Two Words: VOTER FRAUD

Okay folks, I believe it's time to roll up our sleeves and really get to work. Stories of voter fraud are actually making it into the mainstream press and I don't think we should let this one get away. To paraphrase Sam Seder from last night's Majority Report, it doesn't matter if Kerry conceded, this is about the very core of our democracy.

I'll have more information next week (I'm on dial-up all weekend and it's giving me hives) but in the meantime there's lots of places you can go:

01) My pal Brad Friedman has been all over this story from day one. His excellent blog contains a treasure trove of information including these "noteworthy items about the vote count":

+ RAW STORY reports Exit Polling varied from "Final Results" almost
exclusively in swing states with E-voting (without paper audit trails). Whereas Exit Polling matching "Final Results" (as close as .5% to .1%) where paper ballots or audit trails existed. (Archive)

+ AP reports that election officials in a North Carolina precinct admit 4500
(out of 7000) votes not counted on E-voting machine in North Carolina precinct due to memory cards smaller than manufacturer UniLect had told them. ALSO: Many problems reporting with E-voting machines in Ohio,
including UniLect machines. Problems did NOT get resolved on Election Day. (Archive)

+ Final Florida tallies show wild discordance between "Expected Votes" (based on party registration) and "Actual Votes", but only in counties that used Optical Scan balloting. Electronic Touch-Screen county numbers are consistent with "Expected". (Archive)

+ NOV 1, 2004: BlackBoxVoting.org announced on Nov. 1 that they had reason to believe modem accessable voting machines were being hacked and advised all precincts to disconnect modems from machines. They also revealed that they discovered 3 hours of data DELETED while examing an audit log from an E-Voting machine in a Washington state primary just six weeks ago.

+ NOV 4, 2004: BlackBoxVoting.org announces that it's their position that "fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines." Not based on Exit Polling or other red flags, but actual hard evidence. They
are filing a huge "Freedom of Information Act" petition to examine audit logs and other material, and are seeking lawyers, computer specialists and donations for the cause. (Archive)

+ 11, 238 more Presidential E-votes that Actually cast recorded in N.C. precinct.
+ 70,000 votes "discovered" in Broward County, FL
+ 638 Votes cast in OH Precinct - 4258 of them for Bush!

02) BlackBoxVoting.org (see above) From reader Sal:

Randi Rhodes of Air America just spoke with a representative from Black Box Voting. This organization is demanding an audit of the Florida, Ohio and possibly New Mexico computer voting machines. This group audited the voting machines for the Georgia 2002 Senate race. They discovered the "patch" in the software to switch votes from Max Cleland to the Republican challenger, who defeated Cleland. Funny how we never really heard about this. Anyway...

The General Accounting Office is backing up the request for this audit. You can find the letter and more info on Randi Rhodes' site. These guys need money, $5.00 or whatever you want to give. The address is,

BLACK BOX VOTING
PO BOX 25552
SEATLE WASHINTON 98165-1052

They prefer sending money to the PO Box as this effort has ramped up so fast, they don't have enough technology in place to handle the load.

03) Pay a visit to the Grand Poobah of Voter Fraud Investigation, Greg Palast.

04) What else can you do? Well, you know all of those organizations that have e-mailed you every single day for the past year, hitting you up for money (MoveOn, Human Rights Watch, various Dem organizations, Cheap CIALIS.com, etc.)? Contact them and tell them to put our money where their mouths are. Every single person and organization who worked so hard to try and get John Kerry elected should be contributing their resources to this cause. Also: Write, e-mail and/or call your local senators and representatives and tell them that unless, at the very least, they support the three House Democrats who have requested an investigation into vote count "irregularities", you will vote for Green Party candidates across the board in the next mid-term elections.

I truly believe this is not a waste of time and energy. On the contrary, I think it's an extremely positive, democratic way to confront all of the conflicting emotions we're dealing with right now. Got your sleeves rolled up yet?

P.S.: If people try to tell you, "NOOOOOOO! We cannot afford to do this...the nation needs to heal", tell them, "No, you're wrong. Our nation will never heal as long as there are doubts about the fairness and honesty of our elections." And, if that doesn't work, politely tell them to Go Cheney Themselves.