Elections

Factchecking the most pervasive myths and lies about US elections (10/30/2024)

The War on the Vote

Two men have re-engineered the US electoral system in favor of Republicans David Daley (10/4/2024)

The Continuing War on Easier Access to Voting (9/17/2024)

Endgame: The Risk of a Trump Coup and How to Prevent It (9/17/2024)

There's a danger that the US supreme court, not voters, picks the next president (9/17/2024)

Election certification under threat (08/12/2024) - Download Report

'A different level than 2020': Trump's plan to steal election is taking shape (8/12/2024)

An Election in Danger? The Fragile State of American Democracy (6/28/2024)

'Start the Steal': Trump Once Again Planning to Overturn an Election (4/2/2024)

Potential 2024 'Chaos': Election Deniers Refusing to Certify Results (3/17/2024)

Trump allies are quietly purging names from voter rolls in battleground states: report (3/4/2024)

I don't care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating. Boss Tweed
I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how. Joseph Stalin 1879-1953 Soviet dictator
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it. Gilens and Page
"Nothing is more dangerous to our democracy than a movement based on election lies promoted by radical law enforcement officials who falsely believe they are the ultimate authority, including on matters of election administration." 'Danger to our democracy': fears over Trump allies' summit with far-right sheriffs (4/17/2024)
As the 2024 election approaches, state legislatures continue to propose and enact laws that expose our election system to partisan disruption and manipulation. These laws ultimately increase the risk of subversion-that is, a declared outcome that does not reflect the true choice of the voters. They also abandon long-standing principles of nonpartisan election administration and instead allow for - or even encourage - dysfunction, misinformation, confusion, or manipulation by partisan actors.
A Democracy Crisis In The Making: December 2023 Year-End Update
Election officials have become prime targets of those purveying the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential race was "stolen." A new Brennan Center poll of local election officials shows how damaging these sustained attacks have been. Among the dire results: 77 percent feel that threats against local election officials are increasing, and 30 percent know of one or more who have quit at least in part due to safety concerns. They also fear that conspiracy theories will infect impartial election administration. All levels of government must act now to protect our elections and the people who run them. Brennan Center (3/10/2022)
In early February, a Brennan Center for Justice report detailed: "Thus far this year, thirty-three states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 165 bills to restrict voting access. These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) slash voter registration opportunities; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges. These bills are an unmistakable response to the unfounded and dangerous lies about fraud that followed the 2020 election." On Feb. 24, the center updated its account to reveal that "as of February 19, 2021, state lawmakers have carried over, prefiled, or introduced 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access in 43 states."
Voter Suppression Is Grand Larceny

It's time to abolish the Electoral College

Disparity Between White and Nonwhite Voter Turnout Reaches New High (3/7/2024)

How to steal a US election: Harvard's Lawrence Lessig on Trump's new threat (2/11/2024)

Intimidation of State and Local Officeholders (1/25/2024)

Silvio Berlusconi may be gone, but Trump's still here. The rotten populist legacy is everywhere (6/12/2023)

States Are Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters (6/3/2023) NYT

G.O.P. States Abandon Bipartisan Voting Integrity Group, Yielding to Conspiracy Theories (3/7/2023)

Voting rights in 2023: what are the key issues for US democracy? (1/6/2023) Guardian

Moore v. Harper, Explained

The not-surprising, very bad defeat of Biden's attempt to protect voting (1/20/2022)


US elections do not meet international standards and have been getting worse. Our two party system and the rest of our established institutions are all anti-democratic. Expensive campaign financing is mostly for media: an example of media extortion. Even the simplest reforms, like the ones we need for trustworthy elections , are not up for discussion. Major issues are not discussed much. Dialog is confrontational.

Election denial is a direct assault on democracy by a right wing, minority Party, the GOP, assisted by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court demolished the Voting Rights Act, so Republican States again suppressed voters mostly along racial lines, gerrymandered to disenfranchise minorities. SCOTUS decisions on campaign finance and Citizens United allowed big, dark money into elections, and they loosened laws on corruption. SCOTUS equated money with speech, but the difference is money corrupts.

The Electoral College elects the President by States, not by the people. The Supreme Court will hear a case that could allow State legislators to over ride voters. This could be fixed by the National Popular Vote, which would assure the President would be elected by the popular vote.

Russia helped Trump's election and benefited magnificently from his Presidency. Not only does Trump admire Putin, it appears he intended to use the authoritarian's playbook to become dictator for life.

Trump tried mightily to overturn the 2020 election, changed high level Defence and DOJ officials to place loyalists in positions to overthrow the government. He was recorded threatening Georgia election official to get more votes. He made up and broadcast the big lie that he won the election. Seven GOP States put up their own slate of electors, forged documents to make Trump the election winner so they could inform VP Mike Pence that the real electors were the GOP. On January 6 Pence could throw the election to Trump, the insurrection was a part of the plan. On 1/6 there was an actual insurrection. Court cases challenging election results in many States were thrown out, some of his lawyers were sanctioned for their part. Expensive recounts changed no election counts. His agents intimidated and threatened poll workers. The coup continues with efforts to replace election workers with Trump loyalists. New voting laws in Republican States will have the effect of suppressing the vote. Florida has formed a special police force for the polls.

The insurrection continues with replacement of regular poll workers with partisans. Many recounts and the CyberNinjas long Arizona effort changed nothing.

Trump's big lie should be seen as information warfare intended to sow doubt about elections. Three generals wrote that the military too is polarized and may support Trump next time. That way Trump's dream of becoming dictator for life could come true.

New laws in GOP States allow legislatures to over-ride the actual vote. Voters don't matter to the GOP, an unpopular minority.

The threat continues as Republicans oppose efforts to allow real elections. This may be the end of US democracy and the republic. It's no accident that CPAC is meeting in Hungary or that Fox News broadcasts its propaganda.

Here's what Canadians are preparing for: "The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare" (1/2/2022)<

Representative government is in crisis today, partly because it has lost, in the course of time, all institutions that permitted the citizens' actual participation, and partly because it is now gravely affected by the disease from which the party system suffers: bureaucratization and the two parties' tendency to represent nobody except the party machines. Hannah Arendt (1970)
"The dismal theorem of political science --- that all the skills leading to the rise to power tend to unfit people to exercise it. While there are some exceptions to this principle, there are a deplorable number of good examples. A person rises to power by pushing the other contenders down, in some cases by murder, frequently by deceit, and even in democratic societies by being more persuasive that the competitors. Persuasiveness is not always related to the capacity to live up to the persuasion." Kenneth E. Boulding, The World as a Total System p116.

