Mary, thanks for the crisp summary and the link to the episode.
Posted by eriposte at August 19, 2007 09:36 PMFirst of all, I don't remember touch screens even being used during the 90s for any election. I have always said that immediately upon the "hanging chad" fiasco, presto, electronic voting was ready to enter the stage. It appears to me that all this was planned to push electronic voting because the plan was and is to steal elections through this method of voting.
You could not have an election fiasco without those inferior paper ballots. If the paper ballots in Florida had not been inferior, there would have been less problems with the count. I am convinced it was all planned, and is one of the biggest scandals pulled off on the American voter to guarantee electronic voting and to steal the 2000 election.
Will this be, as all other scandals, forgotten and dropped down the rabbit hole?
Good for Dan Rather. That's the old Dan, the one who use to get in the face of people before they neutered him.
The paper stock for the punchcards is a really important finding. For years we used that method and not once was it ever considered a problem until suddenly in 2000 it was a mess. I don't want to see their quality control reports -- I want those ballots in Palm Beach counted tested (if they still exist), and I want to see testing in OH precincts - 2000 and 2004. If the crappy paperstock punchcards were radomly distributed then fine. However, it DEM precincts got the crappy ones and GOP got the good stuff, this is proof of fraud.
Posted by Marie at August 20, 2007 01:42 AMI think many if not most of the ballot material in Ohio have been destroyed already (against the law, but that never stopped the Republican machine before, so why should it now?).
I applaud Dan Rather too. I never liked Dan's labored efforts to turn a folksy phrase on camera, but I have always liked the honest and earnest effort he makes to do probative reporting.
Posted by gtash at August 20, 2007 05:21 AMThis just makes me sick. With all the awful things going on in the world, for some reason, every time I read about the voting machine problem, it just gets me so down. I guess I imagine that some of the awful things in the world can change with the next election, and then I'm reminded of these problems and I just get so depressed. It makes me feel like there's no way out.
Posted by CG at August 20, 2007 05:35 AMCG, your not alone, because I know that nothing will stop them from doing it again, and that the media will never report this story as it should be reported, NIGHTLY.
Posted by Judith at August 20, 2007 05:56 AMScout, the days of barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen are long over. Get use to it.
Posted by Judith at August 20, 2007 07:32 AMJeebus. Democracy crippled by penny-pinching; either by substandard paper stock for scantron or punchcard ballots, or by defective and poorly built computer components.
I'm a big fan of Greg Palast - this reads like his excellent work. Dan has apparently learned his lesson after being thrown out of CBS and now has a staff that actually practices journalism.
Posted by idiosynchronic at August 20, 2007 07:39 AMJust think, idio, for every substandard voting card, there are a million faulty screws and electronics being put into cars and airplanes, and soon, new bridges for MN. And food additives. Etc.
But never mind! Bush has FEMA on top o' this new hurricane. 'Course, he thinks he's stopping "Howard" Dean at the borders, not a weather system, and it's prolly not gonna hit the US, but what the hey? At least we finally got some action outta him.
Posted by iamcoyote at August 20, 2007 08:02 AMGreg Palast's 'Armed Madhouse' includes the most informative and thorough journalism done on election fraud in the United States since 2000. Halfway through Rather's piece I was anticipating he would report 'spoilage' directed at highly democratic precints in FL. However that's only one way the Republicans do it. They also do it through 'vote caging' ('caging lists'), 'voter purging' (of so-called felons), and voter challenging - resulting in 1/3 of all provisional ballots being thrown away. BELIEVE ME, they will keep it up until more people go to jail instead of receiving congressional seats. . . .
"You can't change what you won't acknowledge."