Obama Could Lose Election Due To Voter Suppression
Senator Barack Obama is leading Senator John McCain in almost every national poll, yet Obama keeps telling his campaign workers not to be overconfident. Beyond McCain calling himself "the comeback kid," Democrats have good reasons to fear a Republican victory on election day.
First and foremost, Republicans are actively seeking to suppress the voter turnout among the youth and minorities and poor people likely to support Obama.
In Indiana, for example, Republicans filed a lawsuit to block early voting in and around the struggling industrial city of Gary. Republicans lost the suit, but they are appealing.
Republicans are sending private investigators to intimidate lower-class Democratic voters in New Mexico who were legitimately registered by ACORN and other grassroots organizations. (Please see related postings exposing the fraudulent swiftboat-style attacks on ACORN to distract public scrutiny of the Republican vote scams.)
Under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), voter ID laws or being erratically enforced around the country. Some (not all) Republican election officials have been accused of requiring government-issued photo IDs from all voters, which impacts those in poverty as well as legal immigrants who often lack the means to obtain birth records and other documents needed for photo IDs.
While Ohio now allows voters to prove their identity with any array of documents, for example, Republican dominated states like Kansas and Missouri are enforcing the strictest possible interpretation of the law in urban areas likely to vote Democratic.
Another tactic is removing American citizens from the voter registries for dubious reasons. Here in Colorado, for example, as reported by the New York Times, more than 37,000 names were purged from the registration database by the Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who critics contend should have resigned his post from the conflict-of-interest when he won the Republican nomination to run for congress. The Colorado court of appeals on October 30 ordered these voter registrations restored, fortunately.
Also here in Colorado, as another example, Republicans last month told students at liberal Colorado College (in conservative Colorado Springs) that students could not register to vote if their parents live out of state, which as untrue.
And right here in predominantly Democratic Denver, Republican-owned Sequoia voting systems company failed to deliver to the post office more than 10,000 mail-in ballots while telling city election officials that all of the expected 21,000 ballots had been mailed. (This incident represents only one of the required mailings.) Sequoia now admits they made a "technical" error, and the ballots have been mailed to waiting voters.
Elsewhere around the country, as you can learn with a simple Web search, we're seeing Republican voting officials being accused of disenfranchising voters in Democratic districts by not printing enough paper ballots, not assigning enough voting machines, or even reducing the number of polling places.
If Republicans can prevent enough Democrats from casting ballots, McCain could win the election. Going further, those votes that Democrats actually do cast many not be properly counted.
As reported in The Brad Blog and other investigative websites, many of the touch-screen voting machines, like the Sequoia Edge and ES&S iVotronic, tend to malfunction after heavy use. The machines do not record votes properly or at all, in some cases.
The most prevalent problems is what called "vote flipping," where you press the screen for one candidate and the machine shows you voting for someone else. Vote flipping has been reported in Colorado, West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and elsewhere.
Whether vote flipping or failures to record votes are deliberate design flaws or accidental defects, asserts Brad Friedman, Democrats and Republicans alike should demand the elimination of all touch screen voting systems. A federal lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania, for instance, seeks to require that paper ballots be made available to every voter statewide.
Beyond design flaws, electronic voting machines are still subject to tampering, charge critics like Friedman. For instance, the standardized "smart card" that slides into machines like the Sequoia Edge are used by successive voters. If an early-morning voter brings in a smart card that's been infected with a virus, it would be easy to swap out a good card for the infected card when handing it back to the poll worker. That virus could effect the voting on that machine and all other machines for the rest of the day.
So, between voter suppression and voting machine malfunctions or else outright tampering, it's possible that Obama may lose the 2008 presidential election.
The only real safeguards for Democrats are to immediately verify that their voter registration records are accurate and intact, such as through VotersUnite.org. They can vote early as a way to reduce the long lines on election day. They can demand a paper ballot instead of using the machines. If challenged at the polls, Democrats have a legal right to demand a "provisional" paper ballot, which should be counted once their registration is verified in the days after the election.
