PDA

View Full Version : Election2008: The Difficulty Stealing it This Time



Michael Collins
10-10-2008, 06:36 PM
This is part of my reality based project - my efforts daily to see what's going on divorced from my particular point of view. The ultimate election fraud in this or our past elections over my period of observation is simple - no real issues of fundamental interest to the people are discussed and explored; no real solutions are offered since there are no real problems discussed or, when they break through by accident, explored in terms of a workable solution.

Having said that, here's how the process will work out this time. There will be the ultimate disappointments etc. when nothing important gets taken care of (other than benefits to the donors). But at least the crooks to stole the last two elections will seem less invincible.

-----------------------


Michael Collins
October 10, 2008Column

Election 2008: The Difficulty Stealing It This Time

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/autorank/Crowd.jpg
Image cc
New 2008 Democratic Primary Voters Are
The Key to Election Protection

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

(Wash. DC) There’s one major obstacle blocking a theft of the 2008 presidential election. It’s highly significant and challenges even the most devious minds. That obstacle is the “net new” Democratic primary voters” in 2008. “Net new” Democratic primary voters represent the difference between primary turnout in 2004 and 2008. More on that in a moment.

If you think that 2000 and 2004 were free and fair elections and that the idea of election fraud is specious, that’s fine. You might want to review some of the following.

Al Gore won the 2000 election by over 500,000 votes. He did not become the president and was denied a recount by the court that made Bush the president. Stolen election. Case closed.

2004 was not a “red versus blue” election and the winner is still in the U.S. Senate. The red segment of the total vote (the rural U.S.) was down from 23% of the vote in 2000 to 16% in 2004, with two million less Bush votes, in actual terms, in 2004. Bush “won” 2004 through a fictitious increase in “big city” voting (”big cities” are defined in the exit polls as those with greater than 500,000 population).

Bush lost rural (”red”) votes, his base, yet won the election. At the same time, we’re asked to believe that there was a 66% increase in “big city” turnout in 2004, with Bush doubling his vote total there compared to 2000. This is absurd (the real figure is closer to a 13% to 15% turnout increase for “big cities” according to actual results). But that 66% “big city” turnout increase is what the exit pollsters, sponsored by the major media consortium, had to do to make Bush’s reported vote count consistent with the final exit poll reported the day after the election. (See Election 2004: The Urban Legend and Notes from the Underground)

The same people who stole those two elections just took $840 billion of your money and are giving it to their Wall Street donors. They’re the same people who started a war with Iraq based on documented lies and who continued it for five years, with a combined death toll of over one million Iraqi civilians and thousands of U.S. soldiers. They are the people who won’t correct the lie and insist on more of the same. These people resolutely ignore the looming climate changes to the planet that forecast death to tens of millions and the likelihood of multiple scenes like those after Hurricane Katrina.

Here’s the problem for the election thieves. Their strategies all rely on keeping people from registering, keeping those registered away from the polls, and the magic of electronic voting and tabulation. It won’t work this time. But first, here’s a quick look at the strategies in place.

The most effective and enduring is the disenfranchisement of ex-felons, citizens who have served their time and are no longer charged with anything. Florida, Texas and Virginia account for nearly 1.5 million citizens, largely poor and black who were denied the right to vote. They paid their debt to society but they can’t participate as citizens because their vote is stolen by the remnants of a racist inspired post reconstruction movement in both the former Confederate states and cooperating state legislatures across the country.

Voter suppression also includes tactics like false notices announcing changes of election dates; police cruisers at intersections near voting places; threats that voter will be challenged; poorly trained poll workers who send registered voters away; special identification requirements proven to reduce the vote (e.g., photo identification); and much, much more.

The newest rage is “cleansing” centralized registration database. The Florida pre 2000 voter registration purge of tens of thousands of minority voters cost Al Gore the election and inspired federal policies supporting registration cleansing around the country.

