Check this out....

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Mike Whitney

If you believe that George Bush won last nights election "fair and
square" then forget about reading this article. If you know however
that tens of thousands of people who lined up for up to four hours at
a time in Ohio and Florida to have their vote counted, were not
standing there to endorse the aggression and suicidal policies of the
current administration then read on.

The unprecedented high turnout coupled with new registrations (that
were overwhelmingly in favor of John Kerry) suggest that there was
foul play at the voting booths. As a result, consumer investigator and
activist Bev Harris (founder of Black Box Voting) "is conducting the
largest Freedom of Information action in history. On election night,
Black Box Voting blanketed the US with the first in a series of public
records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents
from 3,000 individual counties and townships."

If the Bush people are so confident in their victory let them "put up
or shut up."

The fact of the matter is (as every reasonable person who hasn't been
hoodwinked by the pageantry of election night fraud realizes) that the
election was stolen again in full view of the American public. The
Republican owned voting machines prevailed over exit poll projections
and the will of the American people.

If that's not the case, then let's investigate the computer logs.
According to Lynn Landis' article "Could the AP rig the Election":
"The Associated Press (AP) will be the sole source of raw vote totals
for the major news broadcasters on Election Night.. They refused to
confirm or deny that the AP will receive direct feed from voting
machines and central vote tabulating computers across the country.
But, circumstantial evidence suggests that is exactly what will happen.

And what can be downloaded can also be uploaded. Computer experts say
that signals can travel both to and from computerized voting machines
through wireless technology, modems, and even simple electricity."
Landis just confirms what is already known about "sketchy" electronic
voting and how it invites vote tampering. Her connection between
election machinery, vote totals and the AP, however, has not
previously been made. She goes on to explain that, "AP spokespeople
would not give out information on who sits on their board, however AP
leadership appears quite conservative."

Landis continues: "Burl Osborne, chairman of the AP board of
directors, is also publisher emeritus of the conservative The Dallas
Morning News, a newspaper that endorsed George W. Bush in the last
election. Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor
of AP, was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News before joining AP.
Carroll is also on the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME)'s
7-member executive committee. The APME "works in partnership with AP
to improve the wire service's performance," according to their
website. APME vice president, Deanna Sands, is managing editor of the
ultra conservative Omaha World Herald newspaper, whose parent company
owns the largest voting machine company in the nation, Election
Systems and Software (ES&S)."

It's a cozy relationship considering that ES&S voting machines count
50% of all the votes in the country. The second largest company,
Diebold, is also tied to the Republican Party and promised (in a
comment by Wally Diebold that got widespread attention on the
internet) to "deliver the vote" in Ohio to President Bush.

Both Wally and ES&S apparently succeeded admirably in their task of
undermining the election.

Many readers are probably wondering what happened to the "Help America
Vote Act" that was passed by Congress to avoid the problems of Florida
2000? As Landis reports in an earlier article: "What Congress really
did was to throw $2.65 billion at the states, so that they could
lavish it on a handful of private companies that are controlled by
ultra-conservative Republicans, foreigners and felons." (Diebold, ES&S
and Sequoia were among the big winners)

None of the facts related to the presidential election add up. Voter
registration went up from 105 million to 120 million. In Ohio alone it
went up a whopping 17%. Whenever registration has surged like this in
the past, it has always favored the challenger and precipitated a
change in government.

Not so, this time, and Republican pollsters are eager to convince us
that the reason for this is a renewed interest among the American
public for "moral values". Is that it or are the results simply an
indication of massive (but well calculated) voter fraud?

The exit polling was equally skewed, showing a clear victory for
Kerry. Exit polling has traditionally been a reliable way of
determining the outcome of elections. Not so in Bush-world, where vote
totals are invariably higher for Bush in the contentious areas that
ultimately decide the election.

Give strategist Karl Rove his due; he knew what had to be done and did
it. The rest, of course, has been papered over by the pollsters, pimps
and pundits in American press corps.

Do we need to remind ourselves that representative government can only
be established by the power of the vote? It is the electoral process
that confers legitimacy on government. Without a popular mandate state
power can only be vindicated through force of arms.

Last night American democracy was skillfully subverted and replaced
with a mutant form of corporatism that operates independent of the
will of the people. It's impossible to know what the long term affects
of this will be, but it is a development that should greatly concern
us all.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04482.html
___

The Case For Fraud


November 3 2004
Counterbias.com
by Joseph Cannon





Ignore the rightist snickers. Ignore those who would straightjacket
permissible thought. We have a right to ask difficult questions.

And the question of the moment concerns exit polls and electronic voting.

Some have criticized my pessimistic attitude toward this election, but
I always heeded the warnings sounded by Bev Harris and others
regarding computerized voting. If Kerry did not win handily, he could
not win at all. A truly lopsided vote would have been impossible to
hide, because oversized gaps between polls and election night counts
would prove too suspicious.

Although the vote was tight, such gaps nevertheless exists. And
although they are not massive, the pattern gives us every right to
voice our suspicions.

Remember when networks used to trumpet the accuracy of exit polling?
Last night, I saw on-air talking heads (especially on CNN) loudly
deride these same exit polls as untrustworthy.

Perhaps the methodology has become sloppy. Perhaps respondents have
learned to enjoy fibbing to pollsters. Or perhaps something in our
current vote-tabulation system is fishier than an all-you-can-eat
sushi bar.

Before proceeding, recall the commonly-heard axiom that Democrats tend
to vote late, while Republicans tend to vote early. Many challenge
that belief. Still, keep the notion in mind.

Exit polls published yesterday afternoon (by Slate and a number of
blogs) gave this portrait of certain key results:

OHIO: Kerry 50, Bush 49. FLORIDA: Kerry 50, Bush 49. NEW MEXICO: Kerry
51, Bush 48.

At times, the poll data was even more favorable to Kerry in these
three key states. See, for example, this screen capture of CNN data in
Ohio. No exit poll showed a Bush lead in any of these states.

Here are grounds for suspicion. Electronic voting machines figured
heavily in the final tabulation of the results in Ohio, Florida, and
New Mexico. Moreover, in all three, paper audit trails do not exist.

These states therefore offered the best, safest opportunity for
manipulation of the final count.

Question 1: Even if we grant the potential inaccuracy of exit polls,
how likely is it that in all three cases the inaccuracy would show a
"non-existent" Democratic advantage? Why doesn't the discrepancy ever
work in the other direction?

Question 2: Why did problems afflict exit polling in three swing
states that have widespread computerized voting with no paper trails?

In other states, the exit polling matched the final results rather
well. In Nevada, Illinois, and New Hampshire, computer votes do have
paper trails -- and in those instances, the exit polls tracked the
final totals.

To recap: In three states with no paper trails, we have exit
poll/final tally disagreement. In three states with paper trails, we
have exit poll/final tally congruence.

Coincidence?

Let's return to the notion that Republicans vote earlier than
Democrats. Many dispute that bit of folk wisdom. Even so, is it likely
that the people waiting four, five or more hours in long lines, well
into the cold of the night, underwent this endurance test to demand
more of the same? Shouldn't the polls have showed Kerry's lead
expanding as the night went on, instead of evaporating?

Intriguingly, CNN's exit poll results underwent a mysterious revision
not explained by an increased number of respondents.

Black Box Voting plans to file the world's largest FOIA request to
uncover the internals of the compu-vote. Don't presume that such an
inquest will come up goose eggs:


Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following
the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log
containing a three-hour deletion on election night; "trouble slips"
revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with
security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive
remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even,
in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.
Today's Boston Globe expands on some of the points I've made here:


Although some of John F. Kerry's leads in the state exit polls
narrowed during the course of the day yesterday, there was a
significant discrepancy between the actual vote total and the polling
numbers, particularly in two states believed to be keys to the outcome.

While the exit data had Kerry winning Florida and Ohio by a narrow
margin, the actual tabulated vote late last night had Bush carrying
Florida by about five points and winning Ohio by two. In addition, a
projected Kerry win of about five points in Wisconsin turned into a
very tight contest, and what was projected as a close race in North
Carolina turned into a double-digit win for Bush.
Again: Note the pattern. Why do the exit polls always go wrong in the
same way? Pundits who assail these polls never address this question.

Logic tells us that about half the exit polls would show "false
positives" for the Republican side. But in the past two presidential
elections, they have almost always (should I strike out the word
"almost"?) delivered "false positives" for Democrats only.

