard of differences between the Dispatch's poll and the final results?" ~snip~

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/the-staggeringly-impossib_b_10589.html

Who would have imagined that 25% undecideds would have flown in the same direction?

I certainly hope that the challenges are so complex and so widespread that it is creating havoc for anyone trying to commit fraud in 2006.

There's safety in numbers on the ground, but the theft will be in cyberspace.
Surely, there will be ground challenges. Voter not found as registered. Provisional ballots issue, and not counted. The usual GOP suppression. Hopefully, much of that will be stemmed.

The 2005 Ohio results are suggesting that an election doesn't have to be 'close' to steal.

When we're dealing with people who have subverted our elections, trashed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, committed war crimes and treason, fiddled and ate cake while a city and region were Katrina'd; pilfered the treasury; and, who have more to lose in losing and have more in common with being psychopaths than leaders ... why not steal another? It buys 2 more years; and, just when one wonders how much worse can it get ... it does.

I appreciate optimism, but I remember election day 2004. We had lawyers and volunteers on the ground; and, DU was reeling with the prospect of victory. There was gloom in the White House. Kerry was going to win and win big.

It didn't take long to realize Bu$h didn't have the 'capital' and 'mandate' his so-called 'margin of victory' allegedly declared. The numbers weren't there. The Emperor had no clothes.

We have petitioned our leaders in many ways and over many years regarding election fraud and HAVA voting/tabulating: editorials, commentaries, letters, phone calls, emails, signatures, etc., not to mention the extraordinary efforts of patriotic citizens. Now, it's deemed too late to fret; and, unfortunately, that's too true.

The GOP only needs to guarantee a simple majority in both houses... a simple majority which will be padded by 'Democrats' who, in both houses of Congress, have voted time and again in support of the Bu$h agenda (see: Medicare Rx; court appointments; bankruptcy; tax cuts; war spending; PATRIOT Act; filibuster/cloture votes; torture bill, etc.). If in the Senate the Democrats need 1 vote to gain the majority and should Traitor Joe 'win' Connecticut ... I fret about pandering to a traitor ... I fret about losing Social Security and Medicare ... and, in general, I fret which way the wind will blow.


edited to add links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453093
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=453066&mesg_id=453066

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. and none of that matters... true blues WILL continue to vote & work hard

and if they DARE to screw us, things will be different... They have very few real supporters and America simply will not stand for stolen elections... A few right-wing fools cannot fend off what will be in store for the crooks and liars if there is even a slight hint of fraud.

[BeFree]

22. cosmicdot

Good work.... hope it is well read. Folks need to know.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. thanks for your vote and KICK... keep kicking please!

[maddezmom]

7. k&r

:hi:

[williesgirl]

2. I'm clicking now to volunteer - live in a red part of N. VA in the

mountains. recommended

[babylonsister]

6. Yes! Volunteer to do something, even if you live in a blue state.

It's THAT important!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. you got that right babylonsister... we better work hard in EVERY state...

Here's the REAL IMAGE of America...

[OnionPatch]

8. Thanks for posting this!

I was just looking all over trying to find that email. I had decided to join this effort but had deleted that email.

[IndyOp]

10. Yes! Get out the vote, but do NOT believe

that we "should not fret over Diebold" or that "electronic election fraud depends on close races, where only a few votes have to be changed or ignored."

BULL!

Electronic election fraud is what allows MASSIVE shifts in vote counting -- it is much, much harder with levers, or punch cards, etcetera -- though it still can be done.

As far as I know, J. Kenneth Blackwell still has a central tabulator PC that adds up votes from all of the separate machines on his desk...

Howard Dean learns how to hack the vote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhMUtzOxjJY&NR

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

WE have to do EVERYTHING right - contribute to campaigns, work for campaigns, work as poll workers, insist upon being present and watching the counting of the votes, and GET READY TO REFUSE TO ACCEPT FRAUDULENT RESULTS.

Please stop arguing that awareness of the probability of election fraud will cause us to lose - bullshit - awareness means that people should be MORE active in protecting our elections and be prepared to revolt.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Peace Patriot]

17. Thanks for saying it, IndyOp! I believe in this very strongly--that

exposing election fraud, and this fraudulent election SYSTEM, will energize people, not depress them--because it explains WHY we had 56% of the American people opposed to Bush's war, way back before the invasion (Feb. '03), and yet we had war anyway; and WHY we have 63% of the American people opposed to torture (May '04) and we still have torture anyway, and WHY, with the opposition to the war now up into the 70%s, the war still goes on, and WHY most Americans want good, responsible, accountable, LAWFUL government that represents ALL of us, and instead have had bad, reprehensible, unaccountable, CRIMINAL government, that represents the super-rich and the nuts, shoved down our throats!

Our government is deaf to the majority of the people. THIS is why. We are suffering under a fraudulent election SYSTEM, in which all the votes are being 'counted" on electronic voting machines, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushites corporations.

TELL. PEOPLE. THE. TRUTH! And THEY will solve the problem. What is depressing and demoralizing to people is NOT knowing why we have such rotten government.

The people are solving this one--Diebold/ES&S--already. There is going to be a huge Absentee Ballot vote in November, because people DON'T TRUST these Bushite-controlled electronic voting systems, and if NOBODY WILL VOTE ON THEM, then election officials will be forced to reform the system, or resign.

