Vote Counting Fraud

Mexican Election Fraud & Republican Party Help--Palast

From www.GregPalast.com STEALING MEXICO: Bush Team Helps Ruling Party "Floridize" Mexican Presidential ElectionBy Greg Palast, 6/30/06Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War."

Friday, June 30, 2006 -- GEORGE Bush's operatives have plans to jigger with the upcoming elections. I'm not talking about the November '06 vote in the USA (though they have plans for that, too). I'm talking about the election this Sunday in Mexico for their Presidency. It begins with an FBI document marked, "Counterterrorism" and "Foreign Intelligence Collection" and "Secret." Date: "9/17/2001," six days after the attack on the World Trade towers. It's nice to know the feds got right on the ball, if a little late. What does this have to do with jiggering Mexico's election? Hold that thought. This document is what's called a "guidance" memo for using a private contractor to provide databases on dangerous foreigners. Good idea. We know the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf Emirates. So you'd think the "Intelligence Collection" would be aimed at getting info on the guys in the Gulf. No so. When we received the document, we obtained as well its classified appendix. The target nations for "foreign counterterrorism investigation" were nowhere near the Persian Gulf. Every one was in Latin America -- Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and a handful of others. See one of the documents yourself. Latin America?! Was there a terror cell about to cross into San Diego with exploding enchiladas? All the target nations had one thing in common besides a lack of terrorists: each had a left-leaning presidential candidate or a left-leaning president in office. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, bete noir of the Bush Administration, was facing a recall vote. In Mexico, the anti-Bush Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was (and is) leading the race for the Presidency. Most provocative is the contractor to whom this no-bid contract was handed: ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia. ChoicePoint is the database company that created a list for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida of voters to scrub from voter rolls before the 2000 election. ChoicePoint's list (94,000 names in all) contained few felons. Most of those on the list were guilty of no crime except Voting While Black. The disenfranchisement of these voters cost Al Gore the presidency. Having chosen our President for us, our President's men chose ChoicePoint for this sweet War on Terror database gathering. The use of the Venezuela's and Mexico's voter registry files to fight terror is not visible -- but the use of the lists to manipulate elections is as obvious as the make-up on Katherine Harris' cheeks. In Venezuela, leading up to the August 2004 vote on whether to re-call President Chavez, I saw his opposition pouring over the voter rolls in laptops, claiming the right to challenge voters as Jeb's crew did to voters in Florida. It turns out this operation was partly funded by the International Republican Institute of Washington, an arm of the GOP. Where did they get the voter info? In that case, access to Venezuela's voter rolls didn't help the Republican-assisted drive against Chavez, who won by a crushing plurality. In Mexico this Sunday, we can expect to see the same: challenges of Obrador voters in a race, the polls say, is too close to call. Not that Mexico's rulers need lessons from the Bush Administration on how to mess with elections. In 1988, the candidate for Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), who opinion polls showed as a certain winner, somehow came up short against the incumbent party of the ruling elite. Some of the electoral tricks were far from subtle. In the state of Guerrero, the PDR was leading on official tally sheets by 359,369. Oddly, the official final count was 309,202 for the ruling party, only182,874 for the PDR. Challenging the vote would have been dangerous. Two top officials of Obrador's party were assassinated during the campaign. Crucial to the surprise victory of the ruling party was the introduction of computer voting machines and the centralization of voter databases. Observer Andrew Reding of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs reported that ruling party operatives had special access codes denied the opposition. Whether the US "War on Terror" lists will find a use in Sunday's election, we cannot know. But the use of American government resources to interfere in south-of-the-border campaigns is an open secret. The GOP's International Republican Institute has run training sessions for the PAN youth wing, funded by US taxpayers through the "National Endowment for Democracy." Foreign -- that is, American -- interference in political campaigns is a crime. That didn't stop Team Bush. However, when the theft of its citizen files was discovered, Argentina threatened to arrest ChoicePoint contractors until the company returned the tapes -- and Mexico's attorney general did in fact arrest the ChoicePoint data thieves to avoid his party's looking too much the stooge of its Washington patron. Whether George Bush gave back his copy, no one will say. Wholesale theft is expected on Sunday in forms both subtle and brutal. How the US' purloined "counterterrorism" lists will be used, we don't know. We are certain however, that the Administration did not siphon off these Latin voter files to fight a War on Terror. It appears, rather, part of the Bush Administration's and GOP's hemispheric War on Democracy -- along a battle line which runs from Florida to Ohio to Juarez. Special thanks to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington DC, which received and passed on to our team the FBI ChoicePoint files and other foreign intelligence documentation.

Most provocative is the contractor to whom this no-bid contract was handed: ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia. ChoicePoint is the database company that created a list for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida of voters to scrub from voter rolls before the 2000 election. ChoicePoint's list (94,000 names in all) contained few felons. Most of those on the list were guilty of no crime except Voting While Black. The disenfranchisement of these voters cost Al Gore the presidency. Having chosen our President for us, our President's men chose ChoicePoint for this sweet War on Terror database gathering. The use of the Venezuela's and Mexico's voter registry files to fight terror is not visible -- but the use of the lists to manipulate elections is as obvious as the make-up on Katherine Harris' cheeks. In Venezuela, leading up to the August 2004 vote on whether to re-call President Chavez, I saw his opposition pouring over the voter rolls in laptops, claiming the right to challenge voters as Jeb's crew did to voters in Florida. It turns out this operation was partly funded by the International Republican Institute of Washington, an arm of the GOP. Where did they get the voter info? In that case, access to Venezuela's voter rolls didn't help the Republican-assisted drive against Chavez, who won by a crushing plurality. In Mexico this Sunday, we can expect to see the same: challenges of Obrador voters in a race, the polls say, is too close to call. Not that Mexico's rulers need lessons from the Bush Administration on how to mess with elections. In 1988, the candidate for Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), who opinion polls showed as a certain winner, somehow came up short against the incumbent party of the ruling elite. Some of the electoral tricks were far from subtle. In the state of Guerrero, the PDR was leading on official tally sheets by 359,369. Oddly, the official final count was 309,202 for the ruling party, only182,874 for the PDR. Challenging the vote would have been dangerous. Two top officials of Obrador's party were assassinated during the campaign.

Crucial to the surprise victory of the ruling party was the introduction of computer voting machines and the centralization of voter databases. Observer Andrew Reding of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs reported that ruling party operatives had special access codes denied the opposition. Whether the US "War on Terror" lists will find a use in Sunday's election, we cannot know. But the use of American government resources to interfere in south-of-the-border campaigns is an open secret. The GOP's International Republican Institute has run training sessions for the PAN youth wing, funded by US taxpayers through the "National Endowment for Democracy." Foreign -- that is, American -- interference in political campaigns is a crime. That didn't stop Team Bush. However, when the theft of its citizen files was discovered, Argentina threatened to arrest ChoicePoint contractors until the company returned the tapes -- and Mexico's attorney general did in fact arrest the ChoicePoint data thieves to avoid his party's looking too much the stooge of its Washington patron. Whether George Bush gave back his copy, no one will say. Wholesale theft is expected on Sunday in forms both subtle and brutal. How the US' purloined "counterterrorism" lists will be used, we don't know. We are certain however, that the Administration did not siphon off these Latin voter files to fight a War on Terror. It appears, rather, part of the Bush Administration's and GOP's hemispheric War on Democracy -- along a battle line which runs from Florida to Ohio to Juarez.

