Think the 2006 Mid-Terms were clean? Think again…

[organik]

Now is certainly not the time to give up, or even back down the slightest bit in the election reform movement. This seemingly landslide victory by the Democrats would have been even larger had it not been for dirty tricks and suppression on the part of Republicans.

Greg Palast's "HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION" states, "Two million legitimate voters will be turned away because of wrongly rejected or purged registrations. Add another one million voters challenged and turned away for 'improper ID.' Then add yet another million for Democratic votes 'spoiled' by busted black boxes and by bad ballots. And let’s not forget to include the one million 'provisional' ballots which will never get counted. Based on the experience of 2004, we know that, overwhelmingly, minority voters are the ones shunted to these baloney ballots. And there’s one more group of votes that won’t be counted: absentee ballots challenged and discarded. Elections Assistance Agency data tell us a half million of these absentee votes will go down the drain. Driving this massive suppression of the vote are sophisticated challenge operations. And here I must note that the Democrats have no national challenge campaign. That’s morally laudable; electorally suicidal. Add it all up — all those Democratic-leaning votes rejected, barred and spoiled — and the Republican Party begins Election Day with a 4.5 million-vote thumb on the vote-tally scale."

Brad Friedman of the BRAD BLOG reported on several "irregularities" throughout the day, such as:

* MELTDOWN '06: USA Today Reports 'Voting machine problems bedevil multiple states'
* MELTDOWN '06: Missouri Election Integrity Org Says More Reports of Touch-Screen Vote Flipping…
* MELTDOWN '06: Myriad Problems Reported to Local News Outlet in Chicago…
* MELTDOWN '06: Diebold Voting Machines Failing to Start Up in Utah, Voters Being Turned Away…
* MELTDOWN '06: AP - 'Polling places turn to paper ballots after glitches'
* MELTDOWN '06: 'Voting Nightmare' Reported by Denver Post
* MELTDOWN '06: Orange County CA Candidate Says Machines Down, No Paper Ballots Available…

Also, many thousands of complaints were logged on the Election Incident Reporting System (1-866-OUR-VOTE). 5140 complaints to be exact, and growing.

There was also the last minute Republican dirty trick of the Rovian Robo-Call. According to TPMMuckracker.com, these calls (of which there appear to have been many thousand), have occured in at least 20 separate congressional districts, and were paid for by the RNCC. From TPMMuckracker: "In a letter dated Nov. 6, Michigan Reps. John Conyers and John Dingell ask attorney general Alberto Gonzales, FCC chairman Kevin Martin and FEC chairman Michael Toner to probe whether a sudden rash of last-minute phone calls paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee violated any of a number of federal and state laws and requirements. Conyers is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, while Dingell is the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee."

Then you have Laura Ingram suggesting right wingers jam the Democratic voter information line.

At this point you might be asking, "how did the Dems win?".

Here's how - the media started (albeit barely) to do their job!

HBO's Documentary "Hacking Democracy" was aired prior to the election. Also, Lou Dobbs had been extensively covering e-voting insecurity for at least a couple months prior. The blogosphere (Democratic Underground and BradBlog in particular) has been more active than ever with this issue as well. Basically, if they had tried to swing this election too far, it would have been painfully obvious.

Also, the Dems just weren't going to put up with it this time. There are at least a couple of congressional races that the Democratic candidate has NOT conceded, Clint Curtis' campaign against Tom Feeney being one, with Curtis vowing to make sure every vote is counted. Francine Busby is another who is not conceding until all votes are counted. Why should she trust the official result, what with the machine "sleepovers" in her district. Also, election activist Bob Fitrakis is not conceding his Green Party gubernatorial bid in Ohio, he knows better than to just give up in that state.

Lastly, the turnout was considerably larger than expected, and the election protection presence on the ground was much more evident, both factors making fraud more difficult.

In conclusion, there were many problems that still occurred, and many that were prevented, but we CAN NOT rest on this victory. Now is the time, with a Democratic majority, to make major gains in the area of election reform. With Dennis Kucinich's HR 6200 for hand counted paper ballots, with results posted at the precinct level, and with friend of democracy Congressman John Conyers Jr. the head of the House Judiciary Committee, we can definitely get some work done to repair our democracy.

by Organik for http://electionfraudblog.com/index.php/think-the-2006-mid-terms-were-clean-think-again/">ElectionFraudBlog.com (click link for article WITH links)

[ClassWarrior]

1. Now's the time to make the election reform movement...

...well, move!