Then there are the seemingly endless examples of electronic voting machines improperly recording and counting votes plus security problems. There are no real methods of checking electronic voting. Even if you could and proved fraud, state recount laws are very difficult to invoke and highly restrictive. In Virginia and Florida, for example, it is illegal to recount the paper forms for optical scan voting machines as part of a recount.

What a total mess and a complete mockery of the democracy that we deserve. But when you add up all of these strategies, based on past performance, they work at the margins - maybe a 3-4% shift in votes to the Republican candidate.

"Net New" Democratic Primary Voters

There will still be election fraud at multiple levels in 2008. It’s a national tradition dating back to the Whig Party chasing off immigrant voters in the early 1800’s. But in terms of outcome, this election can be an accurate reflection of the wishes of a majority of voters even with the typical switched votes and varieties of voter suppression.

The solution to election fraud and the best policy for election protection is voter increases accounted for by those “net new” Democratic primary voters. The voter turnout in the presidential primaries was extraordinary in many states. In some cases, like Virginia, the total voters in 2008 more than doubled the total from 2004.

The surge of voter turnout in the primaries began in the mid Atlantic states and carried on through the southeastern seaboard. In addition, swing states showed the same extraordinary trend, a trend that helped Obama win with “net new” primary voters.

At the same time, turnout in the contested Republican primaries was paltry by comparison. Clearly, Republicans were not motivated.

For example, look at the mid and southeastern Atlantic results, the states that gave Sen. Obama a clean sweep.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/autorank/Early.jpg
There were 4.9 million voters in the 2008 Democratic Primary and 2.6 million in
2004. That’s 2.3 million “net new” Democratic primary voters for 2008.
+ North Carolina had state caucuses in 2004. The 2004 Democratic primary
igure is an estimate. (Source CNN 2004, 2008)

In the mid and southeastern Atlantic states, there were nearly 4.9 million Democrats voting in primaries compared to 2.2 million Republicans. With the exception of Delaware and Maryland, the states above are traditionally Republican states. Democrats dwarfed Republicans in 2008 primary turnout. In addition, Democratic turnout nearly doubled from 2004 to 2008. Democratic primary votes increased from 2.6 million in 2004 to 4.9 million in 2008 (using the estimate for N.C. 2004), an increase of 2.3 million “net new” Democratic primary voters.

Let’s look at the critical swing states. A similar, somewhat less dramatic pattern emerges. The one exception to the pattern is Florida. The Republican state legislature moved the Florida primary back to late January. The Democratic National Committee warned that the election could not be used to select delegates to the national convention. This substantially suppressed turnout by Democrats. While Florida Democrats doubled their 2004 turnout, they were nearly equaled by Florida Republicans who faced the same restrictions on the early primary.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/autorank/Swing.jpg
There were 5.8 million voters in the 2008 Democratic Primary and 2.7 million in 2004.
That’s 3.1 million net new Democratic primary voters for 2008.
(Source CNN 2004, 2008)

These four critical swing states all went Republican in the last two presidential elections. But they show a pattern similar to the trend begun in the mid and southeastern Atlantic states. These primaries saw 5.8 million Democratic primary voters compared to 3.9 million Republicans. The Democrats more than doubled their 2004 primary voter total, 2.7 million voters, to 5.8 million in 2008. That’s a 3.1 million increase in Democratic primary voters. These figures are in line with the mid and southeastern Atlantic states.

The critical factor is that these “net new” Democratic primary voters were not turned away from the polls by the traditional election fraud strategies. They’re on record as voting in the most recent election, and they’re highly likely to turnout for the general election, without any real impediments to vote. It’s axiomatic that primary voters do just that.

Newly Registered Voters Increase Substantially But They’re Not Enough

One more factor to consider is voter registration in these states. There were major voter registration drives in the southeastern Atlantic states. The least likely Obama state, South Carolina, has seen 240,000 newly registered voters. That figure could approach 300,000. North Carolina has 600,000 new registered voters with 48% Democrats, 21% Republicans, and 31% Independents. There’s a strong tilt toward black voters and the 18-24 age group. Georgia voter registration drives have been intense as well. A pattern similar to North Carolina is emerging in Georgia with one county, Bibb, reporting a 20% increase in black voter registration compared to 1% for whites. Of Georgia’s 400,000 newly registered, there’s an almost even split between black and white registrants. Adding Maryland and Delaware, these states have about 1.7 million newly registered voters. They also have 3.1 million “net new” 2008 Democratic primary voters.

