Are the Democrats doing enough to prevent another stolen election?

[Cyrano]

The 2000 election was stolen in Florida with the help of the Supreme Court.

The 2004 election was stolen in Ohio.

The voting machines that many of us use are owned by Republican-oriented corporations. (And since the program coding is proprietary, no one is allowed to see it.)

Many states have and are in the process of passing voting laws to exclude the poor, the elderly, students and ex-felons, most of who tend to vote Democratic.

The Justice Dept. is currently “looking into” some of the newly passed voting laws. And there are judges here and there who are shooting down such laws. But it’s not enough.

The Democratic Party was totally silent in 2000 and 2004. And I don’t hear them making much noise today.

Someone once said, “It’s not those who cast the votes. It’s those who count the votes.”

The Democratic Party should be declaring all out “war” against another stolen election. And there’s less than nine months left.

[Octafish]

1. The fact the Party doesn't work to ensure election integrity makes me suspect they don't care.

Why they don't care is an important question to raise with national party officials.

I know in Michigan, the People are furious.

It's not just the votes that aren't counted, or Who does the counting, the government legislates as if our opinion doesn't matter.

[fascisthunter]

15. I Agree

It is what I have concluded so far...

[northoftheborder]

2. You're absolute correct. There is no excuse for such inaction on the part of the Dem. Party.

I can't understand it. There are tons of data on the easily manipulated machines used all over the country, tons of new laws on the books to restrict registration and voting, and the Attorney General "is looking into it"?????? And the Dem. Party is doing WHAT???? Nothing, that I can see. Brad of Brad Blog might as well be broadcasting from Mars, as far as anyone pays any attention to his years' long investigation and light cast upon voting irregularities.

[libtodeath]

3. Don`t forget

1980 stolen as well.
President Carter despite rayguns secret conspiring with Iran was neck and neck as of the morning of election day and suddenly out of nowhere he lost in a landslide.
TPTB have had a long range plan that has been carried out since then.
They are hell bent to destroy what this country was founded on to enrich themselves.

They didn`t expect occupy to rise from the populace and now with it and the craziest bunch one can imagine running against President Obama their plans have a monkey wrench thrown in them.

I am almost afraid what they might do to steal this one too and if they are able to I hope you will see a real revolution against the plutocracy.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. But then there was enough turnout and monitoring in 2006 & 2008

where it didn't happen, despite DUers who swore it would. And unfortunately, 2010 was a classic case of GOTV failure in the off-Prez election season.

I expect the issues are going to be very localized - county by county, especially where there are close races in congressional districts (now redrawn) and state legislatures. The efforts need to come from the state parties...

[GoCubsGo]

5. No, they are not.

I recognize the push-back, but as you point out, it's nowhere near enough. I guess it's up to us to spread the word, and help make voter turn-out as high as possible. The more there are of us voting, the more difficult it is for them to steal the election.

[DCKit]

6. While I'm totally on-board with your concerns...

I also don't believe the (R) PTB want to win the WH in 2012. That said, those of us with a vote that counts (being in DC, mine doesn't), need to get out there and make sure it's too damn hard to steal it this time around.

We need much larger (D)-Progressive representation in Congress if we expect to see anything change by 2016.

[Report1212]

7. A lot of the voting machine stuff is out of their hands

[Gothmog]

8. Having voluntereed as a voter protection attorney, I am curious what else you think can be done.

I went to Florida at my own expense in 2004 to be part of the Kerry Edwards voter protection team and I volunteered to be part of the Obama voter protection team in 2008 and 2010. The Obama voter protection team has already contacted me and I have signed up for this election.

I have been busy briefing people on the Texas voter id law and will be one of the speakers this weekend at a town hall on the Texas voter id law being held by Congressman Al Green of Houston. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1078915 The DOJ has been doing a good job of blocking voter id laws in states where it has the power to do so. My county party is busy looking for additional voters who would be affected by the Texas act so as to get these voters before the court in Washington DC.

The party can only do so much. In 2010, we got federal monitors to come to Harris County due to the King Street Patriots idiots and we had federal election watchers in my county due to a Cease and Desist decree. I am gearing up to have poll watchers at all of the early voting locations this cycle as well as the key precincts on Election Day.

