KRUGMAN: "substantial chance" election result "will be suspect"

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Saving the Vote
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: August 17, 2004

Everyone knows it, but not many politicians or mainstream journalists are willing to talk about it, for fear of sounding conspiracy-minded: there is a substantial chance that the result of the 2004 presidential election will be suspect.

When I say that the result will be suspect, I don't mean that the election will, in fact, have been stolen. (We may never know.) I mean that there will be sufficient uncertainty about the honesty of the vote count that much of the world and many Americans will have serious doubts.

How might the election result be suspect? Well, to take only one of several possibilities, suppose that Florida - where recent polls give John Kerry the lead - once again swings the election to George Bush.

Much of Florida's vote will be counted by electronic voting machines with no paper trails. Independent computer scientists who have examined some of these machines' programming code are appalled at the security flaws. So there will be reasonable doubts about whether Florida's votes were properly counted, and no paper ballots to recount. The public will have to take the result on faith....

***

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html?hp

[tom_paine]

1. kick for Krugman

:kick:

[leftchick]

2. At least Paul is on top of this....

Thanks for posting. This election is going to ba a "train-wreck"!

[bpilgrim]

3. thanks paul

du should organize 'informal' EXIT POLLS

krugman has his finger on the pulse. thanks for sounding the alarm. i hope other jornalist take note.

thanks :toast:

peace

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks, indeed! ( [e-mail])

[NewJeffCT]

5. Yet another reason

Still another reason why I'm very pessimistic about the chances of the good guys this November.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. But this is exactly what Team Bu$h wants

No matter what we try to do, poll watchers, exit polls, international observers, none of it it will change the outcome now.

What Team Bu$h is counting on is to take the election back to the courts. They are going to tie up the decision for as long as they can. In the process, the true believers will have many excuses not to accept a Kerry presidency.

In the meantime, Team Bush will remain in power, while the election is contested and I get the feeling that they will find some flimsy excuse to reselect their Chosen One.

It's going to be a long two months between the election and inauguration day, when the US will be faced by a constitutional crisis brought to you by Team Bu$h. Then we will find out who wins, democracy or fascism.

[blondeatlast]

7. Another post worthy of a

:kick:

[bigtree]

8. I like Paul

He's got great instincts. This warning should not go unheeded.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kicking Krugman for the Coast --

[oasis]

10. Krugman really wants to say that the Bushistas are adept at election theft

:headbang: And I think the message got through.

[Larkspur]

11. Can we ask Venezuela to monitor our election?

They used electronic voting in their recall and the right-wing lost.

[ItsMyParty]

12. I always thought that it is a very simple thing to have

independent "testers" randomly check these devices before polls open and during the day. They can run tests to see if things are recording correctly; if not, pull the plug and hand people a ballot that they can mark with an X!! And if there is anyone in Jeb's administration who complains about this, then the people need to know that anyone who objects to these protections is outwardly admitting they are going to steal the election. I think the issue has been handled totally stupidly by the Democrats. Put the full court press on and do it NOW of god's sakes.

[Moderator]

13. DeepModem Mom

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