The simplest explanation: The Democratic "false positives" are not, in
fact, false. The computerized tally is false.

Remember: If malign parties have tampered with the electronic result,
then our first, best -- and perhaps only -- indication of fraud will
be a conflict between the exit poll data and the "official" results.

As for what to do about it: May I at least suggest a visit to
www.blackboxvoting.org?


Joseph Cannon is a writer and graphic designer in Los Angeles,
California. He runs the Cannonfire weblog.

http://www.counterbias.com/152.html



______

Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 -- Did the voting machines trump exit
polls? There's a way to find out.

Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of
Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box
Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records
requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from
3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election
before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.

America: We have permission to say No to unaudited voting. It is our
right.

Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting
systems -- optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal
records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips,
modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.

An earlier FOIA is more sensitive, and has not been disclosed here. We
will notify you as soon as we can go public with it.

Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following
the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log
containing a three-hour deletion on election night; "trouble slips"
revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with
security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive
remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even,
in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.

Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer protection group
for elections. You may view the first volley of public records
requests here: Freedom of Information requests here

Responses from public officials will be posted in the forum, is
organized by state and county, so that any news organization or
citizens group has access to the information. Black Box Voting will
assist in analysis, by providing expertise in evaluating the records.
Watch for the records online; Black Box Voting will be posting the
results as they come in. And by the way, these are not free. The more
donations we get, the more FOIAs we are empowered to do. Time's a'wasting.

We look forward to seeing you participate in this process. Join us in
evaluating the previously undisclosed inside information about how our
voting system works.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
_____

Central Tabulating Machines Connected to Modems



New Info proves that Central Tabulating Computers have modems
connected and are open to manipulation. ie- all this stuff about vote
challengers is just a diversion, because one person can change the
state total from their home computer. Take the day off of work to help
save our country.

Yeah sure conspiracy nuts- they can't steal it- wrong. We now have
evidence that certainly looks like altering a computerized voting
system during a real election, and it happened just six weeks ago.

Concerned citizens around the country need to get off their duffs and
do something to save our country. Namely go down to their polling
places and ask that the modems be disconnected. Take a zoom camera and
take pictures for evidence.

Bev Harris- THE authority on securing the vote

=============

MONDAY Nov 1 2004: New information indicates that hackers may be
targeting the central computers counting our votes tomorrow. All
county elections officials who use modems to transfer votes from
polling places to the central vote-counting server should disconnect
the modems now.

There is no down side to removing the modems. Simply drive the vote
cartridges from each polling place in to the central vote-counting
location by car, instead of transmitting by modem. "Turning off" the
modems may not be sufficient. Disconnect the central vote counting
server from all modems, INCLUDING PHONE LINES, not just Internet.

In a very large county, this will add at most one hour to the
vote-counting time, while offering significant protection from outside
intrusion.

It appears that such an attack may already have taken place, in a
primary election 6 weeks ago in King County, Washington -- a large
jurisdiction with over one million registered voters. Documents,
including internal audit logs for the central vote-counting computer,
along with modem "trouble slips" consistent with hacker activity, show
that the system may have been hacked on Sept. 14, 2004. Three hours is
now missing from the vote-counting computer's "audit log," an
automatically generated record, similar to the black box in an
airplane, which registers certain kinds of events.

COMPUTER FOLKS:

Here are the details about remote access vulnerability through the
modem connecting polling place voting machines with the central
vote-counting server in each county elections office. This applies
specifically to all Diebold systems (1,000 counties and townships),
and may also apply to other vendors. The prudent course of action is
to disconnect all modems, since the downside is small and the danger
is significant.

The central servers are installed on unpatched, open Windows computers
and use RAS (Remote Access Server) to connect to the voting machines
through telephone lines. Since RAS is not adequately protected, anyone
in the world, even terrorists, who can figure out the server's phone
number can change vote totals without being detected by observers.

The passwords in many locations are easily guessed, and the access
phone numbers can be learned through social engineering or war dialing.

ELECTION OFFICIALS:

The only way to protect tomorrow's election from this type of attack
is to disconnect the servers from the modems now. Under some
configurations, attacks by remote access are possible even if the
modem appears to be turned off. The modem lines should be physically
disconnected.

We obtained these documents through a public records request. The
video was taken at a press conference held by the King County
elections chief Friday Oct 29.

The audit log is a computer-generated automatic record similar to the
"black box" in an airplane, that automatically records access to the
Diebold GEMS central tabulator (unless, of course, you go into it in
the clandestine way we demonstrated on September 22 in Washington DC
at the National Press club.)

The central tabulator audit log is an FEC-required security feature.
The kinds of things it detects are the kinds of things you might see
if someone was tampering with the votes: Opening the vote file,
previewing and/or printing interim results, altering candidate
definitions (a method that can be used to flip votes).

Three hours is missing altogether from the Sept. 14 Washington State
primary held six weeks ago.

The audit log is 168 pages long and spans 120 days, and the 3 hours
just happen to be missing during the most critical three hours on
election night.

Election officials: Disconnect those modems NOW. If you don't: You
gotta be replaced.
Reporters: Some election officials will lie to you. Show your kids
what bravery looks like. Be courageous. Report the truth.
Citizens: Please help us by joining the Cleanup Crew. For now, e-mail
crew@blackboxvoting.org to join, since our signup form has been taken out.
Candidates: Make a statement. Do not concede on Election Night. Wait
until audits and records can be examined. Note that most voting
machine problems will be found between Nov. 3-12, during the canvass,
and a few weeks later, when public records requests are obtained.


More from Bev here, including a video they made of the chimp pushing
some buttons to start a script to steal the vote.

http://blackboxvoting.org/

===========

Anonymous:

It's not just about the Presidential race, but the Bush and the
neocons need to steal the House and Senate races too, or else they'll
be facing trial and Bush/Cheney impeachment. They know it- that's why
they're going to steal it- unless we stop them.

Call all of your friends and family tonight, get organized to hit as
many polling places as possible. Maybe you could each need to pick a
location and keep an eye on them all day... got an ipod and/or
boombox? Bring some inspirational music to make it a festive occasion

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/Free_Peace_mp3s.html

(must get MOSH, MLK, Eddie Vedder)

Take the Day off Work

Go down to your local polling places (ie google "toledo polling
locations") and ask that the modems be disconnected. Bring a camera
and take pictures for evidence. The phone lines need to be unhooked,
anything less is unacceptable. We need to demand the the 'memory
cards' are driven to the central tabulator, and we need you to watch
them box the memory cards, seal the boxes, follow their car as they
drive it to the next location, where you can ensure the seals are
intact and the number of boxes is unchanged.

If we want to reclaim our country, it's going to be up to regular
people like you and me to demand a secure system tomorrow. Think about
it, if they steal this one, after four more years of Bush, will we
ever have an honest election again?




by : Bev Harris

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4116

___

movie at http://www.votergate.tv/
votergate.tv Documentary

The producers of this film have created a thirty minute documentary on
the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines and are making this
film available as a free educational public service in time for the
presidential election. For more information, go to www.votergate.tv.

What This Film Achieves

This film is an investigative documentary uncovering the truth about
new computer voting systems, which allow a few powerful corporations
to record our votes in secret. But the film is not just a warning. It
strongly concludes that elections are harder to defraud when voters
turn out in
big numbers. This documentary is designed specifically to help viewers
navigate past the fear and spin already being thrown at this critical
issue.

The film educates viewers about the dangers now threatening the voting
system. The film surprises and entertains as characters, like
grandmother/investigator Bev Harris, expose the truth, take on the
gatekeepers and hold them to account. It educates citizens about how
to keenly observe and question the process on Election Day and
empowers viewers to hold their election officials accountable.

George Wendt, the actor famous for his role as the good friend Norm on
the hit comedy Cheers, is the narrator.

Bev Harris, is the Executive Director of Black Box Voting
www.BlackBoxVoting.org. According to Vanity Fair Magazine her
investigations are breaking newsthat would have made her career at The
New York Times or Washington Post.

Andy Stephenson, Associate Director, Black Box Voting, is uncovering
nationwide evidence of security risks in America's voting system .

The producers Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and Robert
Carrillo-Cohen are independent filmmakers who decided to create this
30 minute film when they realized that most of the information on this
vital story was not reaching the public through the mainstream media.
They are producing the film in association with Sarah Teale/Teale
Productions and Earl Katz of Public Interest Pictures.

