Using the same criteria as applied by the pop media to future attack danger, I feel compelled to document for some vague historical purpose, the signs as I see it that the Presidential election of 2004 shall be a traumatic, mind-jarring political exercise of Democracy.
We must begin with my assumption on this day of our Lord, that for all the mighty technology and Iris identification techniques available to this great country, we have a national election system that is still back in the dark ages.
Adding to the problem is the peculiar situation that many of our elected officials actually LIKE it that way.
Much easier to commit fraud on the horse and buggy system than the laser systems of the present. This is not to say that futuristic election systems are without prospect of fraud. There’s always the genius Nerd who can hack into anything and change data at will.
It’s not so easy however, and in that event, the entire election would be voided due to the massiveness of such an electronic attack. Under the current system, administered, monitored and executed by fifty different state entities, their result compiled from God knows how many precincts, districts and farm houses, there is chance for fraud in millions of ways. Given our electoral college system, particularly crucial districts can be tweaked without bother of fooling around all over the country. Witness the election mess in Florida of the year 2000.
Americans do not wish to be assigned numbers and anything close to something resembling a National ID causes them umbrage. The Social Security number is as close as it gets and anyone can buy an SS# down at the local drug store. Not to mention many Americans do not have SS#’s, as well as illegal aliens who always vote Democrat. So the Social Security number, the closest thing Americans have to a national ID, will not do.
Thus there is no national identity system that would effectively wipe out all this nonsense about using driver’s licenses, forged Social Security cards, even electric bills, as proof of identity.
Indeed the federal government could not establish a federally monitored and administered electoral system even if it wanted to in that our constitution specifically forbids it. The processing of obtaining votes for federal elections is the exclusive dominion of the states.
When I was eight I first learned how to rig an election. Sure, it was only a local mayor election but damn it was the city of Baltimore so it’s not like it was Pine Bluffs, Maine.
The big construction unions were the vote riggers back in my childhood days. After the polls closed, the union electricians would go in and do something to the old handle voting booths. The way they worked, a voter would go into the booth and then push a handle that closed a curtain around him/her. Then by the process of pulling little levers on the wall of the voting booth, the voter would cast a vote. The actual votes didn’t register until the voter pulled that same handle that closed the curtain backwards. When this was done, all of the little levers would re-set and that voter’s votes would be recorded in the voting booth’s “meters”, increasing by an increment of one for each candidate voted on by the voter.
The booth’s meters were only little clicker-counter type things, the sort of tracking now done by ped-o-meters or those little red money counters that be used to track grocery purchases by clicking up the amount due while in the grocery aisles.
The Electricians would, boom, zap those things somehow, and boom, the candidate required would receive the appropriate number of votes. The candidate was always a Democrat.
Yes it really did happen and yes it can happen and no, don’t make that mistake of so many good-hearted Americans and think that such a thing couldn’t happen here in the mightiest country in the world.
I’ve documented a few items that caught my attention during my intellectual travels of the past week. Perhaps it’s my paranoia, not assuaged by the recent revelation that the Democrat party has put out an instruction booklet to its voters advising them to allege fraud and disenfranchisement even if none existed.
ABC News reports the following:
Justice Dept. Sues Pa. Election Officials
Justice Department Sues Pennsylvania to Give Overseas Voters Two More Weeks to Cast Ballots
NEW YORK Oct. 13, 2004 — The Department of Justice has sued Pennsylvania elections officials in an attempt to give overseas voters two more weeks to cast ballots in the Nov. 2 election, according a published report.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania, contends the state failed to send out ballots in time due to a legal dispute over whether they should list independent candidate Ralph Nader, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Pennsylvania officials said Tuesday that they would fight the lawsuit, arguing that they will help overseas voters by offering overnight deliveries of ballots or allowing them to fax their completed ballots.
"We are confident that no voter overseas, whether military or civilian, will be left out of the election," Kate Philips, a spokeswoman for Gov. Ed Rendell, told the Times.
Pennsylvania is a so-called ‘battleground’ state. In that there are many electoral votes at stake and the race is considered very close.
My paranoid self gets suspicious in these sorts of things already causing a problem requiring federal justice department intervention that seem to only be a problem in these battleground states.
There’s also flying below the radar the rumble that many of these court challenges about Ralph Nadar are orchestrated by the Democrat party to delay placing him on the ballot. Ralph Nadar voters, it is assumed, would vote for Kerry were he not on the ballot.
From another Blogsite, I find this:
Dispute over Milwaukee Ballots
There is a dispute going on right now between the City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee County Election Commission. The City, led by Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett, asked for 938,300 ballots, but the Commission is now offering 679,400 ballots. Read this analysis by Charlie Sykes, talk show host on WTMJ-620am in Milwaukee. This is from his Weblog.
[cut here] You do the math:
The City of Milwaukee asked for 938,300 ballots for the November 2004 election The Milwaukee County Election Commission proposed giving the city 574,105, but then increased that amount to a total of 679,500.
The total population in Milwaukee: 596,974 in 2000 and 593,920 in 2004 The total number of people who are of legal voting age in Milwaukee in 2004: 423,811
Total votes cast in 2000 fall election: 245,670 Total votes cast in 2002 fall election: 141,351 (pre-registration of 335,889)
Total votes case in 2004 September election: 94,643 (total ballots requested by City of Milwaukee: 841,357) Total number of pre-registered voters as of the September 2004 election: 382,737
There are 314 wards in the City of Milwaukee. The county provided 679,500 ballots to the City of Milwaukee. That is 2,164 ballots per ward. [end cut]
Now why does the city of Milwaukee, situated in another battleground state, Wisconsin, need almost a million ballots when the total number of their registered voters is approximately 424,000? Yes there’s a need for spoilage and mistakes but we are just not that stupid out here in la-la land. As it is the Milwaukee County Election Commission is giving the city 679,500, almost half again the total of their registered voters. This assumes every other ballot would be spoiled.
Finally, in the infamous state of Florida where there voters thoughts chads were pregnant that were still virgins, we have this from the Associated Press.
Labor Unions Sue Fla. Over Voter Forms
MIAMI - A coalition of unions sued Florida elections officials Tuesday, arguing that thousands of voters have been disenfranchised by the rejection of their voter registration forms.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed by Democrats last week. It accuses Secretary of State Glenda Hood of violating federal law for telling the state's 67 elections supervisors that they should reject incomplete voter-registration forms.
Hood's office told the supervisors to disqualify voters who failed to check a box confirming they are U.S. citizens, even if they signed an oath on the same form swearing they are. Officials have maintained that state and federal law require the box to be checked.
"Our argument stands across the board," said Hood spokeswoman Alia Faraj. "This is not an attempt by the state to do anything other than ensure there is uniformity in the process."
In addition to Hood, supervisors of elections from five counties are named as defendants.
"We think they are placing obstacles in the way of voters," said Judith Browne, an attorney for Washington-based Advancement Project, a racial justice organization involved in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is one of several that have been filed in Florida, the site of the voting fiasco that held up the presidential race in 2000.
In a separate case, Volusia County said Tuesday that it will expand the number of early voting sites, less than a week after a lawsuit alleged the county would disenfranchise blacks by offering only one site — in an area where few minorities live.
+++++
Again we have that Labor Union thing. Glad to see they are still in business after so many years.
The “obstacles” complained about in the lawsuit is the act of placing a check mark in a little box.
Again, Florida is a battleground state.
Funny how these little election snafus all are happening in states whose electoral votes are more ardently cherished.
Thus I fear an attempt to steal the upcoming election. The attempted theft will be by, I hesitate but will say, the Democrats. All of the above listed shenanigans involve Democrats.
When I read an article where a Republican election official is sued for delay in sending out overseas ballots in Almostnowhere, Wyoming, then I might believe they are just random events, to be expected in an election year.
As it is, the clues are being laid, the signs are there. If little old me can see it, I am sure the Republican party has intent to protect their victory.
Or do they?
Personally I do not think Republicans think down and dirty like the Democrats. The Democrats will come up with schemes and plans and tricks that would never cross the mind of a proper Republican.
I bet no Republican ever had electricians zap the meters in the voting machines and indeed, I bet Republicans didn’t even know such a thing was possible.
THAT is the real basis of my concern and paranoia, that the one institution I should be able to count on to protect my vote, which would be the same one wanting to protect its legitimate victory, will be unable to do so.
I was asked to write an article for a new web site that espouses everyone concerned about the shenanigans of this upcoming election to bring a camera with them to the polls. Check it out at here.
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