Little hesitation in screaming foul

[Donailin]

to ask me not to jump the gun is to ask me to *trust* the republican party (and their voting machines.) If the votes were being updated every 15 minutes and Hackett is hodling his own when suddenly the machines all go down and there's a handcount and then suddenly Schmidt has a massive lead, and I should consider this a legitimate anamoly, then will you please also consider for one moment that I'm really the president posting on DU.

I can't do it. I cannot trust these people. Not trusting them is the reason we want them out so badly, isn't it?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I can't trust them either. Not when there's a previous history in that

area of fishy goings on during elections.

-------------------------------------------------------
Fight for Andy! Fight for election reform!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[Eric J in MN]

2. Was the handcount public? Were Democrats allowed to watch? nt

nt

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

17. If it wasn't, Hackett's campaign would be screaming

I don't hear anything, so I assume the handcount took place at the Board of Elections Office where, by Ohio Law, half of the BOE is Republican and half is Democrat.

[ThumperDumper]

3. What we need are SPIES...

to tell us HOW they're doing it.

.

[Bluebear]

4. But but but it was HUMID! n/t

[wli]

5. it was rigged, pure and simple

Time to get the FBI, GAO, and a special prosecutor out there.

Not that it could ever happen with the Federalist Society monopoly on the courts.

[meganmonkey]

6. I was thinking a different 'f' word

FRAUD

Why people act surprised that it happens over and over is beyond me.

And if one more person tells us to stop talking about it I may actually have to respond.

Meanwhile I need to go to bed.

Peace

[Junkdrawer]

7. We lead early...a delay before the final numbers..we lose 52/48...

I'm getting a little tired of that script...

[Donailin]

8. same here. it's waaaaayy too familiar.

And I'm still getting over that other election. My head is spinning. Ohio of all places as well. The name Blackwell hasn't been mentioned, but I haven't forgotten last November at all.

If there is one thing I know. The republicans will NOT start worrying about this publicly. They will come out tomorrow and BOAST of this win. That's what they do, the minimize the obvious problem by flat out lying.

Everything they say, just turn it around 180 degress. Do not ever think they sometimes tell the truth, that's how they burn you the next time.

[OneBlueSky]

9. it's not who votes that counts . . . it's who counts the votes . . .

and based on past experience, as long as Republicans (or Republican corporations) are counting the votes, there's absolutely no reason to believe that the result are legitimate . . . none . . .

[AuntPatsy]

10. Repeat that often, scream it outloud if you must to be heard...

"Its not the votes that counts.....it's who counts the votes"


It needs constant repeating until it no longer applies...

[nicknameless]

21. And don't forget this one:

"It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting."
-- Peter King (Repug. Congressman from NY) in 2004

[checks-n-balances]

11. Kick, and I agree with your question

I don't trust 'em either.

[ClayZ]

12. Trust is earned. They are not on the same

ethical ground as most kind descent people in this country. They continue to pull the rug out from under us and we just pick our selves up and try to dodge the next rug.

Seems like some of them would tire of being bullies and thugs. It is beyond my capacity to understand.

[Swamp Rat]

13. They stole another election.

:puke:

[ClayZ]

18. Goodbye Civil Rights, Hello more horror!

Now we watch them put this bozo to a 30 year post! If the Dems do not filibuster this maniac I may turn purple!

GOOD OLE "STOP THE VOTE 2000". This guy is the one who set the wicked chain of events into play. LOOK at that grin. Look at those eyes.

Swamp Rat, it has been a bad couple weeks. I am hoping for a recount in Ohio! More press for the cause!

[Swamp Rat]

19. The rethuglicans stole the election AGAIN, using reptilian Witchcraft!

[Wabbajack]

14. They stole it

They will get away with it AGAIN.

I feel awful.

We should've mobbed DC in 2001 to stop Bush from taking office.

