One deep and permeating fear amongst voters that has vaulted to prominence in the last eight years suggests that the popular will is not deciding who wins elections. In essence, the fear is that our democracy has been rigged. Still, year after year American citizens are told that their vote counts. They are subjected to media sarcasm and admonished when they don’t show up to the polls in droves. Well, this time around it has been different. This time the people are motivated and hungry for change. They are ready to throw down their resignations and car pool to the nearest high school gymnasium. We finally have the educated electorate that so many have always wanted and yet the fear persists.
Do they have a real reason to be afraid? Well, first let’s define what we’re talking about. Electoral fraud is defined as illegal interference with the process of an election. These manipulations are intended to suppress or exaggerate the votes of a particular candidate thus affecting the outcome. It all seems pretty straight forward but how does this type of thing happen in our system of government? Here are the numbers so you can judge for yourself.
In the 2000 election the Florida Central Voter File’s purge lists were used to disqualify 70,000 residents from voting. They were mostly black and mostly Democrats. This incident forced the courts to address over 4,000 appeals, eventually pressuring the company which made the lists to settle out of court for seventy-five thousand dollars. The real damage was inflicted in the arena of public opinion. For the first time in a hundred years a Presidential election was in serious question, leaving millions frustrated by the outcome. Many would assume it to be a fluke of the electoral process and hope for the problems to be rectified the next time around.
In 2004 the state of Ohio experienced a shortage of voting machines in heavily democratic districts. During the Ohio recount it was discovered that two election officials intentionally picked districts for hand recount where they already knew the outcome. These two individuals were convicted by a jury. In Volusia county Florida John Kerry began election day with minus 60 votes. It was a clear indication that the computer voting machines had been tampered with. Once again millions of Americans were left dissatisfied but this time it compounding the existing anger causing a severe erosion of public confidence.
The dark days of our democracy are well documented. This time around we might not have to wait for another general election to experience a similar type of robbery. This time around it may be a perfectly legal machination that contributes to our continued downfall. The Primary race for the Democratic Nomination is fast becoming the ultimate testing ground of faith in our democracy. It is here that the projections for a clear expression of the public will are looking dismal. After sweeping the Potomac states Barack Obama has taken the lead in both the number of states and delegates. CNN has speculated that even if he manages to win all of the remaining states with 55% of the vote he would still come short of the 2025 delegates needed to win the nomination. Now your nerves should start to tingle and here is why. If Barack Obama has the popular vote, accepting the will of the majority, he may still lose the nomination. The public will, though clearly expressed in a winning tide, could be stolen away using the most undemocratic of methods – The Super Delegates. These individuals would be directly persuaded by the candidates to choose the best nominee. Their vote carries the weight of hundreds or thousands of people. They could be the ultimate deciders.
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Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
I think I liked this article better when I wrote it yesterday. My version avoided the cliches, propaganda and link to grade-a lying dickhead Greg Palast.
In the 2000 election the Florida Central Voter File’s purge lists were used to disqualify 70,000 residents from voting. They were mostly black and mostly Democrats.
And this was the ONLY fraud in Florida? Despicable though it was, this practice was legal in Florida and is so because of chronic problems with false voter registrations and multiple voting, techniques historically used by democrats to steal elections.
The real damage was inflicted in the arena of public opinion.
Which is really the only place it ever existed, what with multiple recounts confirming the Florida results.
In Volusia county Florida John Kerry began election day with minus 60 votes. It was a clear indication that the computer voting machines had been tampered with.
Really? In fact the defect with the machine was found before a single vote was cast and was a mechanical fault, not an instance of fraud. The defective chip was replaced and the machine worked fine.
In the past it had been butterfly ballots, computer voting machines and caging lists.
And here I thought the problem was registering dead people to vote, encouraging people to vote twice, letting illegal aliens vote, bussing elderly voters to the polls with a promise of a free meal and paying $20 a head for votes in poor districts.
Dave
2 - Propagandist
Ah good ol' propaganda - When in denial use it!
I suppose only you have evidence of machines being tampered with since I haven't heard of a lawsuit to that effect yet.
I think this article would be a great addition to the blogs of moveon.org. It has all the right buttons - disenfranchised blacks, tampered voting machines, the usual swipes at Republicans and Bush..nice!
3 - Howard Bowen
The article expounded some vaguaries and indistict possibilities, like most of the news. It is politically incorrect in latter America to print or speak the truth. How can the public have any implication in who the governers are if the news is corrupt with yellow journalism, and the candidates are parrots that liken thier campaigns to it.
4 - Howard Bowen
The advent of television and computers in evolved society has proven that the "people" can be programmed into thinking anything. Prior to birth control, penicillin, and "womans-liberation"
a man could afford a wife and children. Historically, because of stability in the home, the order of society was promulgated throughout history, when people lived abundantly; until the present, perverted space age. Now, industrial uni-sexual consumers are neither real men nor good women, but rather a blastphemous derailment of goodness; depicting greedy, self serving, sexually immoral computer automatons, that really don't know their rights from their lefts, let alone rights from wrongs. Judging from the candidates, a thinking man would realize that the powers that control the white house are not legitimate. And from my experience with what the masses in America have evolved into, they are not capable of electing a good man anyway. The ground work has been accomplished for establishing technology at its dirtiest. The framework of the "peoples" thinking is controlled by a consortium of corportate/government programers, and they really don't have a choice in what they think anymore, so why vote?