70 Percent of Republicans Running for Congress Doubt 2020 Election Result (10/14/2022)

Next Time Trump Tries to Steal an Election, He Won't Need a Mob (7/8/2022)

61 Forms of Voter Suppression

The 'big lie' advocates threatening free and fair elections across the US (5/24/2022) Guardian

Nearly a year and a half later, surprisingly few understand what January 6 was all about. (4/27/2022)

The Biggest Risk to This Election Is Not Russia. It's Us. (10/7/2020)

Be very worried that the next election(s) may be a sham.

'Taking the Voters Out of the Equation': How the Parties Are Killing Competition (2/6/2022) NYT

Census Memo Cites 'Unprecedented' Meddling by Trump Administration (1/15/2022)

America is facing a ballot-box coup - help us sound the alarm in 2022 (12/29/2021)

The Election Sabotage Scheme and How Congress Can Stop It (11/8/2021)

Two election workers break silence after enduring Trump backers' threats (12/10/2021) Reuters

Republicans are 'cracking and packing' voters to secure minority rule, David Daley (11/17/2021) Guardian

Reuters unmasks Trump supporters who terrified U.S. election officials (11/9/2021)

Trump Asked DOJ Nine Times to Overturn Election, Says 'Damning' Senate Report (10/7/2021)

Special Report: Backers of Trump's false fraud claims seek to control next elections (9/22/2021)

Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers

American Airlines, other companies resume donations to Republicans who objected to election results (7/15/2021)

They tried to overturn the 2020 election. Now they want to run the next one. (5/24/2021)

The For the People Act: Separating Fact from Fiction (5/13/2021)

How Republicans Could Steal the 2024 Election (5/13/2021)

Is Voter Fraud a Danger or a Myth? (10/19/2020)

Arizona GOP-Led Election Audit by Cyber Ninjas Probed by Judge (4/23/2021)

A Leap Forward for Democracy Is Within Our Grasp (3/17/2021)

If It's Not Jim Crow, What Is It? (4/6/2021)

Voting Rights Roundup: GOP passes Georgia's most far-reaching voting restriction law since Jim Crow (3/26/2021)

Voter Suppression Is Grand Larceny (2/28/2021)

In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules (2/27/2021)

67 Percent of Americans Support H.R.1 For The People Act (1/22/2021)

Trump's Fraud Claims Died in Court, but the Myth of Stolen Elections Lives On (12/26/2020)

Trump's Attempts to Overturn the Election Are Unparalleled in U.S. History (11/19/2020)

Trump may try to steal the election. We need to start preparing for that now (10/20/2020)

Texas shutdown of mail-in ballot drop-off sites hits diverse cities hardest (10/3/2020)

Are Republican Judges Putting Their Thumbs on the Electoral Scale? (9/25/2020)

How the Supreme Court revived Jim Crow voter suppression tactics (9/21/2020)

Trump's Perverse Campaign Strategy (9/15/2020)

The G.O.P. Plot to Sabotage 2021 (9/14/2020)

The Electoral College Will Destroy America (9/8/2020)

Carter Centre to launch first-ever US election initiative, citing 'erosion' of democracy (8/22/2020)

I am not at all certain we will be able to conduct a free and fair election in November or have a peaceful transition of presidential power in January. We are edging toward a cultural civil war, only this time we are not lucky: Abraham Lincoln is not the president. Tom Friedman, New York Times (6/4/2020)
An Angolan friend of Joe Wilson remarked: "One candidate loses the popular vote by over 500,000 ballots, but his brother is governor of the one state where the outcome is too close to call. The effort to count the ballots is disrupted by the Washington staffs of elected representatives from the candidate's party, and the court that ultimately adjudicates the outcome is made up largely by people appointed by the candidate's father. Sounds a lot like an election in Africa."; Joe Wilson: Politics of Truth; pg 281.
Voter suppression the new GOP strategy: Better bring some identification - and not just any identification, official though it may be - if you plan to vote in Republican-controlled states. However, if you contribute tens of millions of dollars to sway an election on Republicans behalf, the party will fight to keep your identity a secret. Voter suppression the new GOP strategy" Harold Meyerson, 11/19/2013

Iran, not noted for its democracy, has its elections on a holiday. If the US did this working people would have a lot easier time voting. What does it say that we have not done this ?

Trump holds up coronavirus aid to block Democrats' bid for election funding (8/13/2020)

Tips to Mitigate Threats to Our Votes and Voter Registrations Before November (8/6/2020)

Voting in the Year of COVID-19 (7/7/2020)

How Trump Stole 2020 (7/17/2020)

Trump urges Republicans to 'fight very hard' against voting by mail (4/8/2020)

You Shouldn't Have to Risk Your Life to Vote (4/3/2020)

Trump says Republicans would 'never' be elected again if it was easier to vote (3/30/2020)

“As I have said for many years, I happen not to believe that within the framework of the two-party system, the Democratic Party and Republican Party, that we are going to be able to bring about the real changes in this country that are needed to benefit the vast majority of our people. Essentially, it is my view that the leadership of the Democratic Party and Republican Party are tied to big money interests, and that neither of these parties will ever represent the people in this country who are demanding the real changes that have to take place.” – Bernie Sanders

If politicians wanted better turnout and fair elections, we would have them. Election Day should be a national holiday. Could be on Veteran's Day to remind everyone what they thought they were fighting for. It is too much to ask people to take time off work especially if lines have been made deliberately long or there are few working voting machines as happened in Georgia.

Behind the scenes, hidden from public view, corporations and big donors actually pick candidates from which voters choose. They oppose democracy and block Constitutional checks and balances, but Congress responds to them, not the people.

We are really only allowed two parties, since added ones would likely be spoilers, yet another way to rig an election for a minority party. It will be that way until we have Ranked Choice Voting. Maine learned that lesson from Governor Paul Lepage. After a referendum and a subsequent Constitutional struggle, they finally got RCV.

The 2 party system is not part of the Constitution and is, itself, part of election problems. A third party is a spoiler, may take votes from the majority party, and sometimes is a sham. Ranked choice voting should be standard to fix it.

The assumption that two parties are the only legitimate competitors is one of the most effective techniques to assure that the status quo will not be challenged. We have dysfunctional government because neither party wants the other to accomplish anything. Better voting techniques, like range voting, would enable multi-party competition. The dialog would improve. Minor parties are, right now, spoilers and can only make prospects for their opponents even brighter.; We do not have a peace party, and continue to support an empire in decline that is bankrupting us.

Since voting in person in a pandemic is a health risk, absentee paper ballots are in order, they are also more efficient. Republicans, including Connecticut Trump followers, resist this even if it puts voters lives at risk.

Wisconsin Republicans, assisted by the Courts, made sure that in-person voting was required disregarding the pandemic. Because poll workers are elderly, there were few of them, resulting in long lines to vote. The 'pro-life' GOP would put lives at risk to vote. SCOTUS, having allowed dark money into elections, turned a blind eye to gerrymandering, has all but obliterated the Voting Rights Act.