Virginia is now a key swing state. Northern Virginia and the state’s major cities statewide are solidly Democratic. Overall, Virginia has 300,000 newly registered voters with 42% under 24 years of age. Ohio has over 660,000 newly registered voters, with 19% living in counties that Kerry won (140,000) and 1% in Bush counties (5,000). There are almost 800,000 new voters in Florida and Democrats predominate, trailed by Republicans, and Independents. The youth vote of registered voters has increased from 4% in 2000 to 14% in 2008. Missouri will have over 200,000 newly registered voters. Combined, these swing states have about 2.0 million newly registered voters and 3.1million “net new” 2008 Democratic primary voters.

These registration trends, particularly in the critical swing states, offer some hope regarding election fraud. Somewhere around 65% of newly registered voters actually turn out to vote. But they’re not enough to solidify a majority victory in the reported vote count for the majority voting.



Voter registration in the swing states and throughout the country are up significantly and they favor Sen. Obama’s candidacy. But there were also significant increases in voter participation and new registrations from 2000 to 2004 with an emphasis on the youth and minority voters. This is very good news since it shows an expansion of citizens exercising their fundamental rights. The 2008 shifts in demographics in the newly registered will benefit Obama’s campaign. However, this is an existing trend, not a new wave of voters who can be assured of voting; voters who will face few if any impediments getting into the voting booth.

It is those extraordinary increases in primary voting that represent the new element in the election process. These voters were not seen in the 2004 primary. They were on the rolls for the 2008 primary and, without question, eligible for the 2008 general election. Who are they? We don’t know for sure but the simple answer is, they’re citizens who were motivated enough to vote in this primary cycle, elections frequently ignored by large numbers of voters.

The swing states had 3.1 million net new primary voters in 2008 and an aggregate 2.0 million increase in newly registered voters. There may be some overlap but the primaries took place at the start of the year in these states and the registration drives for the general election took off after the primaries. So they should be viewed as largely discrete figures.

These net new primary voters create problems for election thieves. If we assume a 20% turnout increase in the four swing states considered, that comes to a total of 23 million voters. The 3.1 million net new primary voters represent 14% of that total. They can all vote. They’re all registered and they all voted in the most recent election. They can’t be turned away easily. They will be unlikely to become confused or intimidated by the traditional voter suppression tricks.

The only fraud strategies available are through electronic voting machines and outright changes in vote totals. Thus, with fewer tools (disenfranchisement and suppression are out for this group); election fraud would need to wipe out 14% of the estimated vote.

That’s to obvious and that’s why the “net new” voters from the Democratic primaries in these four key swing states, the mid and southeastern Atlantic states, and any other state fitting this 2008 primary voting pattern represent the best assurance against election fraud available.

[b]Internet researcher anaxarchos made the point in blunt terms in a communication to the author:

"It is not enough to steal votes. You need a place to stuff them. You can sell cocaine but in the end you have to explain how your Starbucks franchise brings in $80 million per year. There will be widespread fraud and caging and suppression but, as of today, I see no possible place to stuff it. It was hard enough in 2004 and that was 'close’'"

It’s as though the people are looking at the election thieves and saying, “Go ahead. Make my day.”

END

This article is dedicated to TruthIsAll, anaxarchos, Mark Crispin Miller, Richard Hayes Phillips, Michael Keefer, Jonathan Simon, and all the other independent election fraud researchers and the election protection activists who exercise their rights as citizens to tell the truth about our election system and results. Also, special thanks are extended to Alastair Thompson and all those at “Scoop” Independent News for their years of support for democracy in the United States.

This article may be reproduced in whole or part with attribution of authorship, a link to this article, and acknowledgment of images.

chlamor
10-10-2008, 06:59 PM
The election has already been stolen, so to speak.