Target Audience

The documentary speaks directly to voters of all ages, and also to
people who have never considered voting before. This is the one issue
that can wake up the people, whether they're Democrats, Republicans,
Libertarians or Greens -- who believe democracy means that every vote
counts.

Production

We are continuing to shoot through the Presidential election and are
receiving contributions to fund the completion of the Post-Election
DVD / Feature
film.

ADDRESS

There are other web sites with Votergate in the title. Please be sure,
when referencing our film that you use the correct web address:
www.votergate.tv.

ABOUT TEALE PRODUCTIONS

Teale Productions (www.tealeproductions.com ) was formed in 1988 and
has since built a reputation as a cutting edge investigative
documentary production and entertainment producing company. Teale has
produced award winning original documentaries and television series
for HBO, AMC, PBS, Channel 4 (UK), and the BBC. Teale Productions is
in constant development with high quality documentaries and original
productions.

ABOUT PUBLIC INTEREST PICTURES

Public Interest Pictures (PIP)www.publicinterestpictures.org) is a
non-profit organization committed to creating documentaries that will
not only be seen
by the masses but will also move them. PIP explores progressive issues
currently threatened by governmental policies at odds with the public
interest.


http://www.archive.org/movies/movies-details-db.php?collection=election_2004&collectionid=VotergateTheMovie&from=thisJustIn/

_________

E-voting irregularities raise eyebrows, blood pressure
Concern over electronic voting technology was not assuaged Tuesday as
glitches, confusion and human error raised a welter of problems across
the country, even while e-vote watchdogs prepared to file suits
challenging the results derived from the controversial machines.

New rules, new voters and a tight presidential contest combined to
create "a recipe for problems," said Sean Greene, who was watching
Cleveland polls for the Election Reform Information Project, a
nonpartisan research group on election reform.

Nearly one in three voters, including about half of those in Florida,
were expected to cast ballots using ATM-style voting machines that
computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software
glitches, hacking and malfunctioning.

In South Carolina, problems were reported in a handful of precincts in
two counties using electronic machines. Officials said voters were
forced to switch to paper ballots while technicians got the iVotronic
touch screens from Electronic Systems & Software up and running within
about 90 minutes.

And in Volusia County, Fla., a memory card in an optical-scan voting
machine failed Monday at an early voting site and didn't count 13,000
ballots. Officials planned to feed the ballots, in which voters fill
in a bubble, and count them Tuesday.

Many of the problems with electronic voting - whether accidental or
intentional - may not be known until well after Tuesday, if at all.
Most of the ATM-style machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper
records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's VerifiedVoting.org, which has
been monitoring the implementation of e-voting machines in the U.S.,
warned on Monday that over 20 percent of the machines tested by
observers around the country failed to record votes properly. The
organization recommended that voters choosing to use touchscreen
voting methods be sure to double-check the summary screen to confirm
that their votes had been properly registered.

BlackBoxVoting.org, the site organized by e-voting activist Bev
Harris, announced early Wednesday that it plans to conduct what the
site describes as the largest Freedom of Information Act request in
history, requesting internal computer logs and other documents from
3,000 individual counties and townships using electronic voting machines.

According to a release posted on the site, "Such a request filed in
King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following the primary election
six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour
deletion on election night; 'trouble slips' revealing suspicious modem
activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental
disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll
workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black
Box Voting activists."

We knew the electronic voting machines were vulnerable to tampering ahead of time. Many responsible organizations raised this issue, and a number of independent computer security firms verified the vulnerabilities. These independent evaluations also listed recommendations for how the vulnerabilities could be relatively easily fixed: among other things, by providing paper audit trails, by isolating the machines from outside communication lines (e.g., modems), and most critically by making the software that drives the machines available for public inspection by security experts. Some (but not all) of these recommendations were adopted in some of the states that use electronic voting machines, and in these states there is no evidence of a significant gap between exit polls and the actual results tabulated by the machines. In the states that did NOT adopt any of these recommendations (including Florida and Ohio), there are consistent gaps between the exit polls and the tabulated results, of about 5% -- FAR above the statistical margin of error -- and these gaps are ALL in favor of Republicans!

If that's not a smoking gun, then would someone tell me what is?

Yet, watch the Freedom of Information requests being denied, or filled only partially with sensitive information missing (probably on grounds of "national security.") Watch the demands that the software that counts our votes be disclosed, be denied again on the grounds that it is the propriety intellectual property of the voting machine manufacturers, who just happen to all be heavily partisan supporters of the Bush administration. Yes, you read that right: the software that counts the votes that OUR ENTIRE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS DEPENDS ON is the non-disclosed "private property" of the Republican-owned voting machine companies, and WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

No bank or financial services company in the world would employ security code that is not published and available for inspection by independent security consultants. If the providers of that software refused to release the code, the corporations would refuse to purchase and use it, period. No exceptions. Yet the software that controls our voting - the most important data in the nation - is NOT subject to this protection. Who is kidding whom?

Folks, I have no way of knowing whether the legal challenges now being mounted against these machines and processes has any real chance of success ... I hope so, with all my heart. But I will say this: if the challenges are NOT successful, if the vulnerabilities are NOT successfully challenged and eliminated ... then free elections in this country are a thing of the past, as well as our democratic republic itself. Welcome to the dictatorship.

Of course, it's a "compassionate" dictatorship, so why worry?

Love,
Greg

Dear Dani,
I copied your post and Greg's and some of Connie's to bring with me to a local post-election 'unity' meeting this afternoon. It will be interesting to gauge reactions. I'll let you know.
Thanks everyone for all this info.
Love,

Dani, We know it is fraud but we also know that the Republicans will say it is sour grapes and that the Democrats are just "whining."

7 Counties in Ohio had the Diebold machines. The exit polls numbers and the votes in those counties showed a 5% difference in favor of Bush.

Kerry nor the DNC will do anything about this though because being a good man Kerry is more concerned about the division in this country than winning and does not want to add to that division by his or the Democratic actions. Edwards begged him not to concede so soon but resolved himself to Kerry's wishes.

We, however, could ask for an investigation if enough of us petitioned for that. As yet neither MoveOn.org or Common Cause, or The True Majority have brought up the issue.

But Kerry was leading all along in the exit polls and they were very careful about those exit polls this years because of what happened in 2000 where the exit polls and the actual votes didn't match either. Funny how the numbers just never seem to match up when Bush and Cheney are running for office no matter how hard the experts try to get them to match up. But then what they are always telling the American public does not match up to reality either. Go figure.

Love, Connie

I think this is an investigation that needs to be done. When the discrepancies between the exit polls and vote counts were first being noticed and commented on election night, some pundits were swiftly blaming the exit polls for being wrong, but I don't think that is at all clear.

I was fascinated by what was going on in Judy Woodruff's face as she dealt with the data in CNN's state projection/calculation room. She looked stricken, like she was going to cry. Like she knew there was something wrong -- not just inaccurate, but something terribly wrong going on. And all she could do was play out her role, but in a changed way. Where she prepared herself for that night to be the voice of reliably correct information, suddenly she found herself with that weird feeling of passing along something that was technically accurate but somehow felt not true. Of course, I can't speak for her, but that's what I read in her face.

Don't get me wrong, I also do think the Democrats missed in the heartland, and we may have really, truly, actually lost the election. But I also think the discrepancies with the exit polls are very suspicious and may very well indicate rigging in the electronic balloting.

Love,
Maria

I'm just happy that someone, anyone is investigating it. I got an email from the DNC today asking for suggestions and comments. When I sent it back to them I suggested that since so many Americans feel that this election was stolen just like the last one they need to investigate it.

I was up all night watching the election returns. It was going very well for Kerry all along. Very, very close and he was ahead. Then, in the wee hours of the morning, that suddenly took a drastic change. Like the woman at CNN at that time I had a sinking feeling this election was being stolen again and the Republicans were at it again. It just all changed so very drastically just when most folks had given up and gone to bed thinking it would take days to find out who won.

ABC chose not to even use the exit polls this year. Hmmmmmm that in itself is suspicious.

Love, Connie

It's Monday morning,
I just went to check at the website re the vote fraud--seems it is shut down!!!!!!!! I'll try again, maybe busy. But I saw that on 9/24/03 the site had been shut down. Looks like it has been again?
Love,

I tried unsuccessfully several time this morning, too. However, I just tried again at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ and successfully reached the site.

There is a notice posted there that says:

Quote:

---

Please excuse our temporary reconstruction
This site went down recently when we posted sensitive information.

---

Ummm ... "sensitive information" doesn't make computer servers go down. Attacks by people who don't want that sensitive information to be communicated do.

Love,
Greg

Hi Greg,

I had just wanted to log on to that site and see if there was any further news, as the last time they said it would be coming out within the next 24 hours in the media.

Do you think this is curious: The Kerry official site basically shut down its blogs as of the time of the concession speech. But when you look at the list of areas on the site, 'Contribute' is lit up in red and everything else is blue. And if you click on 'Contribute' it is to contribute to the ongoing counting of the votes. ?????? !!!!
Also I heard that a few Democrats - House from NY MI and FL incl John Conyers were starting an election investigation.
Let's visualize and pray for justice to be done. Remember the Electoral College hasn't met yet. That's in December, right?
Love,

I just tried logging onto the blackbox site you gave, Greg and I kept getting a "this page cannot be displayed message." Normally I would think that the site was just getting a lot of hits at the same time but with the message you got Greg I have to think the government is intervening and shutting down the site.

That's wonderful news, Pisces. Maybe the Democrats listened to me. hee hee Not likely but I'm happy that Conyers and others are investigating this. Being the government that carries clout and they can easily get the information if the Bush administration does not intervene. But then if they do it is as much of an admission of guilt that we need to call for a new election without electronic Diebold machines or punch cards. Don't want any hanging chads either.

Keep us informed if the site gets back up. From all they know about computers according to the article they should be able to find someway of going around the government hackers and getting back online.

I am so happy over this news, Pisces. Thanks for making my day.

Love, Connie

This is not being reported by the mainline media at all but I found this article on the internet regarding the request for a voter fraud investigation by Democratic House members, John Conyers of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of NY, and Robert Wexler of Fla. that Pisces mentioned in her post.

I'm wondering, could it be that the DNC is actually doing an investigation on the election results but saying it is not to question the outcome of the election. Just hoping maybe that something out of the ordinary comes up? The reason that I wonder that is because both the Democratic National Party and the House members are stressing that same thing. In other words, are they investigating the outcome of the election but saying they are not.

Nov 8, 2004

DNC Urges Secretaries of State to Outline Process for Counting Provisional Ballots

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Democratic National Committee called upon all 50 Secretaries of State to, "explicitly outline the standards and timelines that will be used to count the remaining votes for the 2004 election." In the letter to the Secretaries of State, Chairman Terry McAuliffe said, "After such a highly charged and competitive election, I want to make sure that every American can be confident that our electoral process worked and continues to be the model for the world. The best way to achieve these goals is to ensure that every vote cast has been accurately counted. This is in no way an effort to question the outcome of this election, but to ensure trust in the outcome of every election going forward.
He continued, "One of the most important things we have learned during this election is that if voters don't have faith in the infrastructure for casting and counting votes, they will not participate in the process. The critical issues confronting this nation require full participation by the electorate. I strongly believe that your efforts at transparency will go far to affirm the American people's belief in our Democracy."

http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?symbols=WIRED:100&story=200411052232_WRD_65623_200411051732

House Dems Seek Election Inquiry


5 November 2004, 5:32pm ET
by Kim Zetter


Three congressmen sent a letter to the General Accounting Office on Friday requesting an investigation into irregularities with voting machines used in Tuesday's elections.

The congressmen, Democratic members of the House of Representatives from Florida, New York and Michigan, cited a number of incidents that came to light in the days after the election. One was a glitch in Ohio that caused a memory card reader made by Danaher Controls to give George W. Bush 3,893 more votes than he should have received. Another was a problem with memory cards in North Carolina that caused machines made by UniLect to lose 4,500 votes cast on e-voting machines. The votes were lost when the number of votes cast on the machines exceeded the capacity of the memory cards.

There were also problems with machines that counted absentee ballots in Florida. Software made by Election Systems & Software began subtracting votes when totals surpassed 32,000. Officials said the problem affected only certain countywide races on one of the last pages of the ballot. Elections officials knew about the problem two years ago, but the company failed to fix the software before the election this year.

Reports from voters in Florida and Ohio also indicated that some of them had problems voting for the candidate of their choice. When they tried to vote for John Kerry, they said, the machine either wouldn't register the vote at all or would indicate on the review page that the vote was cast for Bush instead.

In their letter, representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Wexler of Florida asked the GAO to "immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration."

John Doty, spokesman for Nadler, said the congressmen emphasized that they were not seeking a nationwide recount and were not anticipating that an investigation would change the outcome of the election.

"But we do want to make sure that where there are problems they're fixed so that it won't affect other elections in the future," Doty said. "We want to make sure that people can be confident in the system."

Doty said, however, that if the GAO does find a lot more problems that haven't yet been reported, then people will at least know about them and be able to decide what to do about them.

"We're hopeful that the GAO does not find such terrible irregularities that it would demonstrate widespread problems," Doty said.

No one was available at the office of the GAO to respond to questions. But a GAO representative told Wired News in September that the agency was planning to produce a report on e-voting after the election anyway.



Love, Connie

Hey Everyone,

I came here today to check and see what you all were talking about in relation to the election, and got this post in an email from Dani via the Rainbow Light Circle (I figured she'd have it posted here too ).

I've been feeling like we've been tricked again, and this can't be for real ever since the results of the election came out on Wed, and today was the first I'd got any information to confirm what I've been feeling (on many levels)...

What I have read here gives me hope that the TRUTH will come out about what Bush and Company have done with this election, as I have no doubt that there has indeed been fraud with the voting machines and we've been duped again. I don't think We The People are going to put up with this *%$@ anymore!

Dani what also struck me is that other forward you sent about what the Indian Astrologers had said about it looking like Kerry according to the charts... that his Asc was highlited, and that Saturn going Retro in Cancer put shadows on Bush's chart. There was also that one Astrologer who had said that if Bush did win, it wouldn't last. Like I said... these things give me hope, and I too am going to hold the same intention that PD put up on this thread...

Lets Visualize and Pray for Justice to be done!

Steam! I say steam! We are picking up some steam.

This just in, by way of one of my California friends ...

MSNBC is paying attention. The Bloggerman speaks:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Maria

Thanks Maria. Bravo, Ken Olbermann!

Added to the excuses he offered for why the story has gained little momentum elsewhere on the media, is the fact that many Democratic supporters, as well as media observers, have been made to feel that any questioning of the results is "whining," and that any questioning will only damage their own credibility. We've even seen some of that sentiment here, and it's easy to understand.

This may help explain why Kerry so swiftly (and to some observers, inexplicably) conceded, despite the obvious large and legitimate questions unresolved.

Then again, if you really want to get paranoid, maybe Kerry was co-opted by the conspiracy. Maybe they threatened to cancel all the government contracts for ketchup if he raised a ruckus! Who knows? But it's heartening that at least one mass-media voice has the courage and tenacity to get the story out and stick with it. Let's hope the head of steam builds up fast.

This investigation is crucial for the future of democracy. Again, while unseating Bush and installing Kerry as the legitimate victor would be lovely, it's not the critical issue. The critical issue is to make the American people (and our representatives) realize that a voting system that does not leave us with objective evidence of the votes actually cast, that can be recounted and examined independently by the citizens who rely on the system to express our will, is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Without such a transparent system, democracy is literally dead.

Love,
Greg

Folks, I've just spent most of the morning on the blackboxvoting.org website, reading and downloading files and examining the astounding wealth of information they have collected to document both clear and willful voting fraud and an unbelievable amount of ineptness, careless errors, coverups and security breaches that establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that the electronic voting systems widely employed in key areas are dangerously flawed, tamperable and vulnerable in numerous ways to falsifying, losing or adding votes.

This organization, headed by Beverly Harris, has taken the position that deliberate fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines, and have launched exhaustive FOI actions, discovery motions, and set the legal wheels in motion for challenging the election as well as making radical changes in the requirements for voting machines. I strongly urge everyone to support this effort in every way possible.

Among other things, the site contains the complete text of an exhaustively researched, indexed and footnoted book documenting the flaws, security holes, deliberate breaches and intentional coverups by the voting machine manufacturers and puiblic officials. I've only started reading it, but already I am stunned!

Because this website has been offline on and off recently (and may be under hostile attack), I took the liberty of downloading and mirroring the entire text of this book on our own servers. I STRONGLY URGE EVERYONE TO READ IT, IT WILL OPEN YOUR EYES!

Check it out on the http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ site first. If for any reason you cannot access it there, here is the complete text mirrored on our site:

Black Box Voting
Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century
by Bev Harris
Chapter 1: I will vote
Chapter 2: Can we trust these Machines?
Chapter 3: Why we need disclosure of owners
Chapter 4: A brief history of vote-rigging
Chapter 5: Cyber-Boss Tweed
Chapter 6: Who's beholden to whom?
Chapter 7: Why vote?
Chapter 8: Company Information
Chapter 9: First public look ever into a secret voting system
Chapter 10: Who's minding the store?
Chapter 11: "rob-georgia.zip" - noun or verb?
Chapter 12: Open source exam
Chapter 13: Security Breaches
Chapter 14: A modest proposal (solutions)
Chapter 15: Practical activism
Chapter 16: The men behind the curtain
Appendix A: More problems
Footnotes
Index

The book is also available in a paperback edition from Amazon.com, ISBN 1-890916-90-0.

Love,
Greg

Hello again,
I am feeling optimistic again. Glad you downloaded all that Greg. Great news everyone posted here.
During the summer I started watching MSNBC for the first time and I liked their coverage of the conventions and debates. I hope they stay on this post election day coverage.
I agree Greg that we need to insist there be a full investigation, not only to prevent any future vote fraud, but to scrutinize the legitimacy of this election. The electoral college may be playing a big role.
Still baffled by the hasty concession by JFK. Well, he's a lawyer... knows what he's doing ????
I noted at blackboxvoting (thanks to Bev Harris and these people who have done such important work for all of us) they were begging for contributions, as in 'We can't do it all alone--we need HELP!' I am sure once the word spreads there will be a HUGE grassroots support, so that this can't be ignored.
I'm going to add an email to Bloggerman, seems like the email support is lending energy.
Love,

Hmmmm ... looks like mirroring those files was a good idea, since their site seems to be down again, this time because bandwidth was exceeded. I'm going to write to Bev and offer for them to list our server as an alternate site to access them. I have tons of available bandwidth, and that could help take some of the load off their server.

Love,
Greg

Well, I just gave them a call to volunteer our bandwidth, and am waiting to hear back. It turns out they are located just down the road from me ( ) in Renton, Washington, so I volunteered my physical services, too, if there's anything I can do. I'll keep you posted!

Love,
Greg

OH WOW!!! Guys I am so excited about all you have posted here.

That would be great Greg to use CE as blackbox's alternate server. Makes us here more a part of the whole process of nailing Bush. Sorry but I can't help thinking of the poetic justice of all this if it turns out that Kerry actually won Ohio and becomes President through the Electoral College votes even if Bush should still turn out to have the popular vote. De ja vu! According to the bloggerman even if Kerry did concede the election it doesn't matter. The Electoral Votes is all that matters. Now is that poetic justice or not?

Another thing that crossed my mind is that if voter fraud is proven Bush may well be the first President in history to be impeached before he even had his inaugural ceremony for his second term in office.

Hopefully now that MSNBC has started the ball rolling national news wise more networks will pick up on it. Fingers crossed and praying hard for that.

Seems the universe is leading you , Greg I don't believe in coincidences what is meant to be will happen.

Good idea Pisces to email the bloggerman. He said he appreciates it and with all the support from viewers I'm sure he will keep following up on it all.

Pisces made my day yesterday and today Maria and Greg did! I will be so excited I won't be able to sleep tonight.

Love, Connie

Okay....I was all geared up to post this thing I found by Ruth Lopez, but in light of what I've just read about Olbermann at MSNBC and Greg's offer to BLACKBOX VOTING (much to my absolute delight)it seems not important now....but here it is anyway.....(otay?)

I'll just consider that someone has read what she {Ruth Lopez)had to say...and now something is going to be done about it...*sigh*

************************************************************

Quote:

---

Why are we taking this so complacently? I mean, seriously, what is it going to take? When will enough be enough? Are we waiting for someone to tell us what to do? Are we waiting for someone to do it for us? Or are we so afraid to lose what we have that we will trade what we should value most for it?

---

Why are we taking this so complacently? That's exactly what I've been wondering....*sigh*

Quote:

---

......face the truth. Whatever else we do, and as hard as it is, at least face this honestly. Acknowledge what we really know happened. Think, for God's sake. What have we become? We just had a second sham election and we did nothing about it except talk about next time.

---

The above quotes were taken from the following article...*sigh*

November 7, 2004

Nations do go crazy sometimes, and the progression of symptoms we've been exhibiting here in the Good Ol' USA has entered rubber room territory

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

by Ruth Lopez

Yeah, I know the drill: I'm supposed to 'get over it'. Well, I will not pretend to act like this is fine. That the system worked. That we did what we could, that they won honestly, or, even if they didn't, that it's time to move on.

No, I am devastated and I weep for my country. But I am also as angry as I am heartsick.

I am devastated because this time Bush really was elected. Not by the vote count; oh no, voter fraud was rampant. What the Republicans did in Florida in 2000, they refined in Georgia in 2002, and they got down to a science this time around, especially in Ohio and, yes, Florida. This fraud wasn't so "in your face" all across the country that it cried out for us to rise up and do something about it, nope, it was just enough for that precious 50% + 1 of the vote. Enough to declare victory.

As for us rising up and doing something about it - 2004 proved what 2000 merely hinted at: we are not rising up. We are not going to. We are sad but we will do nothing except make vague threats about next time. Next time we'll get them. Next time.

That has sealed it. This is what has elected Bush. It is the complacent acceptance that has elected him. Everyone, from Kerry on down, has said, "Ok, time to move on". That is Bush's real mandate. We all just rolled over, and now we're lying in pathetic little blue puddles of our despair, trying to pull ourselves up by our metaphorical bootstraps by promising ourselves that we really will show 'em next time. Meanwhile, Bush can do whatever he wants. Who's going to stop him? Not us. We're going back to work, back to real life; paying bills, buying groceries, catching up on the latest update on whatever the murder trial du jour is, or whatever reality show is out there; debasing the human spirit for 'entertainment' and commercial revenues. We're busy, we're tired, we'll fight next time.

Within a few short hours of Kerry's concession speech, the left wing focus shifted to how we will win next time. Next time. This pathetic mewl of defiance completely falls within the definition of insanity: repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. We are like the poor weak little kid lying in the snow, bruised and bloodied and nose snotty and bleeding and who can't find his glasses. As soon as the bully who did it and his friends are around the corner, the kid issues a feeble cry, "I'm gonna get you next time! I'll really kick your butt then!" And then the hot tears really start. I understand the need for defiance, but why should we believe for a minute that in two years it will be different? That there will be no voter fraud, no cheating, no dirty tricks? That they won't use these next two years to get better at controlling elections than they are now? How insane is it to pat ourselves on the back and say, "Gosh, look, we came so close! Next time we'll do it; next time, yeah, next time"? Wake up, this was the time, and we took a licking and said thank you. There won't be a next time, not as long as we lie to ourselves.

While we're sitting around sniveling and dreaming of our revenge, the bully and his friends are going to get bigger and stronger. These people dream of world domination. The American electoral process is a minor impediment to them. Ignoring this reality is the road to insanity and failure.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, but I say at least be big enough to see this for what it is.

The next election will be less of an election than this election. Oh, we'll get little victories here and there, enough to make this Matrix-like reality significantly believable for the millions of us who would truly like to believe that our votes count and, if they didn't, we really would do whatever it takes, but, oh well, we came so close. Next time we'll do it. Next time.

There will be no next time on those terms. This country is now headed inexorably down a road that will take a generation or more to get off of, If we even can. If America as we know it even survives.

Nations do go crazy sometimes, and the progression of symptoms we've been exhibiting here in the Good Ol' USA has entered rubber room territory. We are a people in dangerous denial. Don't participate in it by accepting this insanity as your reality. Even as everyone around you buys into the comfort zone of 'next time', stay strong by never acknowledging it as your truth. Whatever else you do, for God's sake, at least see this for what it really was.

The extreme right-wing of the Republican party has not only sealed a majority rule in this election, they now have carte blanche for the next two years to further consolidate their hold on everything that truly fosters democratic participation: the media, the Supreme Court, voting machines, gerrymandered Republican districts that guarantee majority re-election indefinitely. You name it, their iron fist is now wrapped around it. Even the Internet.

Never forget: by rolling over as we all collectively just did, we have kept in office the man who granted himself the power to take any of us, declare us enemies of the state, strip us of our citizenship, torture us and jail us indefinitely, with no due process. Just because they've only done it so far to swarthy looking men who don't really look 'American' to Bush's supporters doesn't mean the rest of us are exempt. All the warm fuzziness of network anchor assurances do not change that.

We have given Bush two completely unobstructed years to enhance and consolidate those powers before facing the electorate again. By that time, the electoral process will be more akin to some bizarre national obsessive compulsive ritual than any kind of real participatory process: voting will become useless repetitive behavior compulsively acted out to relieve national anxiety with no reality based connection. We'll vote in record numbers again, the votes will be manipulated, and our TV pundits will console us with meaningless explanations. More insane behavior. But don't think about it now. The kids have soccer practice to get to. Gotta get gas. There's a new terrorist threat. We voted, what else are we supposed to do? We're busy.

Besides, things aren't really that bad here. Look at how we turned out the vote. We came so close. Next time we'll do it. Next time.

When the 2006 elections come around, and we're out there plugging away, we'll still come soooo close, just not quite close enough. We'll win a few, but we'll lose more. But there's always next time, right? We'll do it next time. Next time.

Americans used to be so smug about Soviet elections. What a joke they were. Not like us. Well, welcome to the new America. We'll all go vote on our shiny new privately owned electronic machines, machines that will be everywhere by the next national 'election', with votes that will be counted by privatized vote counters. Don't worry your little heads about paper trails or accountability. To question is to undermine confidence in our leadership. Good citizens don't do that. Go home and turn on your privately owned corporate media outlets who will soothingly tell you that everything is all right. A few malcontents may have to be put down, but the people will have spoken: the Great Leader can continue his Holy Mission. God loves us, we're Americans.

And the next election will be even less of an election than the previous election. And the election after that even less. But they will look great on TV.

Why are we taking this so complacently? I mean, seriously, what is it going to take? When will enough be enough? Are we waiting for someone to tell us what to do? Are we waiting for someone to do it for us? Or are we so afraid to lose what we have that we will trade what we should value most for it?

I think of the men who formed this nation. They were a tiny minority, but they didn't wait for someone to tell them it was time for a revolution. They thought; long, deep and hard, and then they acted. One of those men said, "Any man willing to trade liberty for security will have neither." I don't think most of us can even conceive of the true depth of that concept. These men, our founding fathers, weren't poor. They had a lot to lose. Some of them lost everything. Some of those signatures on your Declaration of Independence are names of men who started out their fight wealthy men of property and who died broken and penniless by the time it was over. But they believed that freedom was more important than their wealth and comfort. These weren't slaves fighting for their freedom, with nothing to lose but a life of slavery. These were men who led comfortable middle and upper class lives. Could that happen now? Who among us really has the stomach for that? We are so comfortable. We are shackled by our comfort and so terrified of losing it that we ignore the price we are paying with our humanity, and our sanity. Never mind. Turn on the TV, we'll fight next time. Next time.

The most important thing to be done right now, at the very least, is to face the truth. Whatever else we do, and as hard as it is, at least face this honestly. Acknowledge what we really know happened. Think, for God's sake. What have we become? We just had a second sham election and we did nothing about it except talk about next time. We're killing tens of thousands of people who are no threat to us. Our children are cannon fodder for the profits of the ultra wealthy. Too many of us think this is a good way to be because it is God's will. This really is who America is right now. Refusing to see that while dreaming about 'next time' borders on pathological behavior. Don't do it.
In Robert Heinlein's classic book "Stranger in a Strange Land", there was a character who was a 'Fair Witness'. A Fair Witness was trained to be a scientifically objective witness, so objective that their testimony in a court of law was automatically accepted as Truth, unaffected by any subjectivity, emotion, or bias. We need to be our own Fair Witnesses to this time in our country. Be rigorously honest with yourself about this.

In WW II Germany, the good German citizens of towns downwind of Auschwitz and Dachau swore that they never knew what was being done by their government. As hundreds and hundreds of thousands of bodies were incinerated not even a few miles upwind of them, they swore they never noticed the smell that was horribly obvious to the liberating soldiers. They didn't want to know and therefore they didn't. Perhaps they did it out of misguided nationalism, or fear for their very lives, but they did it. They were as insane as the Nazis. Ignoring the truth is the road to insanity and failure.

We have to be like the few in Germany who held on to the truth and their humanity through the darkest times. Like those who worked in the resistance. Who hid Jews at their own peril, because it was the right thing, the sane thing, to do. Who looked at the truth head on and survived with their sanity and their humanity bruised but intact. We have to be Fair Witnesses to the truth around us, never giving in to the easy and comfortable propaganda that let's us off the hook. That starts with a brutally honest look at what just happened.

When madness is all around, like a turbulent, relentless sea, the only thing worth hanging onto is a hard, unflinching grasp of the truth.

No matter what happens now, at least hang on to the truth.

Ruth Lopez
Florida
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Love,
Rainbow

Rainbow I don't think this message is "not important" now at all. It's exactly what we need to hear now.

Yes, it's wonderful news that a few of us are calling a spade a spade, and working to bring the facts of this election fraud before the court of public opinion ... as well as whatever courts of law still exist that have not been pre-empted by imperial decree ... and that we can even count a member of the mass media or a member of Congress here and there among our number ... that's wonderful news, indeed.

But if we simply say, "well, thank goodness somebody's looking into this and trying to do something about it," then go back to sleep, such tiny resistance as there is will only serve the ends of those who stand poised with jackboots on our necks (kinder, gentler, compassionate jackboots, to be sure). "See?" they will say as the courts refuse to hear our cases and the 'independent' commissions investigate our charges and conclude that there's no cause for alarm, "the fact that you were allowed to protest at all just proves that we live in the freest of Nations. You couldn't have raised questions about the elections in Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia, could you? So shut up now, and let us get back to God's work of spreading democracy throughout the world. Shut up and pass the ammunition."

And that's not exaggeration for effect, it's a simple, literal description of what will happen ... what has already happened and will continue to happen at an ever-accelerating pace, until they no longer have the need to even appear to appease us with lip-service to principles of freedom and democracy ... unless we put a stop to it now.

How do we put a stop to it now? By opening our mouths and speaking the truth everywhere ... even where it's not "acceptable" to talk politics, even where it is politically incorrect, even where it causes hard feelings among our families and friends and neighbors, even where it threatens our jobs and standings in our communities.

Even, for some of us, where it means being hauled off to jail for protesting without a license or "endangering national security," or losing our jobs and being blackballed in our professions for "inappropriate conduct."

We are very much in the same position as our founding fathers over two hundred years ago, who gave us the blessings of freedom we have enjoyed with their willingness to risk everything, up to and including their "lives and fortunes," that we might grow up in a land where liberty was assured ... only now the tyrants we must oppose are not across the ocean but in our own back yard.

Think about this, folks ... this is not melodrama, this is reality. How we respond to it RIGHT NOW, will determine the possibility of freedom in our own future, and the future of our children and our children's children.

No kidding.

Love,
Greg

Yes, strike while the evidence is hot, or the moment will pass us by. We need a nation-wide Amber alert of sorts. This election was just snatched from us...again. They say when a child is abducted the chances for finding them deplete more everyday. The abducter gets more time to get further away and rid all evidence. This, I fear is what will happen if we don't act now.
Great article, Ginny. Keep passing it on wherever you can.

Greg, I had an idea. I'm the first one to admit that with all my Fire, I'm better at ideas than following through.
Curse of impulsiveness. But, I was thinking about how I'm sure that Bush's next step (one of many horrific ones) will be to send all of the poor folk of this country another $800 check,a "tax break" once again as a means of distraction to the fact that the rich of this country will be getting millions.
This way people are tricked into believing they are getting something as well.
I was amazed to discover how many people fell for that. I mean, did they look at their tax form in the Spring and realize the "give-away" was in a reality a "loan", for it was deducted there. (how stupid do they play us for? very stupid indeed...let that piss you off.)
I consider it nothing less than Blood Money at this point. A buy off....to keep us sheep-like and unquestioning. So many Americans are stretched to the limit...humiliatingly in need of that money. And that's where they want us!

It would really make a statement if a movement was started, which stated that we are not going to be bought off at any price any longer. What if we were to take the checks and instead of sending them back to the government in protest, they were collected instead and given to inner city schools and the poor? For, if our government won't take care of our forsaken, then we will!

Ha...I know, it's a crazy thought. Will it even happen? (remember....he's gonna spend the capital HE'S earned ) People are obsessed with money. Is the future of this country as important? Their integrity? Their honor? Their charity?
I know all of that is to me. I wonder how many out there feel the same.

Keep on with that Fire, Greg.
Together is our power.

You know.......we've got that scary map of the US showing all of the red and the little blue (which evidence might show us is a farce anyway.)...but if you were to look at a map of the entire World...look at our Earth in an expansive way, the colors would show us that we are not a minority in any way.

Lisa

Hello again folks,

Greg, that is so amazing how near you are. Very nice of you to offer your support. You/they have mine also if there is anything specific I can do.

Rainbow, interesting that Lopez quotes from Robert Heinlein's 'Stranger In a Strange Land,' a book Linda had VERY strong feelings about (in fact it involved her conflict with Goob) (Canto 14 p. 457 is one place it is mentioned). Another synchro!

Greg, wise words, and you are so right that we must talk starting in our immediate circles. The first reaction people have is, oh it's too late, and there can be no evidence... we need to remind them that there is no such thing as impossible.

So last night I tuned in to bloggerman's show on MSNBC. First, there was banter about all the emails, and the fact that he was the only media person responding... a non 'wimp.' He gave a few examples of oopsies with voting problems.

Then some musing about why no post election mass outcry, why no fight from the Dems.... ????? Guessing people were simply TIRED ... and so not putting the pieces together right away ...

As promised, he featured the Geo Wash U lawyer. He basically said the states ratify their electoral votes by Dec. 1 I think. Would it be each sec of state doing that? What about the Sec of State in Ohio - Republican -- But--it's POSSIBLE the electoral college CAN affect this outcome. It seems like NOW is the best time:

Keith also asked him hyphothetical scenarios of what would happen after January if it all didn't come to light right away, say it took two years...

Well there would only be impeachment available. Would need one senator and one rep to begin it.

He said, suppose we had a President A who was accused by Senator B of election fraud, and all the evidence was gathered, and everything was in place down to the DNA evidence...what then?

Answer: It would have to be PROVEN that Pres. A KNEW all about it, so looks like Sen. B would be out of luck.

[To that I say NONSENSE, time for some new precedent! In addition to time for some new president! President A should be responsible for the conduct of all his underlings.]

This sequence was followed up by a satire by Mo Rocca, a comedian I had seen on Larry King during the conventions. He was supposedly coming out with a new book about the first pets, seems Laura has just been given a Scottish terrier puppy they will name Miss Beasley. Rocca joked about Barney, the Bushes' other scottie, saying what a disappointment he has been because he's not moderate enough. He rambled on talking about other famous people who have owned scotties, until he said, "Of course, Eva Braun had a couple of scotties... " and I forget what else he said, but I couldn't believe I was hearing it on a news show !!!!!!

Well let's keep encouraging the bloggerman to ride on. At his website today it says this is not nutty, and NOW is the time to do something.

Love,

Lisa, As I told you, I think that's a great idea!

Here's a new one. Some of you may have heard about it but it seems things are so messed up regarding the voting in North Carolina that they are calling for a new election there. Here's the story from the Charlotte News:

Tally of provisional ballots continues today

Voter not registered? Toss it. Voter not dead? Count that one back in

RICHARD RUBIN AND CARRIE LEVINE

Staff Writers


http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politics/10142064.htm


The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections counted trays of ballots into the darkness Tuesday night, trying to wrap up the official tally of last week's election.

The board spent the afternoon deciding which of more than 6,200 provisional ballots it would include in the final totals. In the end, it rejected 2,304, mostly because the voters were registered in another county or not registered at all.

That meant the three-member board -- two Democrats and one Republican -- still had to tabulate the 3,923 votes it was accepting, a process that required them to open each envelope and feed the punch-card ballots into an automatic counter. That didn't start until around 8:15, after a dinner break.

Many of the accepted ballots were cast by people who had not reported their new addresses to election officials. Others came from voters who went to the wrong precinct. Four were cast by people removed from the voter rolls because they were listed as dead; election staff members checked signatures to confirm their eligibility.

The provisional ballot count could affect the results of four tight races: an at-large election for Mecklenburg County commissioner, a Mecklenburg Superior Court judgeship and statewide races for agriculture commissioner and superintendent of public education.

Fueled by Hershey's Kisses and supported by already worn-out staff, the board members started at about 11:30 a.m. and seemed ready to continue until they finished. They flipped through thousands of envelopes, checking for proper signatures.

They worked in front of an often-talkative audience of lawyers, reporters, former county commissioners, current county commissioners and future county commissioners.

The board had no split votes, though the one Republican, Phil Summa, raised two objections. He argued against counting ballots that were not signed by a precinct official, but neither of his Democratic colleagues seconded his motion. Summa's second objection was to the concept of counting votes cast in the wrong precinct. But he acknowledged that state law required the board to count those votes.

Actually tallying ballots from the wrong precinct is time-consuming. Those voters punched a full ballot, but the only votes that will count will be in races that include their correct precinct. The board members were planning to create a new punch card for each of those voters, on just the part of the ballot containing the proper races.

At the beginning of Tuesday's board meeting, election officials gave a detailed explanation of vote-counting errors on election night. They explained how the results from some early-voting machines were counted two or three times, and how others were not counted at all.

As the meeting started, board Chair Georgia Lewis thanked the staff for its work.

"I commend them sincerely for giving every ounce of their strength to handle this unfortunate series of events with such patience and dedication," she said. "I feel sure that anyone in this office would have taken an old-fashioned licking rather than to have had this happen." -- HOWIE PAUL HARTNETT CONTRIBUTED.

It seems some more of the national news reporters are picking up on the story but they are dismissing it as internet conspiracy therories. However, it causing some to take notice and insist on an investigation because this shows them that due to all the problems with machines etc. voter confidence is low. I got an email from Common Cause today and while they don't seem the evidence points to fraud they did say it was being presented to Congress as proof that voter confidence is low due to all the problems in our voter systems.

Here are the stories: first the Boston Globe

Internet buzz on vote fraud is dismissed
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11/10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | November 10, 2004

WASHINGTON -- As they ricochet around the country on the Internet, the details seem aligned to raise the eyebrows of suspicious Democrats.

President Bush recorded 4,258 votes to Senator John F. Kerry's 260 in one suburb of Columbus, Ohio -- where only 638 ballots were cast. Across Ohio, some 76,000 punch-card ballots did not register votes for president, and officials have only begun to comb through 155,428 provisional ballots.

In Holmes County, Florida, though nearly three-quarters of registered voters are Democrats, Bush wiped out Kerry, 6,410 to 1,810, in results that mirrored those in several other counties where optical-scan paper ballots were used. And in Florida's Broward County, after the first 32,000 absentee ballots were fed into the computer system, a software glitch caused additional ballots to be subtracted from vote totals, rather than added.

A week after Kerry conceded and Bush declared victory, those assertions and scores of others from New Mexico to North Carolina have kept alive fierce speculation that Bush's victory either wasn't real or wasn't as decisive as it seemed. With memories fresh from the 2000 irregularities, e-mails and Web postings accuse Republicans of stealing an election.

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

Still, with reports swirling on the Internet, six Democratic members of Congress have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate. Leading academics have joined the fray as well, saying that the integrity and future of the nation's voting system demand a vetting of all claims.

''The kind of thing that has to happen is a full-scale investigation," said Troy Duster, a New York University professor who is president of the American Sociological Association. ''It sounds like a paranoid fantasy, but I think the data suggests that even if Bush won, he didn't win by the kind of margins that are out there. We have a crisis here of potential legitimacy with all the stuff going on on the Web, and the way to deal with this is to do the research."

Most of the focus has been on results in Ohio and Florida, since if either of those states had gone for Kerry instead of Bush, the Massachusetts senator would be president-elect. Early exit polls in both states indicated that Kerry was track to win, and in each state voting and counting irregularities in numerous places have been reported. ''Fraud took place in the 2004 election," declares the team at BlackBoxVoting.org, one popular website that is compiling reports of election problems.

''Kerry won. Here are the facts," reads the headline on a widely circulated article written by the author of a scathing book on the Bush family.

Another site suggests Kerry is refusing to contest the election because fellow members of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones forbade him to do so.

After one e-mailer erroneously suggested that Kerry's brother, Cameron, was compiling reports of voting problems, Cameron Kerry's e-mail inbox was inundated with hundreds of messages, received at the pace of several per minute through yesterday. He sent out a stock response saying ''we are not ignoring" the reports, asking that they be forwarded to the Democratic National Committee instead of his e-mail address at his Boston law firm.

Though Corrigan said all allegations will be investigated by the Democratic legal team, he added that it has become clear that 2004 was no repeat of 2000. That year, an abbreviated Florida recount resulted in a 537-vote margin of victory for Bush, and many Democrats believe a full and impartial recount would have handed the election to Democrat Al Gore.

This year, the race wasn't nearly as close in the states that hung in the balance. According to preliminary results from last week's election, Bush carried Florida by 380,000 votes, and Ohio by 136,000. Corrigan said Democrats won't push for hand recounts this year, because they wouldn't change the results, a point backed by election specialists.

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

The apparent computer glitch that awarded Bush an extra 3,893 votes in Gahanna, Ohio, was quickly caught and won't be in the final certified numbers. The 76,000 punch cards across the state where no vote for president was recorded include ballots cast by people who chose not to vote for the top office, as well as those who mistakenly chose more than one candidate. That group, of course, includes voters who intended to support Bush as well as those who meant to support Kerry.

As a percentage of the total, the number of ballots recording no vote for president was actually lower than it's been in recent elections in the state, Corrigan noted. Democrats are making sure provisional ballots are counted, but almost all of those votes would have to be for Kerry to swing the election, and many are expected to be ruled invalid.

In Florida, the Democratic-leaning counties that went for Bush are in the culturally conservative Panhandle, where the president beat Gore in 2000 and where he made particularly intense appeals this year. The software error that started subtracting votes rather than adding them affected only a few ballot measures, and was caught and corrected.

Richard Hasen, an election law specialist at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, noted that with the election overseen by 13,000 different local jurisdictions -- many of which were employing new technologies on Election Day -- scattered problems were inevitable.

''I would be surprised if there wouldn't be glitches like this," Hasen said.

As for the exit polls, they remain subject to sampling errors and limitations in data gathering. The polls sponsored by a consortium of media companies had margins of error of roughly 3 percent, and in closely contested states shown to be leaning toward Kerry, narrow Bush wins were actually within the expected range. Florida's margin was larger than expected, but poll takers reported problems getting close enough to voting places to collect adequate samples, and said they feared they were not getting Bush voters to be as forthcoming with their choice as Kerry voters.

Heather Gerken, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the fact that this year's election went smoothly compared to 2000 shouldn't blind policy makers to problems still inherent in the system. Many jurisdictions continue to use outdated equipment, states are behind in compiling reliable voter lists, and elections are still run by partisan officials, she said.

''I have not yet seen anything that convinces me that the election was stolen, but I certainly think that we should treat these allegations seriously and do them justice," she said. ''There's clearly problems with the elections system. It's crucial to the health of this country that we have an election system that we can trust."

Globe correspondent Alan Wirzbicki contributed to this report. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.

From ABC News:


WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2004 -- There were minor voting irregularities on Election Day - long lines, voting machine breakdowns, shortages of provisional ballots - but some people are now leveling charges of voter fraud.


Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.


"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."
Nevertheless, many people have devised various theories, including stories of voters in largely Democratic counties in Florida whose votes were changed for Bush, phantom voters in Ohio and exit polls showing John Kerry in the lead that were truer than the final tally. Off the record, many Democratic strategists dismiss such allegations, but they also know such resentment can be channeled for political use in the future.


Those Florida Democrats Who Mysteriously Voted for Bush

Based at least in part on these conspiracy theories, three Democratic congressmen have written a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

"We are requesting an investigation into all the allegations, of irregularities with respect to the electronic and other voting machines so that people can have confidence in the result of this election, and so that any weaknesses are changed before the next election," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

The congressmen's letter mentions the Web site ustogether.org, which questions why so many counties in Florida that have more registered Democrats than Republicans ended up voting for Bush. The Web site implies someone fixed the results.

In regard to Lafayette County, one of the counties in question, it is true that there are far more registered Democrats in that county than Republicans (3,570 to 570, respectively), and that the county elected Bush in this year's election, but the county elected Bush in the last election, too.



Four years before that, the Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, won in Lafayette County as well, as did the first President Bush four years before that.



Rep. Kendrick Meek, the co-chair of the Kerry campaign in Florida, says he knows why Bush was re-elected, and it has nothing to do with fraud.





"We did a good job, but the other side did a better job," he said.



Meek expresses serious concern that the conspiracy theories might create a sense of helplessness among voters and suppress future Democratic turnout.



The counties in question use Optiscan ballots (where voters indicate their choice by marking a circle with a No. 2 pencil), which was not the voting method people worried about before the election since, unlike electronic voting, the ballots leave a paper trail, and unlike punch card ballots, they can be counted and used easily.



"Before the election in many places you saw people questioning the process because they were concerned about the result," said Chapin. "And now there are people looking at the result and using that as a basis to question the process."




Ohio Conspiracy Theories


In the battleground state of Ohio, where conspiracy theories abound, a Web site for Cuyahoga County seemed to show more votes than voters in some precincts.



The county's Web site was confusing - it lumped several precincts' absentee ballots together and then counted them several times, for each precinct. But those were glitches in vote-reporting - not vote-counting. The "phantom" voters who mysteriously appeared and voted for Bush in the county -which voted overwhelmingly for Kerry - did not exist other than in the imagination of Democrats upset about Kerry's loss.



This afternoon, the Web site that first raised the questions about the Cuyahoga votes took it all back. "OK," wrote the Webmeister at "Americans 4 America," "finally had a chance to figure this out. I apologize for any anxiety that went along with these numbers. It seems that data is useless without knowing how counties arrived at the numbers and this was a particularly tricky process."



Exit Polls as Fact?



Finally, there is the controversy regarding the television networks' exit polls, which seemed early on to indicate a better day for Kerry than the one he actually had.



But as we now all know, the exit polls were off a bit. Regardless, exit polls are not hard data, they are as accurate as polling - which is sometimes on target, and sometimes not. "If I'm given exit polls and voting results, and I'm [asked] which do I rely on more, I rely on voting results," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.


Clearly for many people, however, results are not enough. When Mark Twain remarked that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put on his shoes, it's astounding to think he was speaking decades before the invention of the Internet.



Clayton Sandell contributed to this report.

Ralph Nader in his speech today said there were irregularites that need to be investigated throughly and that he felt Kerry conceded the election too soon. He said the Democratic party needs to investigate and follow through on their promise to their supporters to see that all votes were counted. I can't for the life of me understand why the Democratic party is taking this stand that Bush won fair and square. Though according to what was at Olbermann's site Kerry's brother said the Democratic party was investigating it.

Nothing was mentioned in either the Globe story or ABC News about the lock down of the voting committee in Warren, Ohio. Olbermann said on his show tonight that though the officials said they got word from the FBI and the National Security people that there was a code 10 in Warren, Ohio and to lock down the vote tallying. Olbermann said when the FBI and Tom Ridge were contacted they said they gave no such orders so why the lies and who is lying? Another odd thing is that right after the election Tom Ridge resigned. It really ticks me off that because people are questioning the election ABC News and the Boston Globe are painting us as conspiracy theorists or crackpots just to dismiss us. We have a right to question without being labeled.

Ginny in your post she expressed my feelings exactly and I think many more Americans feel angry too. I just don't think the media is letting them know all these things.

I watched Keith Olbermann's Countdown show tonight and he talked to someone at Newsweek and they also said there needs to be an investigation and that Olbermann should keep the heat on. He thinks the media are just now coming back from vacation after a long campaign and election and the story will pick up more momentum in next few days and weeks.

Love, Connie