Candidates tend to change their positions depending on the venue. Once elected, may not do what they said they would. (etch-a-sketch) The best we can hope for is, when a candidate announces his agenda, he will have the integrity to act on it. The worst case is increasingly likely: we will get a strong man head of state who is above the law, corrupt, and capable of destroying us all. Are we there yet ?

Qualifications are irrelevant (Bush is an example.) If you were hiring for a high office, you would look for someone who speaks well, has traveled widely, has diplomatic expertise, academic excellence, and a distinguished record. (Bush had none of these. Thanks Republicans.); After reviewing many such resumes, you might find an acceptable candidate. That's not how we do it. Trump and his cabinet prove that vetting is not part of the political process.

Candidates for high office should be screened: background checked, tax returns required, conflicts of interest resolved,

Conventions accomplish little since the candidate has been selected well in advance.

The GOP knows a real election would be a disaster for them, so they gerrymander, purge voter rolls, make voters wait for hours in long lines to vote, spend massive cash to buy media, flawed election mechanics, fail to vet or background check candidates. Candidates, to a large extent, are not really selected in primaries. They are funded by wealthy donors well before the primaries for very high stakes donations. That explains why both parties candidates are from almost identical backgrounds, why they are so dedicated to the corporate interest, and also why the US is more a plutocracy than a democracy.; Electing candidates from dynastic families creates massive conflict of interest. (See Bush.) Republicans also put up celebrity candidates with little experience in public office, who most likely can be persuaded to act in the interest of their donors.

US elections are rigged well before the votes are cast in a variety of ways: party insider dealings, loaded media, gerrymandering, suppressed voter registration, large moneyed interests, primaries where special interests can dominate, strange differences in state procedures, plain dirty tricks, misleading attack ads, rigged voting machines, outright miscounting, or even partisan court decisions... and so on.

As we saw in Florida and Ohio, partisan bureaucrats can rig elections wholesale by controlling voter registration lists, dirty tricks, manipulating media, allocation of election machines, hacking machines to fix vote totals, and, as Republicans are doing in many States, making it harder to vote.;

The person who manages to get 'elected' is the one who gets to set an agenda...whether most of the people agree with him or not. Some politicians regularly change their positions depending on who funds them.

Is it coincidence that terror alerts occur just before elections ?

Since use of nuclear weapons are suicidal for humanity, the next war could be with cyber weapons and foreign infiltration such as the one Russians waged to elect Trump. They were surprisingly successful and benefited immensely. It's probably not over. at least until nuclear exchange.

Original Problems

The Constitution was written to protect slavery. It gave rural States more powerful votes, so the Senate, the Presidency, and the resulting Supreme Court can be elected without the popular vote which is why they are Republican right now.

The absence of a federal right to vote coupled with the Supreme Court's inclination to value procedure over real-world voter behavior has dramatic consequences for America's elections. Voter-registration requirements are convoluted. Voter rolls are purged chaotically. Ballot design is unregulated and amateurish. Polling hours are haphazard. Voting equipment ranges from high-tech to derelict. Vote-counting and recounting systems are unsystematic. In 1964, the Supreme Court proclaimed that "no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live." But under the decisions of this Court, voters can perhaps be forgiven for feeling occasionally more like mice in a maze than like citizens of a democracy. Victoria Bassetti, from Electoral Dysfunction
Republicans could not repeal the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, or get rid of the Voting Rights Act. But the Roberts Court took care of the problem through constitutional interpretation. Constitutional Rot Reaches the Supreme Court (10/5/2018)

After SCOTUS repealed the Voting Rights Act, Republican States immediately made it difficult for minorities to vote. For 40 years Republicans have been forbidden by the Courts to place intimidating election monitors in polling places, but in November they will be back out there in force.

Voting Machines

The Only Safe Election Is a Low-Tech Election (2/4/2020)

Hackers Are Coming for the 2020 Election - And We're Not Ready (1/17/2020)

America's Electronic Voting System is Corrupted to the Core (9/7/2019)

Paperless electronic voting machines "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued by NIST that advises the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Voting machines are a risk since software is closed, proprietary and can not be easily audited. They cannot be secured. Simple, scanned paper ballots are far superior and a lot less expensive. Mitch McConnell Received Donations from Voting Machine Lobbyists Before Blocking Election Security Bills

Big Money

The even deeper root of this issue is wealth inequality.

“There is only one issue in this country,” former MSNBC commentator Cenk Uygur told Netroots Nation, in June 2011. “Campaign finance reform.” (From the preface to Lawrence Lessig's book Republic Lost. which is free to download)

The first phase of US elections is an auction to see which candidates click their heels for the highest bidders. This makes wealthy campaign donors the gate-keepers. Their interests are sharply different than most; peoples. See this Lawrence Lessig Ted talk for a fuller explanation.

Media

"Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary task is commercial advertising, which is designed to undermine markets by creating uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices -- the exact opposite of how markets are supposed to work, but certainly familiar to anyone who has watched television." Noam Chomsky, Because We Say So pg 66.
In essence, broadcasters are now profiteering from a vicious circle of corruption: Politicians are beholden to big donors because campaigns are so expensive, and campaigns are so expensive because they're fought through television ads. The more cash that chases limited airtime, the more the ads will cost, and the more politicians must lean on deep-pocketed patrons. In short, the dirtier the system, the better for the bottom line at TV stations and cable systems." Tim Dickenson, Rolling Stone, 8/6/2012

US media is interested only in the candidates who raise the most money because, for them, elections are a profit tsunami. Since a large part of campaigning is spent on advertising, the broadcasters and other news outlets are strongly conflicted to favor the fund raising winner. The candidate(s) with the most dollar votes are the most likely primary winner for the two major parties. Third parties are, using our election procedures, spoilers, so it is counter-productive to vote for them. Range voting would fix this.

Media, covering the election as if it were a horserace, marginalizes candidates who are not raising a lot of money, declare the largest fund-raisers winners, and pretty much force out lesser known candidates (or those who do not agree with the party orthodoxy) with very few votes cast. Since media conglomerates are owned by oligarchs, have been better funded by Republicans, their right-wing bias is obviously to Republicans. The agenda is not for people and the Federal budget proves it. It is corporate. Money sometimes is speech, but in large quantities it can also be exceptionally corrupting. Citizens United needs to be overturned.

U.S. media selects the issues to be addressed in the election discussion. Most often the news is concentrated on the certifiably trivial. It has determined that the fiscal cliff is the problem, not healthcare, education, media concentration, election fraud, income distribution, falling pay scales, loss of benefits, disappearing pensions, empire building, runaway military spending, nuclear proliferation, the prison-industrial complex, torture, renditions, climate change, a partisan Supreme Court, money-driven Congress, or an uncontrolled President that threatens the Constitution.

