With Election day being hours away, reports of attempts to steal the election are in full swing — racism and discrimination are playing their usual roles, the familiar, never-ending smear tactics, lies and misinformation campaigns continue growing more blatant, fraudulent attempts at voter suppression, many examples of which can be found below, by the desperate Republican party are getting more ridiculous and attempts at stealing the election with the usual dirty tricks are shifting into overdrive — but they don’t appear to be working very well because the public has had more than enough of the damage done by the Republican party and are fully aware of what is happening.
Accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression have practically become commonplace in several states. Reports of widespread vote flipping are growing. There are also reports of ballots not being recorded. Numerous examples of election fraud are available from After Downing Street. There is still too much secrecy in how ballots are counted too. Despite all the reported problems with Electronic Voting machines, they are still used all over the country.
Georgia’s Secretary of State reportedly opened the door for racial targeting, declaring that regular citizens could address the “problem” of non-citizen voting by contesting the citizenship of fellow voters at the polls, forcing them to cast “challenge” ballots that won’t be counted on election day. 11,000 voters in Denver, Colorado didn’t receive mail-in ballots due to an “unfortunate mistake” by Sequioa Voting Systems, after originally lying and telling the city that they had delivered all of the ballots they were supposed to print and deliver. More information on the missing ballots is available from The Denver Post and ABC7 News in Denver. Another example of a Republican actually trying to steal the election can be found from The Daily Kos.
Another slanderous DVD is reportedly being spread, this time to three of Ohio’s largest newspapers, along with papers in Florida and Nevada. Phony fliers are reportedly being distributed in Virginia telling Democrats to vote on November 5 and what are referred to as fear fliers on steroids are reportedly being distributed throughout Ohio. Just because the Federal government has been racially profiling for years under the guise of the attacks of 9/11 that Bush allowed to happen does not mean that racism and prejudice are the norm. This is the 21st century and there is no need for it. A lot of racial evangelicals are spreading all kinds of lies about Obama. Calls are also being made in Ohio telling people that they can vote by phone to avoid long lines at the polls, which is absolutely false. Racial slanders and discrimination should not be tolerated.
Swing States Illegally Purging Voters
A review of state records and Social Security data by the New York Times reportedly found that tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate a 2002 federal law intended to overhaul the way elections are run, apparently as a result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files.
Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina could face problems at the polls on Election Day due to the screening or trimming of voter registration lists. People who have been removed from the rolls will most likely be challenged by political party officials or election workers which may result in tempers flaring, confusion and long lines. Little notice has been given to the number of voters being removed from the rolls. According to the New York Times, for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some states, election officials have removed two.
The six swing states appear to be violating federal law in two ways. Michigan and Colorado have been removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election despite the fact that they’re not supposed to unless voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state or have been declared unfit to vote. Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio appear to be using Social Security data improperly to verify registration applications for new voters.
Alabama and Georgia appear also to be improperly using Social Security information to screen registration applications from new voters and Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of voters after the deadline for taking such action had passed.
Under federal law, Social Security databases are only to be used as a last resort if no record is found in state databases because the federal database is less reliable than state lists and is more prone to incorrectly flag applications as invalid. Apparently many state officials are checking the Social Security databases first. A lot more information is available in the article from The New York Times and from The Independent UK.
Republicans Trying To Steal The Vote
Republican Presidential nominee Senator John McCain has repeatedly lied and used dirty tactics in efforts to sway the election with no success. Massive efforts at Republican voter suppression efforts are reportedly underway nationwide in a last-ditch attempt to head off what appears to be a huge win for Democrats.
On top of the thousands of voters being purged across the U.S., new voter registrations are being rejected and deceptive or intimidating information is being fed to potentially Democratic voters by Republican operatives and election officials trying to steal the election for McCain.
Numerous incidents of voter suppression, illegal voter purging, voter challenges, technical barriers to voter registration and voting, student voting barriers, voter registration access problems, voter intimidation and deceptive practices, poorly designed ballots, vote-flipping and numerous other attempts at stealing the election are being tracked at The Brennan Center for Justice.
Instead of running a presidential campaign, McCain has been running a smear campaign. Much more time has been spent lying about Democratic Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama by McCain than explaining how he’s different from President Bush and how he plans to turn this country around. The smear campaign has been one massive failure after another. Consequently, the closer it gets to Election Day, the more the desperation grows.
Exercise and Protect Your Right To Vote
President Bush ordered the politicized Department of Justice to intervene in the Ohio voter dispute — one of the many fraudulent Republican claims of voter fraud being used in attempts to prevent voters from voting — and amazingly enough the Department of Justice said no. The majority of the Republican claims of fraud appear to be nothing more than attempts at voter suppression. Most of the cases have ended up being rejected since there is little if any evidence of voter fraud as claimed by the Republican party. The truth about the Republican party’s ACORN voter fraud scam can be found from The BRAD BLOG.
The BRAD BLOG reported that Mike Connell, the Republican IT guru, described as a “high tech Forrest Gump” for his proclivity to be “at the scene” of so many troubling elections since 2000 — who is also at the heart of the “lost” White House email scandal — has been ordered to appear for a deposition in the long-standing voting rights lawsuit, King Lincoln v. Blackwell, because his company created Ohio’s 2004 elections results. It appears that he may have played some major roles in the last two stolen Presidential election.
The Raw Story reported on newly obtained computer schematics that provide further detail of how electronic voting data was routed during the 2004 election from Ohio’s Secretary of State’s office through a partisan Tennessee web hosting company known for its close association with the Republican party, before the 2004 election results were displayed online, raising question as to the validity of the results. The documents obtained by The Raw Story are related to the King Lincoln v. Blackwell lawsuit mentioned above. More can also be found from The Smirking Chimp. We do not need a repeat of the last two Presidential elections.
Military members reportedly may not have had enough time to complete and mail in their absentee ballots for the Presidential election thanks to slow mail delivery, lack of information sharing among election officials, and procedural errors. It appears that the Pentagon, most likely under orders from the Bush administration, is doing everything it can to make sure our soldiers, most of who support the Democratic Presidential nominee, don’t get their votes counted. Nothing like being appreciated for a job well done.
As noted by the San Francisco Examiner, this election isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. This election is about the power. Actually, it’s about a lot more than that. It’s also about trying to right 8 years worth of hellacious wrongs and rampant corruption led by an incompetent, delusional wanna-be-dictator that has created a fraud at the expense of Democracy. It’s about millions of new voters hoping for change and millions of other voters trying to prevent their votes from being stolen. This election is also about regaining precious freedoms and rights that were illegally taken away in the name of “protecting us and keeping us safe” with no intention of doing either. If you think about it, George W. Bush’s complete Presidency has been one massive fraud.
It’s time put an end to the desperate attempts at election fraud and theft. It’s time for those who have pushed lies and propaganda as News and fact to pay for their crimes and it’s time for accountability. This year especially, it’s important that you exercise your right to vote. Expect long lines and delays in some places, but don’t lose your patience. Suggestions for protecting your vote include taking a picture of your vote if you’re using an electronic voting machine. More information on protecting your vote and reporting voter fraud or suppression is available from 866OurVote.org, The New York Times, Velvet Revolution, VoterStory.org, Wired.com, BlackBoxVoting.org, Voter Suppression Wiki and Mother Jones.
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