The game is rigged from the start so it seems to me rather frivolous to be bickering over the theft of a rigged game.

That said I still respect your work but do not understand the point of it knowing what you know.

Michael Collins
10-11-2008, 04:56 AM
The election has already been stolen, so to speak.

The game is rigged from the start so it seems to me rather frivolous to be bickering over the theft of a rigged game.

That said I still respect your work but do not understand the point of it knowing what you know.

"Frivolous" - and I tried to preempt that by a well considered response to your post, which was excellent J'espere ...

I didn't start from an assumption and then draw conclusions based on those assumptions. If the assumption is that the system is inherently corrupt and corruptible, that's just reality. If it's that every election is stolen in terms of actual count, that's wrong. They can't do that becaue it would be too obvious. Elections are a key element maintaining overall control. You give a little, then take a great deal. There needs to be an "opposition" win now and then and this is one of those times. The votes are actually there for Obama so they don't even have to fix it. The interesting thing about this election is, even if they had to fix it, they wouldn't have the ability to do it this time. We'll get more of the same but not quite as much and maybe not quite as insane. If Obama tries to free lance, then there's always the cooperative Biden to fill his shoes. That would be a coup with a bonus - a ready made stand in with "all the right stuff." And from Delaware no less;)

This election will be the second instance in short order where those in charge have not gotten their way.

The first bailout bill was stopped by something that's never happened - spontaneous call ins to Congress that were 30 to 1 against the ailout. It wasn't from an organized effort - people just did it with information provided by some high motivated groups. 30 to 1 opposition but a 229 to 200 vote. Then they shove it down our throats in the Senate - AND IT WAS A BILL OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP. People noticed and will remember.

So we learned two things.

1) The people can stop vital thefts like this bill even though the people voting on them the bills almost all, to the person, are on the take.

2) The people can actually electe their choice, the numbers can work. The problem is that to be come one of the choices, you have to toe the line.

I've said from the start that Obama was popular because he received the collective projection as someone who represents "change." People wised up to that, by and large, but they continue to support him as a protest vote.

All the better when he's elected. Roused by the notion that the winner was actually elected, the expectations will be very high. Any ongoing nonsense like support of 'no bank left behind' and failure to prosecute the perpetrators; engatement in a new war and maintenance of the Iraq crime; or allowing the nation to be impoverished will be met with the spirit of the first bailout bill.

What I believe is this:

They fix elections all the time but no all elections.
They're not able to fix this one without totally discrediting the notion of U.S. democracy
They don't really need to given Obama's ascent to the underlying premises.
The people stopped the most important bill ever for the current power structure.
The people will elect their candidate (knowing that he's imperfect)
That election plus the temporary victory that will endure in memory will have outcomes that show that more effective mass action can actually ahieve something. It may or may not be through elections or stopping bills but there is now a predicate for citizen impact.
Failure by the place holders to really acknowledge the new reality will create real problems for them.

That's never good for authoritarians of any stripe. It would have been a better statement to boycott the elections but unfortunately, we don't have a system in place for that right now.

But my basic attitude is expressed in this great photo from the 2000 Inauguration

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/autorank/001/ungovernable.jpg

Michael Collins
10-11-2008, 04:56 AM
dupe

Michael Collins
10-11-2008, 06:46 AM
duplicate

anaxarchos
10-11-2008, 03:59 PM
The election has already been stolen, so to speak.

The game is rigged from the start so it seems to me rather frivolous to be bickering over the theft of a rigged game.

That said I still respect your work but do not understand the point of it knowing what you know.

"Frivolous" - and I tried to preempt that by a well considered response to your post, which was excellent J'espere ...

I didn't start from an assumption and then draw conclusions based on those assumptions. If the assumption is that the system is inherently corrupt and corruptible, that's just reality. If it's that every election is stolen in terms of actual count, that's wrong. They can't do that becaue it would be too obvious. Elections are a key element maintaining overall control. You give a little, then take a great deal. There needs to be an "opposition" win now and then and this is one of those times. The votes are actually there for Obama so they don't even have to fix it. The interesting thing about this election is, even if they had to fix it, they wouldn't have the ability to do it this time. We'll get more of the same but not quite as much and maybe not quite as insane. If Obama tries to free lance, then there's always the cooperative Biden to fill his shoes. That would be a coup with a bonus - a ready made stand in with "all the right stuff." And from Delaware no less;)

This election will be the second instance in short order where those in charge have not gotten their way.

The first bailout bill was stopped by something that's never happened - spontaneous call ins to Congress that were 30 to 1 against the ailout. It wasn't from an organized effort - people just did it with information provided by some high motivated groups. 30 to 1 opposition but a 229 to 200 vote. Then they shove it down our throats in the Senate - AND IT WAS A BILL OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP. People noticed and will remember.

So we learned two things.

1) The people can stop vital thefts like this bill even though the people voting on them the bills almost all, to the person, are on the take.

2) The people can actually electe their choice, the numbers can work. The problem is that to be come one of the choices, you have to toe the line.

I've said from the start that Obama was popular because he received the collective projection as someone who represents "change." People wised up to that, by and large, but they continue to support him as a protest vote.

All the better when he's elected. Roused by the notion that the winner was actually elected, the expectations will be very high. Any ongoing nonsense like support of 'no bank left behind' and failure to prosecute the perpetrators; engatement in a new war and maintenance of the Iraq crime; or allowing the nation to be impoverished will be met with the spirit of the first bailout bill.

What I believe is this:

They fix elections all the time but no all elections.
They're not able to fix this one without totally discrediting the notion of U.S. democracy
They don't really need to given Obama's ascent to the underlying premises.
The people stopped the most important bill ever for the current power structure.
The people will elect their candidate (knowing that he's imperfect)
That election plus the temporary victory that will endure in memory will have outcomes that show that more effective mass action can actually ahieve something. It may or may not be through elections or stopping bills but there is now a predicate for citizen impact.
Failure by the place holders to really acknowledge the new reality will create real problems for them.

That's never good for authoritarians of any stripe. It would have been a better statement to boycott the elections but unfortunately, we don't have a system in place for that right now.

But my basic attitude is expressed in this great photo from the 2000 Inauguration

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/autorank/001/ungovernable.jpg

Not to worry... Chlamor is just being a "leftist". It is the equivilant of saying, "We know that all their wars involve genocide and torture, so why bother to expose it?" Of course it is still worth exposing torture and fraud and corruption because there are many who do not know about such things... even if we would be against their wars, their state, and their elections even without torture, fraud and corruption (It is kinda moot because they are indivisible from one another).

It is OK for chlamor to be a "leftist". It is a very rare thing at the moment and he'll get over it when it matters. As for me, you know about my interest in this stuff: One more time, it's all about race.
.

Kid of the Black Hole
10-11-2008, 07:46 PM
Auto, I see this slightly differently. First of all, you say that they can't steal all the elections all the time. I guess that's right but..

Auto, lets have a think here, what about fucking Jim Crow. Its kind of ironic that the Right is able to get a much larger rise out of people over voter fraud (ie "Obama is registering more people in some areas than there are people in the area!!!"). Do you really think when someone repeats this noxious claim that they are oblivious to the real (and very lethal) voter suppression tactics of the last 150ish years?? I think they're oblivious for one reason and one reason only" they don't give a flying fuck.

They don't care about our penal system being the new Jim Crow, they don't care about the disenfranchisement of blacks, or any other else that doesn't affect white people. This is just my personal observation and experience talking but.."vote fraud" only exists for them in the form Obama, and the "Chicago Machine" dating back to Kennedy. Nope, not oblivious but impervious..

The people who, on the flipside say "Bush stole it..twice!!" tend to mostly just hate George Bush. Not saying that's wrong but it doesn't require alot of acumen, does it? They're partly the same people who -- for instance -- are still talking about Marvin Bush blowing up the Twin Towers (gotta link on that auto?)

What I'm saying, I guess, is that there's a reason that what you're writing about is not gaining much traction while a cascade of crazy, mindblowingly stupid shit is trafficked at will.

Peel back a few more layers of this onion Auto..

Michael Collins
10-12-2008, 05:48 AM
Auto, I see this slightly differently. First of all, you say that they can't steal all the elections all the time. I guess that's right but..

Auto, lets have a think here, what about fucking Jim Crow. Its kind of ironic that the Right is able to get a much larger rise out of people over voter fraud (ie "Obama is registering more people in some areas than there are people in the area!!!"). Do you really think when someone repeats this noxious claim that they are oblivious to the real (and very lethal) voter suppression tactics of the last 150ish years?? I think they're oblivious for one reason and one reason only" they don't give a flying fuck.

They don't care about our penal system being the new Jim Crow, they don't care about the disenfranchisement of blacks, or any other else that doesn't affect white people. This is just my personal observation and experience talking but.."vote fraud" only exists for them in the form Obama, and the "Chicago Machine" dating back to Kennedy. Nope, not oblivious but impervious..

The people who, on the flipside say "Bush stole it..twice!!" tend to mostly just hate George Bush. Not saying that's wrong but it doesn't require alot of acumen, does it? They're partly the same people who -- for instance -- are still talking about Marvin Bush blowing up the Twin Towers (gotta link on that auto?)

What I'm saying, I guess, is that there's a reason that what you're writing about is not gaining much traction while a cascade of crazy, mindblowingly stupid shit is trafficked at will.

Peel back a few more layers of this onion Auto..

That's always a welcome suggestion.

I don't take responsibility for outcomes. I'm witnessing ("It's a Quaker thing, you wouldn't understand";).

I'll tell you the influence of this effort if you want but it's bed time for Bonzo.

These points you raise are all excellent and I address them all in various screeds. This one is the very best, by far:


Polite Fascism Contracts The Right To Vote

http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0805/24edb2fbad2eb0e20b99.jpeg
Justices Stevens, Kennedy, and Roberts combined with Scalia, Alito, and
Thomas to take voting rights back to 1898.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0805/S00179.htm

A Court and Government against the People (conclusion)

The Court must have known that the millions at risk of losing their voting rights are predominantly black, less educated, and young. Yet the Court made the most political decision since it held its own "election of nine" in 2000 to give Bush the presidency.

This Court also resurrected a doctrine that discriminates against minority citizens that mirrors the Williams versus Mississippi case of 1898. The Court's majority redeemed the once-vanquished doctrine of restricting and contracting the vote.

This is the Court that allows torture by federal authorities; sits idly by as habeas corpus is removed from our laws; allows our votes to be counted in private by partisan corporations; sanctions illegal wars declared only by the president; and rarely misses an opportunity to support the interests of large corporations over those of citizens. Now the Court is collaborating with those who would restrict the vote.

In order to remain connected to reality, it's time to admit and proclaim the obvious fact -- our country is approaching a lawless state. The highest court issued a blatantly political decision that denies the vote in a way that places one political party at a significant disadvantage as we approach a presidential election and, more importantly, threatens to disenfranchise millions.

As it did this, the Court denied the most fundamental tenet of our political history -- the right of all citizens to select their representatives. Today it's the poor and minorities. Which segment of the population will be losing its right to vote next?

How will the people ever fully restore the vanishing right of habeas corpus (see note) and other civil liberties? How will the movement for social justice ever be revitalized?

Election fraud has now been expanded in scope to include the nation's highest court, which has become the enemy of the people. Justice Stevens should read his own words from his dissent in Bush versus Gore:

"Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law." Justice John Paul Stevens, Dissent, Bush v. Gore, Dec.12, 2000

ENDS

Special thanks to The Scholar for his inspiration and to Jill Hayroot, Susannah Pitt, and Alexis Collins for their comments.

Permission granted to reproduce in whole or part with attribution of authorship, a link to this article, and appropriate credit for images.