"Issues, never a strong suit in our politics, are seldom alluded to. Only money - who raised how much and from whom - interested the media, and the politicians." Gore Vidal, Point to Point Navigation.
Election commissions are being kept weak by political leaders who want the freedom to skirt rules without consequences. The two major federal agencies should be in the forefront of fighting for honest elections. Instead, they have little mandate, vigor, or visibility. At the Federal Election Assistance Commission, all five commissioner posts were vacant during the 2012 campaign. The Obama administration failed to overcome Republican obstruction to staffing and funding. A similar situation existed at the Federal Election Commission, where the terms of five of the six commissioners expired by the end of 2012. The commission, which focuses on funding, brought just a tenth of the number of official actions during the year compared to 2008": Presidential Puppetry: Andrew Kreig

Foreign Interference

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin Releases Report Detailing Two Decades of Putin's Attacks on Democracy, Calling for Policy Changes Ahead of 2018, 2020 Elections (1/10/2018)

During the last German election, there was a lot of talk of potential Russian interference, you know, it's gonna swing the election. Well, it turns out there was foreign interference, but it wasn't Russian. It was a combination of the Berlin office of Facebook and a media company in the U.S., which works for Trump, Le Pen, Netanyahu, other nice guys. They used Facebook in Berlin to get a demographic analysis of parts of the population to allow them to microtarget ads to individuals in favor of AfD, the neo-Nazi party, which may have been a factor in their unexpectedly high vote in the election. This was reported in Bloomberg Businessweek. This was a real case of electoral manipulation but somehow it doesn't make the headlines. ( Noam Chomsky)
Seen from the global South, U.S. elections inspire jokes about the deeply flawed democracy that the United States seeks to impose on the rest of the world. When democratically elected governments try to challenge the global capitalist system, they become targets for military intervention, coups d'etat, and furious attempts to destabilize their political and economic systems. So defects of the U.S. electoral system become glaring: scheduling election days on workdays rather than national holidays or Sundays: buying politicians through campaign contributions and other financial support; creation of false consciousness through manipulation of the media; and apathy, non-participation, intimidation, and exclusion of U.S. voters through complex voter registration requirements, insufficient polling places and staffing, and similar maneuvers that discourage voters from voting - leading in this case to Trump's so-called triumph when he received votes from less that 25 percent of eligible voters and less that one-sixth of all citizens, lost the popular vote, and faced no run-off election. Howard Waitzkin

Of the dirty tricks in Presidential elections, probably the worst is interference in foreign affairs to win elections: Nixon sabotaged Vietnam peace talks, Reagan held up release of Iran hostages later sealing the deal with the Iran-Contra scandal, and now it appears that Trump had Russian help in winning his election. In the case of these corporate (Republican) Presidents, we get a large military buildup, partially paid for by cuts to social programs, followed by a war often in their first term. Only sociopaths can qualify.

Reality Winner went to jail for releasing a classified document that confirmed that Russians interfered in the 2016 election. The Trump administration does not acknowledge the problem, Mitch McConnell blocked action to guard against it, so we can be exposed to foreign interference in the future as well.

Evgeny Popov, the host of 60 Minutes, the most popular state TV program in Russia as of 2018, is defiant about the findings in the Mueller report. Popov tells me: 'Soon, we will help you elect Trump once again. Just like the last time. Get ready!' Julia Davis

Platform

We should be voting for a platform that reflects the will of the people, and candidates should be required to implement it. Comparing agendas though, Republicans are, as Thomas Frank wrote so well, not only voting against their own self-interest, their climate denial is a suicide pact for life on the planet. So is the forever war.

Medicare for All is important in a pandemic, a Green New Deal could mitigate the destruction of the planet, international cooperation is necessary for both, free public K-16 public education could improve democracy, productivity and election results, a progressive wealth tax could damp down extreme inequality and pay for the general welfare. It's not easy to see any of these things on the horizon. Republicans claim they're socialist, part of their attack on democracy.

It's not looking good for November. It may be the last chance you'll ever have to vote out Republicans, enablers of a Fascist leader who is attacking and corroding democracy just as other dictators do.

Freed by Court Ruling, Republicans Step Up Effort to Patrol Voting (5/18/2020)

Voter Fraud Is Part of the G.O.P. Playbook (4/24/2020)

All we're asking is that the voters choose the politicians and not the opposite way around (4/22/2020)

How to Vote By Mail in Every Single State (4/10/2020)

What Happens in November if One Side Doesn't Accept the Election Results? (3/30/2020)

"A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela or East Timor, his widely respected international election-monitoring team was invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to monitor an election there in the first place...The American political system wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several reasons."; From the first page of "Steal this Vote" by Andrew Gumbel (Winner of the Project Censored Award.)

Trump Reveals the Truth About Voter Suppression (4/11/2020)

The Primaries Are Just Dumb (2/26/2020)

U.S. "has no functioning democracy": Jimmy Carter (7/18/2013)

Fool Us Once, Shame on You. Fool Us in 2020, Shame on Us. (12/17/2019)
The last election weakened our democracy. Why aren't we preparing for the next one?

The Right-Wing War on American Voters (11/25/2019)

Florida Republicans, like their counterparts in other states and in Washington, D.C., are becoming increasingly comfortable with the perks of minority rule, like the ability to disregard what the majority of voters demand. They appear to know that when you can't win on your ideas, you win by undermining democracy. Why Are Florida Republicans So Afraid of People Voting? (8/10/2019)
privatization of our elections has occurred without public knowledge or consent, leading to one of the most dangerous and least understood crises in the history of American democracy. We have actually lost the ability to verify election results. How to Rig an Election
There's nothing in the Constitution that says there have to be only two parties. There's nothing in the Constitution about parties at all. There's not even anything in the Constitution mandating that each congressional district have only one member and be represented by one party. We could have a much fairer and better system with the passage of a law. The way to do that is through multimember districts and ranked-choice voting. David Brooks: One Reform to Save America

Republicans, Not Russians, Threaten Our Elections (11/6/2019)

Why Voter Turnout Is So Low in the United States (10/2019)

Why Republicans Play Dirty (9/20/2019)

Fix the Electoral College - Or Scrap It (8/30/2019)

The Election Watchdog That Can't Bark (8/29/2019)

Everyone Seems So Shocked At GOP Non-Response To Election Security Report (7/26/2019)

Russia Targeted Elections Systems in All 50 States, Report Finds (7/25/2019)

Two Unofficial US Operatives Reporting To Trump's Lawyer Privately Lobbied A Foreign Government In A Bid To Help The President Win In 2020 (7/22/2019)

DHS, FBI say election systems in all 50 states were targeted in 2016 (4/10/2019)

Republicans freak out over HR1: They don't want America to have fair elections (4//8/2019)

McConnell won't allow vote on election reform bill (3/6/2019)