Special thanks to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington DC, which received and passed on to our team the FBI ChoicePoint files and other foreign intelligence documentation.

Though the PRI, party (prounced pree, Institutional Revolutionary Party), in Mexico doesn’t need help in stealing elections, the Republican Party sent help. The party has ruled the country for more than 70 years. Power is maintained through election fraud (Opponents, academics, and historians claim with ample evidence that elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy—wikipedia.org) The article below is on the current theft and the role of the Republican party. The article below was published in a leading, respected British newspaper. Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft. Mexico and Florida have more in common than heat By Greg Palast, Saturday July 8, 2006excerpted from The Guardian UK. [Mexico City] There’s more that the Mexico vote has in common with Florida besides the heat. The ruling party’s hand-picked electoral commission counted a mere 243,000 votes more for their candidate, Felipe Calderon, over challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. That’s noteworthy in light of the surprise showing of candidate Senor Blank-o (the 827,000 ballots supposedly left “blank”). We’ve seen Mr Blank-o do well before - in Florida in 2000 when Florida’s secretary of state (who was also co-chair of the Bush campaign) announced that 179,000 ballots showed no vote for the president. The machines couldn’t read these ballots with “hanging chads” and other technical problems. Humans can read these ballots with ease, but the hand-count was blocked by Bush’s conflicted official. And so it is in Mexico. The Calderon “victory” is based on a gross addition of tabulation sheets. His party, the PAN, and its election officials are refusing Lopez Obrador’s call for a hand recount of each ballot which would be sure to fill in those blanks. Blank ballots are rarely random. In Florida in 2000, 88% of the supposedly blank ballots came from African-American voting districts - that is, they were cast by Democratic voters. In Mexico, the supposed empty or unreadable ballots come from the poorer districts where the challenger’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR) is strongest. There’s an echo of the US non-count in the south-of-the-border tally. It’s called “negative drop-off”. In a surprising number of districts in Mexico, the federal electoral commission logged lots of negative drop-off: more votes for lower offices than for president. Did Lopez Obrador supporters, en masse, forget to punch in their choice? Mexico’s Bush-backed ruling party claims it has conducted Mexico’s first truly honest election, though it refuses to count all the ballots. Has the PAN and its ally in Washington served democracy in this election, or merely Florida con salsa?

Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft.

Bush Vs. Gore--Supreme Court Republicans Decide Election

Was the Supreme Court’s ruling an example of judicial activism supporting election fraud? There are numerous cases where the state courts have supervised recounts, and this should have been another such case; however, the Supreme Court stepped in and stopped the recount, by overturning the Florida Supreme Court’s holding authorizing the recount. Given the diffidence the Republican packed Supreme Court has shown both to federal and state governments and their courts since November of 1975, political bias is the only reasonable conclusion in Bush vs. Gore. Moreover a purported conflict of the 2 statutes (7 day limit for certifying an election result, and the 6 days to challenge to call for a recount) is easily resolved by interpreting as conjunctive, namely that the recount law stays the 7 day limit. The Supreme Court didn’t need to overturn the Florida Supreme Court holding which stayed the time limit and for Florida made election recounts unlikely. Bush versus Gore was decided on political rather than legal grounds. Even more disconcerting is the fact that politics decides law enforcement. The criminal violation of election laws and civil rights were ignored by the attorney generals’ office (state and federal) and the legislative bodies. The attorney general’s offices were filled with Republican appointees, and Republicans controlled both federal and state legislatures. Obviously our country needs an independent department of the FBI set up just to investigate political crimes. I would suggest that such a department should be under the supervision of law professors—jk. How the courts handled the election issue From www.wikipedia.org

Even more disconcerting is the fact that politics decides law enforcement. The criminal violation of election laws and civil rights were ignored by the attorney generals’ office (state and federal) and the legislative bodies. The attorney general’s offices were filled with Republican appointees, and Republicans controlled both federal and state legislatures. Obviously our country needs an independent department of the FBI set up just to investigate political crimes. I would suggest that such a department should be under the supervision of law professors—jk.

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a U.S. Supreme Court case heard on December 11, 2000, which directly influenced the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. In three separate opinions, seven justices found that a ballot recount then being conducted in certain counties in the State of Florida was to be stopped due to the lack of a consistent standard; two justices disagreed. A 5-4 majority further declared in a per curiam opinion that there was insufficient time to establish standards for a new recount that would meet Florida's deadline for certifying electors.

The decision stopped the statewide recount that was occurring in Florida and allowed Florida Secretary of State (and Bush's Florida campaign co-chair) Katherine Harris to certify George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's electoral votes. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Bush a majority of the electoral college with 272 votes and enabled him to win the Presidency.

The Presidential election in question took place on November 7, 2000. Under the Electoral College system, each state conducts its own popular election for president, and the winner of each state's election receives a number of "electoral votes." The winner of a majority of the electoral college is elected President of the United States. In 2000, 270 electoral votes were required for victory.

On November 8, 2000, the Florida Division of Elections reported that Bush had a margin of victory of 1,784 votes.[1] The margin of victory was less than 0.5% of the votes cast so an automatic machine recount was issued. The recount resulted in a much smaller margin of victory for Bush—on November 10, with the machine recount finished in all but one county, Bush's margin of victory had decreased to 327.[2]

Florida's election laws[1] allow a candidate to request a county to conduct a manual recount, and Gore requested manual recounts in four Florida counties: Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. The four counties granted the request and began manual recounts. However, Florida law also required all counties to certify their election returns to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election,[2] and several of the counties conducting manual recounts did not believe they could meet this deadline. On November 14, the statutory deadline, the Florida Circuit Court ruled that the 7-day deadline was mandatory, but that the counties could amend their returns at a later date. The court also ruled that the Secretary, after "considering all attendant facts and circumstances," had discretion to include any late amended returns in the statewide certification.[3] Prior to the 5pm deadline on November 14, Volusia county completed its manual recount and certified its results. At 5pm, Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced that she was in receipt of the certified returns from all 67 counties, while Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties were still conducting manual recounts.[4]

