Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen? — This is an interesting article. Of course it’s tradtionally been the Democrats accused of rigging elections. But if it’s now the Republican machine doing it then they should sweep to victory in 2006, right? Perhaps this is why nobody seems too worried about it.
But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots — or received them too late to vote(4) — after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment — roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)
The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush’s victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent.
found by Bill Cornelius
want the funnest thing about 90% of the states…
They dont cross referance Deaths and Births.
They ARE getting better, but any child born from about 75 and before isnt logged as dying…
I love all those initiatives the Dems are putting up to clean up the voter process; but wait, didn’t they all vote against requiring an ID to vote?
The Dems have always gone for more vote corruption, not less, which tells me that they believe their party personally profits from vote corruption.
Rolling Stone, not exactly a non bias publication.
Thank God for Ohio. John you really need to get to bed sooner.
I’m going to NOT VOTE. that is what I am going to do. I will kick and scream until my face turns blue and my eyes pop out of my socket, forcing me to fast for many weeks until I get so weak that the powers that be will have to force feed me through feeding tubes. Then I’m going to ask for G. W. to come see me personally so that I might end my fast, and when he comes visits me, I shall spit on him and say, “Mr. President, I hate you. The American media hates you. We all hate you. Resign now. Just take your money and leave us now”. That is what I will do.
I don’t understand why people are still complaining about the votes being fixed. You stupid liberals and posers just do not get it, do you ? When Eisenhower was referring to a military industrial complex on his way out, he was not referring to a mental condition of the nation, but rather a set of oligarch being welcomed into power from big business and independent wealth made from the war(and a few Nazis rising to power in the American “free enterprise” system to boot). This system of ours has been rigged since the end of the world war. When was the last time you voted for a labor leader, or school teacher, to be the president of the United States ? Instead, you guys gossip about the election being rigged between two members of Skull and Bones ? !!!
Are you people kidding me !???
I’d worry more about your rights as an employee(what rights) and your rights as a civilian being rigged more than the staged mockery of the judicial and electoral branches.
Bush won get over it. He will be gone in two years in case you have not heard. This sort of wineing is why the dems lose.
in the small Southern town I grew up in during the 50’s and 60’s, the get out to vote initiative was either a small bag of groceries or a pint of cheap whiskey. The party would send big cars in the poorer sections of town with the groceries and pints in the boot. They would pick up several people, take them to the poll and when they dropped them back home they would give them the thank you gift. This went on all day.
Democracy is dead. Even digg.com is down.
I see all the white, middle-class copouts are up early for a change. I still haven’t decided which is a greater threat: bird flu or intellectual dishonesty and sophistry. I suppose — in the long term — the bird flu will get as many of the head-in-the-sand types as it will the pathetically ignorant, the cowards afraid or unwilling to challenge political crime and deceit because “their” party is in power.
Get over it, guys. The whole crew of rank-and-file acolytes has less voice, guidance or input to either of the Tweedledeedum political parties as the average mid-size corporation. Just because there are a couple of planks in either platform that matches your “individual” dislikes and fears — doesn’t mean the cruds in charge give a damn about you.
*yawn*
I live in Chicago. Any / all GOP vote irregularities and even downright cheating (across the entire nation) pales in comparison to what the Daley machine practices during EVERY election.
Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots — or received them too late to vote(4) — after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.
Pay no attention to the fact that military voters typically vote heavily Republican.
(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.
Gotta love that word. Anyway, have they considered the possibility that some or all of those 20,000 couldn’t stand Kerry OR Bush?
I’ve said it before. GW Bush is the religious right’s O.J. Blacks knew that O.J. was guilty but they were happy he got off. To them, it made up for years of injustice.
Christians know GW is a joke, but he is theirs and he has given them power after years of trying to take down Clinton.
Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for 2000 or 2004. Al Gore should have killed Bush in the 2000 election, but he forgot to stick to his principles. And Kerry just had no plan in 2004 and failed to stand up to the attacks against him.
I just hope the Democrats find a candidate who doesn’t try to be a Republican lite.
The voting irregularities must be cleaned up. But neither party wants them cleaned up unless it denies the other party votes. The faud in Chicago on the Democratic side is rampant and NOTHING happens there. That doesn’t make any Republican fraud right, but we need a system to count correct votes – no matter the party affiliation.
Yes, I believe that the MEDIA covered up republican cheating. And where do you live, again>
#12 Gotta love that word.
And the “impossibles”……
A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent.
He lists 208 footnotes/citations – am I am supposed to wade through all of that to see if they actually “investigated” the background behind those poll percentages, or just take it “on faith” that there can be no reasonable explanation…?
If the turnout in the “inner-city Cleveland” [wink, wink] precinct was 98%, and the “evangelical church in Miami County” [wink, wink] turnout was 7% – would he claim the same impossibility? Would he even mention it?
Just the fact that he uses the phrases “inner-city Cleveland” and “evangelical church in Miami County” pi$$es me off – because I do not live in Ohio, and therefore am not familiar with the populations of those two precincts – but get the feeling he is trying to invoke subconcious stereotypes in my mind, regarding who those people are, and what their political affiliations are…
Why would I read any further…?
As a conservative (who is thus forced to vote for the Republicans of two evils), I’m forced to take this article seriously. After all, it’s a KENNEDY talking about VOTE CORRUPTION. The man has to know what he’s talking about, right? I mean, aside from his initial premise that exit polls are right. . .
Hi,
Well I am not surprised
The Republicans seem to have little regard for the US Constitution given that their “man” appears to be presiding over a series of other apparently illegal acts with the war in Iraq, Camp Delta and others.
The fact that he should never have been president comes at little supprise.
Regards
Simon
Interesting.
From the previous comments it would seem that most Americans are cynical and don’t really care about their loss of freedom or even their right to vote in free and fair elections. The stereotype held by outsiders fits: As long as they can drive their SUVs to shopping malls and baseball games Americans think that everything is OK.
On the other hand, what can ordinary people do when their leaders lie, the press is silent and the ballot box is rigged?
Any suggestions?
#6 — the Dems lose because they’re idiots. It’s not the whining.
I’ve got a quicker and cleaner way to solve any election day ‘issues’ in 2008 and my way would solve a lot of future election day problems too:
What do you think would happen if there was a ‘terrorist threat’ in or around even a single polling station?
I’m sure our valiant homeland security would leap into action, and after careful deliberation decide that a temporary halt of polling should take place while all the other polling stations are checked out.
And what if, just like the anthrax scare/hoax, it took them years to secure the polling places from the results of the vague terrorist threat?
We didn’t stop the elections during the civil war, but as the current administration takes our safety soooooo seriously I really could envision a temporary halt to polling that could last and last. Just like in the 3rd rate juntas we despise/support if the rulling party doesn’t like where things are going on election day they can either scare people away from the polls or just call off the election altogether.
Right on, Dvorak #6. Although the whining doesn’t help.
Republicans shredding registrations, do you really think some of the Democrat groups weren’t doing the same thing? 1 million ballots spoiled is much lower than 2000, though I don’t know how they got that number. If it’s fraud with computer machines, it could be any number spoiled. Why not just dump the computer machines, and go back to paper ballots, with computers running a tally? And throw in an ID card requirement to boot.
Maybe if “Rolling Stone” changed their name to “Fair and Balanced” we’d HAVE to believe them.
In my country we mark slips of paper with an x, present them folded to a scrutineer who tears off a receipt for verification and then hands the ballot back to you for you to deposit it in a ballot box. We have never had anything like these kinds of problems. Voting machines are nothing more than a trojan horse for fraud.
OK, OK, OK…
NOW…
A challenge…
HOw to make Voting EASY…
How about a PDA device that can be plugged into a TV(for better viewing)
That can be hooked to a Phone line to Download Voting info and data, in PLAIN TEXT.
READ, voted on, PASSWORDED, DATED
Then connected BACK to the phone line, and the INFO sent BACK.
ECA: NO! YOU NEED A PAPER TRAIL OR YOU CAN’T PROVE A THING!
the touch screen voting machines are bad enough ECA…..the LAST thing we want is ANY form of internet voting.
Voter ID cards are a must….they must have fool proof bio info to work…. no more *motor voting*….no more just show up and vote. We have tried all sorts of really stupid stuff to get the vote higher and it’s not working…..treat the vote as if it is IMPORTANT(i keep hearing it is)….make people get off their asses and register to vote.
I even favor a 2 day vote, and possibly change it to a Saturday and Sunday. I have worked the polls in several elections(local and national) and turnout between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. is dismal, maybe a weekend vote would be better to bring people out.
Put polling places in Malls and Wal-Marts, that alone should add 30% to the voting total.
joshua: Who cares about how many people vote? It’s far far more important to have a fair vote. Lots of people think pro wrestling is real, I don’t want many of them voting!
>The Republicans seem to have little regard for the US Constitution
Harry Reid just called a Senate violation of the Constitution on the immigration bill a techincal matter that should be ignored. By the way, he’s a Democrat.
The challenger for Duke Cunningham’s seat(the guy who resigned in the Abramoff scandal) just told a Spanish audience, you don’t need papers to vote.
#29 Put polling places in Malls and Wal-Marts, that alone should add 30% to the voting total.
Or, do what Oregon does – mail the ballots to all registered voters… and give them a week or so to make their decision.
Great fun when candidates & campaigners come to the door – a day or two before the “election” – and I can say: “I already voted!”. 🙂
#30 Lots of people think pro wrestling is real, I don’t want many of them voting!
The down-side to Oregon’s vote-by-mail… “they” all have ballots mailed to them. 🙁