Trump's DHS Guts Task Forces Protecting Elections From Foreign Meddling (2/13/2019)

Media Can Kick Its Horserace Addiction-And It Must (1/11/2019)

After Years of Fearmongering Mythical Threat of Voter Fraud, GOP 'Silence Now Deafening' as Real Election Fraud Exposed in North Carolina (12/6/2018)

Election Results 2018

how the gutting of the voting rights act led to hundreds of closed polls (10/16/2018)

C.I.A. Officer-Turned-Candidate Says PAC Obtained Her Security Application (8/28/2018)

Fractured Franchise (7/9/2018)

This Reporter Thinks Russian Hackers Changed Votes for Trump - And His Explanation Doesn't Sound Crazy (7/27/2018)

President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that? (7/18/2018)

Republicans actions to systematically rig elections

Whistleblower Reality Winner, Charged Under the Espionage Act for Helping to Inform Public of Russian Election Meddling, Pleads Guilty (6/26/2018)

Supreme Court sidesteps major rulings on electoral map manipulation (6/18/2018)

The Rights Campaign to Expand Voter Purges (6/15/2018)

Russian election meddling meant to help Trump, hurt Clinton, Senate Intelligence Committee finds (5/16/2018)

Bernie Sanders Is the Most Popular Politician in the Country, but the Mainstream Media Is Ignoring Him (3/25/2018)

How Cambridge Analytica used your Facebook data to help elect Trump (3/20/2018)

Extreme Gerrymandering & the 2018 Midterm (3/23/2018)

Knowing Russia intends to hack Midterms, GOP fires key election official battling cyber attacks (2/24/2018)

Who Needs Congressional Districts? (2/20/2018)

Trump Is Undermining the 2020 Census. Marginalized Communities Will Bear the Brunt. (1/5/2018)

Former DNI chief Clapper: Intel community cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2016 election (9/23/2017)

Kris Kobach: Spearheading the Newest Voter Suppression Effort (8/31/2016))

Republicans actions to systematically rig elections (2/21/2016)

"Genuine democratic elections cannot be achieved unless a wide range of other human rights and fundamental freedoms can be exercised on an ongoing basis without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, including among others disabilities, and without arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions. They, like other human rights and democracy more broadly, cannot be achieved without the protections of the rule of law. These precepts are recognized by human rights and other international instruments and by the documents of numerous intergovernmental organizations. Achieving genuine democratic elections therefore has become a matter of concern for international organizations, just as it is the concern of national institutions, political competitors, citizens and their civic organizations" DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES FOR INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION. The Carter Center
When Eisenhower warned of the Military Industrial Complex, he was thinking about physical weapons. But, just as unregulated semi-automatics invented for soldiers end up going off in American schools, it shouldn't be any kind of surprise that the weapons of information war are going off in Anglo-American votes. Cambridge Analytica is what happens when you privatise military propaganda: Adam Ramsay (3/28/2018)

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

Trump Still Hasn't Gotten Around to Appointing Someone to Protect Our Elections From Cyberattacks (10/3/2017)

America Held Hostage (9/28/2017)

Tyranny of the Minority (9/25/2017)

The voting commission is a fraud itself. Shut it down. (9/13/2017)

DEFCON attendees hack US voting machines in minutes, exploit multiple vulnerabilities (7/29/2017)

DHS Never Ran Audit to See if Votes Were Hacked (6/20/2017)

Reality Winner allegedly leaked a document proving Russian meddling in the election (6/6/2017)

Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election (6/5/2017)

Trump to Appoint Notorious Vote Suppressor Kobach to 'Sham' Election Commission (5/11/2017)

Russia's Interference in the U.S. Election Was Just the Beginning (4/20/2017)

"...election fraud has been a common component of our nation's electoral history, and, in the aggregate, undermines the only check that the people have over their leaders." from Deliver the Vote by Tracy Campbell
When you exclude third parties from the election process, third parties that the vast majority of Americans would like to see in the presidential debates, your not only denying those people the right to choose who they want to run for president and who they want to vote for, but youre denying the very fundamental and critical issues that, in a generative democracy, we need to have aired in from of tens of millions of voters.George Farah
The immediate effect of the money-and-media election complex is to encourage election campaigns, like those in 2012, that do not even begin to address the societal pathologies afflicting the people of the United States. The trillion dollars spent annually on militarism and war is off-limits to public review and debate. Likewise, the corporate control of the economy and the corporate domination of government itself get barely a nod. Stagnation, gaping economic inequality, growing poverty, and collapsing infrastructure and social services—major issues all—are accorded nothing more than the market-tested drivel candidates say to get votes. The existential threats posed by climate change and nuclear weaponry are virtually off-limits as campaign-season issues; whole debates that are supposed to go to the heart of domestic and global concerns pass by without mention of them. The drug war, which has created a prison-industrial complex so vast that the United States has a greater percentage of its population imprisoned than any other nation in history, is not to be mentioned—except when obviously engaged and concerned citizens force the issue onto the ballot via the initiative process." Dollarocracy: John Nichols and Robert W McChesney

we're incredibly close to replacing the Electoral College with the popular vote (5/7/2017)

The Federal Voting Agency Republicans Want to Kill (2/13/2017)

Here are nine investigations on voter fraud that found virtually nothing (1/25/2017)

Democracy, Defenestrated (1/7/2017)

The CIA's Absence of Conviction (12/11/2016)

Jill Stein Pulls Back the Curtain on America’s Voting Chaos (12/15/2016)

The No-BS Inside Guide to the Presidential Recount (12/1/2016)

How the GOP Flipped and Stripped Yet Another American Election (11/20/2016)

DNC Hacker Dumps Trove of Clinton Documents (6/21/2016)

America's Voting System is Broken. It's Time to Overhaul It (6/8/2016)

Half of Americans think presidential nominating system 'rigged' - poll (3/27/2016)

Land Of The Free? Harvard Study Ranks America Worst In West For Fair Elections (4/21/2016)

Meet the GOP Mega-Donors of the 2016 Election (3/11/2016)

DNC Lawsuit: Three Overlooked Facts Bernie Supporters Need to Know(3/2016)

Republicans actions to systematically rig elections (2/21/2016)

The Volcanic Core Fueling the 2016 Election (1/25/2016)

Martin O'Malley: DNC Debate Schedule Is Rigged (8/30/2015)

F.E.C. Can’t Curb 2016 Election Abuse, Commission Chief Says (5/2/2015)

Republicans have made the FEC irrelevant.



Even the 2016 Presidential candidates agreed that elections are rigged. But the problem is not voter fraud, it is structural: A partisan Supreme Court, Citizens United, Electoral College, gerrymandering, fake news (mostly Republican), voter suppression, Russian interference, dirty tricks, and other techniques effectively impose minority rule. To put it more bluntly, Republicans cheat at elections. For a variety of reasons favored by Republicans, the U.S. also has the lowest voter turnout of any developed country.