Mexico election and 827.000 uncounted votes

VOTE COUNTING FRAUDS Mexico election and 827.000 uncounted votes Though the PRI, party (prounced pree, Institutional Revolutionary Party), in Mexico doesn’t need help in stealing elections, the Republican Party sent help. The party has ruled the country for more than 70 years. Power is maintained through election fraud (Opponents, academics, and historians claim with ample evidence that elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy—wikipedia.org) The article below is on the current theft and the role of the Republican party. The article below was published in a leading, respected British newspaper--jk. Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft. Mexico and Florida have more in common than heat By Greg Palast, Saturday July 8, 2006excerpted from The Guardian UK. [Mexico City] There’s more that the Mexico vote has in common with Florida besides the heat. The ruling party’s hand-picked electoral commission counted a mere 243,000 votes more for their candidate, Felipe Calderon, over challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. That’s noteworthy in light of the surprise showing of candidate Senor Blank-o (the 827,000 ballots supposedly left “blank”). We’ve seen Mr Blank-o do well before - in Florida in 2000 when Florida’s secretary of state (who was also co-chair of the Bush campaign) announced that 179,000 ballots showed no vote for the president. The machines couldn’t read these ballots with “hanging chads” and other technical problems. Humans can read these ballots with ease, but the hand-count was blocked by Bush’s conflicted official. And so it is in Mexico. The Calderon “victory” is based on a gross addition of tabulation sheets. His party, the PAN, and its election officials are refusing Lopez Obrador’s call for a hand recount of each ballot which would be sure to fill in those blanks. Blank ballots are rarely random. In Florida in 2000, 88% of the supposedly blank ballots came from African-American voting districts - that is, they were cast by Democratic voters. In Mexico, the supposed empty or unreadable ballots come from the poorer districts where the challenger’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR) is strongest. There’s an echo of the US non-count in the south-of-the-border tally. It’s called “negative drop-off”. In a surprising number of districts in Mexico, the federal electoral commission logged lots of negative drop-off: more votes for lower offices than for president. Did Lopez Obrador supporters, en masse, forget to punch in their choice? Mexico’s Bush-backed ruling party claims it has conducted Mexico’s first truly honest election, though it refuses to count all the ballots. Has the PAN and its ally in Washington served democracy in this election, or merely Florida con salsa? link to political cartoons

Though the PRI, party (prounced pree, Institutional Revolutionary Party), in Mexico doesn’t need help in stealing elections, the Republican Party sent help. The party has ruled the country for more than 70 years. Power is maintained through election fraud (Opponents, academics, and historians claim with ample evidence that elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy—wikipedia.org) The article below is on the current theft and the role of the Republican party. The article below was published in a leading, respected British newspaper--jk. Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft. Mexico and Florida have more in common than heat By Greg Palast, Saturday July 8, 2006excerpted from The Guardian UK.

Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft.

[Mexico City] There’s more that the Mexico vote has in common with Florida besides the heat. The ruling party’s hand-picked electoral commission counted a mere 243,000 votes more for their candidate, Felipe Calderon, over challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. That’s noteworthy in light of the surprise showing of candidate Senor Blank-o (the 827,000 ballots supposedly left “blank”). We’ve seen Mr Blank-o do well before - in Florida in 2000 when Florida’s secretary of state (who was also co-chair of the Bush campaign) announced that 179,000 ballots showed no vote for the president. The machines couldn’t read these ballots with “hanging chads” and other technical problems. Humans can read these ballots with ease, but the hand-count was blocked by Bush’s conflicted official. And so it is in Mexico. The Calderon “victory” is based on a gross addition of tabulation sheets. His party, the PAN, and its election officials are refusing Lopez Obrador’s call for a hand recount of each ballot which would be sure to fill in those blanks. Blank ballots are rarely random. In Florida in 2000, 88% of the supposedly blank ballots came from African-American voting districts - that is, they were cast by Democratic voters. In Mexico, the supposed empty or unreadable ballots come from the poorer districts where the challenger’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR) is strongest. There’s an echo of the US non-count in the south-of-the-border tally. It’s called “negative drop-off”. In a surprising number of districts in Mexico, the federal electoral commission logged lots of negative drop-off: more votes for lower offices than for president. Did Lopez Obrador supporters, en masse, forget to punch in their choice? Mexico’s Bush-backed ruling party claims it has conducted Mexico’s first truly honest election, though it refuses to count all the ballots. Has the PAN and its ally in Washington served democracy in this election, or merely Florida con salsa?

We’ve seen Mr Blank-o do well before - in Florida in 2000 when Florida’s secretary of state (who was also co-chair of the Bush campaign) announced that 179,000 ballots showed no vote for the president. The machines couldn’t read these ballots with “hanging chads” and other technical problems. Humans can read these ballots with ease, but the hand-count was blocked by Bush’s conflicted official.

And so it is in Mexico. The Calderon “victory” is based on a gross addition of tabulation sheets. His party, the PAN, and its election officials are refusing Lopez Obrador’s call for a hand recount of each ballot which would be sure to fill in those blanks.

Blank ballots are rarely random. In Florida in 2000, 88% of the supposedly blank ballots came from African-American voting districts - that is, they were cast by Democratic voters. In Mexico, the supposed empty or unreadable ballots come from the poorer districts where the challenger’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR) is strongest.

PAN & PRI squabble over election results

Though the PRI, party (prounced pree, Institutional Revolutionary Party), in Mexico doesn’t need help in stealing elections, the Republican Party sent help. The party has ruled the country for more than 70 years. Power is maintained through election fraud "Opponents, academics, and historians claim with ample evidence that elections were just a ritual to simulate the appearance of a democracy"—wikipedia.org The difference between the Pan and Pre parties is about as great as between Republican and Democratic Parties. Pan has won some provincial elections; the results, business as ususal. The article below is on the current theft and the role of the Republican party. It was published in a leading, respected British newspaper--jk. Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft. From www.gregpalast.com MEXICO CITY: IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER Published by Greg Palast July 10th, 2006 in Articles By Matt Pascarella [Matt Pascarella is an award winning researcher and producer for investigative journalist Greg Palast. He is on assignment in Mexico covering the Presidential Election. To see pictures from Mexico]

The article below is on the current theft and the role of the Republican party. It was published in a leading, respected British newspaper--jk.

Greg Palast is currently (7/13/06) in Mexico with a team of reporters from the Guardian investigating the election theft.

[Matt Pascarella is an award winning researcher and producer for investigative journalist Greg Palast. He is on assignment in Mexico covering the Presidential Election. To see pictures from Mexico]

While much of the world believes Felipe Calderon has been officially declared Mexico’s next President, it is not true. At least not yet.(Mexico City) Last week the Electoral Commission, IFE, announced the results of a country-wide count of tally sheets - sheets that are attached to each ballot box - they found that Felipe Calderon (PAN) was ahead of Lopez Obrador (PRD) by around 0.5%. To Calderon, there is no question that he is the winner. But according to Lopez Obrador, he has won more votes.

Despite what both Calderon and Lopez Obrador tell their supporters and what you read in press reports, the next President has yet to be officially declared. IFE is not the body responsible for officially announcing the next President. Rather, it is TRIFE (Electoral Tribunal) that will make an official announcement by early September, after addressing complaints filed by each party. The parties have four days to file their objections following the results of the tally sheet count — which was concluded last Thursday.

TRIFE, a supposedly non-partisan, independent body, has the responsibility to examine irregularities brought forth to them. TRIFE, will therefore, have to consider facts such as:

How to hack a Diebold voting machine quick & easy--video

VOTE COUNTING FRAUDS How to hack a Diebold voting machine quick & easy--video How to hack a Diebold voting machine in less than 5 minutes. A fun 30-second video clip found at Arianna Huffington’s daily blog site (Huffingtonpost.com). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/how-to-hack-a-diebold-vot_b_26301.html Now you have learnt why the exit polls in the last 3 elections often don’t tally with the official count. You have been hearing about two stolen presidential elections, and possible also about local elections as well. There is some very fine investigate reporting by Greg Palast, which is carried in the British press. This is politics. link to political cartoons

How to hack a Diebold voting machine in less than 5 minutes. A fun 30-second video clip found at Arianna Huffington’s daily blog site (Huffingtonpost.com).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/how-to-hack-a-diebold-vot_b_26301.html Now you have learnt why the exit polls in the last 3 elections often don’t tally with the official count. You have been hearing about two stolen presidential elections, and possible also about local elections as well. There is some very fine investigate reporting by Greg Palast, which is carried in the British press. This is politics.

Now you have learnt why the exit polls in the last 3 elections often don’t tally with the official count.

You have been hearing about two stolen presidential elections, and possible also about local elections as well. There is some very fine investigate reporting by Greg Palast, which is carried in the British press. This is politics.

Diebold lies on its security

VOTE COUNTING FRAUDS Diebold lies on its security Diebold and other leading maker of electronic voting machines were named in a qui tam law suite filed by the law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which charged that the companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were “unhackable.” Kennedy has evidence from those working in those companies that they withheld knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability, and security. Blowing the Whistle on Diebold By John Ireland On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a “qui tam” lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were “unhackable.” Kennedy claims to have witnesses “centrally located, deep within the corporations,” who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud. In the wake of alleged vote count inconsistencies and the “hanging chad” debacle of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA appropriated $3 billion to replace voting equipment and make other improvements in election administration. Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Systems secured the lion’s share of nearly half that sum in contracts to purchase EVMs. All 50 states have received funds and many are hurriedly spending it on replacing lever and punch card machines in time for November. According to the Election Assistance Commission, more than 61 percent of votes in the 2004 presidential election were cast and/or tallied by EVMs. Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, estimates that the figure will jump to 80 percent by November, which will see elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Matt Schultz, an attorney with Kennedy’s law firm, Levin Papantonio, describes the process of competition for HAVA’s contractor funds as “a race to the bottom.” “There is no question in my mind that these companies sacrificed security and accuracy, mass-producing a cheap product to cash in on tons of federal money,” Schultz says. “It’s an industry-wide problem.” Qui tam lawsuits stem from a provision in the Civil False Claims Act, which Congress passed in 1863 at the behest of President Abraham Lincoln to respond to price gouging, use of defective products and substitution of inferior material by contractors supplying the Union Army. The provision allows private citizens to file a suit in the name of the U.S. government charging fraud by government contractors and other entities that receive or use government funds. Long known as “Lincoln’s Law,” it is now commonly referred to as the “Whistleblower Law.” Since the mid-’80s, qui tam recoveries have exceeded $1 billion, mostly after exposing medical and defense overcharging. Mike Papantonio, partner in the law firm and co-host with Kennedy on “Ring of Fire,” a weekly radio show on the Air America Network, explains the value of the qui tam approach. “The problem with injunctive relief, or [a writ of] mandamus, or prohibition-type writs, is it all comes down to politics. … How do you bring injunctive relief with [Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth] Blackwell? How do you get [Florida Governor] Jeb Bush to do anything? They won’t. You have to move outside of that political realm.” In 2004, Blackwell was in charge of implementing state and federal election laws, while, at the same time, co-chairing the state’s 2004 Bush/Cheney Campaign. Under his watch, election officials neglected to process registration cards from Democratic voter drives, purged tens of thousands of voter registrations and distributed EVMs unevenly, leaving some voters waiting up to 12 hours. According to Kennedy, “at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted.” Ohio was decided by 118,601 votes. The contents of the suit could be under judicial seal for at least 60 days while the U.S. Department of Justice considers whether or not to join the suit. If U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decides not to join the suit, Levin Papantonio may approach individual state attorneys general. If no one joins, the firm is free to, as Papantonio puts it, “stand in the shoes of the Attorney General and fight on behalf of the taxpayers and the nation.” “The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system,” warns Kennedy. “Whoever controls the voting machines can control who wins the votes.” link to political cartoons

Diebold and other leading maker of electronic voting machines were named in a qui tam law suite filed by the law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which charged that the companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were “unhackable.” Kennedy has evidence from those working in those companies that they withheld knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability, and security. Blowing the Whistle on Diebold By John Ireland

On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a “qui tam” lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were “unhackable.” Kennedy claims to have witnesses “centrally located, deep within the corporations,” who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud. In the wake of alleged vote count inconsistencies and the “hanging chad” debacle of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA appropriated $3 billion to replace voting equipment and make other improvements in election administration. Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Systems secured the lion’s share of nearly half that sum in contracts to purchase EVMs. All 50 states have received funds and many are hurriedly spending it on replacing lever and punch card machines in time for November. According to the Election Assistance Commission, more than 61 percent of votes in the 2004 presidential election were cast and/or tallied by EVMs. Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, estimates that the figure will jump to 80 percent by November, which will see elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Matt Schultz, an attorney with Kennedy’s law firm, Levin Papantonio, describes the process of competition for HAVA’s contractor funds as “a race to the bottom.” “There is no question in my mind that these companies sacrificed security and accuracy, mass-producing a cheap product to cash in on tons of federal money,” Schultz says. “It’s an industry-wide problem.” Qui tam lawsuits stem from a provision in the Civil False Claims Act, which Congress passed in 1863 at the behest of President Abraham Lincoln to respond to price gouging, use of defective products and substitution of inferior material by contractors supplying the Union Army. The provision allows private citizens to file a suit in the name of the U.S. government charging fraud by government contractors and other entities that receive or use government funds. Long known as “Lincoln’s Law,” it is now commonly referred to as the “Whistleblower Law.” Since the mid-’80s, qui tam recoveries have exceeded $1 billion, mostly after exposing medical and defense overcharging. Mike Papantonio, partner in the law firm and co-host with Kennedy on “Ring of Fire,” a weekly radio show on the Air America Network, explains the value of the qui tam approach. “The problem with injunctive relief, or [a writ of] mandamus, or prohibition-type writs, is it all comes down to politics. … How do you bring injunctive relief with [Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth] Blackwell? How do you get [Florida Governor] Jeb Bush to do anything? They won’t. You have to move outside of that political realm.” In 2004, Blackwell was in charge of implementing state and federal election laws, while, at the same time, co-chairing the state’s 2004 Bush/Cheney Campaign. Under his watch, election officials neglected to process registration cards from Democratic voter drives, purged tens of thousands of voter registrations and distributed EVMs unevenly, leaving some voters waiting up to 12 hours. According to Kennedy, “at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted.” Ohio was decided by 118,601 votes. The contents of the suit could be under judicial seal for at least 60 days while the U.S. Department of Justice considers whether or not to join the suit. If U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decides not to join the suit, Levin Papantonio may approach individual state attorneys general. If no one joins, the firm is free to, as Papantonio puts it, “stand in the shoes of the Attorney General and fight on behalf of the taxpayers and the nation.” “The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system,” warns Kennedy. “Whoever controls the voting machines can control who wins the votes.”

Kennedy claims to have witnesses “centrally located, deep within the corporations,” who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud.

In the wake of alleged vote count inconsistencies and the “hanging chad” debacle of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002. HAVA appropriated $3 billion to replace voting equipment and make other improvements in election administration. Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Sequoia Systems secured the lion’s share of nearly half that sum in contracts to purchase EVMs. All 50 states have received funds and many are hurriedly spending it on replacing lever and punch card machines in time for November.

According to the Election Assistance Commission, more than 61 percent of votes in the 2004 presidential election were cast and/or tallied by EVMs. Election Data Services, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, estimates that the figure will jump to 80 percent by November, which will see elections for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

Matt Schultz, an attorney with Kennedy’s law firm, Levin Papantonio, describes the process of competition for HAVA’s contractor funds as “a race to the bottom.” “There is no question in my mind that these companies sacrificed security and accuracy, mass-producing a cheap product to cash in on tons of federal money,” Schultz says. “It’s an industry-wide problem.”

Mexico's Election Fraud & public unrest

From Green Left Weekly, September 27, 2006. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. MEXICO: Convention elects AMLO as legitimate president Neville Spencer On September 16 — Independence Day — 1,025,724 registered delegates and many thousands of others gathered at the National Democratic Convention in Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo. Accusing right-wing president-elect Felipe Calderon of usurping power through electoral fraud, they elected Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) as Mexico’s legitimate president. The official result announced following the July 2 presidential election put Calderon 0.58% ahead of AMLO, who stood as the candidate of the left-leaning For the Good of All coalition. AMLO accused the National Action Party (PAN), to which Calderon and current president Vicente Fox belong, of orchestrating widespread fraud. Evidence was produced of fraud in many polling places and a full recount of the vote was called for, though even this could not have resolved problems such as destroyed or stuffed ballot boxes. Following a series of massive protests, the Federal Electoral Tribunal agreed to recount only 9% of polling places, resulting in only minor changes to the official tally. The call for the National Democratic Convention was made by AMLO when it became clear that no significant action was going to be taken to address the charges of fraud. In spite of rain, an estimated 1.5-2 million turned out. Even the sizeable Zocalo could not contain the crowd. Part of the convention was the endorsement of a “plan of resistance”. This includes numerous protests, not just against the electoral fraud, but also against a variety of different threats to the wellbeing of Mexico’s workers and poor posed by a new PAN government. A national day of action against the privatisation of energy is part of the plan. The PAN has proposed privatising electricity and the state oil company Pemex. Pemex is one of the world’s largest oil companies. The nationalisation of oil, which took place in the 1930s, has been a source of national pride for Mexico. Until the neoliberal turn of the 1980s, it was also a source of funding for some of the social benefits that Mexico had at a level above the standard of most Third World countries. A week of action is planned for October around the defence of free state education. The central act of the convention was the recognition of AMLO as the legitimate president. An alternate proposal, that he be “head of resistance”, was not as well supported, the argument given being that this would give too much legitimacy to Calderon’s election. It was decided by the convention that AMLO would form a government and a swearing-in ceremony would be held on Mexico’s Revolution Day, November 20. This would put it ahead of Calderon’s swearing in on December 1. A mass mobilisation is also planned for that day to try to prevent Calderon being installed as president. The convention itself was a continuation of the existing campaign against electoral fraud that began soon after the July ballot. The Zocalo had already been the site of earlier demonstrations, including the largest demonstration in Mexico’s history on July 30. The crowd at that demonstration was estimated at up to 2.4 million. The Zocalo and surrounding area had also been under a continuous occupation for several weeks prior to the convention, with AMLO directing the campaign from a tent in the square. On September 1, deputies from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), of which AMLO is a member, disrupted Fox’s attempt to give the annual state-of-the-nation address to the parliament. Instead it was handed out in written form. Fox was also forced to avoid protesters the night before the convention. It is traditional for the president to give the “grito” from a balcony of the National Palace overlooking the Zocalo the night before Independence Day. With the Zocalo full of demonstrators, Fox stayed away. Although the convention set the stage for a continued mass movement, it is still quite possible that the movement will fade. The convention marked the lifting of the occupation of the Zocalo, even though new plans for protest were made. The PRD, which is the dominant component of the For the Good of All coalition, is a generally social-democratic party used to not rocking the boat too much. Another PRD leader, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, was also robbed of a probable victory in the 1988 presidential election. He chose not to try to mobilise any resistance for fear that it might lead to violence. Both AMLO and the movement around him at least seem to be in a more combative mood than that. A letter from Cardenas was read out at the convention opposing the idea of declaring AMLO president and calling for the institutional order to be respected. The reaction of the crowd was one of anger. The alternative government to be formed by AMLO is not going to actually exercise any power but will primarily be symbolic, though it could act as an organiser of ongoing opposition. Even if protests fail to force Calderon from power and fade away, the mood of militancy will at least be notched up over the coming period. From Green Left Weekly, August 30, 2006. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page. MEXICO: Huge political crisis rocks country Peter Gellert, Mexico City

On September 16 — Independence Day — 1,025,724 registered delegates and many thousands of others gathered at the National Democratic Convention in Mexico City’s main square, the Zocalo. Accusing right-wing president-elect Felipe Calderon of usurping power through electoral fraud, they elected Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) as Mexico’s legitimate president.

The official result announced following the July 2 presidential election put Calderon 0.58% ahead of AMLO, who stood as the candidate of the left-leaning For the Good of All coalition.

AMLO accused the National Action Party (PAN), to which Calderon and current president Vicente Fox belong, of orchestrating widespread fraud. Evidence was produced of fraud in many polling places and a full recount of the vote was called for, though even this could not have resolved problems such as destroyed or stuffed ballot boxes. Following a series of massive protests, the Federal Electoral Tribunal agreed to recount only 9% of polling places, resulting in only minor changes to the official tally.

The call for the National Democratic Convention was made by AMLO when it became clear that no significant action was going to be taken to address the charges of fraud.

In spite of rain, an estimated 1.5-2 million turned out. Even the sizeable Zocalo could not contain the crowd. Part of the convention was the endorsement of a “plan of resistance”. This includes numerous protests, not just against the electoral fraud, but also against a variety of different threats to the wellbeing of Mexico’s workers and poor posed by a new PAN government.

A national day of action against the privatisation of energy is part of the plan. The PAN has proposed privatising electricity and the state oil company Pemex. Pemex is one of the world’s largest oil companies. The nationalisation of oil, which took place in the 1930s, has been a source of national pride for Mexico. Until the neoliberal turn of the 1980s, it was also a source of funding for some of the social benefits that Mexico had at a level above the standard of most Third World countries.

Arkansas' U.S. Attorney General was investigated for caging

VOTE COUNTING FRAUDS Arkansas' U.S. Attorney General was investigated for caging Surrealistic politics: The Bush administration committed caging. Caging is racial profiling for the sake of denying members of a group their vote. Around 90% of the blacks vote democratic. However, it is against the law to do this, and there is a court order, in place for years, baring the Republican party from doing this. Carl Rove, who is mister dirty tricks, had an underling, Tim Griffin commit caging in Arkansas. He was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in that state for this crime. Rove-Gonzales had him fired and replaced by Time Griffin—the man who was being investigated. Below is Greg Palast’s description of the evidence and events. This is based on the 2nd edition of Armed Madhouse, the expanded portion Greg website: www.gregpalast.com Don’t Fire Gonzales by Greg Palast Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Before President Bush fired his sorry ass, US Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, in a last sad attempt to suck up to his Republican padrones, allowed his chief mouthpiece, Norm Cairns, to speak with me. He shouldn’t have. That was two years back, while I was investigating strange doings in New Mexico and Arizona, where, simultaneously, state legislators, Republicans all, claimed they had evidence of “voter fraud.” Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual delusional behavior folie a deux. I suspected something else: I smelled Karl Rove. In the New Mexico legislature, a suburban Albuquerque political hackette, Justine Fox-Young (her real name), claimed to have “several” specific cases of vote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthy waving his list of “Communists,” she waived documents of “evidence” of illegal voting on the floor of the Legislature. I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her to send me the papers. The “evidence” never arrived. Maybe her fax machine was broken. I called Justine. Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered criminals! Did you turn their names over to the US Attorney? A. Well, no, but someone did. Whose initials are Karl Rove? She swore to me that US Attorney Iglesias would back up her story: he was investigating the evil voters and was about to indict them. So I got Iglesias’ guy Norm on the phone. Was Iglesias prosecuting, or actively investigating, one single real case of voter fraud? Norm went into a lengthy swirly-whirly river of diving, ducking bullshit. I dove in. Me: In other words, you can’t back her story? Norm: Well, yeah, uh, I guess you’d say that’s true. I guess I will say that, Norm. Fox-Young had just plain made it up; fibbed, lied, faked the evidence. There was a multi-state con in operation. But what was it? Each of these bogus claims of voter fraud was attached to a sales pitch for a state law to tighten voter ID requirements — to prevent these ne’er-do-wells from voting twice. In Arizona, one crack-pot Republican legislator, the Hon. Russell Pearce, claimed he had evidence that five million Mexicans had illegally crossed the border to vote. The point: Rove knew that a “challenge” operation by the Republican Party, run from his office, knocked out 300,000 voters — mainly poor ones, voters of color. His crew wanted to hike that higher. The notable thing about this crime of voter identity theft is that it doesn’t happen. You are more likely to encounter ballot boxes that spontaneously combust. I found cases of voters struck by lightening — but out of 120 million votes cast, I couldn’t find a dozen criminal cases of a bandit stealing someone’s identity to vote. Since the Republicans couldn’t find such criminals, they had to make them up. Force prosecutors to bring false charges against innocent voters (one did just that in Wisconsin) or at least claim they were hot on the trail of the fraudulent voters. Iglesias, though a Republican, wouldn’t bring bogus charges. And he wouldn’t lie about active investigations that didn’t exist except in Rove’s imagination. That was his mistake. Rove’s right-hand hit-man, Tim Griffin, added Iglesias to the hit list of prosecutors who were cut down on December 7, 2006. Griffin himself, after the December 7 firings, was appointed by Attorney General Gonzales, at Rove’s personal request, to one of the newly-vacated slots as US Attorney for Arkansas. The sleeper cell of Rove-bot US attorneys is now in place to bless voter suppression games in 2008. I’ve previously reported for BBC that Griffin was the Man in the Memos who directed the massive, wrongful purge of African-American soldiers in 2004 — the ‘caging’ list scam. Based on that expose, voting rights lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said, “Griffin and Rove should be in jail, not in office.” That, too is another story — But the important thing to pick up here is: 1. It’s all about the 2008 election. 2. It’s not about Gonzales. We’ve been here before. Gonzales is getting Libby’d. Takes the bullet for Karl Rove and the White House. If you wondered why the Republican jackals like the sinister Senator Specter piled on Gonzales — it’s because they were told to. These guys learned from Richard Nixon. In 1973, when Nixon was getting hammered over Watergate, he threw the Senate Committee his Attorney General, a schmuck named Kleindeist. Famously, Nixon’s own Rove, a devious creep named John Erlichman, told Nixon to leave the Attorney General, “twisting slowly in the wind.” Rove and Bush are doing the Nixon Twist on Gonzales. Look, I have no sympathy for Alberto the Doomed. He’s guilty of a crime I employed in racketeering cases: “Willful failure to know.” It’s a kind of fraud; Alberto was going way out of his way to not know what he had to know, that Rove and the President were toying with prosecutors. Gonzales is their glove-puppet. Why fire him? The nation watches these hearings and wants to kill something. But why shoot the puppet? It’s time to fire the puppeteer. Eh, Mr. Rove? link to political cartoons

Surrealistic politics: The Bush administration committed caging. Caging is racial profiling for the sake of denying members of a group their vote. Around 90% of the blacks vote democratic. However, it is against the law to do this, and there is a court order, in place for years, baring the Republican party from doing this. Carl Rove, who is mister dirty tricks, had an underling, Tim Griffin commit caging in Arkansas. He was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in that state for this crime. Rove-Gonzales had him fired and replaced by Time Griffin—the man who was being investigated. Below is Greg Palast’s description of the evidence and events. This is based on the 2nd edition of Armed Madhouse, the expanded portion Greg website: www.gregpalast.com Don’t Fire Gonzales by Greg Palast Wednesday, April 25, 2007

This is based on the 2nd edition of Armed Madhouse, the expanded portion Greg website: www.gregpalast.com

Before President Bush fired his sorry ass, US Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, in a last sad attempt to suck up to his Republican padrones, allowed his chief mouthpiece, Norm Cairns, to speak with me. He shouldn’t have. That was two years back, while I was investigating strange doings in New Mexico and Arizona, where, simultaneously, state legislators, Republicans all, claimed they had evidence of “voter fraud.” Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual delusional behavior folie a deux. I suspected something else: I smelled Karl Rove. In the New Mexico legislature, a suburban Albuquerque political hackette, Justine Fox-Young (her real name), claimed to have “several” specific cases of vote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthy waving his list of “Communists,” she waived documents of “evidence” of illegal voting on the floor of the Legislature. I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her to send me the papers. The “evidence” never arrived. Maybe her fax machine was broken. I called Justine. Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered criminals! Did you turn their names over to the US Attorney? A. Well, no, but someone did. Whose initials are Karl Rove? She swore to me that US Attorney Iglesias would back up her story: he was investigating the evil voters and was about to indict them. So I got Iglesias’ guy Norm on the phone. Was Iglesias prosecuting, or actively investigating, one single real case of voter fraud? Norm went into a lengthy swirly-whirly river of diving, ducking bullshit. I dove in. Me: In other words, you can’t back her story? Norm: Well, yeah, uh, I guess you’d say that’s true. I guess I will say that, Norm. Fox-Young had just plain made it up; fibbed, lied, faked the evidence. There was a multi-state con in operation. But what was it? Each of these bogus claims of voter fraud was attached to a sales pitch for a state law to tighten voter ID requirements — to prevent these ne’er-do-wells from voting twice. In Arizona, one crack-pot Republican legislator, the Hon. Russell Pearce, claimed he had evidence that five million Mexicans had illegally crossed the border to vote. The point: Rove knew that a “challenge” operation by the Republican Party, run from his office, knocked out 300,000 voters — mainly poor ones, voters of color. His crew wanted to hike that higher. The notable thing about this crime of voter identity theft is that it doesn’t happen. You are more likely to encounter ballot boxes that spontaneously combust. I found cases of voters struck by lightening — but out of 120 million votes cast, I couldn’t find a dozen criminal cases of a bandit stealing someone’s identity to vote. Since the Republicans couldn’t find such criminals, they had to make them up. Force prosecutors to bring false charges against innocent voters (one did just that in Wisconsin) or at least claim they were hot on the trail of the fraudulent voters. Iglesias, though a Republican, wouldn’t bring bogus charges. And he wouldn’t lie about active investigations that didn’t exist except in Rove’s imagination. That was his mistake. Rove’s right-hand hit-man, Tim Griffin, added Iglesias to the hit list of prosecutors who were cut down on December 7, 2006. Griffin himself, after the December 7 firings, was appointed by Attorney General Gonzales, at Rove’s personal request, to one of the newly-vacated slots as US Attorney for Arkansas. The sleeper cell of Rove-bot US attorneys is now in place to bless voter suppression games in 2008. I’ve previously reported for BBC that Griffin was the Man in the Memos who directed the massive, wrongful purge of African-American soldiers in 2004 — the ‘caging’ list scam. Based on that expose, voting rights lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said, “Griffin and Rove should be in jail, not in office.” That, too is another story — But the important thing to pick up here is: 1. It’s all about the 2008 election. 2. It’s not about Gonzales. We’ve been here before. Gonzales is getting Libby’d. Takes the bullet for Karl Rove and the White House. If you wondered why the Republican jackals like the sinister Senator Specter piled on Gonzales — it’s because they were told to. These guys learned from Richard Nixon. In 1973, when Nixon was getting hammered over Watergate, he threw the Senate Committee his Attorney General, a schmuck named Kleindeist. Famously, Nixon’s own Rove, a devious creep named John Erlichman, told Nixon to leave the Attorney General, “twisting slowly in the wind.” Rove and Bush are doing the Nixon Twist on Gonzales. Look, I have no sympathy for Alberto the Doomed. He’s guilty of a crime I employed in racketeering cases: “Willful failure to know.” It’s a kind of fraud; Alberto was going way out of his way to not know what he had to know, that Rove and the President were toying with prosecutors. Gonzales is their glove-puppet. Why fire him? The nation watches these hearings and wants to kill something. But why shoot the puppet? It’s time to fire the puppeteer. Eh, Mr. Rove?

That was two years back, while I was investigating strange doings in New Mexico and Arizona, where, simultaneously, state legislators, Republicans all, claimed they had evidence of “voter fraud.” Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual delusional behavior folie a deux. I suspected something else: I smelled Karl Rove.

In the New Mexico legislature, a suburban Albuquerque political hackette, Justine Fox-Young (her real name), claimed to have “several” specific cases of vote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthy waving his list of “Communists,” she waived documents of “evidence” of illegal voting on the floor of the Legislature. I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her to send me the papers.

She swore to me that US Attorney Iglesias would back up her story: he was investigating the evil voters and was about to indict them.

Photo Id requirement to target minorities--Palast

Palast shows that photo ID requirement will disqualify far more Democrats than Republicans. Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President? by Greg PalastThursday, January 10, 2008

How many? According to the Congressman's office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans - they're Mexicans! Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who've swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!

Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican) politicians, successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 - because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with "wrong" ID's were handed what are called 'provisional' ballots - which were then not counted.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements. And just in time. If not for these new ID laws, warns Senator Pearce and other Republicans across the nation, a dark wave of illegal aliens would vote again in our upcoming Presidential election; or maybe not. Maybe there aren't five million illegal voters for Hillary or Obama or Edwards. Maybe there are just five hundred. Maybe there are none.

I called Senator Pearce's office to get a couple of the names of these illegal voters. After all, it should be easy as pie to catch them: they have to give their names and addresses to register and vote. Odd thing, out of five million illegal registrants, the Senator, after a week of looking, couldn't provide me the name of one. Not one.

Another Republican politician, this one in New Mexico, the sponsor of the voter ID law there, said on the floor of the State Legislature that she had the names of two illegal voters. Well, that's a start.

I called her, Representative Justine Fox-Young (yes, that's her name, and she has the ID to prove it).

