Theft of 2004 -- AND 2008

[Guest guest]

Fri, 2 Jun 2006 06:30:52 -0400

" Greg Palast " <palast

RFK Jr. & Palast this Saturday: Theft of 2004 -- AND 2008

How They Stole Ohio

 

 

 

 

Theft of 2004 -- AND 2008

How They Stole Ohio

And the GOP 4-step Recipe to 'Blackwell' the USA in 2008

Abracadabra: Three million votes vanish

 

A Buzzflash Exclusive

 

June 1, 2006

 

By Greg Palast

 

[sorry if you're receiving this email a second time; we're in the

process of some massive tech upgrading and apologize for any

inconvenience!]

 

[Heads up! Catch Robert Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Greg Palast

this Saturday on Air America's 'Ring of Fire' on the shoplifting of

the last election … and the next one.]

 

This is a fact: On November 2, 2004, in the State of Ohio, 239,127

votes for President of the United States were dumped, rejected,

blocked, lost and left to rot uncounted.

 

And not just anyone's vote. Dive into the electoral dumpster and

these " spoiled " votes have a very dark color indeed.

 

In another life, I taught statistics. And these statistics stank:

the raw data tells us that if you are a Black voter, the chance of you

losing your vote to technical errors in voting machinery is 900%

higher than if you were a white voter.

 

Any guesses as to whom those African-Americans chose for president on

those junked ballots? Check Ohio's racial demographics, do the

numbers, and there it is: Kerry won Ohio. And that, too, is a fact.

A fact that could not get reported in the USA.

 

But the shoplifting of those votes in Ohio was just the tip of the

theft-berg. November 2, 2004 was a national ballot-box bonfire. In

total, over three million votes (3,600,380 to be exact) were cast --

marked, punched, pulled -- YET NEVER COUNTED. I'm not talking about

the Ukraine or Uganda. I'm talking about the United States of America

" with liberty and justice for all. "

 

Well, not " all. " The nine-to-one Black-to-White ballot spoilage rate

is a national statistic -- not just an Ohio trick. Last year, I flew

to New Mexico to investigate the 33,981 cast but not counted ballots

of that state in the 2004 race. George Bush " won " New Mexico by 5,988

votes. Or did he? I calculated that, of the all the ballots rejected

and " spoiled, " 89% were cast by voters of color. Who won New Mexico?

Kerry won -- or he would have, if they had counted the ballots.

 

But they didn't count them. And that was deliberate. It's in the

plan. It's the program. And the program for 2008 is simple. Two

million ballots were cast but not counted in the 2000 race. (Over

half, 54%, were cast by African-American.) In 2004, the GOP kicked it

up to THREE million. Get ready, these guys aim high: " four in '06 "

and " five in '08 " looks to be their game plan.

 

How will they pile up five million un-voters in 2008? Let's start

with the three million " disappeared " of 2004:

 

Step 1: " Spoiling " ballots -- 1,389,231 of them. In the vote-count

game, these are called " undervotes " and " overvotes. " You can recognize

these lost ballots by their hanging chads, punch cards without punches

(an Ohio specialty), paper ballots eaten by scanners, and touch

screens that didn't know you touched them.

 

Step 2: Rejecting " provisional ballots " -- 1,090,729 in this pile.

Voters finding themselves at the " wrong " precinct, or wrongly

" scrubbed " from voter rolls get these back-of-the-bus ballots first

inaugurated in 2002. In '04, provisional ballots were passed out like

candy to voters in the poorest precincts. They handed them out --

then threw them away -- one million dumped in all. In Ohio,

Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell changed state rules,

allowing him to toss out the ballots of legal voters who cast ballots

in the wrong precinct although these citizens were told their vote

would count after confirming their registration.

 

Step 3: Not counting absentee ballots -- 526,420 of them. At least,

that's what we figure from official stats. But it's anyone's guess

how many mailed-in votes were dumped. (However, in one case, in Palm

Beach, Florida, Jeb Bush's candidate for Elections Supervisor, Theresa

LaPore, counted more absentee votes than absentee ballots mailed in.

Not the brightest bulb in the vote-fix biz, that Theresa.)

 

Step 4: Scrub'm, Purge'm, Block'm. These are the voters who never

got to vote at all. This group includes those who found their

registrations were never entered on the voter rolls. In Ohio, about

one-fourth of those registered by Jesse Jackson's 2004 voter drive,

found their registrations delayed beyond the election date or lost.

 

Add to this un-voter group, those who were wrongly " scrubbed " from

registries as " felons. " For example, there was Bernice Kines, purged

in Florida in 2004 because she was convicted of a felony on July 31,

2009. I repeat: 2009. There was something especially odd about the

Ohio felon purge: ex-cons are ALLOWED to vote in that state, Mr.

Blackwell.

 

How many lost their chance to vote by scrubbing, purging and blocking?

That's anyone's guess, but one million would not be an unfair

estimate -- and that's not included in the 3.6 million tally of

ballots uncounted.

 

Was it deliberate? Oh my God, yes. I'd like you to take a look at

the " caging " lists the Republican National Committee concocted to

challenge voters with " suspect " addresses. It included page after

page of African-American soldiers, like one Randall Prausa, shipped

overseas. Mission accomplished, Mr. President?

 

And there's some new tricks for these old dogs. For the 2006 and

2008, the GOP is pushing new Voter ID requirements. Your signature

won't be good enough anymore.

 

What's wrong with the new ID laws? This: in the 2004 election,

300,000 voters were turned away from the polls for " wrong " ID. For

example, in the " Little Texas " counties in New Mexico, if your voter

registration included a middle initial but your driver's license had

none, you were kicked out of the polling station. Funny, but they

only seemed to ask Hispanic voters. We should see the number of

voters rejected for ID to quintuple by 2008 based on the new " voting

reform " laws recently passed in several states.

 

Also, coming to a polling station near you: more caging lists, scrub

lists, ID challenge lists and more. Exactly why do you think they are

compiling those " War on Terror " and War on Immigration databases?

Behind the 2000 felon purge lists and behind the 2004 caging lists

were databases from the same companies that now have those homeland

security contracts. Are they saving us from Osama -- or from Democrats?

 

I wish I could give you a book on a page, because information is our

weapon: Turn on the lights and the cockroaches scatter. That's why

I'm asking you to read RFK's article on the Theft of Ohio -- and GET

ANGRY. Then read, " Armed Madhouse: … The Scheme to Steal '08' -- AND

GET READY.

 

 

 

**********

BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast is author of ARMED MADHOUSE:

Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, The Scheme to Steal 'O8, No Child's

Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War

-- out Tuesday. Or order it at www.ArmedMadhouse.com.

 

Also, check Bradblog.com and AirAmericaRadio.com for the audio of

Janeane Garofalo, Brad Friedman and Randi Rhodes reading " Kerry Won "

and other sections of Armed Madhouse.

 

Then belly up to the beast: Join Greg Palast and the Reverend Jesse

Jackson (in Chicago), Amy Goodman (in New York), Bob Fitrakis (in

Columbus) and others for the 24-city US/UK Armed Madhouse Class War

Boot Camp meetings. They begin this Monday, sponsored by Ohio

Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections, Operation PUSH, Oregon Voter

Action, Activist San Diego and Pacifica Radio. For dates and

locations, go to www.GregPalast.com