Because Republicans are a minority party they have to cheat at elections. That explains why they tried to bully their way to have a citizenship question on the census. It is why they gerrymander in States where they can. It is why in Florida, where voters said that felons should be allowed to vote, they added a provision that required ex-felons to pay back debt before they could vote. It is why they can maintain control, even of the Presidency without the popular vote. It is why, at every opportunity, they oppose democracy.

Reality Winner went to jail for releasing a classified document that confirmed that Russians interfered in the 2016 election. The Trump administration does not acknowledge the problem, Mitch McConnell has blocked action to guard against it, so we may be exposed to foreign interference in the future as well.

The deep root of our problems is income inequality. See Lawrence Lessig's youtube video Lesterland for an idea of how funders influence Congress and choose candidates well in advance. Billionaires did win, and so did their agenda.

The two party duopoly , by gerrymandering, voter suppression, massive cash flow, flawed election mechanics, bought media, failed to vet or background check Presidential candidates.

Most people didn't like either of the two Presidential candidates for election 2016. Picking the least worst assured that things will get worse, and so it did with Trump.

For all practical purposes, we are not allowed to have minor parties, because they are spoilers. Voting for them can result in the victory of the Party you do not like. The simple solution for this: implement range voting in which you rank the candidates and your second and third choices can count. A Maine ballot initiative passed for this, and should be a model for the nation. Lacking IRV or range voting, just hold your nose and pick the least worst.

Elections are a sham without real discussion of issues and reliable media. Although the Russians were blamed for release of DNC documents, there was no denial that the documents are genuine. What they showed is that the Party selected the candidate, not the people. We do need Wikileaks to know what government is doing.

The two party administration of debates strongly limits the range of discussion. There was not one question about climate change in the 2016 Presidential debates.

The FBI historically has weighed in on elections and it always leans right. It helped elect Nixon, Reagan in 1980, and Trump in 2016. It has demonstrated the political danger of the surveillance state.

With election flaws so obvious, several Election reforms should be a priority: range voting so that minor parties are not spoilers, universal voter registration, vet candidates for high office before they get on the ballot including required release of tax returns, and background check appropriate for the position sought, roll back of Citizens United, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, a national holiday for elections, and elimination of he Electoral College so that the popular vote matters. We need fair elections.

Republicans govern for the elite, not the people, and they will game the system even more to extract wealth from the 99.9 %.

The Two Party System

"They've created a system based upon bribery. Today, Wall Street owns our politicians, no matter which party (gang) it is -- their allegiance is to the corporations and big business," Jesse Ventura: Democrips and ReBloodlicans, No More Gangs in Government:

We need to re-examine the two party system. It wasn't part of the Constitution and It is not beneficial. It produces poor candidates, results in gridlock, and government dysfunction. Both major parties are driven by corporate cash.

Since parties run elections, there is considerable corruption that doesn't make the news...let alone the courts. Debates are staged so that real issues are not discussed. See the video "Unprecedented" on-line referenced above (election 2000) for examples.

In the first years of the Bush administration, Republicans controlled all the branches of government (press too really) and Constitutional checks were inoperable. The two-party system short-circuits the Constitution.

Since the Bush administration did not appoint acceptable candidates for the Federal Election Commission, that too became dysfunctional.

How to scrap the Two Party System in Three Steps (11/11/2014

Debates

"Who thought this up – Giving a private corporation (CNN) control of a presidential debate? In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, CNN controlled which candidates were invited, who asked what questions, and the location, Las Vegas – the glittering, gambling center of America. This is a mirror image of the control Fox News exercised during their Republican candidates’ circus. Corporatism aside, the debate with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee was not a debate. With few exceptions – most notably Hillary Clinton going after Bernie Sanders on gun control, about which she is reborn – the stage was the setting for a series of interview questions to each candidate by Anderson Cooper and his colleagues." Ralph Nader (10/16/2015)

Presidential Debates Should Serve Citizens and Democracy, Not Political Parties

After you see this, if you are not angry about debates, you're not paying attention.

OpenDebates.org

No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates George Farah

Reality

Even the candidates agree that U.S. elections are rigged.

When the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act, Republican States immediately went back to strategies to suppress voting rights: requiring documentation difficult to get, 'cleansing' voter registration lists, and others. (See the war on drugs, or prisons, or national security state, or vast right-wing conspiracy.) But Republicans also gerrymandered States so that, along with a voter suppression effort, they gained long-term control of the House. They have managed to control the Congress without a majority of voters.

The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision guaranteed that the influence of money in elections will be more powerful than people's votes and, if not reversed, it will cost us our republic. Most of the money goes to media so you won't hear about it from broadcasters.

If it wasn't for Bush, would we have gone to Iraq ? Would there have been an initiative to privatize everything including Social Security, healthcare, utilities, or even the military ?

In a real democracy, our government would support an agenda that is democratically agreed upon. That is NOT the case. That is why torture, renditions, secret detention facilities, secret government, revocation of habeas corpus, empire, war profiteering, are all more important than fixing infrastructure, health care or providing real security for people. No US institutions are democratic. Important issues are not discussed.

If the US was a democracy and was influenced by its people, the US budget would be open and transparent, since most people favor peace, we would not be building an empire, we would not torture, pre-emptive war would be criminal (as it was found at Nuremburg.) and international law would be considered valid. Most people favor health care reform, more equitable income distribution, limits on corporations (like Walmart), US government does not work for the people. Priorities expressed in the US budget are the opposite of those of the people.

The large, secret, unaccountable part of government is probably the real ruler. Elections have little effect on policy.

Real democracy would allow people, not oligarchs, to set the agenda, but the likelihood of our seeing any of these things is so slim as to be non-existent.

For election 2016, we are had to choose between two candidates that most people viewed unfavorably. Both would continue in mostly the wrong direction because they are both beholden to big money.

More at Reform.htm

The US election process needs a complete overhaul.;

The two 2016 Presidential candidates both had mostly unfavorable ratings.

Primary elections are a Rube Goldberg contraption that make the politically weird State of New Hampshire one of the most influential. The Manchester Union Leader is one of the most 'conservative' newspapers in the US. It is instrumental in keeping the U.S. one of the most reactionary in the world.

Iowa caucuses appear to be ideal for arranging the outcome. Candidates selected in the primaries are not the best qualified. See Bush for an example.

Candidates, to a large extent, are not really selected in primaries. They are funded by wealthy donors well before the primaries for very high stakes donations. That explains why both parties candidates are from almost identical backgrounds, why they are so dedicated to the corporate interest, and also why the US is more a plutocracy than a democracy.; Electing candidates from dynastic families creates massive conflict of interest. (See Bush.)

