In a gentle way you can shake the world.

- Mahatma Gandhi

The election integrity community was shocked and saddened to learn of the untimely passing of John Gideon, a gentle yet passionately committed giant who devoted himself to the mission which is posted at the top of the VotersUnite.org website: “to encourage citizen ownership of transparent, participatory democracy.”

Mahatma Gandhi believed that we must be the change we want to see in the world. This was well demonstrated when he helped India gain its independence. Gandhi was a revolutionary man, but he accomplished India’s emergence as a nation without starting a revolution. In fact, he advocated no violence. One of the most powerful countries in the world yielded to the commitment of one man and the dream of millions.

In his own way John Gideon took up the Gandhi’s prescription for changing the world without starting a revolution. He decided to be the change he wanted to see. John’s cause was election integrity and he followed Theodore Roosevelt’s prescription for how to go about it: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

John’s way was to publish the “Daily Voting News”, a clip service that was sent out day after day and year after year to keep the election integrity community informed about the latest developments. The Daily Voting News became a trusted, invaluable resource that the entire election integrity movement relied on. The archive itself is a treasure trove of information.

Those of us within the election integrity community who came to know John and rely on his deep and wide-ranging knowledge of election issues are feeling bereft and lost. There is a gaping hole in the fabric of our community. Without being a revolutionary, John helped cause a sea change in U.S. elections. We have come a long way since the first dark days and John’s work has been instrumental in moving us to where we are today.

John’s steady hand at the helm of the Daily Voting News will be greatly missed. In his gentle way John shook the world – and we are all the better for it.

Note: Other tributes to John Gideon can be found at the following links:

VotersUnite.Org: Celebrating the Life Of John Gideon
http://www.votersunite.org

Bradblog: In Memoriam: John Gideon, 1947-2009. Father, grandfather, husband, veteran, patriot, co-director of VotersUnite.Org, democracy advocate, blogger, friend …
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7102

NCVoters: Tributes to John Gideon, RIP National Election Integrity Hero
(A collection of tributes from around the web.)
http://ncvoters.blogspot.com/2009/04/tributes-to-john-gideon-rip-national.html

HARDBALL IN OHIO & THE LOST BALLOTS

Democrats May Lose Big with Brunner Senate Bid

Michael Collins

Also published at Scoop Independent News & American Politics Journal

“Democracy is mocked by the Senate candidacy of the chief elections official, Jennifer Brunner, who did absolutely nothing about the massive defiance by the 58 county election boards that lost or destroyed the legally mandated records of the 2004 presidential election.  Some champion of democracy, some Democrat.” — Michael Collins

Ohio election politics now rival the political hardball of Texas, Illinois, and Florida at their best.  As a result, the state’s Democratic Party may once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2010 election cycle.  Through a bid for the open United States Senate seat, the self described election reform Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner puts two critical goals of Ohio Democrats at risk.

The first is the Senate seat held since 1999 by Republican George V. Voinovich who announced plans to retire at the end of his term this January.  This provided a short-lived advantage for a unified Senate candidacy by Democrats.  But the unity ended when the candidacy of Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, the party favorite, was challenged by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Election 2008 turned the tables on Ohio Republicans.  President Obama’s 51 – 48% win inverted the questionable 2004 outcome, the Bush 51% to 49% “win” over Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).  Obama not only reversed the 2004 results, his 2.9 million vote total is the highest ever in Ohio, a state with static population growth since 2000.

The Brunner candidacy threatens an Ohio Senate win by Democrats in 2010.

The absence of a contested primary is always preferred by either party.  Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (D) has the solid endorsement of top Ohio Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland.  Strickland and Fisher ran as a team to defeat the Republican Governor-Lt. Governor ticket 60% to 35%.

Brunner will divide the party in the primary election.  Those costs and efforts will reduce money for the general election.

Ohio currently has 18 members of Congress, with a ten to eight advantage for Democrats.  Had Brunner chosen to run for re-election as Secretary of State, Democrats would have been virtually guaranteed an advantage on the state Apportionment Board.  With her departure, control of the three member board would be up for grabs should Republicans win the Secretary of State contest.

Brunner offers up a slow pitch for any future opponent by holding onto her office as the chief elections official of Ohio.  She’ll be running in a primary and general election (if she wins the primary then resigns) that she’s preparing for right now as the chief elections official.  Former Republican Secretary of State Blackwell was severely criticized for massive conflict of interest when he did the same thing in 2006.

Brunner’s Record as Secretary of State and the Lost Ballots

Jennifer Brunner was a local judge before running for Ohio Secretary of State.  She ran for and won that office as a Democrat in 2006, part of a sweep of state executive offices for the Democrats.  She replaced J. Kenneth Blackwell, the most controversial Secretary of State in any state for decades.  The resolutely partisan Blackwell ignored multiple warnings that helped create a catastrophe in the 2004 presidential election.  This is well documented as was the pattern of election fraud throughout the country.

Brunner’s qualifications for the United States Senate seat depend largely on her record as Secretary of State.  How did she do?

Brunner promised a fair and open elections program if elected.  She was tested early.  When a federal judge ordered the collection of 2004 presidential ballots from Ohio County election boards, 58 of 88 failed to return some to all of their ballots.  The ballots were to serve as evidence of election fraud in a federal lawsuit underway in the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio charging election fraud in  the 2004 Ohio presidential contest.

The defendants are J. Kenneth Blackwell, the 2004 state Republican Party Chairman, and major election officials.  After initiating the suit, attorneys for the plaintiffs got a court order mandating retention of all 2004 presidential ballots.  By Ohio and U.S. Code, these were to be retained for 22 months.  The court order extended those dates by telling election boards to preserve all ballots “unless and until such time otherwise instructed by this Court.”  Each and every county elections board received a copy of the order.  But when it was time to deliver, a majority of counties said they’d lost, “inadvertently” destroyed, or in some other manner discarded 1.8 million 2004 presidential ballots.  This compromised the law suit.

More importantly, it was a massive show of defiance by county elections officials.

Many counties simply reported the ballots were no longer available without any explanation.  Other counties offered a collection of excuses known as “the dog ate my homework letters.” The elections board in Allen County said the 2004 ballots were “compromised by water damage and subsequently destroyed.”  Water damage was a popular theme.  Holmes County said that the ballots fell on a coffee pot “and broken glass (was) strewn throughout the ballots.  These ballots were destroyed later that morning, as they were saturated and covered with glass.”  In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), hundreds of thousand ballots were thought “lost.”  In an explanation letter to Brunner explaining the sudden appearance of the ballots, the acting elections director, in her own hand, said, “These ballots had been found (“hidden” crossed out) in Cuyahoga’s Canal Street warehouse,” she wrote.

The most instructive letter came from a County prosecuting attorney, not the elections board, who offered the following:

“Unfortunately, the actual ballot cards were inadvertently discarded and destroyed by the Ashtabula County Board of Elections just prior to the receipt by the Board of Judge Marbley’s Order and subsequent directive to your office.”  Thomas Sartini, Prosecuting Attorney, Ashtabula County Apr. 16, 2007

Did the prosecutor write this letter because federal and state laws were violated by said destruction?

This was a prime time opportunity for Brunner to open up an investigation into the sorry state of Ohio elections.  What did she do?  She offered this statement shortly after hearing of the lost ballots.

“If I had evidence of a cover-up, I would investigate,” Brunner said. “For me, the bigger question in 2004 was, ‘How many people were prevented from voting,’ (something) you can’t quantify.”  Jennifer Brunner, Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug 12, 2007

Brunner was never asked to explain how she could have any “evidence” without an investigation.  Brunner’s comment about “how many people were prevented from voting” makes little sense as an alternative pursuit.  It’s “something you can’t quantify,” she said.  What she failed to mention is that the widespread illegal destruction of ballots prevented a major election fraud case from answering that very question — how many citizens were prevented from voting or having their vote count?  If she wanted that question answered, she would have demanded a thorough investigation of the county boards of elections that didn’t do their job.

Mocking Democracy

The Democratic Party had a chance to live up to the meaning of its name when Jennifer Brunner was elected Secretary of State.  The events of 2004, the ballot measures election of 2005, the Hackett-Schmidt fiasco of 2005 and all the other well documented election disasters cried out for a comprehensive investigation.  There was a Democrat committed to democracy in charge.  Surely there would be some justice.

Yet when 58 counties defied a federal judge’s clear order to retain ballots and, in many cases, Ohio and federal laws on ballot retention, they got the endorsement of Ohio’s elected  defender of democracy.

A court filing in the federal law suit in Judge Marbley’s court by the Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) (pp. 54-63) elaborated on the cynicism of the ballot custodians.  This is an email exchange on Sept. 7, 2007 regarding the failure to preserve 2004 ballots.  These are actual board of elections executives:

One election official said: “Someone should tell them to give it up.”

Another responded: “I’m sorry. I’m just a little to busy trying to figure out how the government killed John F. Kennedy to deal with this.”

A third election official answered the question above:  “The Trilateral Commission did it.”  OEJC filing, Federal District Court, 07/10/08

OEJC continues to fight for recognition that ballot destruction is a bottom line issue by those charged with protecting the democratic rights of voters.’

Democracy was mocked in Ohio by those obliged by law to care for the election records when they lost or destroyed evidence in a federal law suit.  It was mocked by the ridiculous excuses offered by those election boards that bothered to explain their malfeasance.  Democracy was mocked when those who destroyed or lost ballots joked about it in emails.  It continues to be mocked by the Senate candidacy of the chief elections official, Jennifer Brunner, who did absolutely nothing about the massive defiance by the 58 county election boards that lost or destroyed the legally mandated records of the 2004 presidential election.  Some champion of democracy, some Democrat.

END

Permission to reproduce in whole or in part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article

Destruction of Evidence   Ohio’s 2004 Ballots Oct. 20, 2007

Stealing Ohio 2004   The Case Heats Up Nov. 8, 2007

Complete collection of “the dog ate my homework letters” – County election officials explaining why they destroyed/lost 2004 presidential ballots

If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament.

I grew up in what I call “The First Free-Range Organic Christian Church of Homer.” Sundays brought a message, fellowship, and a line of repentant souls taking communion-a remembrance of sacrifice.

The first time I cast my vote, it struck me as similar. The blood shed for my right to stand at a flag draped table and make my choice part of the collective wasn’t lost on me. I had one of those “Come to Jesus” moments and in 20 years I haven’t missed an opportunity to vote. Unlike Christ, the idea of democracy has never shed a drop of blood; patriots did. The same can be said of the suffragettes. Unlike the sacrament celebrated in religious ritual, elections should not be faith-based. The framers never intended our government to be run on trust; hence the myriad of checks and balances. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Election integrity is not about restoring faith in the system. Checks and balances are. When we vote, the agreement we all make is we cast our ballots for candidates who may not be the victor. We know that. Taking the risk of voting for a loser only works if you have confidence the process is beyond reproach. It is equally vital the winning candidate have an agreement the citizenry will follow their lead. Leadership can only be ordained if the people know their votes counted.

The past eight years have shown us the result of questioned elections. After election disasters in Florida and Ohio, a good portion of the country didn’t agree George W. Bush was legitimate. I know people who refused to call him President Bush because of the suspected election fraud.

Alaska has a rich history of questionable elections. 2008 has been no different. Anomalies prompt people to scratch their heads and watch just a little closer. From some reactions, you would have thought asking a question was “unpatriotic.” After reporting on the 2004 Election tampering, and knowing full well it was questionable, I wondered what this year’s ballots would tell us. Apparently, Alaskans have completely changed their “voting habits” to include: a mail-in preference, cross-ballot voting, and finally, registering to vote and then not showing up. Alaska headlines are screaming “record turnout!” But in truth, our percentage of voter turnout is still lower than our average historical Presidential election records show. So what? Does that mean we shouldn’t ask questions and get answers about reconciliation? As Americans we pledge to hold our leaders accountable; why wouldn’t we start by holding the process of elections to the highest levels of integrity.

The day after the election I was in contact with both the Begich and Berkowitz campaigns. I’ve been in very close contact with the Alaska Democratic Party which has filed Public Records Requests. Experts from around the country are more than happy to answer questions or to mull over possible explanations to the election anomalies. People much smarter than I are paying attention, and are asking their own questions. A reporter I’ve bumped into for several years called today. He wanted to know if I thought the current vote count in Alaska was still “stinky.” Another local asked if I thought the process was now legitimized since Begich was now leading Stevens. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? That my questions would hinge on partisanship is insulting and indicates a complete lack of understanding. Anyone who thinks we don’t need a more transparent election process because their candidate is in the lead is a pathetic partisan hack. Anyone who believes election integrity is a “fringe” issue mocks those who have died to either earn the right to vote or protect it.  I became a voter registrar in February of this year. To want to count only votes cast for my party of choice is vulgar. Not watching the referee calls when your team is winning is to invalidate the game.

So do I still smell the mudflats? Yes. Do I know what the source of stench is? No. Could it be the late wafts coming off the 2004 election? Possibly. What I know most certainly is this: voting is a sacred right; a remembrance of those who fought hard and shed blood for a bulletproof idea. Guarding the integrity of elections is essential to our democracy and anything less is blasphemy.

Show up. Ask questions.

Every vote counts.

Michael Collins, journalist and election integrity activist, has written an article for 911Blogger.com on the security and prospects of the United States electoral process. He details five elements of electoral fraud: 1) No discussion of serious issues 2) Unnaccountable secret electronic vote counting 3) Voter disenfranchisement demographics reveal racist bias 4) Exit polling done by corporate media conglomerates, who keep the raw data secret 5) Psyop; voter fraud is an almost non-existent phenomenon with huge hype, while the legitimate concerns over possible electoral fraud are ignored and suppressed.

Source: http://www.911blogger.com/node/18351

(With the Presidential election on the horizon, I asked Michael Collins, who is a serious student of the Fraudulent elections of the past few years, to pen a short piece for visitors of 911blogger, summarizing the dangers of Election Fraud… not “Voter Fraud”… Election Fraud. -rep.)

Hope for Change or Change Your Hopes?

Elections and Voting in a Dissociated State

by Michael Collins, 10.31.2008

“Some say” that no matter who gets elected we’re still going to be in Iraq, the bailout will continue, and there will be no drawdown of the bloated budgets, particularly the military, that feed the defense contractors their daily ration. We’re not getting national health, rather an electronic exchange and so forth down “the middle of the road” of national leadership.

Here’s some news from the election fraud segment of our precipitous decline thanks to greed and avarice, not to mention stupidity, on the part of the ruling elite. Everyone of the problems mentioned could be solved without much cost in a few months. Everybody in power knows that and only a few officials act to serve citizens. They’re rarely rewarded and frequently punished and marginalized for their service.

The Elements of Election Fraud

1) To begin with, it’s a fraudulent election when the format of the campaign and the filters at the corporate media dictate that

We’ve got Rev. Wright, Palin’s pregnant daughter, too old, too young, and “The Clinton” (the name for the two combined). I’m sure that these must have some import somewhere, but they just occupy space while the real issues go unmentioned, almost: looming eco catastrophes and what to do about them; how did those 1,000,000 people die in Iraq (soldiers + Iraqi civilians); looting of the treasury by failed financial institutions; inadequate health care. The issues that dare not speak their name don’t much and we’re stuck with pabulum for enquiring minds.

That’s the real fraud.

2) With regard to the sanctity of your vote, forget about it. In principle, electronic voting “disappears” your vote and does with it as it chooses. Machines can give you a paper receipt, in the case of touch screens, or you can use a paper form and run it through an optical scan reader and you get the same result – a vote recorded in electronic memory that only the Republican manufacturers can legally access (for “competitive reasons’). These right wing vendors also run tabulation and technical assistance. We have completely outsourced elections. What can they mean, ultimately?

To compound things, the security problems with the machines continue. It’s almost piling on to mention the latest but here are a few articles.

Election 2008: Who Decides? People Or Programmers?
Dangerous to Democracy – CA Secretary of State Bowen FINAL PROOF Touch Screens

3) Ultimately election fraud is a race crime. Since the end of the Reconstruction era, various groups in the Deep South crafted voting laws that rapidly disenfranchised black citizens. “The Redeemers” and the “Ku Klux Klan” pioneered the “literacy test,” the removal of the ability to vote due to a felony conviction, obtuse registration practices, and charges for voting (“poll taxes”). These flourished in the south and have spread across the land. Today 2.5 million ex felons, the ones who have paid their debt, are permanently barred from voting. There are a variety of methods of intimidating poor people. “Caging” identifies voters who have moved and sets up challenges to their voting status. These are targeted voters in poor neighborhoods who can be chased off easier than your average Volvo owner. Registration list “cleansing” also removes poor and minority voters by creating criteria that result in removal.

The Sentencing Project Interactive Map on Felon Disenfranchisement

Polite Fascism Contracts the Right to Vote – Another Supreme Outrage May 13, 2008

4) In 2004, the exit polls conformed to the final vote count to show a 51-48 Bush victory. The pundits failed to not that the Bush “victory” occurred in the big cities, 500,000 or greater population. The red rural base that was the basis of this “red versus blue” election dropped like a rock from 23% of the vote in 2000 to 16% in 2004. Bush actually gained 4.0 million new votes in the big cities to compensate for this rural segment loss. We all know how beloved Bush is in U.S. big cities, especially after four years of neglect and derision. The exit polls would have us believe that Bush was the first president to lose his base big, rural voters, while making it up and winning it in hostile territory, the big cities. But ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, and the Associated Press, proprietors of the exit poll operation know best (even if they fail to report on it).

Election 2004: The Urban Legend Michael Collins July 13, 2007

Notes from the Underground Michael Collins Aug. 22, 2007

5) PsyOps. There are two major wholesale psyops operating in this election.

The first is the “voter fraud” fantasy. Voter fraud refers to individual voters or groups voting without being registered or voting multiple times. The Republicans would have us believe it’s an epidemic crime. Illegal aliens risk their status here through the conspicuous act of voting illegally, they argue. The poor, so easily intimidated by the accusers when they wrongfully challenge them at the polls, are supposedly coming out in droves. Non existent voters are being registered. These are all contrived pathetic lie. Here is what the Gonzales Department of justice did when they tried to catch every case of voter fraud for a three year period – 38 prosecutions – 24 convictions.

The phenomenon barely exists, yet the federal government spends tens of millions of dollars trying to stop these 8 voters a year, on average, from committing fraud. It’s a testimony to the absurdity of our government that they would even do this. The states mimic the federal government and use the fiction of voter fraud to enact highly restrictive registration and voter identification programs.

Here’s the truth about voter fraud in 3 or so pages. It’s from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Mail it to your local media and anyone else you can think of. It will really bother them if they read it. They won’t stop the psyops but their chip may malfunction  The Truth About Voter Fraud (outstanding resource).

More information about spreading the word on voter fraud – all in one web page.

Spread the link around and help people change the reality on this lie of lies:

http://electionfraudnews.com/vf/banner1.htm

Other than that, it’s all good.

Please take a moment to vote in this poll and let us know how worried you are about the possibility of being disenfranchised in this year’s election. Unlike some election officials, we promise to COUNT YOUR VOTE!

Protect yourself! Check out “7 Ways To Steal Back Your Vote” by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Greg Palast at our sister site, RFKJrNews.com and also be sure to download a copy of the FREE voter guide sponsored by RFK Jr. and Palast at http://StealBackYourVote.org.

Steal Back Your Vote

NAACP Sues Virginia For Election Protection

Ethiopia Building Africa’s Largest Wind Farm

Charles Barkley Wars With FOX News

Fatal Shooting In Brooklyn On Monday

Marion Jones To Discuss Jail On ‘Oprah’

Cynthia McKinney on reparations: There are many things to do to end the disparities in our communities: remove lead paint, improve the diet of all children, improve schools in low-income neighborhoods instead of giving them fewer resources; the list goes on for quite awhile.  Reparations is one of the things that completes the picture.

(excerpt from)
5 Spot | Cynthia McKinney, 2008 presidential Green Party candidate

By Joseph Bateman
SLWeekly.com (Salt Lake City), October 23, 2008

Cynthia McKinney is a former Georgia House of Representatives member. She served six terms as a Democrat, including powerful assignments on the Armed Services and International Relations committees. In 2008, she left the Democratic Party to run for president as the Green Party candidate.

You were originally a Democratic member of the House, but switched party affiliation to the Green Party. What motivated this shift?

The Democratic Party left me by refusing to address rampant voter disenfranchisement in 2000 and 2004 and refusing to stand up to an administration that was lying to the public, which resulted in trillion-dollar deficit for the people and loss of lives in Iraq. I found a home where my values were reflected back to me, with the Green Party.

What changes would a McKinney administration bring?

First, we would stop the wars. Then, we would start to undo the mess Wall Street has made with the connivance of the two parties by bringing the four pillars of the Green Party (ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and nonviolence) into the policymaking of this country. We would see an end to institutional policies of discrimination and class division, which would strengthen our communities to be sustainable, healthy, and livable…

You propose reparations for blacks. Would this lift the economic disparity? Where would the funds come for this program?

The fortunes in this country were originally based on ownership of land or on the slave trade, and that original deficit in the owning of land created an economic hole that African-Americans have never been able to climb out of. A lack of democracy has perpetuated that system, in which African-Americans own less, and are subjected to the most financial irregularities that Wall Street perpetuates. There are many things to do to end the disparities in our communities: remove lead paint, improve the diet of all children, improve schools in low-income neighborhoods instead of giving them fewer resources; the list goes on for quite awhile.  Reparations is one of the things that completes the picture. If we stop funding wars and bailouts, we could do amazing things in this country…

Do you believe you will win?

What is your definition of “win?” If the Green Party gets 5 percent of the vote, we will qualify for millions of dollars in public funding. This will enable us to promote policies that the other parties aren?t even mentioning, such as single-payer, universal health care. If you want public policy that that reflects your values, then your vote for the Green Party will be a step toward that goal.

-

Dear Friends of Election Integrity,

With over 95% of U.S. votes counted by machines that use secret software
(such that no human being can know after an election what instructions the
machines actually executed), and with no scientific, independent
post-election manual audits in any state, and with no public oversight
over ballot security in most states – there is no reason to trust in the
accuracy of U.S. election results. Even the detailed methodology and data
of the media pollsters is usually kept secret from the public.

Please help our country by volunteering to help with this citizen exit
poll project (See below). It may be the only way to detect
suspicious-looking vote patterns caused by vote miscount that could
wrongly alter the outcomes of our November 4th election.

Kathy Dopp

The vulnerability of US voting systems to mass scale fraud has been well
documented, but little has been done to establish meaningful checks. Bad
as the last few elections have been, coming elections – including this one
- could be worse. “Improvements” such as early and mail-voting
See what’s wrong with them

and purging of voting roles
Voter roll purge in the 2000 Florida election

continue to undermine election integrity and a wide variety of vote suppression

portends poorly for what we may see on November 4.

One of the few ways to detect mass scale fraud under such conditions is an
Election Verification Exit Poll

Such polls have been used around the world to ensure election integrity
and have been used to overturn fraudulent national elections.

On November 4, Election Integrity is engaged in a two-part exit polling effort:

(1) Our 3rd professional poll to determine and document whether official
numbers reflect how people say they have cast their ballots, to
investigate any discrepancies and to establish exit polling as a meaningful
verification technique (see our May primary pilot project).

(2) a Citizens Exit Poll with the Election Defense Alliance
to:

* extend our ability to ascertain the veracity of official reported voting
results;

* detect specific indications of election fraud, which can be further
investigated;

* develop citizen polling as a means to detect and deter fraud; and

* to give citizens the tools to take control of their elections and their
government.

You can volunteer.

The Election Verification Exit Poll project

To properly prosecute these efforts, we need your help.

I realized a long time ago that the idea of self-government based on
pushing a button for one name or another every few years was inevitably a
fantasy. In the end, self-government, or for that matter, good-government
demands citizen involvement and oversight. So, please, volunteer

or donate.

Democracy depends on it.

Steven Freeman

http://ElectionIntegrity.org

About Our Exit Polls: Video: Interview about exit polls and election
verification

Make no mistake, this is the voting rights battle of our lives. Voting is not supposed to be this hard. But it’s up to each of us to defend voting rights. No one else will.

The new Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr & Greg Palast outlines once more what we’re up against –

Block the Vote
Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?

The Republicans scream “voter fraud” while McCain secretly pushes for an FBI investigation into ACORN. Maybe they’d better investigate what’s going on in California, while they’re at it.

Ontario police arrest man in voter fraud case
By Evan Halper
SACRAMENTO — The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

McCain Employing GOP Operative Accused of Voter Registration Fraud
Sam Stein, The Huffington Post: “John McCain’s campaign has directed $175,000 to the firm of a Republican operative accused of massive voter registration fraud in several states. According to campaign finance records, a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the RNC and the California Republican Party, made a $175,000 payment to the group Lincoln Strategy in June for purposes of ‘registering voters.’ The managing partner of that firm is Nathan Sproul, a renowned GOP operative who has been investigated on multiple occasions for suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and even, once, spearheading efforts to get Ralph Nader on ballots so as to hinder the Democratic ticket.”

Voters Say They Were Duped Into Registering as Republicans
Evan Halper and Michael Rothfeld, The Los Angeles Times: “Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP contractor with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country. Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed.”

In a more hopeful sign, Obama’s team is already engaged in the battle –

Obama’s Legal Team Seeks Special Prosecutor for Voter Registration Probe
Todd Spangler, The Detroit Free Press: “Barack Obama’s legal team wants a special prosecutor to determine whether partisan politics is at play in a reported though unconfirmed Justice Department investigation of a voter registration effort which has been the target of numerous complaints of late, including one in Michigan.”

Obama Assembles US’s “Largest Law Firm” to Monitor Election
James Rowley, Bloomberg News: “Barack Obama and John McCain have a litigation game plan to accompany their election strategy. Both candidates have armies of volunteers to ring doorbells and get voters to the polls. They are also forming squadrons of lawyers who are filing challenges and preparing in case Election Day doesn’t settle the contest for the White House.”

But Ohio is already a great big mess. Last week this looked like a victory –

Justices Rule Against Ohio GOP in Voting Case
Adam Liptak and Ian Urbina, The New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court’s order requiring state officials in Ohio to supply information that would have made it easier to challenge prospective voters. The decision was a setback for Ohio Republicans, who had sued to force the Ohio secretary of state, a Democrat, to provide information about database mismatches to county officials.”

Then again, maybe not –

US Sup. Ct. Rules on Ohio 2008: Wants to See Vote Counts before Final Ruling
by Paul Lehto
US Supreme Court issues first ruling RE: Ohio election, what feels like victory may not be, in the end

All is not exactly as a surface reading makes it seem.

The first US Supreme Court ruling on Ohio for Election 2008 was released today: a two-page stay order issued as a per curiam opinion (speaking for the entire court) of the US Supreme Court.  At bottom it preserves the status quo in Ohio, and hands victory to Brunner and relief for those fearing 100,000 to 600,000 purged voters.  But, this status quo is both good and bad. 

Now the Ohio SOS is under attack –

Web site back up for Ohio elections chief
COLUMBUS: The Web site for Ohio’s elections chief is back up and running after being hacked.

Kevin Kidder, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said no personal data was at risk.

The Web site experienced several security breaches Monday. Officials partially disabled the site to protect state records and data. Until it was fully restored today, the site did not have information including detailed campaign finance reports and past election results that it normally does.

The State Highway Patrol is investigating.

Brunner’s office said it has been inundated with death threats in e-mails and telephone calls, and received a package last week containing an unidentified powder.

Brunner has been the subject of criticism. Ohio Republicans have sued her over voter registration rules.

Early voting is underway in several states, including Colorado, and the machines are malfunctioning in favor of the Republicans – right on cue.

More W.Va. voters say machines are switching votes
In six cases, Democratic votes flipped to GOPBy Paul J. Nyden
WINFIELD, W.Va. — Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for “Barack Obama” kept flipping to “John McCain”.

If the voting machine problems are really the fault of careless voter, how come we never hear about votes flipping from John McCain to Barack Obama?

Huh. That’s weird.

Okay, so vote early. Don’t vote on a voting machine. Request a paper ballot at the polling station. Or vote by mail.

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BLOCK THE VOTE

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s latest article in Rolling Stone is a collaboration with investigative journalist Greg Palast in which they expose the pre-planned systematic theft of the 2008 election.

This article is a must-read for every voter. Before you go the polls, better make sure that “your papers are in order,” and that you will be able to vote. Learn more at the non-profit election integrity organization group founded by Kennedy and Palast, http://StealBackYourVote.org, where you can download a free step-by-step voter’s guide. Check it out and forward the link to your friends and family!

Aaron Klein at World Net Daily has this exclusive story about Obama’s lie and ACORN. In his story he highlights Obama lie in the presidential debate. Read more from Aaron Klein:

In the third and final presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama lied last night about the extent of his relationship with a radical leftist organization that has admitted to major financial improprieties and has been convicted in numerous, massive voter fraud scandals.

It was the second time in a week the presidential candidate or his campaign misled the public regarding his ties to ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

“The only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs,” Obama declared at last night’s debate in response to a statement from Sen. John McCain.

I know for a fact he lied. I wrote about Obama and ACORN in a story, Obama’s ACORN for the first time in July. I was the first person to break the story about Obama’s False FEC Filings in August. All stories after that including David Brown’s with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review were subsequent to mine.

“Now, with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they’ve done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn’t really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names,” Obama said.

“It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved,” he declared.

BS! I decided to look for payments to ACORN within Obama’s FEC filings, seeing none, I searched for odd payments. Those odd payments added up to $832,000 to Citizen’s Services Inc… an associated ACORN company… I choose to call it a front company.

Lets read more from Klein:

“We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. The same front outfit organization that your campaign gave $832,000 for ‘lighting and site selection.’ So all of these things need to be examined, of course.”

McCain referenced a payment originally reported by WND in August when it was first revealed that Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc., a nonprofit organization that is an offshoot of ACORN.

Obama’s claim is quite laughable at best.

Read on:

Obama’s claim last night that his only involvement with Acorn was his representation of the organization in a lawsuit is inaccurate. The 1995 suit on behalf of ACORN, in which the state of Illinois was compelled to implement the federal “motor-voter” bill, was just a sampling of Obama’s association.

ACORN/Chicago is one of the largest ACORN chapters. It is well known in Chicago. Many of ACORN’s early “direct actions” happened in Chicago. We know that Obama was a leadership trainer, represented them in a lawsuit against Citigroup and they worked on his US Senate campaign…

Klein adds this:

ACORN is very active in Obama’s native Chicago, where in 1997, some 200 members attempted to storm a City Hall meeting, resulting in six members being arrested, including Madeleine Talbot, ACORN’s Chicago director.

In the early 1990s, Talbot invited Obama to help train ACORN activists.

While Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago nonprofit, it channeled millions of dollars to ACORN and affiliated groups.

Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund’s website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000.

He served on the Fund alongside William C. Ayers, an unrepentant member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971.

Obama actively sought and received the endorsement by ACORN for his local campaigns.

In the Social Policy Journal, Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader, documents what he terms Obama’s “long service” with ACORN, which he said led many of the organization’s members to help in voter campaigns for Obama’s early Chicago campaigns.

Foulkes said Obama and ACORN were “old friends.”

In 1992, Obama was director of Project Vote in Chicago, which helped register 150,000 voters on the city’s South Side. Obama’s successful work was credited in multiple media reports with helping to elect Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

Obama’s campaign last week falsely claimed ACORN was “not part of” Project Vote, but the organization’s incorporation papers, obtained by WND, show Project Vote is a trademark name whose parent company is registered at the same New Orleans address in which ACORN and multiple ACORN affiliates are housed.

Obama himself previously connected Project Vote to ACORN.

“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work,” Obama was quoted on his own campaign website as saying at an ACORN meeting, according to a post by official Obama website blogger Sam Graham-Felsen.

Clarifying the role of ACORN in Project Vote, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told the New York Times last weekend Project Vote and ACORN were not as intertwined in 1992 as they are today, as a significant part of Project Vote’s revenues flow to ACORN and various affiliates as payment for services.

But LaBolt’s statement, which admits Project Vote and ACORN were intertwined on some level while Obama was director, directly contradicts the Obama campaign’s “Fact Check” claim that ACORN was “not part” of Project Vote.

In a misleading statement, Obama’s campaign website claims “ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee,” but it fails to mention Obama was an unpaid ACORN trainer, as WND first reported in August.

Lewis Goldberg, a spokesman for ACORN, confirmed Obama conducted two hour-long leadership training sessions for his organization in the late 1990s and said Obama was not paid for the work.

Obama actively sought and received the endorsement by ACORN for his local campaigns.

And there are more details:

In the Social Policy Journal, Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN leader, documents what he terms Obama’s “long service” with ACORN, which he said led many of the organization’s members to help in voter campaigns for Obama’s early Chicago campaigns.

Foulkes said Obama and ACORN were “old friends.”

As a state senator, Obama touted many of ACORN’s lines.

National Review Online writer Stanley Kurtz, who conducted a thorough review of ACORN, wrote, “Sure enough, a bit of digging into Obama’s years in the Illinois State Senate indicates strong concern with Acorn’s signature issues, as well as meetings with Acorn and the introduction by Obama of Acorn-friendly legislation on the living wage and banking practices.”

ACORN endorsed Obama’s presidential campaign, which is touted on Obama’s official website.

“What it came down to was that Senator Obama is the candidate who best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about like stopping foreclosures, enacting fair and comprehensive immigration reform, and building stronger and safer communities across America,” said ACORN’s Maude Hurd of the group’s Obama endorsement.

And there is more, not a surprise though:

WND reported in August Obama’s campaign paid more than $800,000 in services to Citizen Services Inc., or CSI, which, as McCain mentioned last night, is a nonprofit offshoot of ACORN.

According to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Obama campaign paid CSI $832,598.29 from Feb. 25 to May 17, including $564,342.21 for “stage, lighting and sound.” The payments stood out since CSI does not offer services for stage, lighting or sound.

The Obama campaign amended the FEC reports in August and September to claim the payments to CSI were for get-out-the-vote efforts.

McCain spokesman Rick Davis last week charged the original FEC filing was an effort to “hide the fact” money was paid to ACORN, while FEC officials told media amended filings are common in major campaigns, including for large sums of money.

I have been saying Obama was hiding the fact that he paid ACORN when I couldn’t find any payments to ACORN. I was very suspicious which led me to CSI.

It doesn’t stop there. As it turns out ACORN has been Obama’s most ardent supporter and perhaps the most questionable association in his short political career … a rotten nut at best…..

Here is the rest of the story:

Election integrity in doubt

Last Friday former state Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman, a Republican, said at a news conference she had no confidence in the integrity of the electoral process in Pennsylvania as a result of what she termed the extensive voter registration effort by ACORN.

“[There is] potential of massive voter fraud. … I am not confident we can get a fair election” on Nov. 4, said Newman, who retired from the court in 2006.

ACORN and other groups reportedly submitted 252,595 voter registrations in Philadelphia, of which 57,435 were rejected, most of them submitted by ACORN. Officials said the registrations had faulty Social Security numbers, incorrect dates of birth, “clearly fraudulent” signatures, addresses that did not exist and duplicate registrations.

Other key areas in PA had similar problems, Newman said.

A CBS news investigation showed similar problems across the nation.

The news organization said it talked to nearly two dozen ACORN workers who all said they were pressured to increase their number of registration cards to the point of copying names out of phone books, signing up inmates and registering the dead.

“Whether simple error or outright fraud, the charges surrounding ACORN are already raising doubts about the integrity of the upcoming election in key parts of the country,” the CBS investigation concluded.

History of fraud

Last July, ACORN settled what was described by the Washington secretary of state as the “largest case of voter fraud in the state’s history.” Government prosecutors had filed felony charges against seven ACORN workers, who ended up receiving jail time.

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Hobbs said in the case the workers had admitted filling out registration forms with names they found in phone books. The ACORN canvassers filled out the forms while sitting around a table at the downtown Seattle Public Library, Hobbs said.

ACORN was also investigated in 2006 for submitting false voter registrations in St. Louis. Nearly 1,500 fraudulent voter registrations were identified in the case, which was tied to at least one campaign, that of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Four ACORN workers were indicted in the case.

Also in 2006, four part-time ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City, Mo., for voter-registration fraud after being caught, fired and turned in by ACORN.

In January 2005, two Colorado ACORN workers were sentenced to community service for submitting false voter registrations.

In Ohio in 2004, four ACORN employees were indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter-registration forms.

ACORN has been accused in a number of other voter fraud cases in other states. Some investigations are still pending.

Financial improprieties

The New York Times last month quoted ACORN officials admitting Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from ACORN and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000. A small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement, the Times reported.

ACORN is organized into more than 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S., as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico and Peru. The organization was born out of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s.

ACORN strongly lobbies for gun control, leftist education policies and the regulation of banks, targeting the lending practices of major financial institutions it sees as “predatory.” It has a strong anti-capitalism agenda.

National Review Online writer Kurtz wrote the organization’s primary goals are “municipal ‘living wage’ laws targeting ‘big-box’ stores like Wal-Mart, rolling back welfare reform and regulating banks – efforts styled as combating ‘predatory lending.’”

Sol Stern of the City Journal, who also wrote an extensive piece on ACORN, stated the group’s “radical agenda” occasionally broke through to “undisguised authoritarian socialism.”

He wrote ACORN works to drive big businesses out of cities and force companies that want to move to obtain “exit visas.”

Intrusive, radical tactics

ACORN protests have turned violent, at times as soon as the rallies began. Some protests disrupted Federal Reserve hearings and busted into closed city council meetings.

Stern noted that in 2003, Baltimore ACORN underlings piled garbage in front of City Hall to protest lack of services in poor neighborhoods, wielded huge inflated rubber sharks to disrupt a bankers’ dinner and even staged a profanity-laced protest in front of the home of the city’s mayor, Martin O’Malley.

“They unloaded a busload of people shouting pretty ugly things and scared the daylights out of my wife and kids,” O’Malley told the Baltimore Sun. “I thought it was a pretty cruddy thing to do.”

Obama not only paid ACORN through a front company, Citizens Services Inc this year, hiding payments to ACORN in the end, his association with the group goes back more than a decade. Klein did miss one other problem with ACORN, taxpayer money is funneled from ACORN Housing Corporation to ACORN, the political arm of the group. As of today the amount being touted in a report it is at least $31 million dollars they have received since 1998.

Obama’s association with ACORN is long and very close.

Is this the person we want as our next president? I think not.

For me, It is McCain/Palin, they put country first and talk straight!

Fox story ACORN Acknowledges Voter Fraud, Blames a Few ‘Bad Apples’ indicates that ACORN doesn’t believe that their voter fraud is as bad as voter supression evident in prior elections. Probem one, ACORN has ongoing registration drives in 18 states, and they’re under investigation in at least 12 of those states. That’s at minimum 2/3 fraud rate, far exceeding any reasonable ‘bad apple’ expectation. Problem two, voter supression does not justify voter fraud. ACORN has taken the possition of arguing which sin is greater. Is embezzlement better than theft? Is blackmail better than assault? If any organization is promoting anything other than one person one vote that is obviously wrong. ACORN has now registered the Dallas Cowboys and Mickey Mouse as a voters, and is swimming in fraud claims. Senator Obama for his part has yet to explain how he can pay over $800,000 to ACORN during this election cycle and not demand accountablity for fraud which he is directly supporting via that payment. This isn’t a partisan issue this the core of democracy; one person, one vote, no excuses.

UPDATE: From MSNBC ACORN defends efforts amid fraud allegations, “Obama told reporters on Tuesday that ACORN was not advising his campaign on voter registration.”  

Oh, the irony.  ACORN is registering voters (including Mickey Mouse), so the question for the Obama campaign is how are they influencing ACORN since they paid them $800,000+ just a few months ago. Conveniently, the Obama campaign denied ACORN’s influence on Obama, when the real question is about Obama’s influence on ACORN.

Or – why I’m voting by mail.

Uh-oh. Our election system seems to be in as much disarray as our financial markets.

The news is not good, people.

Is Colorado the next Florida?
Watchdogs worry huge turn-out and a new untested voter database could spell disaster on Election Day
By Naomi Zeveloff

First there was Florida. Then there was Ohio. Will Colorado be next?

The state’s got a brand new voter database system, the longest ballot in the nation and hundreds of thousands of new voter registrations to contend with, all of which raise the specter of chaos at the polls come November. And while elections officials maintain that Colorado can pull off its elections without a hitch, several voter watchdog groups say otherwise …

Huh. Get this. According to The New York Times, removing voters from databases violates federal law:

States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal
By Ian Urbina

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening and trimming of voter registration lists in the six states – Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina – could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers …

It’s enough to make you scream.

Paranoid yet? Well, I am.

As I have shown you on this blog for the past several weeks, your vote is not safe – no matter how you vote. And not only is your vote not safe, your voter registration is not safe. You should verify your voter registration right now at Voters Unite!

Newly registered voters! If you haven’t provided your County Clerk with a copy of your driver’s license, go the office and show them your driver’s license. If you did send a copy of your driver’s license, be sure to double check to verify that you are indeed registered to vote.

I’ve suffered permanent brain damage from all the research I’ve done on voting. Some experts say vote by mail. Some experts say don’t vote by mail. Everyone agrees that you should vote – and vote early.

I can’t tell you what to do because I don’t know the answer. One thing’s for certain. I absolutely will not vote on a voting machine. I did vote on a voting machine in the August 2006 primary election and it creeped me out. The machines can be hacked. Period. That’s all I need to know.

So here’s my plan, which is already in the works:

1 – I received my voter registration card in the mail. But I still verified my voter registration with the CO Sec of State’s office online. Anyone anywhere can go to Voters Unite! and verify their voter registration. Then I printed a copy of my voter registration.

2 – I decided to vote by mail. A mail ballot is a paper ballot. It has a number that corresponds with my name. Therefore it is a physical object that I can trace.

3 – I mailed my request for a mail ballot. Now I wish I had dropped it off at the County Clerk’s office instead because I’m paranoid that my mail ballot request got lost in the mail. Argh!

4 – I received my CO blue book and I’m working on filling out the “cheat sheet”. We have 14 ballot issues (recently pared down from 18) this year.

5 – When my ballot arrives I will be sure to sign it exactly the way my name appears on my voter registration and I will check to make sure my address is correct.

6 – After I check off the right boxes, or fill in the right squares, I plan to scan and make a file of my voted ballot, including the ballot number. Or, a voter could make a photocopy of his voted ballot.

7 – I won’t mail my ballot, I will deliver it to the County Clerk’s office in person.

8 – If there are problems with the vote in Colorado, after the election I will trace my ballot with the County Clerk’s office.

Election Integrity put together an amazing Wiki that has so much info it’ll make your brain numb. They also have a super blog. The Election Defense Alliance will be conducting their own independent EVP exit polling on Election Day. You can find out more at their website.

Only 25 more days …

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Do you believe your vote will count?

In seven weeks, we’ll have a new president-elect, but will we be sure the voting, as conducted by electronic machines, is accurate? According to the findings of a new congressional investigation, the answer is no. The only solution? Ensure there is a voter-verified paper record of every electronic ballot cast.

From the NYT:

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded that the Election Assistance Commission, which is in charge of certification, has improved the system, but it still identified serious problems.

It found that the commission has failed to establish a central repository where copies of all certified software would be available for inspection and cross-checking. States and localities need to be able to ensure that the software they get from voting machine manufacturers is identical to the software that has been tested and certified. The commission has also failed to set up an adequate system for tracking and resolving problems with machines once they are certified and in use.

Certified but Not Guaranteed

by Mike Hersh, MD Progressive Democrats of America

We’re working on Get Out the Vote efforts for PDA-endorsed candidate,Congresswoman Donna Edwards, and turn Virginia blue efforts with our allies. We’re continuing work on our core issues, Healthcare NOT Warfare, Global Warming, Fair Trade, Election Integrity, and Economic and Social Justice. 

Contact me to get involved with ongoing PDA efforts. Join PDA: click here.

PDA needs your support to promote progress in Maryland. Please join the “change makes change” program. Our database, action alert system, materials, printing and other expenses require a budget and generous contributions. For only $5 or more a month you can be the change we need.

Rep. Van Hollen is organizing buses of people to knock on doors in Virginia on the weekends. Buses are leaving every weekend from now until Election Day in Montgomery County on both Saturdays and Sundays and in Prince Georges County on Saturdays. You must register in advance for reservation and departure information. Volunteers are accepted on a first come first serve basis. If you have any questions or you would like to sign up to volunteer please contact Michelle Widmann at Van Hollen campaign headquarters: Michelle@vanhollen.org or (301) 942-3768.

Movie Benefit Wednesday, October 1, 6-9 PM

Join me in Mt. Rainier for UNCOUNTED–an explosive new documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election. Sales of DVDs and other items will benefit PDA.

Artmosphere Cafe: 3311 Rhode Island Avenue, Mount Rainier, MD 20712 (short bus ride from Rhode Island Metro–red line)

This controversial feature length film by Emmy award-winning director David Earnhardt examines in factual, logical, and yet startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S.

Q&A / After-film Presentation by: Rebecca Wilson. For information and RSVP, please contact Jennifer: jenkarius@velvetrevolution.us

So. Are you all DISTRACTED yet???

Hey. I’m just like everybody else. Bleary-eyed. Can’t take my eyes off the TV. We have this zany presidential campaign that has morphed into a Fellini film – with the MSM playing the part of the scary clowns. Then comes this train wreck of an economy. And Bush gets on the TV playing Chicken Little and the sky is falling. So he wants you and me to cough up 700 – ACK! – billion $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. It’s upside down world. Totally wack.

Meanwhile – OMG!!! – the GOP foot soldiers are busy stealing the 2008 election for McCain/Palin. This is not on the TV. This is not funny.

Alls I can say is – in the immortal words of Dennis Kucinich: WAKE UP AMERICA !!!

The Palin factor

The nomination of an unknown Christian conservative woman gives them Christian cover for a surprise upset when the polls don’t agree with the results –

Why They Chose Sarah Palin
by Mark Crispin Miller
To understand how Team McCain intends to get away with stealing this election, we must recall how Team Bush got away with it four years ago. (Those aren’t two different teams.) The plan for stealing this contest has everything to do with the ostensibly surprising choice of Sarah Palin as McCain’s VP. Here’s why…

Planned incompetence

They’ve had YEARS to prepare for record voter turnouts, which we’ve seen in the last two national elections, but they STILL can’t get it together –

Election Day Could Be a Mess
Mary Pat Flaherty, The Washington Post: “Faced with a surge in voter registrations leading up to Nov. 4, election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot. The crush of voters will strain a system already in the midst of transformation, with jurisdictions introducing new machines and rules to avoid the catastrophe of the deadlocked 2000 election and the lingering controversy over the 2004 outcome. Even within the past few months, cities and counties have revamped their processes: Nine million voters, including many in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida and Colorado, will use equipment that has changed since March. But the widespread changes meant to reassure the public have also increased the potential for trouble.”

‘Fatally Flawed’ Systems Await Voters: ‘Drastic Change Needed’
By Rady Ananda
A new report, and video, has been issued by the Computer Security Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “All voting systems recently analyzed by independent security testers have been found to contain fatal security flaws. There is need for drastic change. The very core of our democracy is in danger.”

Some Swing States Not Prepared for Voting Problems in November
Common Cause: “As election officials brace for record-breaking voter turnout on Election Day, a close examination of voting preparedness in 10 swing states shows that significant problems in the basic functions of the American election administration system persist, and in a few cases have worsened over the last few years, a new report by Common Cause and The Century Foundation shows.”

Picky, picky, picky

New voter database systems allow election officials to cross voters off the rolls if they don’t use their middle initial consistently. Say what?

Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands
Kim Zetter, Wired.com: “Electronic voting machines have been the focus of much controversy the last few years. But another election technology has received little scrutiny, yet could create numerous problems and disenfranchise thousands of voters in November, election experts say.”

“Is Your Vote Safe?”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Mike Papantonio
“There are about 30 scams the Republicans are deliberately using, particularly in the swing states to get Democratic voters off the rolls. These scams originate in the so-called Help America Vote Act, which was passed after the Florida debacle in the year 2000. It was originally suggested by Democrats and Republicans, but it was passed by a Republican Congress with a Republican Senate and a Republican president. And instead of reforming what happened in Florida, it basically institutionalized all the problems that happened in Florida.”

Swing state strategy

The GOP is targeting key swing states – even key swing counties! – to play the dirtiest voter disenfranchisement tricks. They’re going after college students, veterans, people who have lost their homes, poor people, black people, Jews – you name it. The crap they’re pulling unbelievable. BUT IT’S TRUE !!

Ten Ways the GOP Is Now Stealing the Ohio Vote
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press: “The McCain/Palin GOP is already in the process of stealing the Ohio vote, as was done in 2004. Among those at the center of the GOP strategy is Bush family computer operative Michael Connell, who programmed the key vote-counting mechanisms that were used to give George W. Bush his second term.”

Election Deception on College Campuses in Swing States
Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers: “Colorado Democrats accused a Republican county clerk Wednesday of falsely informing Colorado College that students from outside the state could not register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependent on their tax returns.”

Virginia: Will New Policy Help Vets Vote in 2008?
Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet: “For the fourth time in six months, the Department of Veterans Affairs has revised its policy on allowing voter registration drives at hundreds of VA facilities serving injured and homeless veterans. Monday’s announcement, on the eve of Senate hearings, said the agency would allow voter registration drives if certain conditions were met.”

Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote
Eartha Jane Melzer, The Michigan Messenger: “The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.”

Obama Campaign Files Voter Rights Lawsuit
Michael Falcone, The New York Times: “Responding to allegations that Republican Party officials in Macomb County, Michigan plan to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls in November, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court to prevent what they contended was an illegal practice. Obama Campaign General Counsel Bob Bauer said that using home foreclosure lists as a basis for challenging voter eligibility would have a ‘deadly effect on the voting process’ and argued that the practice would be illegal.”

GOP Working to Keep Poor African-Americans From Voting in Many States
Jonathan Alter, Newsweek: “It was a mainstay of Jim Crow segregation: for 100 years after the Civil War, Southern white Democrats kept eligible blacks from voting with poll taxes, literacy tests and property requirements. Starting in the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court declared these assaults on the heart of American democracy unconstitutional. Now, with the help of a 2008 Supreme Court decision, Crawford vs. Marion County (Indiana) Election Board, white Republicans in some areas will keep eligible blacks from voting by requiring driver’s licenses. Not only is this new-fangled discrimination constitutional, it’s spreading.”

New Jersey Mistakenly Tells Voters They Aren’t Registered
The state department mailed out about 300,000 letters to residents in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Camden and Essex counties telling them they were not eligible to vote. The letters prompted the recipients, majority of whom were registered to vote and did not need to re-register – to deluge election and elected officials with phone calls Monday.

GOP Voter Suppression Comes To Wisconsin
By Steven Rosenfeld
In WI this past week, the Repub AG Van Hollen, filed a politically timed lawsuit that local election officials say will interfere with turnout for the election on 11/4 and create a bureaucratic nightmare for election workers seeking to process a record number of new voter registrations before then. The game plan is simple: create a bureaucratic nightmare to tie up the election machinery & create bottlenecks to confound voters.

Jewish Florida Voters Targeted By Republican Fake Polls
She was then asked if her opinion of Barack Obama would change if she knew that Obama had given lots and lots of money to the PLO. Joelna told me the caller admitted that the calls were meant for Jews only. And the firm sending the calls, Research Strategies, has a history of working for Republican candidates. This is just the beginning, and it will only get worse.

It’s still the MACHINES, stupid

K. Let’s say you make through the gauntlet of voter disenfranchisement, suppression and caging that’s going on. You’ve checked and double checked with your county clerk. You KNOW you’re registered. You CAN vote and you WILL vote. But the MACHINES will count your vote – even if you vote by mail. Machines that can be programmed to flip votes, count every other vote for a specific candidate, hide votes, and dump votes. Good luck with that.

About Those So-called “Election Audits” – Missing Info
By Bev Harris
NEW ENGLAND – Voting machines in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine are programmed by a single firm, LHS Associates. Connecticut report of Feb. 2008 audit results is MISSING, Univ. Connecticut discovered unchecked “duplicate memory cards” but has been unable to examine all of them, 30% of 2007 audit data missing or unusable. And the other four LHS-programmed states aren’t even checking any of this.

Princeton University Reveals How The GOP Steals Election
Watch a short video that shows you how to steal votes on a voting machine.

Brothers in arms

I know. I know. Like me, you think if they steal this election this time, people will riot in the streets. Hell, I’LL riot in the sleepy Silt streets. Even if it’s just me and my dogs. But they’ve got that covered, too. Check it out –

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1
By Gina Cavallaro
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Hang on! This ride’s about to get a whole lot bumpier.

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If this were medieval England, John Brakey and his fellow election-integrity activists would have Pima County elections director Brad Nelson’s head on a platter, probably garnished with the fingers of County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry and county information-technology chief John Moffatt.

OK, let’s not go too far. What the activists really want is Nelson to lose his job. But since Huckelberry is in charge of personnel and is Nelson’s supervisor, the chances of that happening are nil. And that comes straight from Huckelberry’s mouth.

“Lynchings were outlawed long ago,” Huckelberry says.

What started the latest high-tech lynching attempt of Nelson was the arrest of AuditAZ’s John Brakey, who was working on Sept. 6 as an observer for the Democratic Party during a post-primary ballot hand-count and audit. According to the arrest report, Brakey was told by Nelson to stop talking to the people who were doing the hand-count.

After Republican observer Judi White complained to Nelson, Nelson asked Brakey to stop and to bring any questions directly to him. Brakey didn’t stop; Nelson told him to leave; Brakey didn’t leave; Nelson had him escorted from the counting area by a Pima County sheriff’s deputy. The deputy asked Brakey to leave, but he wouldn’t, and told the deputy he wanted to be arrested.

The deputy cuffed him (with his hands in front of his waist because of an arm injury Brakey was still on the mend from) and took him downstairs. The deputy cited Brakey with criminal trespass in the second degree, took the cuffs off and gave Brakey his phone to call his attorney.

It’s worth noting that the deputy turned down Brakey’s request to cuff him again and take a picture of him with his cell-phone camera, according to the arrest report.

Brakey then called a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 11, attended by a gaggle of other political activists, from Libertarians to Democrats (although Pima County Democratic Party Chair Vince Rabago was nowhere to be seen). It was touted that Republicans were involved, too, but their mainstream leadership was noticeably absent.

Republican Brad Roach emceed the event (conveniently mentioning his race for Pima County attorney); Republicans Barney Brenner (who is challenging Supervisor Sharon Bronson in the general election) and former state Rep. Randy Graf were in the audience, along with Democrats Donna Branch-Gilby, who unsuccessfully challenged Bronson in the primary, and attorney Bill Risner.

The event was used as a platform to call for Nelson’s resignation and to call attention to the broken ballot-bag seals discovered during the hand audit. Activist Jim March said he identified eight precincts with serial-number mismatch issues and broken seals on ballot bags. March called the problems sloppy and unprofessional, but didn’t dismiss the potential for fraud.

Trent Humphries, who narrowly lost a GOP House of Representatives primary, was at the press conference; he found himself surrounded by activists asking him to contest his race. The goal was to keep election results from being certified by the Board of Supervisors on Friday, Sept. 12. Brakey also told Humphries, who lost by 50 votes to second-place finisher Marilyn Zerull, that it was the patriotic thing to do.

Humphries smiled and looked down; he didn’t wind up contesting his race.

But the election-integrity activists did show up at the Board of Supervisors meeting and asked supes to delay the certification and to do another audit–specifically, an audit of a Board of Supervisors race, such as the contest between Branch-Gilby and Bronson.

They also asked for an investigation into wrongdoing in Nelson’s office, based on the serial-number mismatches and the broken ballot-bag seals.

The supes certified the election; however, Chairman Richard El�as did call for an investigation into possible wrongdoing on Nelson’s part regarding the broken seals. He also requested that any other allegations from election-integrity activists be addressed by the county’s newly formed Elections Integrity Commission.

Several days later, things got even more contentions. On Monday, Sept. 15, Brakey and Jim March sent out a press release claiming that the county had stolen the hard drive that’s been stored in a Pima County Superior Court vault while the Democrats and the county argued over how the remaining election database files awarded to the party were going to be transferred. The Democrats and the county also argued over whether a security code was going to be put on the files to make sure the original election database files could be easily identified, so that no file tampering could take place in the future by the county or election-integrity folks.

On Aug. 27, the court–which earlier determined the database files were public records and therefore awarded them to the Democrats after Risner sued the county–told the county to allow the party to have their hard drive without the security codes or any turnover process. Election-integrity activist Mickey Duniho contacted Moffatt via e-mail on Sept. 14 to coordinate putting the codes on the hard drives anyway, and said that the Democrats would be picking up their hard drive.

But Moffatt wrote back saying that the county had its hard drive, and that a clerk had confirmed that Risner had already picked up the Democrat’s hard drive. Election-integrity activists freaked out–an understandable response, considering Risner had not picked up the now-missing hard drive.

By midday Monday, however, nerves were calmed–somewhat–when it was discovered that Moffatt had inadvertently picked up both hard drives, because they had been sealed in one box. Election-integrity activists backtracked a bit from their theft claims, though they still contend that Moffatt must have known he had both hard drives the whole time.

Brakey’s latest e-mail indicated that nothing seemed to be wrong with the Democrats’ hard drive; the evidence seals were still there, and it didn’t seem like the drive had been anywhere near a magnet or an MRI machine. (Huckelberry does not have an MRI machine behind his desk, despite what some activists may believe.)

Considering what an utter mess this has all been, it begs the question: What will happen come November and the general election? Will Brakey be allowed to be an observer? Brakey seems to think that once the trespass charge is dismissed, he’ll be observing; Huckelberry says he’s not so sure. Until the charges are adjudicated, he feels Nelson had every right to ask Brakey to leave, and that is something they will consider if the Democratic Party wants Brakey to observe again.

“Poll-worker jobs are hard enough … but the work on the hand audit is serious and tedious. It’s not as if you can be distracted, because it’s important,” Huckelberry says.

“Brakey’s arrest was a last resort,” Huckelberry continues. “Brad didn’t want or ask for him to be arrested. He just didn’t want him there during the hand count and to stop bothering that process.”

Huckelberry says this was the first election during which he did not get a single complaint about poll-worker misbehavior or people being turned away due to improper identification. Still, he says, the investigation called for by El�as will be taken seriously, and there will be further training for poll workers regarding proper documentation and bag-sealing.

Even Nelson says he thinks the questions raised by the election-integrity folks are legitimate, but that his first priority was to make sure the audit continued uninterrupted.

“Mr. Brakey was being disruptive, which was different from 2006, when he was an observer, and back then, he did direct his questions to me and to the board,” Nelson says. “This time, I asked him to stop, and he did not. One of the things I’ve discussed with Mr. Brakey is that I think we all have the same goal. But I don’t think we’re going to get there when the criticism is personal.”

The election is less than 7 weeks away. Don’t wait for November 4. Now is the time to get ready to vote.

Are you registered?

You have until October 6 to register.

DO NOT assume you are registered to vote. Voter registration lists are constantly updated. During those updates, voters can be removed from the list for any number of reasons. Check with your County Clerk’s office and make sure you are registered, and make sure your name and address are accurate.

If you are a student away from home, you can register to vote in the county where you attend college. It’s perfectly legal. But it’s better if you register to vote by mail in your hometown to avoid any challenges on Election Day. In 1994, my daughter Ema was not allowed to vote in Glenwood Springs, where she attended college, even though she showed up Election Day with her voter registration card in hand and a photo ID and electric bill as proof of residence. So believe me, it happens. The same thing has happened to hundreds – maybe thousands – of students.

And it’s happening right now in at Virginia Tech

Virginia county issues “chilling” voter registration report

Also, double check your polling station because polling station locations have been switched around a lot in the past several years.

Better yet? Vote by mail.

Mail ballots and early voting

You can request a mail ballot until October 28.

This year Colorado has 18 ballot issues to vote on. You can read about them here:

One less initiative on hefty Colorado ballot

For that reason Governor Ritter and many County Clerks are recommending that you vote by mail or take advantage of early voting.

Ritter advocates mail, early voting to speed up Colorado’s election results

You can vote early from October 20 to October 31, at designated polling stations. Go to your county’s website to find local early voting stations.

In Garfield County you can vote early (10/20 -10/31) at the following locations:

Glenwood Springs Courthouse – 109 8th Street, (Room 101c) – Glenwood Springs

Human Services Building (Conference Room) – 195 West 14th Street – Rifle

You can avoid long lines on Election Day by voting early. However if you vote in person or you vote early, you will have to vote on an electronic voting machine, with no way of knowing whether your vote will be counted. And voting by mail isn’t any safer. It’s just easier because of the size of our ballot.

If you decide to vote by mail, you should obtain your ballot through your County Clerk’s office. DO NOT respond to requests that come from any other source.

In Colorado, besides a HUGE ballot, we have other problems hanging over Election Day. Don’t be misled by the misleading headline below. Read the article …

Colorado ranks above others for election
Colorado appears to be better prepared for the presidential election compared with other swing states, but it is still vulnerable to problems, according to a national study released Tuesday.

Colorado’s decertified machines are still not technically certified …

Voting machine tester departs, leaving questions

And the Minerals Management Service employees aren’t the only ones in bed with the big corporations …

‘In Bed With Voting Vendors’: Details Revealed on the Abrupt Resignation of CO’s Election Director

Even more on Colorado’s cozy contract and sweetheart deal for the voting machines:

Dept. of State signed contract knowing of conflict
Contractor owns condo where ex-elections director sleeps

See the movie

Finally, watch Uncounted — the movie. It’s currently showing on Starz.

Wake up and vote!

There are no guarantees in life. There is no safe way to vote. The only way to safeguard your right to vote is to VOTE. Take my word for it. Experts aggress. When more people vote, it’s harder to steal an election.

Next week I’ll show you how they’re already trying to steal the election …

Click here to add From the Styx to your RSS reader.

I favor paper ballots marked secretly/cast publicly, hand counted in full public view on election night in the local precincts with results posted immediately in the precinct and online, with numerous independent exit polls to verify the results. I also favor campaign finance reform; getting corporate money out of the political process. Less commericals and more debates, including 3rd party and independent candidates. Range voting and Approval Voting offer better security, choice and reflection of the People’s will than instant run-off voting. If “elites” are really elite, they should be able to compete on a level playing field with the rest of us. Level the playing field, and let the best hearts, minds and ideas be seen and succeed.

Original, August 23, 2006 http://www.zogby.com/News/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1163

A majority of Americans—61%—are aware of news reports of flaws in electronic voting machines and want members of the general public to be able to watch votes be counted following an election, a new Zogby International poll shows.

The telephone survey of 1,018 likely voters was conducted Aug. 11-15, 2006. It carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.

Asked whether Americans have the right to view and obtain information about how elections officials count votes, 92% of respondents concurred.

 

“The 92% support for the public’s right to view vote counting and obtain information about it is a very strong political value of transparency and against secret vote counting outside the observation of the public,” said Paul Lehto, a lawyer and sponsor of the survey. “To put this figure in context, support for election transparency exceeds the support for tax cuts, exceeds the approval of Pres. Bush immediately after 9-11, and virtually all other political values being measured.” Mr. Lehto is counsel in the 50th Congressional District election contest in California.

 

Most of those surveyed— 80%—said they want votes to be counted in front of observers representing the public, and that elections officials should not rely solely on the proprietary software that operates electronic voting machines that are presently being installed all over the United States. 

We have an election coming up on November 4.

Or do we?

An October 2006 interview with Stephen Spoonamore (former CEO and founder of Cybrinth) has mysteriously and for the first time surfaced. If you care one wit about freedom and democracy you MUST watch and listen to this video. The video appears on You Tube in 8 parts. Each part is 2-5 minutes.

View Part 2

View Part 3

View Part 4

View Part 5

View Part 6

View Part 7

View Part 8

You can view the entire video at Velvet Revolution. However the audio is best on You Tube.

Voting Machines Can Never Be Trusted, Says GOP Computer Security Expert

If a Democrat said what cyber-security expert Stephen Spoonamore is saying, he would be dismissed as a partisan conspiracy theorist.
 
In an interview from October, 2006, that has only now seen the light of day, Stephen Spoonamore, one of the world’s leading experts in cyber crime and a self-described “life-long Republican” destroys Diebold’s already non-existent credibility.

Spoonamore lays it out for anyone to see and understand. If you care about America and it’s survival as a democratic republic, you’ll watch this interview …

Our elections systems have not changed since this interview happened. Without a doubt we are facing another stolen election.

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Kennedy at DNC Red Rocks kickoff concert, Aug. 24

A MESSAGE FROM ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.:

PLEASE SUPPORT NOVOTERLEFTBEHIND.NET

–>

Dear Fellow Democrat: Like many Americans — especially those of us who worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign — I spent Election Night 2004 wondering how the exit polls, which had overwhelmingly predicted defeat for George W. Bush, got it so wrong. Baffled — and sick at heart that a President so unpopular and incompetent was heading for a second disastrous term in the Oval Office — I heard the rumors of a Republican campaign to suppress Democratic votes. And then, painstakingly, page-by-page, with no agenda in mind but finding the truth — the same skills I have employed in my career as an attorney — I began to examine the evidence. What I found shocked me to the core — and by the time I pieced it together in an expose for Rolling Stone magazine, I was convinced beyond all doubt: The Republican Party mounted a coordinated, criminal campaign to steal the 2004 Presidential election — and it worked. Now, as another election approaches, you and I need to stand with Democrats for America’s Future (DAF) to make absolutely certain it doesn’t happen again. You can get involved now by supporting us here. We need to stand up because our country cannot stand for another four years of reckless Republican policies. But most of all, we need to stand together because the integrity of our democracy is at risk. This is about more — far more — than who wins the next election, as important as that is. If we can’t guarantee the citizens of a democracy that their votes will be counted, every other liberty we hold dear is at risk. And that, I regret to say, is a guarantee that our nation failed — abysmally — to uphold in 2004. Consider: Of six million Americans living abroad — a constituency known to vote Democratic — nearly half either never received their ballots or received them too late because the Pentagon shut down a web site that files overseas registrations. George W. Bush “won” New Mexico by 5,988 votes — but more than 20,000 ballots there weren’t properly tallied. Nationwide, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting machines. You might be wondering how irregularities like that happened all over the country. After all, elections are administered by state officials free of partisan influence, right? Well, allow me to introduce you to a man named Kenneth Blackwell. He’s the former Republican Secretary of State in Ohio — the state that, as you surely recall, officially tipped the 2004 election to George W. Bush. As such, Blackwell’s job was to administer an impartial election. But he had another portfolio that year — Ohio chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. If that sounds like a conflict of interest, it was. And Blackwell — having earned his stripes as a top Bush-Cheney official during the notorious Florida recount of 2000 — exploited it with relish. In the run-up to the 2004 elections, Blackwell — known in Ohio as a partisan Republican zealot — allowed 300,000 voters to be expunged from the registration rolls, including almost one in four voters in predominantly Democratic Cleveland. Blackwell also set up a network of kangaroo courts at which Ohio Republicans challenged Democratic voter registrations — often without giving the voters in question a fair opportunity to stand up for their rights. The whole affair was so egregious that a federal court declared it unconstitutional — but by that time, much of the work was done. All told, more than 35,000 newly registered voters were challenged. Many were disenfranchised outright, and many more were intimidated. I could go on. Sadly, though, we can’t reclaim what I am now convinced was the stolen election of 2004 — an election in which the Republican Party implemented a nationwide effort to suppress Democratic votes. What we can do, though — and must — is work together to make sure every last Democratic vote is counted in 2008. That’s where Democrats for America’s Future comes in. DAF is mobilizing a nationwide “NoVoterLeftBehind.net” project that will monitor voting on Election Day in 2008. The squad will shine a public spotlight on every last irregularity. Democrats for America’s Future will urge every Democratic candidate not to concede a single race until every last vote is counted. And from beginning to end — from the voter registration process to Election Day challenges and beyond — DAF will fight every last fight to the very end, insisting that every American is guaranteed a democracy’s most sacred right: their vote. Here’s the challenge: We have every reason to believe the Republicans are, at this moment, preparing a 2008 vote-suppression effort that will rival, or even exceed, the dirty tricks they pulled in 2004. Unless DAF is equally active — unless they have the resources to monitor every vote, every precinct, every campaign, every court challenge — the Republicans may very well get away with it again. That’s why I urge you, in the strongest terms, to rush a generous contribution of $30, $50, $100, $250 or even more to support DAF’s “NoVoterLeftBehind.net”. Your help will ensure that this effort is as aggressive and broad-based as it absolutely must be to succeed. The 2008 elections are approaching fast — and Democrats can’t win unless our votes are counted. Please help today. Sincerely, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.