The key, of course, is for Democrats to vote in such overwhelming numbers that even voter suppression and vote fraud will not be enough to resist the wave of support for Barack Obama.
Regardless of what the polls might say, unless Democrats take steps to ensure that every vote is duly counted, Republicans may retain the White House. The risk is real.
JUDAH FREED is the national political issues examiner for Examiner.com. Judah also is the author of the award-winning book, Global Sense, inspired by Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
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i think the mccain campaign could seriously be said to have botched any chances of winning this election. it may have been a dare to see if he wins what is the publics response. if he wins...sti
In the 2004 presidential election, 57,000 voting irregularities, such as problems with voting machines and voter suppression, where filed with the Government Accountability Office mostly favoring Bush and hurting Kerry. Yes 57,000! If you're a journalist who has courage to speak up, look at the information presented and let it be known to the public.
http://www
Anyone caught trying to subvert a national election should be shot for treason.
We should not be using touch screen voting machines. Period. Let's put an end to this nonsense once and for all.
So much for "Country First". Seems more like - us (Pepublicans) first - screw democracy, screw our history, screw freedom and liberty. And to hell with the truth. They are simply about power - for themselves and those they serve (big business). The sad little sheep who assist them to their own detriment.
It may be too late for this election, but it seems to me it would be appropriate for a number of progressive groups to issue a call for United Nations oversight of major US national elections, since these can no longer be deemed competent and uncorrupted. In lieu of the UN, I'd suggest an oversight panel consisting of reps of several major governments - maybe Canada, Spain, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Japan. My personal favorite would be to include Cuba - they probably have the highest participation rate of any Latin American country - but actually I'm just being facetious. Maybe Venezuela instead?
Next point - we really need a big, serious push to return to a paper-based ballot system. This is off the scale in importance. The opportunity for monkey business with cyber-ballots is just appalling. Who's to know if big percentages of votes in, say, a heavily Dem district are software-slipped to the GOP candidate(s)? On programs like Bill Moyers Journal and Now, experts have emphasized the superiority of paper ballots with optical scanning for fast tallying. Will it take federal legislation?
Incidentally, I speak as a former election judge.
How much you want to bet that if Obama loses, the UN will get involved in every presidential election hereafter? I find it unbelievable that Obama could do as "well" as Kerry...he is a superior candidate and has run a superior campaign. McCain has run a horrible and incompetent campaign and has a terrible VP pick. The only way for them to win is via unreliable voting machines, vote counters and voter suppression.
The suppression of votes by the Republicans is one of the most UN-AMERICAN acts I can think of. Our elected Government is supposed to be representative of the people - ALL the people - not just the white conservative part of America.
In Wisconsin, where I live, our Republican State Attorney General has dispatched law enforcement officers to predominately minority polling places to "ensure law and order" on election day! That smacks of intimidation to me!!!
You know any voter who can be suppressed is an idiot. Everyone had plenty of time to inform himself about the voting process. If they failed to do so they deserve to lose.
You're right. That stupid voter should know that a virus-riddled smartcard was in his machine and demanded a different one.
Please don't be so stupid.
And the people DOING the suppressing are what ?
I'd like to thin Americans are wayyyyyyy smarter 4 years later, surviving the Bush regime.
we are
I really do not understand what the problem is. Those machines are computers, right. Playing the lottery, I select my numbers and hand the ticket over. The clerk runs it and I get my ticket. I check my numbers. If they are right, i leave, I have a receipt (my ticket) and I am happy.
Going to vote and there is a computer I should get a receipt, like at any other place I go and spend some money. Could it be so difficuldt to com up with machines that read your ballot and give you a receipt?
OH NO. Because this would put the f*g republicans back to 35%
So.....GO OUT AND VOTE,
Make sure your ballot is recorded as you voted
Obama 2008
An efficient and functional machine has been created. But someone doesn't want it known.
http://www
I am concerned about the voting machines, particularly touch screen machines, as discussed by a Princeton professor who took 6 min. 51 sec. to jimmy open a machine, change out the programming chip for one that automatically sent votes for one candidate to another without any external evidence of malfunction. He suggested using paper ballots, or the optical scan machine (WITH PAPER TRAIL) as a way to avoid this programming shenanigans. Election people are setting up machines at the polling place in Kansas City, MO that I am poll watching on Monday, so will be left until Tuesday morning in a church.
How safe are they?
Also, both KCMO and Jackson County Missouri consolidated 2 and 3 precincts into 1 polling location this year that had separate polling locations in 2004. We're looking at over 100 people per hour allegedly voting in small areas with limited machines. There is something wrong with our urging voters to bring chairs, drinks, food, in order to wait in line to vote. What happened to all of the extra resources from the Federal Election Commission and the Help America Vote Act???? I know there was not sufficient funding.
I am concerned about the results of this election.
Here's my report from five hours phoning today, as a Barack Obama volunteer, to North Carolina:
People in North Carolina sound scared of something.
Over 1/2 of those I spoke either would not say whom they had voted for or were planning to vote for (though they clearly were decided) or they simply refused to talk at all. They sounded wary or scared, not aggressive.
Haven't encountered this reaction even once in calls to, for example, PA or OH.
What the heck is going on North Carolina?
The registered republicans that are still undecided, are feeling suppressive bullying and won't tell, they will just know they did the right thing.
Some will not even put their signs on the front lawns, as it's like putting a Lincoln for President sign on their lawns, in 1860. Their neighbors won't tolerate it andf have told them they will know if they voted for Obama.
They don't know that to cast that vote, is to stop this bullying for the next four to eight years.
Some can't put their leashes on their bad dogs. Look at Bush, and you will know what I'm talking about.
But this is NOT THE TIME TO BE A UNPATRIOTIC PUNK, THIS IS THE TIME TO BE AN AMERICAN AND VOTE FOR OUR FUTURE AS IF OUR VERY LIVES DEPEND ON IT, CAUSE IT DOES!
Have courage, republicans that loved your party, before the Shrub's takeover, We the People, got your back!
We know what is at stake!
We know they only come around or are concerned, when it's time to cast your vote.
Barack is a community organizing president, he will not let you down. He will be fair minded and truthful.
Trust him and he will do as he has always done, bring results!!
Obama could lose election due to voter intelligence.
Don't you mean a lack of voter intelligence? That would be more accurate.
This is the election where we learn just how uninformed Americans are. And, how racist we are.
I am taking the lead from Obama's positive belief in the American people, and am feeling both hopeful and optimistic.
Taking Obama's lead is a good way to stay focused. His trust in us has proven to be worthwhile. That's the focus that will truly lead us out of the abyss that has plagued us for the past eight years.
Nah, don't worry. All the smart people are voting Obama, including the smart republicans, too!
That is the very reason he's going to win.......
Thankfully, that voter suppression republican garbage only works when the race is tight... no matter what the GOP tries, this is going to be an Obama landslide!
Obama/Biden 08
I think American civil law has a similar provision to the mandamus action that exists in English and Australian law. It is an action that can be taken in Court by an aggrieved person, to force a public official to do their duty (as required under a law). If you have an election law that says public officials MUST do something (make it possible for you to vote for instance) and that official then fails to do that act, or actually does something that makes it impossible for you to vote, then the Court can direct the official to do his/her duty. Obviously this is something that can't be done on Tuesday, but if there is any aggrieved person in the early voting lists who wants to force the issue, there is lgal redress, I would have thought. It worries me that the Republicans appear to be more at ease with using the law to enforce democratic actions (actually to prevent it) than the Democrats, despite the armies of lawyers in Sen Obama's camp.
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