Fair elections the next to go?

With the news that Cuyahoga County (OH) elections workers violated Ohio law by “precounting”_[1] votes that were supposed to be counted randomly, I’m wondering if there can be such a thing anymore, especially with the electronic voting machines. So, I was looking a little into Ohio’s voting procedure,where all the shit hit the fan in the last election, and what is happening to prevent this from happening again. I know, it’s old news, blah blah blah. But history, if not learned, is destined to repeat itself. And in the case of the Repubs, it could happen every two years.

Fitrakis, a lawyer who holds a Ph.D in political science, has done considerable research into the critical Ohio election, which Bush officially won by 118,599 votes to recapture the presidency. Fitrakis will present his evidence in a book, What happened in Ohio: A documentary record of theft and fraud in the 2004 election, coauthored by Harvey Wasserman and Steve Rosenfeld, to be released in September.

Among their findings:
Four percent of the 5.6 million votes cast in Ohio — some 224,000 ballots — were not counted for various reasons. Nearly two-thirds of those disallowed votes came from urban, heavily Democratic districts.

In certain heavily Republican counties, John Kerry received fewer votes than obscure Democrats running in statewide elections. In Butler County, for example, a retired black judge from Cleveland in a long-shot race for state Supreme Court got 61,000 votes. Kerry got 54,000.

”The drop-off [in votes] was at the top of the ticket, which is abnormal,” Fitrakis said.

Voter turnout in two precincts exceeded 100 percent of the voters registered. In one precinct, 679 out of 689 voters reportedly cast ballots — yet, ”In a couple of hours, we were able to find 25 people who said they didn’t vote or were out of town,” Fitrakis said.(source)

And Ohio has made it harder to recount those suspicious votes. Here’s the lowdown on that. Let’s highlight a specific section.

Sec. 3506.20.

Any county that uses direct recording electronic voting machines with a voter verified paper audit trail as the primary voting system for the county and not only for accessibility for individuals with disabilities under section 3506.19 of the Revised Code, within two months after the day of each general election in which a county office or a county question or issue is on the ballot, shall conduct a complete recount of any one county office or issue voted on at that election using the voter verified paper audit trail produced by those machines. The county office or county question or issue to be recounted shall be selected at random from all of the county offices, questions, and issues voted upon at that election. A recount conducted under this section shall be for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of those machines and shall not change the result of the electionas determined by the official canvass of the election returns for that election.

As for contested federal elections, well those just can’t happen anymore, at least not in Ohio.

Finally, the current version of HB 3 prohibits contests of a federal election (under Ohio law):

Sec. 3515.08. The (A) Except as otherwise provided in this division, the nomination or election of any person to any public office or party position or the approval or rejection of any issue or question, submitted to the voters, may be contested by qualified electors of the state or a political subdivision. “The nomination or election of any person to any federal office,including the office of elector for president and vice president and the office of member of congress, shall not be subject to a contest of election conducted under this chapter. Contests of the nomination or election of any person to any federal office shall be conducted in accordance with the applicable provisions of federal law.

Some will counter that challenges are still available under federal law and that’s true. However, consider the case of Rios v. Blackwell, filed in November 2004; the case is still pending. Even if a federal decision comes soon, it does nothing about an election already decided._[1]

So, if these laws had been in place for the 2004 election, they could safely recount votes, find that Kerry won, and nothing could be done about it. This comes just in time for J.Kenneth Blackwell’s_[3] bid for the governor’s mansion. And with more and more cases of fraud coming to light (an extensive list can be found at The Free Press), Blackwell and Ohio Republican’s are doing all they can to make sure that nothing can stop them from employing the exact same tactics this November.

Take this and multiply it by the number of red states and a patriot’s worst nightmare could come true. No more real elections, no more “of the people, for the people, by the people” because they’ll just continue to do whatever it is they want to do. No more democratically elected Congress/President, no more Republic “for which it stands”. I’ll even take the leap and say that eventually all pretense will be thrown aside leaving us with some kind of fundamentalist corporate totalitarian regime.

The apathy of the people is coming to bite us all in our asses. When people say “I hate politics” or “Politics is boring” I understand where they’re coming from, but they have no idea that they- by not voting and by not knowing what’s going on in this country- are contributing to the downfall of their own ways of life, their very freedoms. They, in their apathy, are allowing the Ken Blackwell’s and Karl Rove’s (and by extension, the king himself) to destroy the very foundation of our country. _[4] By ignoring our political climate and focusing on mindless gossip and bitter internet sniping, they are helping the rest of us lose our grip on our own country.

Historically when the American people have had enough they take to the streets and demand action/reform/freedom. So many voices in unison have caused great changes in this country, giving the rest of the world some idea of what real freedom is. But now it seems that the government has caught us sitting on our hands, staring numbly at “Survivor” and watching as Tom Cruise implodes. The American people seem more and more able to swallow more and more bullshit. And the Republicans, in their bid for total and absolute power, are cashing in on that.

My fellow amnestigator, Evil Bobby, was right.

It is about time the left leaning American political party started being more left leaning. To compromise our ethics in the name of moderation, is like negotiating with a burglar to take only half of your belongings rather then all of them. This forgets that you could always stand up to the burglar and even after a deal he could still decided to take all your stuff. It is time for the Democratic Party to stand up to this right wing bully, and stop our country from being looted.

It’s becoming more and more clear that the Republican party is a party of liars and theives, doing any and everything they can to assure they have total control. This is no time for apathy, or moderation, or even compromise. They hold nothing sacred_[5] and will leave us with nothing. When will it be too much? When will there be so many voices that the king and his minions won’t be able to ignore us any longer?

Right now it’s going to be harder to raise those voices at the ballot box, soon it may be impossible. So to all you who say “I do my talking on election day”, wake up and realize you may be talking but no one cares what you’re saying. You have to speak up other ways. You have to be bold. And, yes, absolutely, you have to pick a side. You’re either with us or you’re a fascist. Sound good to you?

Crossposted to Conservative Amnesty.

_{[1] They were supposed to pick votes randomly on a specific day. However, they picked votes that matched the results prior to the officical recount day. They rejected votes that didn’t match up.}

[2] View Ohio HB 3 here.

[3] Blackwell is currently trying hard to convince voters that he had no idea that he owned over 30,000 shares in Diebold- the company that is currently holds the contract to provide Ohio with voting machines and “promised” to deliver Ohio in the 2004 elections.

[4] And no, I’m sorry, that foundation is not the Bible- it’s the Constitution.

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