WHY NOT JUST ASK THE PEOPLE?

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ince I wrote about the work that blackboxvoting is doing to unearth and investigate possible fraud in the recent election, quite a few people have sent me links to other investigative work on this subject. While awaiting detailed information from election officials, some mathematicians have done some fascinating analysis that shows, among other things, that while the hated touch-screen voting machines produced results in Florida not inconsistent with voter registration, the Diebold Op-Scan-Precinct machines in that state produced results, at least by the time their data was uploaded electronically to the central vote tabulation machines, that are wildly different. In many counties 80% of the registrants were Democrats while 80% of the votes were cast for Bush. The most obvious explanation for this is the Dixiecrat factor: Many older, conservative Floridians registered as Democrats when Southern Democrats were frequently politically to the right of Attilla, and never bothered to change when they were outflanked on the right by state Republicans. The same thing occurred in 2000 in many of these same counties, though that may just mean the fraud has been going on for years. The Diebold CEO, after all, is a devout Bush supporter who promised to do whatever he could to deliver votes to Bush in his home state of, you guessed it, Ohio. Although there are real concerns that the lack of a paper trail will never allow the suspicions of massive voter fraud to be resolved, there is some hope that when election officials produce the requested information, an investigation will be able to put the fears to rest. After all, we’re not talking about a few hundred votes difference this time, but over a hundred thousand.

Of course the best answer is nationwide standards that require hard-copy verifiability by both the individual voter and by the auditors of the tabulation. But in the absence of that, why not just ask the people? Get the pollsters to blitz some of the counties in Florida and Ohio where the results appear most suspicious, and just ask people (a) did you vote and (b) who did you vote for. In fact there are some overwhelmingly Democratic counties in Florida where the total number of votes was under 2000, where Bush got 80% of the votes. You could probably canvass the whole county in a day and know beyond a shadow of a doubt if the Diebold machines were hacked or not. My guess is that not only would this put to rest the conspiracy theories, it would allow the Democrats to learn first hand why suburban voters, who make up 50% of the US voting public, overwhelming rejected their message last week (Bush’s largest plurality in the country was in Orange county, California). And if I’m wrong and such an intensive poll does indicate widespread fraud, we’ve got the makings of a revolution. Either way, the Dems can’t lose.

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2 Responses to WHY NOT JUST ASK THE PEOPLE?

  1. cs says:

    Dave, I think your idea about canvassing the voters in those counties is a good one; in fact, unless something like that takes place, I’ll remain skeptical about the Dixiecrat argument. While it’s true folks don’t need to declare party affiliation to vote in general elections, they do to vote in primaries. If all those Republican-voting Democrats are old Dixiecrats, it means either they haven’t voted in a primary since the Republicans became the party of choice for Southern conservatives or that they’ve continued to vote Democratic in primaries but consistently switch parties for the presidential elections. Both those options seem a stretch to me, especially so in counties where we’re talking about 80% of those registered to vote!

  2. cs says:

    This just in — David Cobb, Green presidential candidate, is likely to force a full recount in Ohio. Cost is about $113,000 — sounds like a lot but is actually only about $10 per Ohio precinct.Here’s info about where to send money. Other groups may also help coordinate, but be careful to designate the purpose of your donation and verify you’re sending your contribution to a legitimate fund raiser for the cause:Link to Pacifica KPFK for more info:http://www.kpfk.org/Make checks to:Green Party of OhioP.O. box 754New Albany, Ohio43054Or quicker by Paypal at:treasurer@ohiogreens.netPlease distribute this information as widely as possible. Thanks.It’s not who won that matters, it’s the integrity of the vote . . .

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