That could be the most important outcome of this election--that electronic voting with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations is fully exposed and rendered UNACCEPTABLE.

As for Diebold/ES&S only mattering in close elections, I'm sorry, Dr. Dean, but that's not true. And, anyway, what a thing to say?

Ohio 2005: Four good election reform initiatives on the ballot, predicted to win by 60/40 margins--flipped over on election day into 60/40 LOSSES! The biggest flipover we've seen yet. The machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! See the Bob Koehler article on it...

Read this and you will never vote on another electronic voting machine in your life:
"Poll Shock," by Bob Koehler (11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Don't tell me they can't do it. They can! They did! But whether it would be smart business for them to do it this time is the question--with so many election reform books, articles, web sites, weighty reports, groups, and passionate activists crying foul, and the Bushites in such a mess with scandal after scandal after scandal. They don't want to jeopardize this extraordinary election theft capability for future uses. They need to hang onto to these rigged machines with tooth and claw, for as long as possible, but they also really can't afford to permit transparent vote counting. So, in a situation in which the Democrats should be wiping the floor with the Bushites, and riding the lot of them out of town on a rail, I expect modest gains. I think we will end up with a combo of Bushite Democrats (like those who voted for torture and suspensions of habeas corpus last week) and outright Bushites, for a continued Bush majority in both houses on most issues, with the real representatives of the American people still outnumbered. And to those of us who complain about Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, they will say, 'What are you crying about now--the Democrats won!"

They'll tweak it. They'll play with it. They'll add a little here, take away a little there, and we might even see some 60/40 whoppers (where they think it's really critical, or where payoffs are due). A few sops thrown our way, but, in the end, an impeachment-proof Diebold II Congress, in which serious investigation of the Bush Junta's mind-boggling list of high crimes and misdemeanors will surprise me. We might see some social/economic gains, though--but remember the emperor's veto. Not much, I'm afraid, this time around.

That is the price we are paying for Tom Delay's and Bob Ney's and Christopher Dodd's handiwork, the "Help America Vote for Bush Act."

Truth. Reality. Cold water. Keep your eyes on the prize--as Martin Luther King used to say. Democracy itself.

----------------------

THE ABSENTEE BALLOT PROTEST

I'm hearing reports from all over about a vast increase of requests for Absentee Ballots--a sign of revolt against the machines, and high turnout. See these latest reports:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453114

One way to promote turnout, and to defeat those disillusioned voters who say "it's all rigged" and don't want to vote, is to ask them to JOIN us in this nationwide protest, aimed at UN-rigging the system, by casting ABSENTEE BALLOT VOTES, and BOYCOTTING these goddamned machines. No excuse not to vote if it's AIMED not just an trying to elect people in a rigged system, but at UN-rigging the system. And if enough people vote AB, we will! They can't defend this rigged system, if NOBODY WILL VOTE ON THEIR MACHINES!

Also, Absentee Ballot voting is the ONLY guarantee, in case of machine breakdowns (frequent), that you will be able to cast your vote!

Do not count on a paper ballot being provided at the polling place. Do NOT vote on "provisional" ballots. And do NOT trust optiscan ballots, unless that is your only option.

Californians have until OCTOBER 31 to request an Absentee Ballot. (The voter registration deadline is one week earlier on Oct. 23). Check local rules and deadlines for other states. Some Absentee Ballots may require two stamps. (Best to hand-deliver or send by registered mail/return receipt requested, or Fed Ex.) Fill the Ballot AND Envelope out very carefully (to avoid disqualification)!

The other things you can do, are just as Dr. Dean lays them out. WATCH the polls. Let these election officials KNOW they are being watched. Take pix, take notes. And do everything else we have to do: get out the vote!

We are, indeed, going into this election with a handicap--just as if we were a prize race horse bearing 20 lbs. more than the other horses. That's the situation. Work with it!

Don't let ANYBODY sit home Nov. 7! Drag them out of their depression and powerlessness with the Absentee Ballot protest!

You can also say: a) big turnout is also important to un-rigging the system, and can sometimes beat the machines; and b) never, never, never, NEVER give up on your right to vote! NEVER!

Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot Nov. 7!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

21. yep be aware and be ready to fight for justice but for now...

VOTE AND VOLUNTEER!

[Stinky The Clown]

11. ******THIS***** is the right thing to be doing!

Congrats to the good doctor and congrats to every single person who has and will work for change and for victory.

Thanks for posting this!

K&R

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. Kick for Chairperson Conyers! n/t

[glitch]

14. Massive turnout PLUS the promise of active investigations after the tally.

I think we need to make sure they know they won't get any more passes... I believe they will steal it anyway, and I want to catch them at it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. And our massive turnout is the 1st step used to catch them if they try

I agree with your formular.

[glitch]

19. Absolutely it must be massive. Much easier to prove.

First make it harder for them to steal, then make them pay for their theft.

Why the hell would anyone sit out the vote and make it easier for these criminals to retain power?? Just give it all away, that's crazy!

First we make them sweat for it. Then we nail them.
(sorry for the repetition, but this meme needs to catch on!)

[Jeffersons Ghost]

16. what was it the Beatles sang? "there's gonna be a REVOLUTION, oh yeah" n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

23. I just was in the mood to kick something n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

24. thanks for your help Tom and i'll also give it another ride down the board

:kick: