Vote Fraud

McCain told the big lie during the last debate claiming that the group ACORN "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy." The truth is that the fraud was perpetrated against ACORN by a small number of employees trying to up their paycheck by submitting false registrations. There's also a good chance that Republican operatives (or just Republican assholes, there is a lot of gray between the organized conspiracy and those following the leaders) had filled out false registration forms to bolster this strawman argument. The fact is no one showed up to vote as "Mickey Mouse" or any of the other fake registrations. It is also a fact that, at least in Florida, there is a $5000 fine per form not turned in, regardless of whether or not it is a fake. ACORN went to great lengths to help registrars weed out the fake registrations. So why were the Republicans making so much noise about this?

My theory is all the noise was to help cover up the actual voter fraud and actual voter intimidation as well as straight up vote fraud enacted by the Republicans. Tens of thousands of legitimate voters were "purged" from the rolls in many states by Republicans. For instance in Colorado the Republican secretary of state, Mike Coffman* was purging voters up to a week before voting began in direct violation of Federal law. Republican operatives were putting up fliers and making phone calls to Democrats telling them they could be arrested when they showed up to vote if they had outstanding parking tickets (targeting blacks particularly).

And then there's the touch screen voting machines that were built by Diebold Election Systems** owned by a rabid Republican backer which were widely reported to be "flipping" votes and which have been proven to be easily compromised.

This leads me to the state of Alaska, the results from which stand counter to logical expectations, reported heavy turnout at the polls, and extremely heavy early voting. Despite the fact both Sarah Palin and the felon Ted Stevens were on the ballot Alaska actually claims the voting rate dropped by 14% over 2004. Apparently a bunch of people that voted for John Kerry in 2004 stayed home. And a bunch of people that voted for Bush in 2004 stayed home as well. What's really eerie is how the results of the polling looked almost exactly like it did in 2004. The results from the touchscreen machines, that is. The polls in Alaska become more and more puzzling as more absantee ballots come in and as provisional ballots are counted. When compared to the polls, the absantee and other non-touchscreen votes make sense while the touchscreen votes definitely do not add up.

Ohio was using Diebold machines in 2004.

It would appear to me that the Republican idea of "Law and Order" means beating up the niggers and queers while robbing the public treasury blind, stealing elections in broad daylight, and walking away free and fat. The Democrats have got to stop treating Republicans like equals and start treating them like the criminals and liars they are. There is no honor left in the G.O.P. and we need to stop pretending they have any. They will deny a fellow citizen the right to vote simply because they can and it will help them win. That's disgusting.


*Luckily he was stopped. This is good not only because thousands of legitimate (Democratic) voters were allowed to vote but also because this Federal decision has shifted the burden of proof to the State where it should be.

**Originally known as Diebold Election Systems the company has attempted to erase its absolute failure to produce a secure, verifiable voting system by changing its name to Premier Election Systems.