With regard to the signatures/ballots balancing issue, it is simply unconscionable that the precinct would even report its counts to the next level unless they matched. Whether they vote on paper, punchcard, op-scan, or electronically, every entry in the signature book must be accounted for. That's the first rule of electoral tallying.

I was a Kerry/Edwards pollwatcher, and therefore got to stay inside a polling place after they finished for the night. While some workers were breaking down the voting booths, the rest were recording vote titals and counting the provisional ballots. No precinct-level election clerk could leave the room until his or her totals matched the number of signatures. One guy whooped pretty loudly when his precinct came out on the button the first time through.

Most people come home, pop open a beer, then turn on the faux news and dumbdown for an hour or two. The saddest part of this story is those same people have no idea that this election is beginning to stink, and the frigging media continues to remain silent about this story. Time to take to the streets of Washington in protest. And, while we are there we might want to protest against this War. What about it?

Most people come home, pop open a beer, then turn on the faux news

Go to work, turn on the EIB Network. Check out Glen Beck. Give Hann-job-ity a listen.

Judith wrote:
"those same people have no idea that this election is beginning to stink, and the frigging media continues to remain silent about this story."

It stinks on ice! bushco stole the last one, and evidence increases daily he stole this one, by a Man Date no less. The big lie is their MO, so is running out the clock. Only the judiciary could intervene, they helped a lot in 2000, remember?
The MSM silence is a symptom, as well as a cause.

I just remembered one of my favorite sayings. "Evil reigns where good men do nothing".

But it's OK if you're a one-dollar-one-vote Republican. Is there one still alive who isn't?

There are many things that need to be DONE about this issue. Yahoo! Groups has a group devoted to the issue, that gathers all the BEST info, with less reliable stuff, at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/People-v-Ohio-n-Florida/message/3665

There are articles, like the issues Wasserman talks about, that document clearly that, once the provisionals are counted and the gap closes to about 50,000 or less, the factors he notes, estimated to have cost the Democrats 7,000 votes in Youngstown Ohio alone, that -- JUST DO THE MATH INCLUDING THE SUBSTANTIAL OTHER TESTIMONY EXCERPTED -- really have nailed down at this point that the election has in fact been stolen.
This needs to be hammered at the mainstream media AND the "reluctant blogosphere" such as spinsanity and Eschaton, and even Talking Points Memo, who have been more silent about the stealing of the election than they were about the Sinclair flap. See, on Ohio:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/112104W.shtml

This article, together with the provisional ballots, is the smoking gun on the stolen election.
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On the study showing a massive e-vote "gift" to Bush, (a UC Berkeley study showing a shift of 130,000 to 260,000 from touch-screens), See:
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

And on the reported possible hacking and other corruption in Florida where OPTISCANS were used, see this article about Bev Harris's adventures in Volusia County (Daytona Beach)uncovering signs of massive coverup and likely fraud there, with EVERY MISTAKE, she says, being in Bush's favor, plus HAVE-TO-READ-IT-TO-BELIEVE-IT resistance to her efforts, especially when she found poll tapes repeatedly in the garbage:

'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
by Thom Hartmann, CommonDreams.org
November 18, 2004

On the media blackout see:
That was in the Boston Globe. A rawer, unconfirmed report of a "news lockdown" at CBS, very consistent with everything observed in the mainstream media and much of the astroturf roots, see:
.http://boston.indymedia.org/newswire/display/30877/index.php
News :: Politics
News Media in "lock-down" to Stop TV Coverage of Problems with Nov. 2nd Voting
by Anonymous (No verified email address) 16 Nov 2004
On Friday I received a phone call from a good friend who works at CBS - I've known her for years and she is a Producer for some of the news programs, one well known one in particular. She tipped me off that the news media is in a "lock-down" and that there is to be no TV coverage of the real problems with voting on Nov. 2nd. She said similar "lock-down orders" had come down last year after the invasion of Iraq, but this is far worse - far scarier. (go to the web address for the rest of this article)
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BUT OVERALL, THE EVIDENCE IS THERE, WHAT ARE PEOPLE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

HARANGUE the Rainbow and Civil Rights movement leadership TO DISTRACTION NOW to file a lawsuit NOW under the Voting Rights Act on behalf of all voters who left the polling places in Ohio due to lines in excess of several hours where there were inadequate numbers of voting machines. THEY FAILED TO FILE A SUIT IN FLORIDA 2000, LONG BEFORE NO SENATOR WOULD SPONSOR ANY ISSUE AS SHOWN IN FAHRENHEIT 9/11. THE PUBLIC MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN. The point is to go down fighting, not to go down laundering.

This election was so obviously gamed. Democrats need to throw their utmost effort into reforming the election process or they will never win major elections again.

Here are more links:

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/11/first-hand-reports-by-other-ohio.html

www.freepress.org