[Peace Patriot]

15. Don't look back! Look FORWARD! Learn from the past, yes--but don't

let it cripple you with regrets.

The corruption of our political system has been long in the making--capped over the last decade by the Democratic Party leadership's betrayal of its base--U.S. workers. But what is happening right now--the end of American democracy in bloody and illegal preemptive war, the smashing of the will of the majority, and the wholesale looting of the U.S. government and destruction of its solvency, by the Republican Party--is directly attributable to a particular kind of corruption: the big business of electronic voting and private, partisan control over our election system.

Eighty percent of the vote in 2004 was tabulated electronically by two Bushite companies, Diebold and ES&S, using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code. We have lost control over the counting of our votes. This final outrage against American democracy must be reversed.

At best, we need a return to paper ballots, hand counted at the precinct level. At the least, we need to achieve some measure of election transparency with paper ballot backups to electronic systems, strict auditing, and no secret, proprietary programming code! We also need to rid our election system of partisan rightwing corporations, primarily Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia.

Election system reform is still DOABLE at the state/local level, where control over election systems still resides, and where ordinary people still have some influence. The bipartisan corruption in the electronic voting business at the state/local level is daunting, but it is nothing compared to the bipartisan corruption in Washington DC, and it is local and therefore much more fixable.

Join your local election reform group--or form your own--and help get this done. Our right to vote is fundamental and essential to achieving "consent of the governed." Without it, we have no say in our government. This is a very urgent matter! It is something that WE the people can do. And it is something that we MUST do!

See the DU Forum "2004 Election Results and Discussion" for information and action ideas:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

Also see Amaryllis' post on Diebold/ES&S/Sequoia lobbying of election officials at the Beverly Hilton this week--it will burn your eyeballs!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[annabanana]

16. prove to me that it IS legit....

That's my mantra from now on... This tired old script of theirs is wearing on my last nerve..

"you're ahead.....(everything goes 'fuzzy').......you lost"

[ClayZ]

22. They say "Cheaters never win" in the long run.

"you're ahead.....(everything goes 'fuzzy').......you lost"

I hope Fitzgerald weaves this together like a peace quilt that will comfort the world!

They must be frogmarched and it should be on the news 24/7 for weeks.

[nicknameless]

20. Hey, ANOTHER power failure wherein the Repug moves mysteriously ahead!

This was the story from Texas back in 1985:

and an excerpt from:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2000-02-10/news/schutze.html

“Our own municipal history offers an instructive case in point: In 1985, Pleasant Grove hardware-store owner and perennial gadfly Max Goldblatt, who was then 74 years old, came within fewer than 500 votes, or a tenth of a percentage point of the overall vote, of forcing A. Starke Taylor, the Citizens Council candidate for mayor, into a runoff.

Goldblatt was an old, funny-looking, not terribly well-spoken guy who raised pathetic money to run against a very smooth, well-known, lavishly funded, silver-haired golf-cart guy. But Dallas people thought Max Goldblatt was clean, and they stormed the polls to vote for him.

In 1988, the Federal Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology published a report on computerized voting in which the 1985 Goldblatt-Taylor race in Dallas was described in some detail. The report explained how Goldblatt actually had been winning on election night when suddenly the vote-counting computer in Dallas experienced an unexplained power failure. When the power came back on, Starke Taylor had moved mysteriously ahead during the downtime. It should have been impossible for the computer to change its mind while it didn't have any electricity.

Subsequent re-counts produced even stranger results, according to the report. When the Texas Legislature tried to investigate the Goldblatt election, Dallas officials reported that all of the ballots had been prematurely destroyed. The Goldblatt election was an important factor in laws passed later by the Legislature requiring tighter security measures for ballots and voting equipment.”

The person who presided over that election was none other than Conny The-Bad-Seed McCormack. Now she's the Los Angeles County Registrar-Clerk-Recorder. The Repugs are determined to turn California red, and she's just the person who could make it happen.