Election Fraud Op-Ed

I put the term Op-Ed in the title of this because I have an opinion to express about something that has not yet happened. Simply put, I do not trust that the American Presidential election will be an accurate reflection of the intentions of the voters

In such a tight race, it is my opinion that the Republicans will shave enough Democratic votes to be able to appoint Bush to a second term. All the elements for disaster are in place and the motivation to create that disaster is very strong in some sectors of the Republican camp.

The Bush campaign is busy looking for fraudulently registered Democrats. I am sure some will be found as there are always some fraudulent registrations in every election. What concerns me, are not these petty individual frauds, as loathsome as they are, but some of the organized efforts by local election officials in several areas, to deprive large numbers of potential Democratic voters access to the polls.

There is the case of the phony voter registration company that has collected and destroyed unknown numbers of Democratic registrations, in three states. Who is out to bust those bastards?. People who will not know they have been defrauded until they appear at the polls on election day. To late to do much about it, in many polling areas.

As well as the hugely documented problems in Florida, there are new problems showing up in that state during early voting. As well as the problems occurring because of the same old corrupt or incompetent officials that caused the trouble in the last national elections, we now have electronic voting machines that did not function, had not been tested before the beginning of voting, and some machines that had not had their counters reset to zero before the voting began. Most of these problems occurring in counties with Republican election officials. Hard to believe there are no non-partisan election officials in a country that calls itself a great democracy.

International elections supervisory groups, could not certify US elections because of the many failures , irregularities, the lack of a non-partisan federal elections committee, and the use of electronic voting devices that have no recount provisions built in. i.e. a printed record of the vote cast.

Let me say that again: American election standards do not meet the international criteria for fair elections in the trouble spots of the world but, it is, it would appear, good enough for America.

I don't believe Bush will necessarily win the popular vote but I believe he will be made president, no matter how the electorate votes. I sincerely hope I have to take all this back. I hope I must publicly recant my unworthy suspicions in ten days or so. Time will tell.

This is one of those times I would much prefer to be wrong.

Rather than spread the links through out the text, here are the links to things that I'm concerned and talking about.

An open invitation to fraud: Article

Suppression, Fraud, Breakdown, Democracy Now Video

Carter Centre View of American Elections, NPR Audio Interview