Election 08--fight theft

VOTE COUNTING FRAUDS Election 08--fight theft http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/ Palast & Kennedy intro pod cast. There will be a download of their 24 page comic book by the 1st of October RFK Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast - invite your group to co-sponsor our voter guide “Steal Back Your Vote.” Your organization, group, website, radio program - we need you to add your name, your heart, your effort to prevent a repeat of 2000 and 2004. Steal Back Your Vote lays out the Six Ways They’re Stealing the Election – and the Seven Ways you can Steal It Back. It’s a 24-page downloadable graphic guide - an investigative comic book. It’s non-partisan, it’s humorous, it’s harrowing and it’s helpful. And we need your name on it. The non-partisan guide’s initial sponsors include Voto Latino, Operation Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Magazine and VoteRescue; individual sponsors include troubadour Willie Nelson and Code Pink’s Annie Nelson. It won't cost your group a dime - but it does require a commitment to get out the word to your members or audience on the practical ways to protect your ballot from the vote-rustlers. You know Bobby’s work. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blew the lid off the Theft of 2004 in his masterful Rolling Stone article. Many of you know me for my BBC television report that exposed Katherine Harris' "fake felon purge" of Black citizens in 2000. Now RFK Jr. and I have teamed up to investigate THE THEFT OF 2008. We can bring in your group for you gratis thanks the generosity of the Puffin Foundation, The Nation Institute, Threshold Foundation and the Palast Investigative Fund. Jim Hightower and Air America’s Cout have joined. How about you. Just take these two steps: #1. Respond with a “yes” to StealBackYourVote@GregPalast.com Tell me how you want to be listed. If you have a logo and a link we’ll put them on our website, StealBackYourVote.org #2. Go to www.StealBackYourVote.org and you’ll find excerpts from the Voter Guide - you can grab them to post on your own website. Click here to get the first story in the guide - "Night of the Living Vote Snatchers." Illustrated by graphic gonzos Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle. When we launch in two weeks, we'll send you a link for your site and a note to send to your lists. Your readers/members/listeners can then download the complete guide for a donation of as little as a dollar. Reverend Jackson has asked me to pass on these words: "We've marched too long, worked too hard, and died too young to let them steal our vote. For Dr. King, for Mandela, for Medgar Evers, for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner - download it and fight back!" On how 3 million votes were not counted Check out this website. http://www.gregpalast.com/splash/. Backer include Jessie Jackson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Greg Palast. It is how the Republicans have made millions of votes disappear in the last 3 elections, and will do the same in the next. This is not some loony conspiracy theory, but rather an example of first rate investigative reporting—the kind that occurred in this country which brought down Nixon. Only today such report occurs in Europe, and the corporate press here has dismissed it. The BBC carried the original reports, and then the rest of Europe. You can also go to http://www.gregpalast.com/splash/ for a library of article collected over the years. And tonight: go to StealBackYourVote.org and watch the BBC Television report from London by Greg Palast with Bobby Kennedy on the strange disappearance of several million voters from US voter rolls. And while you’re there, download the guide and order print copies. And join co-sponsors Voto Latino, Randi Rhodes, Willie Nelson, Jesse Jackson, Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio, Democracy for America and more by adding your group as sponsor at StealBackYourVote.org. link to political cartoons

http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/ Palast & Kennedy intro pod cast. There will be a download of their 24 page comic book by the 1st of October RFK Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast - invite your group to co-sponsor our voter guide “Steal Back Your Vote.” Your organization, group, website, radio program - we need you to add your name, your heart, your effort to prevent a repeat of 2000 and 2004. Steal Back Your Vote lays out the Six Ways They’re Stealing the Election – and the Seven Ways you can Steal It Back. It’s a 24-page downloadable graphic guide - an investigative comic book. It’s non-partisan, it’s humorous, it’s harrowing and it’s helpful. And we need your name on it. The non-partisan guide’s initial sponsors include Voto Latino, Operation Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Magazine and VoteRescue; individual sponsors include troubadour Willie Nelson and Code Pink’s Annie Nelson. It won't cost your group a dime - but it does require a commitment to get out the word to your members or audience on the practical ways to protect your ballot from the vote-rustlers. You know Bobby’s work. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blew the lid off the Theft of 2004 in his masterful Rolling Stone article. Many of you know me for my BBC television report that exposed Katherine Harris' "fake felon purge" of Black citizens in 2000. Now RFK Jr. and I have teamed up to investigate THE THEFT OF 2008. We can bring in your group for you gratis thanks the generosity of the Puffin Foundation, The Nation Institute, Threshold Foundation and the Palast Investigative Fund. Jim Hightower and Air America’s Cout have joined. How about you.

RFK Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson and Greg Palast - invite your group to co-sponsor our voter guide “Steal Back Your Vote.” Your organization, group, website, radio program - we need you to add your name, your heart, your effort to prevent a repeat of 2000 and 2004. Steal Back Your Vote lays out the Six Ways They’re Stealing the Election – and the Seven Ways you can Steal It Back. It’s a 24-page downloadable graphic guide - an investigative comic book. It’s non-partisan, it’s humorous, it’s harrowing and it’s helpful. And we need your name on it. The non-partisan guide’s initial sponsors include Voto Latino, Operation Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Magazine and VoteRescue; individual sponsors include troubadour Willie Nelson and Code Pink’s Annie Nelson. It won't cost your group a dime - but it does require a commitment to get out the word to your members or audience on the practical ways to protect your ballot from the vote-rustlers.

You know Bobby’s work. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blew the lid off the Theft of 2004 in his masterful Rolling Stone article. Many of you know me for my BBC television report that exposed Katherine Harris' "fake felon purge" of Black citizens in 2000. Now RFK Jr. and I have teamed up to investigate THE THEFT OF 2008. We can bring in your group for you gratis thanks the generosity of the Puffin Foundation, The Nation Institute, Threshold Foundation and the Palast Investigative Fund. Jim Hightower and Air America’s Cout have joined. How about you.

Just take these two steps: #1. Respond with a “yes” to StealBackYourVote@GregPalast.com Tell me how you want to be listed. If you have a logo and a link we’ll put them on our website, StealBackYourVote.org #2. Go to www.StealBackYourVote.org and you’ll find excerpts from the Voter Guide - you can grab them to post on your own website. Click here to get the first story in the guide - "Night of the Living Vote Snatchers." Illustrated by graphic gonzos Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle. When we launch in two weeks, we'll send you a link for your site and a note to send to your lists. Your readers/members/listeners can then download the complete guide for a donation of as little as a dollar. Reverend Jackson has asked me to pass on these words: "We've marched too long, worked too hard, and died too young to let them steal our vote. For Dr. King, for Mandela, for Medgar Evers, for Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner - download it and fight back!" On how 3 million votes were not counted Check out this website. http://www.gregpalast.com/splash/. Backer include Jessie Jackson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Greg Palast. It is how the Republicans have made millions of votes disappear in the last 3 elections, and will do the same in the next. This is not some loony conspiracy theory, but rather an example of first rate investigative reporting—the kind that occurred in this country which brought down Nixon. Only today such report occurs in Europe, and the corporate press here has dismissed it. The BBC carried the original reports, and then the rest of Europe. You can also go to http://www.gregpalast.com/splash/ for a library of article collected over the years. And tonight: go to StealBackYourVote.org and watch the BBC Television report from London by Greg Palast with Bobby Kennedy on the strange disappearance of several million voters from US voter rolls. And while you’re there, download the guide and order print copies. And join co-sponsors Voto Latino, Randi Rhodes, Willie Nelson, Jesse Jackson, Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio, Democracy for America and more by adding your group as sponsor at StealBackYourVote.org.

#1. Respond with a “yes” to StealBackYourVote@GregPalast.com Tell me how you want to be listed. If you have a logo and a link we’ll put them on our website, StealBackYourVote.org

#2. Go to www.StealBackYourVote.org and you’ll find excerpts from the Voter Guide - you can grab them to post on your own website. Click here to get the first story in the guide - "Night of the Living Vote Snatchers." Illustrated by graphic gonzos Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle.