Tuesday, November 16, 2004
United For Election Reform!
Here's some more links to lawyers, bloggers and non-profit organizations which are trying to DO SOMETHING about the problems with our electoral system. Bookmark them and send the links to your friends.
A lawsuit was filed by an Ohio Democrat against the Boards of Elections in Franklin and Knox counties because of the ridiculously, long lines at voting locations on election day (NBC4i): "The lawsuit asked that voters be given the option of filing a paper ballot if they are in a line that has a wait time of more than two hours, NBC 4 reported. The judge agreed and demanded that alternative methods, including paper ballots or absentee ballots, should be issued to those standing in long lines. The judge said the Boards of Elections have a duty to provide additional ballots when necessary."
"Verified Voting.org and the Verified Voting Foundation champion reliable and publicly verifiable elections in the United States. We advocate the use of voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs) for all elections in the United States, so voters can inspect individual permanent records of their ballots before they are cast and so meaningful recounts may be conducted. We also insist that electronic voting equipment and software be open to public scrutiny and that random, surprise recounts be conducted on a regular basis to audit election equipment. Paperless electronic voting systems are failing us. Worse yet, resistance from the elections official community is astonishing!"
Topple Bush.com has also been pressing the issue. "Many viewers have contacted us since the election asking what they can do to help make sure all of the ballots get counted, what can be done about all of the voter intimidation and other frauds committed by BushCo operatives, and what can be done to make sure electronic voting machines counted the votes correctly so that Bush didn't steal another election. There is no doubt our election process is a mess and needs fixing and even if we can't remove Bush in this election, although we should still be trying and not giving up, we must continue to work to fix these numerous problems before the next election in 2006."
The League of Pissed Off Voters (love that moniker!) are behind Indyvoter.org and have been involved in national voter-organizing out of New York City. "Our mission is to engage pissed off 17-35 year olds in the democratic process to build a progressive governing majority in our lifetime."
Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect our digital rights. "The 2004 presidential election might not be flawed like the last one was; it might be even worse. Communities across America are purchasing electronic voting (e-voting) machines, but the technology has serious security problems that aren't being addressed."
"The National Ballot Integrity Project Task Force was founded to unite and enhance the effectiveness of the already energized and motivated organizations, grassroots activists, concerned citizens and legislators who comprise the election integrity movement across the nation."
Us Together.org has a chart that compares the results from Florida by breaking it down between Op-Scan counties versus the Touchscreen counties. "While the heavily scrutinized touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios largely matched the Kerry/Bush vote, in Florida's counties using optically scanned paper ballots the results seem to contain anomalies."
The We Do Not Concede Coalition "urges you to continue to help get the word out - we are making a difference! Unite in your communities, protest in numbers, deliver petitions to your elected officials. Let your friends, family, email lists, and groups know about this growing coalition of concerned Americans who are questioning the results of the 2004 election. Write letters to the editor urging members of your community to NOT CONCEDE their votes."
Norman Lear's People for the American Way, in conjunction with National Voting Rights Institute, DEMOS, People For the American Way Foundation, Common Cause, and the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, have released a statement,in Support of the Ohio Recount and for Conserving Ballots and Examining Procedures Nationwide. "A recount in Ohio and a full examination of ballots and registrations in Ohio and elsewhere are not only necessary first steps to ensure that we have an accurate count. Such efforts will also help all Americans better understand what is working and what is not working in our elections system. With that information, we can pursue reforms that will ensure that the next election is less likely to face doubts."
Democratic Underground has tons of updates every day at this discussion forum. Today, I found a link to this New England Cable News interview between Senator John F. Kerry and Alison King, in which he pins his "loss" on the war and terrorism, and disagrees with the perception that moral values were what mattered most to the American people. When asked if he has plans for running again in 2008, Kerry ducks it and responds, "They haven't finished counting the votes yet."
Joseph Cannon has been blogging non-stop about Votergate 2004 at Cannonfire.blogspot.com: "We can, and will, maintain the search for better evidence of vote fraud. But one thing few understand is that, by world standards, we already possess sufficient evidence. Repeated exit poll disparities favoring one party do constitute damning evidence, despite what some people may tell you. Exit polls are the only way to verify a computerized vote."
Peter Smith at Ledge of Liberty has compiled a statistical analysis by using data from the last four Presidential elections "revealing negative percentages of change, across the board, for Democratic candidate, John Kerry, and wouldn’t you know it -- positive percentages of change for the Republican candidate, George W. Bush."
Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog has an alternative name for Votergate 2004: Grand Theft America. Brad's note: "I am not, for now, focusing here on alleged Dirty Tricks and/or reports of Voter Suppression/Disenfranchisement on Election Day though there were plenty of them. I'm looking at emerging hard evidence documenting potential fraud and/or mistabulation of actual votes cast by Americans on 11/2/04, with a focus on disturbing trends related to Ohio and Florida.
A trial lawyer from Maryland who uses the handle jsmdlawyer on Daily Kos has been fighting the naysayers that attack his diaries and comments. This is a link to one of his diaries which hits upon the provisional ballots and spoiled votes in Ohio.
Finally, Jeff Fisher, an unsuccessful candidate for Congressman in Florida has transformed his Fisher for Congress website into a showcase devoted to Votergate 2004. There are some articles on his site that seem questionable, but worth a look, none-the-less: Jefffisherforcongress.com.
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