The Obama campaign is very well organized on the legal front as has the national party. The DNC has been able to maintain an injunction in effect against the RNC on vote caging since 1984 and that injunction was extended in 2009 to run through 2017 elections. Here is a link to the current order of the court http://www.brennancenter.org/page/-/Democracy/DNC%20v%20RNC%20-%20Order.pdf From a legal standpoint, it is not easy to keep an injunction in effect for so many years given that the RNC has fought the extension of this injunction at every opportunity.

I am not sure what more the DNC or the Obama team should be doing. If you have any suggestion, I will be glad to listen. There are a large number of people who are working very hard to protect the right to vote and they are doing everything in their power to protect such right.

[librechik]

9. great news, Goth

thanks for the update--it's easy to get discouraged when so little media time is devoted to the issue of voter integrity.

[Gothmog]

11. The Democratic Party takes voting rights seriously in my opinion

It is my opinion that the Democratic Party takes voting rights seriously. In 2008 and 2010, the Obama campaign and the DNC were very well organized on the legal front and blocked some vote caging attempts and got the C&D order extended over RNC objections until 2017. The briefing on this was fun to read.

The Obama voter protection team is already recruiting members. You can sign up here
https://my.barackobama.com/page/s/vpcvol2 I am on the list from 2008 and have already signed up.

[Octafish]

23. So where's the verified paper trail?

...the kind Athan Gibbs was working on.

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/853

No offense -- I don't trust my vote to be protected by a few electromagnetic charges.

[TheKentuckian]

10. Thank you for your efforts and the sacrifices that come with them.

I think we should be a lot more in fighting these unverifiable machines and I also have long had a problem with the party being close to mum as possible on all of the voting shenanigans and too soft on the TeaPubliKlans rhetorically while absorbing every possible accusation from the opposition and at times, like we saw with ACORN aiding them in their ability to disenfranchise and election fraud.

They have ten thousand different kinds of tricks at work at all times and then everything is filtered through machines owned by their people that we cannot independently verify.

Hell, election fraud and tricks are so pervasive in TeaPubliKlan circles that they use them internally.

No, I have not constructed a set of policy proposals and don't have to in order to be concerned.
I can say that the party can and should be raising awareness, speaking to access to the polls, and the integrity of our votes regularly and with passion.

[Gothmog]

12. Here is an article from the 2008 efforts.

The DNC has been doing its best with respect to voting machines. Here is an article about the efforts made in 2008 http://www.alternet.org/news/104635/democrats_describe_efforts_to_limit_voting_machines_problems/?page=entire

Implicit in the hand wringing is the question, 'Where is the Democratic Party when it comes to safeguarding the vote?'

The answer, according to lawyers and others who been pushing the Democratic National Committee to be pro-active on electronic voting issues, is that the DNC has assembled a nationwide team tasked to voting machine concerns. They have been at work behind the scenes since the start of early voting -- following up with state and local officials when problems arise, these lawyers say. While the DNC's effort may not seem apparent or sufficient to activists, those doing this work say it is unprecedented and comprehensive.

"Yes, the DNC's election protection program includes a voting machine task force -- it includes experienced e-voting litigators, experts on the various types of machines, voting rights lawyers and other specialists," said Justin Levitt, DNC National Voter Protection Counsel. "Our election protection effort, including our e-voting team, are prepared to respond rapidly and effectively to issues as they arise, including any issues involving technology.

"For example, during observation of logic and accuracy testing in New Mexico, we caught and fixed a ballot definition error before a single vote was threatened. We are monitoring voter protection issues around the country very closely, and responding in real-time -- often behind the scenes, but always active."

The DNC is not asleep at the switch here. Efforts are being taken to protect the vote. From what I have seen, the DNC and the Obama campaign are very well organized here.

[truckin]

26. That is not enough. Rush Holt proposed legislation that would ban paperless DRE voting machines.

The bill had flaws, and many election activists felt it didn't go far enough, but it would have been a good start toward a better vote counting system. This type of action is what is needed not some behind the scenes team reacting after the fact. We need good legislation brought up by the Dems to approve the system.

Other than Rush Holt, why don't they do it?

[truckin]

18. The Dems should have been involved in the recount in Ohio in 2004. nt

[Gothmog]

19. Kerry Edwards voter team was active in Ohio

I remember that the DNC and the Kerry Edwards campaign had almost a thousand out of state of attorneys in Ohio for the 2004 election. Senator Kerry made the decision not to recount. There were plenty of legal talent in Ohio ready to fight if there was any legitimate way to fight.

[politicasista]

20. And people still hate him for that. Go figure

and to be fair, some still hate Gore for not recounting FL.

[truckin]

24. Maybe it was Kerry's fault and not the Democratic Partys but a recount was initiated by the

Green and Liberterian Partys and it was funded by citizens. There were plenty of hijinks in the recount and those Democratic lawyers could have been very helpful in the recount but they were nowhere to be found. There's a big difference between having lawyers out on election day and fighting for a fair, transparent and accurate election system.

There have been subsequent lawsuits and there were legitimate ways to fight but no national level Democrats chose to participate for whatever reason. There is also plenty of evidence from Ohio 2004 (See Witness to a Crime by Richard Hayes Phillips) but the Democratic Party has shown little or no interest in making sure that every vote counted in Ohio in 2004 or, for that matter, in any other place where there have been glaring problems in the last 12 years.

[Cyrano]

27. This is the issue I was raising in the OP

I believe that Gothmog is doing wonderful work out there and I wish we had a million more like him. (Many kudos, Gothmog and much thanks for what you are doing.)

But the major issue is "where the hell is the national Dem Party?"

I know that the Republicans control the MSM, or at least 90% of it. And this makes it harder for the Democrats to bring an issue to the forefront.

Nonetheless, every elected (progressive) Democrat should be screaming from the rooftops. If enough House members, Senators, and even President Obama himself spoke up on an ongoing basis on this issue, it will be heard.

There will of course be the Republican accusation that the Dems are "whining," but there are too many people in Florida, Ohio, and the rest of the country that really "get it."

[truckin]

25. Another thing the Dems could do if they truly believed in free and fair elections is to

do everything possible to ban electronic DRE voting machines. How anyone can defend the use of these is beyond me and the fact that the Dems are not screaming bloody murder about the use of these paperless voting machines is very troubling to me.

[LiberalEsto]

13. If the 'pukes hack the vote

I wonder if some group like Anonymous will counter-hack.

[Brettongarcia]

14. Note Bush I and Jeb Bush, having conference with Obama, a few months ago; SUBJECT NOT ANNOUNCED

If I was a democratic president, I think I'd call the governor of Florida to my office, before the next election. Since Florida was so prominent in a recent election-fixing controversy.

The famous "hanging chads" incident. Where democrats barely lost the election, in a state overwhelmingly contolled, by Repubs.

Hope Obama read the riot act to Jeb and his daddy.

In the meantime? Our voting machines, that do not issue receipts are unacceptable!

[qb]

16. They can't handle the truth.

They got bamboozled by the e-voting manufacturers in 2000 and they refuse to face the magnitude of their error.

[KaryninMiami]

17. Nope- not as long as people are STILL using the same electronic voting machines-

Not to mention the millions who will or who have already been disenfranchised.

And you are correct- the silence is terrifying given that we are 9 months out. I gave up screaming about those machines- was too painful and here we are again, less then a year from the election and we still have most of the country voting on machines that are not verifiable and are controlled by GOP companies. Diebold may have changed their name- but they are still the same Repug voting machine manufacturer and still as far as I know, not allowing access to their source coded so that the counts could be verified. As long as that's still the case, elections can and will continue to be stolen. So, unless we have a landslide turnout as we did in 08, we loose. Period. Anything less then a 4% lead- we're screwed since they will skim between 1% and 3% off of as many districts as possible.

Very sad state of affairs.

[graywarrior]

21. I'm convinced it's all theater and we have nothing to say about any of it.

Pardon me, but I just watched Citizen Kane and then a documentary about Welles and Hearst.

[spanone]

22. here in tennessee the rethugs got the house and senate and governor...voter i.d. instigated

the rethugs waste no time in ensuring their tenure in office once they get there