Do not underestimate the media's ability to remove candidates from consideration and to swing elections. Remember how Reagan was characterized as 'teflon man' because in spite of Iran-Contra criminal activities, the mining of harbors in Nicaragua (which the World Court ruled against the US), or the huge waste incurred in the military buildup to counter the Soviet Union, there was never any serious press review. Likewise media was a cheerleader for the war in Iraq and never looked at it critically. For example, Fox News is, for all practical purposes, a branch of the Republican party, CNN uses 'conservative' experts, NBC was owned by war profiteer General Electric, ABC has links to the CIA, and so on. There is no doubt that US news is seriously compromised, voters are not given good information, Americans are misinformed, distracted, and misled on important issues.

Concentrated corporate, right-wing; media has dumbed down information to trivialized sound bites. Media has become, with Republican and FCC assistance, more concentrated. This is no accident. Privatized corporate media, has taken almost all meaningful discourse from public policy discussion. Big media only pays attention to candidates with buckets of money (the real election is up to the fund raisers), discussion of issues is limited because only two similar parties debate, voting machines can be easily hacked, and election apparatus is in the hands of partisans it is no wonder that our democracy is increasingly weakened.

Worse, public policy is increasingly determined in secret. Since the Bush administration made secrecy a value, there is probably not enough reliable information to support real democracy anymore. Even the Congress is incapable of oversight for lack of information. That, alone, can end the republic. The Patriot Act will end the possibility of freedom for Americans.

Media expense has made serious fund raising a requirement for members of Congress and elections and, as a result there have been many initiatives for campaign finance reform.; Campaign ads, like Pharma ads, look a lot like media extortion. It's the price we pay for privatized media (and health care). The public media sector is all but non-existent. Candidates are forced to spend large amounts of time on fund raising.

The two party monopoly on elections effectively suppresses public dialog. Issues discussed often are of little importance: for example Bush's (lack of) military experience, Kerry's war record or climate destruction.

Party Conventions are Free-For-All for Influence Peddling

Even though it is clear that better voting procedures could be used, they are not up for discussion. Probably because they would interfere with the two party monopoly. If it comes to a choice between parties or the Constitution, the parties need to be checked. For all practical purposes, we are not really allowed to have more than two parties. It is all but impossible for third parties to be other than spoilers. We could change that by implementing range voting.

Presidential debates are run by the two major parties and everyone else is excluded. On major issues, such as the war in Iraq or healthcare,; there is little difference between the parties reducing voting to a matter of personalities. People have no say in substantive issues. During the Republican Bush years we have seen that the party that controls all three branches can trump Constitutional checks. Two party dominance is official public policy.

The US has the highest prison populations per capita in the world. Gary Webb reported on CIA complicit drug smuggling into Los Angeles and he was for all practical purposes fired from the San Jose Mercury News for doing it. Not only was this a branch of the Iran-Contra illegal war, but it had the effect of making a large number of the (mostly democratic voting) minorities ineligible to vote. In many states felons can't vote. One tenth of African Americans are disenfranchised.

The electoral college is an anachronism, although there is a slim chance for improvement.

If those are not enough to rig an election, there's always redistricting, voter-id, or, as a more or less routine procedure now, dirty tricks.

The Stolen Presidential Elections

Why We Need Election Reform

The Great Suppression, Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy: By Zachary Roth

See Election Reform

Voting Machines

...over the past twenty years, we have let corporations into our polling places, locations so sacred to democracy that in many states even international election monitors and reporters are banned. With the implementation of "black box voting" (the use of electronic voting machines), these corporations are recording our votes, compiling and tabulating them, and then telling us the total numbers - and doing it all using "proprietary" hardware and software that we cannot observe, cannot audit, and cannot control. If the vote-counting corporation says candidate X or candidate Y won the vote, we have no means of rebutting that, and they have no way of proving it. We're asked simply to trust them. From Thom Hartman's book Threshold pg 210.;

Election 2008: Vanishing Votes, Disappearing Democracy, and Media Misdirection

Welcome to the Banana Republic of the USA where we still have Enron style elections (6/7/2010)

Diebold has a "Delete" button for erasing audit logs (3/3/2009)

BlackBoxVoting to File Anti-Trust Complaint against ES&S/Diebold merger

Sign the petition for independent inspection of voting machines in the US.

Our most serious risk of election fraud is from voting machines. They use unauditable proprietary software, are not secured, and are manufactured by right-wing partisans. To have real elections we need minmal standards for voting mechanisms security and auditability. All things considered, it is reasonable to conclude that U.S. elections are not legitimate...nor is its government.

Money in Elections

Lawrence Lessig wants to reform campaign finance. All he needs is fifty billionaires. (10/16/2014)

SCOTUS Dances on Chaney Goodman Schwerner Graves

Stunning Statistics of the Week: (from Public Citizen)

  • Amount the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent on lobbying in 2009: $120 million
  • Amount Chamber spent daily to defeat health care reform in the weeks before its passage: $800,000
  • Amount Chamber plans to spend to influence the fall congressional elections: $50 million

US Democracy's End of the Road (1/23/2010)

Connecticut Senate Votes to Remove Rell's Power to Appoint a U.S. Senator (5/29/2009)

Still Broken (New York Times editorial 3/17/2009)

4 to 5 million voters disenfranchised in 2008 according to MIT study (3/11/2009)

Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in research done for Rolling Stone magazine, have found that states have purged 10 million names from their voter rolls since the last presidential election and more than 2.7 million have had their registrations rejected under new procedures signed into law by George W. Bush. (From The Progressive Populist.)

How Republicans Win (8/29/2008);

Republicans suppress minority, student, and poor votes. (10/24/2008)

How Republicans hacked the Justice Department (from Harper's Magazine: March 2008)

The Republican War on Voting (American Prospect April 2008)

A google search for Republican Dirty Tricks turns up 131,000 results. Underhanded behavior has been standard operating procedure since Nixon, and his proteges have used it extensively. See this.

How Republicans Swing Elections (April 15, 2008)

Ohio Election Stolen Again ? (8/13/2008)

Without a Quorem, the Federal Election Commission ceases Oversight Activity (4/21/2008)

Paper ballot bill goes down in House after the White House intervenes (4/18/2008)

The Presidential election CAN be hacked (April 10, 2008)

Voter ID Fraud (January 2008)

50 States face voting rights lawsuit. (Nov 13, 2007)

Uncounted (the movie) At least see the trailer. Better yet, buy a copy.

Greg Palast's reporting on 'voter caging'

SOS from US Voters: Send International inspectors
;


Electoral College

Electoral College--Flunking Out?

National Popular Vote

The Electoral College, Mathematics, and Politics (a video lecture that details the undemocratic nature of US elections by Alexander S Belenky, MIT visiting scholar. About 73 minutes).