NGU.

[robinlynne]

2. kick this post right up to the top please.

[liberal N proud]

3. Paper ballots = they don't crash!

[adamuu]

4. To add to your list:

Related threads:

MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD IN FL-13, Jennings (D) behind 368 votes, 18,000 votes "lost" in DIEBOLD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2647434

If you think that was a clean election, just
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x457304

Somebody please look at this - exit poll vs actual in Dem Senate seats
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2632227

[robertpaulsen]

5. K & R!

:kick:

:dem:

[thecrow]

6. Yesterday I asked IF they had paper ballots available....in VA.....

You should have seen that election official scramble, searching through all his folders and notebooks...
He came up with NOTHING
Then he put me on the phone to a woman who identified herself
as being "from the office" and she read me the VA laws on
paper ballot voting...."only if the machines are not available"...

Well, he STILL couldn't find any!!!!

Then after I voted, I was looking all around the machine for any identifying name etc and I asked another election official what was the paper coming out of the machine? and she told me it was a printout from that morning showing a zero tabulation.

Then she asked me if I wanted to vote now! hehehehehehehehe.
Oh the thoughts that ran through my sinful head....!

[BadgerKid]

7. Kickerooni

[PATRICK]

8. Massa NY 29

It was a frustrating finale. The money, the robocalls and the hate lit in a gerrymandered district elected a moldy ham sandwich incumbent and next door Reynolds spending all the money that was supposed to go to others to save his behind. Our GREAT candidate is waiting for the absentees in a close race but to me the math does not look helpful. If there WAS fraud or discrepancies outside the more spectacular vote suppression and e-voting which we don't have that would be the only factor to upset the situation.

I know TIA was depending on some math, but the only thing I know that would really help are exit polls. GOP turnout was high, their denial of reality higher. The support Kuhl and the other survivors has is thinner than ever with permanent GOP defections and his base sourly tested by monstrous stupidity and dirt they had to eat to maintain their guys. With more of their predictable bad behavior-or their lack of strutting power we need another Dean style effort in 2008 to turn them into more dumped D'Amatos. With Dean and today's national success I hope and believe we will not be written off by the bean counters but moving to the next battle. I was surrounded by volunteers who were ex-Republicans and the switches are accelerating.

The numbers that were really critical, not to mention the fact that the Foley reaction mostly evaporated(can't have everything if the GOP is willing to put up with it) is that we NEEDED twice as many volunteers- to put it bluntly. The actual effect of volunteers was enough to build enthusiasm among Dems but the grueling outreach and individual campaigning- almost as surrogates for Massa- could have done the trick. Not enough local phone bankers(sometimes too many outside helpers without the same potential) and not enough on the streets. Substituting for a media and GOP parrot machine that dulls the inertial factor to a sluggish, reactionary obstinacy means the small effect of each individual has to be cumulatively added to cover more voters. There too, what was achieved has a lasting effect and getting more to volunteer next time will have a bigger effect.

I thought we had this one. judging from the overt enthusiasm Massa did too. The dwindling negative bounce of the Foley scandal and the increased unfair negative ads from big outside money created a very ugly inversion that thankfully did not happen much outside our gerrymandered enclave.

If anyone has real thoughts about this race I would be glad to hear them. Reactions by Dems to using scandals or reacting to dirty hits should be analyzed carefully nationwide. The GOP tactics were used throughout the nation on certain issues and fear tactics. That is a gift of a point of comparison. Thank you GOP. We NEED the thanklessly expensive, difficult local polling not just for the individual campaign but to learn new political skills. Exit polls on the national level are fine but locally people are perhaps more willing and able to see the discrepancies and discover the reasons.

Getting back to square one with fair balloting is only the beginning of good elections. Once upon a time people were making themselves heard and getting reluctant movement on finance reform and other, real reforms. Time to get back to that and a fairer media.