Monday, November 15, 2004
50 States Mislead Their Voters Part 1
I'm going to try to take a look at election anomalies and accusations of fraud in all fifty states for Election 2004 (if anyone has any news or links...leave a comment or e-mail me...).
VOTE SUPPRESSION: A small flyer distributed in Jefferson County pre-election: "Attention: Jefferson County!!!!! See You At The Poles November 4, 2004." (Reuters.co.uk)
VOTE SUPPRESSION: Voter registration cards mailed out to residents in Madison County weren't explicit about which polling place voters should go to: "The confusion seemed to stem from voter registration cards that listed one polling place for Madison city elections and another for state and federal elections. The card indicates, but does not plainly state, which polling place to use Tuesday...Madison offers two polling locations in municipal elections, but the city is divided into three sites for state and federal races." (Everything Alabama)
WHO: Pat Meadows, the District's Election Officer (DEO) for the Northern District of Alabama, reported few problems in northern Alabama. He was appointed to this position less than a week before the election by United States Attorney Alice H. Martin (US DOJ). In May, 2004 Mr. Meadows indicted District Judge Ira Colvin for bankruptcy fraud just five days before a primary election. The case was three years old at the time of the indictment (The Herald). Mr. Meadows also happens to be a lay delegate for the United Methodist Church from North Alabama who believes that, according to the Bible, homosexuality is an "abomination and perversion" (Reporter Interactive).
Alice Martin was appointed to her position as US attorney by George Bush not long after September 11, 2001 (White House). In January of 2004, Ms. Martin was named to the Ashcroft advisory committee for a two-year term. In his remarks on the appointments, Ashcroft says he "will be calling on the advisory committee to continue its efforts to combat terrorism and corporate fraud, as well as to aggressively prosecute gun crime, drug trafficking, civil rights violations, obscenity and environmental matters." (Birmingham Business Journal). In addition, Alice Martin's name appears on this list of endorsed candidates by Alabama's Christian Conservatives in 2000 (didn't help much...she lost), along with Judge Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice who defied a court order to move a Ten Commandments monument from the Supreme Court building (CCOFAL.org).
Secretary of State Nancy Worley is a member of the Democratic Party. Two days before the registration deadline Anita Tatum, the former State Director of Voter Registration was, supposedly, harassed and pressured to resign: This controversy might be the result of discrepancies found in the two different voter registration lists. The one from the Secretary of State's office which Worley says Tatum was in charge of has more voters listed that the state's official web site. Tatum says the difference occurred because her web site includes inactive voters, who have not voted in a while and the state's web site doesn't. (WSFA).
Only two counties in all of Alabama did not use voting machines that keep both paper and electronic records. The racial makeup of the two counties, Mobile and Montgomery, happens to be nearly half African American and they comprised 13.8% of the state's registered voters. Worley attested the Shouptronic machines used in Mobile and Montgomery counties are secure and do not present the same dangers as touch-screen machines without a paper trail because they are not networked, and thus cannot be hacked into to alter the results (The Crimson White).
Democrat Governor Don Siegelman appeared to win his reelection on November 2nd, 2002. But later that night, after the polls closed, nearly 7,000 of Siegelman’s votes inexplicably disappeared, and the election was awarded to Republican Bob Riley. The votes were taken away from Baldwin County, a Republican stronghold; it was attributed to a computer glitch. Mr. Seigelman's recount request was denied (USA Today). In May, Mr. Seigelman was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly participating in a bid-rigging scheme: "Siegelman has in the past claimed that the investigation was partisan, but U.S. Attorney Alice Martin denied that politics were behind the charges. "We don't ever look to see if there is an R or a D behind anyone's name," the Republican appointee said." (WAFF).
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