About Election 2014

Voter Suppression in Florida Hits New Low (4/25/2014)

No, You Can't Vote: The GOP and Its "15 Percent Solution" (4/8/2014)

How Not to Enforce Campaign Laws

G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States (3/30/2014)

GOP War on Voting Rights (2/12/2014)

Congressional GOPers Try to Stymie IRS Regulation of Dark Money (2/7/2014)

The Meaninglessness of Elections (7/11/2013)

Simple Steps to Eliminate Gerrymandering (3/6/2013)

A Global Spotlight on Voter Suppression (2/27/2013)

Elections Performance Index: Pew Charitable Trust

The Great Gerrymander of 2012 (2/2/2013)

GOP Plan to Take The Electoral Vote-Rigging Scheme National (1/25/2013)

Sign this petition for Election Reform

Anonymous claims to have foiled carl Rove's Voter Fraud (11/19/2012)

Redistricting: The Easiest Way To Steal an Election (11/24/2012)

How to Rig An Election (11/2012)

Why Democrats And Media Deny Election Rigging (11/5/2012)

The Election as Marketing Spectacle (11/2/2012)

It's Come to this: International Monitors needed for US elections (10/21/2012)

Anonymous Billionaires are stealing your election (8/20/2012)

The Greatest Election Conspiracy in US History (8/10/2012)

7 Ways to Beat the Ballot Bandits (8/5/2012)

The Massive Voter Fraud of the GOP (8/1/2012)

GOP Filibusters Disclosure (7/20/2012)

GOP Voter Suppression (6/21/2012)

Elections Are For Suckers (2/9/2012)

The Handful of White People Who Choose Your Presidential Candidates (1/1/2012)

Effort to Remove Money From Politics (10/26/2011)

The GOP War On Voting (9/1/2011)

Cutting Through Hype, Hypocrisy In Voter Fraud Claims

The Myth of Fair Elections in America

A Short History of Conservative Vote Suppression

Videos

An Unreasonable Man (Ralph Nader)

Hacking Democracy

Watch Hacking Democracy (video on-line for free).

by Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition - March 27, 2007

The documentary film "Hacking Democracy", originally broadcast on HBO, is being released today on DVD. The film takes a nonpartisan, clear-eyed look at the secrecy, cronyism, and incompetence of elections in present-day America as it captures a citizen's movement intent on taking back elections--and democracy itself.

For me personally, I know that talking to legislators who have seen this movie is like night and day compared to those who haven't seen it. The film definitely makes the "light bulb" go on as far as the vulnerability of electronic voting systems. I wish I could afford to send a copy to every legislator in the U.S.

Christine Jennings (Florida CD-13 contested race) has said, for example, that she has seen the movie twice. A local candidate in Volusia County who saw the film demanded a ballot inspection of her race (full manual recounts aren't allowed in Florida) and did public records requests to our supervisor of elections to get information on the memory cards used, something a typical candidate would normally not think of doing.

The DVD, available at HackingDemocracy.com, contains "extra" segements not included in the original film, including great footage from Riverside California (Michelle Townsend); Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Volusia County, Florida; Glades County, Florida; and more.

On the website, you can also see fascinating TV footage of the trial and sentencing of the Ohio election workers in Cuyahoga County. Russ Michaels, one of the directors and producers of "Hacking Democracy," says the website will be adding more footage all the time from their vast store of film segments from elections around the country.

HBO Documentary Hacking Democracy

Electile Dysfunction

See also Electile Dysfunction (1 hr 28 mins) from 2008

Gerrymandering (video on-line for free).

How the GOP bought, rigged, stole and lynched the 2014 election

Check out these web sites for related information.

Crisis Papers on Election Fraud

William Rivers Pitt comments.

More about Fixing Elections

Greg Palast

VerifiedVoting.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization championing reliable and publicly verifiable elections. Founded by Stanford University Computer Science Professor David Dill, the organization supports a requirement for voter-verified paper ballots for elections, allowing voters to inspect individual permanent records of their ballots and election officials to conduct meaningful audits and recounts.See this link also.

Johns Hopkins Analysis of Voting Machines
https://www.jhuisi.jhu.edu/

; Evidence Mounts that the Vote Was Hacked
; https://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110804Z.shtml

; Worse Than 2000: The 2004 Electoral Disaster
; https://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110804A.shtml

; Kerry Won. . .
; https://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php

; Ohio Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Votes
; https://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041106/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems&cid=694&ncid=1963&sid=96378798

; Broward machines count backward (this link is no longer available.)
; https://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2004/11/05/a29a_BROWVOTE_1105.html

Statistical analysis of the election disparity

Dr. Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania presents a statistical analysis of the disparity between exit polling data and reported votes in three critical states, including Ohio. He concludes that the odds of these disparities being accounted for by chance is around one in one thousand for each state and around one in two hundred and fifty million for the three states taken as a whole.; The impact of this study is that there needs to be an investigation of the possibility of voting fraud in Ohio, and the nation as a whole, in addition to a recount.https://www.ilcaonline.org/freeman.pdf

See Myth Breakers: Facts about Electronic Elections

Voting machines are not the only problem though. Candidates may have a message that people like, but once elected they feel free to shape the agenda any way they want. Our Congress is taking action that only Corporations could support, and they are not being held accountable. Intense, well funded lobbying diverts Congress from an agenda that benefits people to one that is pretty much written by corporations. (One of the dictionary definitions of Fascism is control of the government by corporations.) Since media is a corporate offspring, people have no real way to shape the agenda. Mainstream media is mostly about distraction. Here are the common media techniques for suppression of the truth: https://www.dabney.com/wacomuseum/library/martin1.html

It is public information that the US CIA has rigged elections in many other countries. Since our President is the son of a former CIA director, brother of the Governor of the State of Florida, are you surprised that there is election fraud in the US as well ?

If these were not enough reasons to distrust US elections, recall the dirty tricks that occurred about the time of Watergate, or Reagan's October surprise. 2004 COLLECTED VOTE FRAUD STORIES are at this link:
https://memes.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3627&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

See Tom Hartman's views at; https://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-38.htm

See Greg Palast's Blog for other details. It takes the foreign press to do serious investigative journalism now.

For anyone paying attention, US liberal leaders also tend to die more frequently than most under poorly explained circumstances.

(Bush wins Florida video) https://www.boomchicago.nl/Section/Videos

publicampaign.org

; The People's Email Network
; https://www.thepen.us/e-fraud.html

; Contact info for state election directors
; https://cadca.org/CoalitionResources/ElectionGuide/EG-Appendix3.asp

; Great Congressional guide to local media by state.
; https://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/

https://www.social-informatics.net/evoting.htm

Find contact info for all senators, representatives and Secretaries of State
; https://www.firstgov.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

If you are not discouraged by all this, you can register to vote here.

If you experience problems at the polls this season, please call the Election Protection hotline for help and information.
The number is 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683). Download the flyer

Bibliography