Articles By: Brad Friedman

Inexplicably, 'Washington Times' Runs Fair News Item on VR, Baker/Carter Comm!

Hard Right Media Outlet Actually Runs Non-Hit Piece on Velvet Revolution Concerns!

(We are definitely through the looking-glass now...)

By Brad Friedman on 4/20/2005 2:32pm PT

The hard-right Washington Times running a fair piece on Velvet Revolution's demands that James Baker leave the National Election Reform Commission? What's their game?...Either way, we're happy to see it...

Bipartisan?

We wrote earlier about a newly impaneled bipartisan presidential election reform commission made up of the likes of former President Jimmy Carter, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, both Democrats, and former White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, a Republican.

Now, an election-reform advocacy group wants Mr. Baker, who served under former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, removed as the commission's co-chairman before the panel gets busy on whatever reform it can accomplish.

Representing about 100 affiliated election-reform organizations, the Velvet Revolution considers Mr. Baker "a partisan political operative and Bush family loyalist" who "will irreconcilably sully the credibility of such a commission and render its findings completely suspect, wholly useless and, regrettably, without merit."

"Mr. Baker is, in fact, the architect behind the invidious scheme implemented to ensure that the votes of all Americans would not be counted in the unfortunate and undemocratic 2000 presidential election fiasco," says the group, referring to when the soon-to-be-inaugurated George W. Bush dispatched Mr. Baker to voter-challenged Florida.

The piece above ran on March 31, but we only caught it today thanks to BRAD BLOG commenter, Bushw@cker. Now waiting for the other shoe to drop...

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Executive Director of National Election Reform Commission Goes Ballistic at BRAD BLOG!

Dr. Robert A. Pastor Accuses Velvet Revolution of 'Harassment', Sending Fake Email!

Supplies no evidence for his conspiracy theory, nor his firm belief that Republicans won Election 2004.

By Brad Friedman on 4/19/2005 10:17pm PT

Earlier this evening, we received a phone call from Dr. Robert A. Pastor, the Executive Director of the Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission.

It was an interesting conversation.

Apparently, he was irate at us because Americans are sending Email to him and the commissioners complaining about the fact that James A. Baker, III is co-chairing the Commission. Baker, of course, is the long-time Bush Family loyalist and Bush/Cheney trial law attorney who architected the strategy to ensure that Americans' votes would not be counted in the 2000 election.

Pastor made it clear that he felt those Emails, sent by individual American citizens to the commission, actually constituted "harassment" and he charged that the thousands of Emails that he and the commissioners were receiving was, in actuality, being sent by "about 6 or 7 people"!

Velvet Revolution is a coalition of some 100 Election Reform and Voting Rights organizations, none of whom were invited to participate in this commission in any way, nor even knew anything about its creation. VR is co-founded by BRAD BLOG and has created a page where Americans can send Email to Jimmy Carter and the commissioners to let them know how they feel about Baker sitting as Co-Chair and some of his other cronies being seated on this commission.

If you are not one of the "6 or 7 people" who have already sent Email via that page, feel free to do so now.

If you are one of the "6 or 7 people" that have sent email via that page, you can let Bob Pastor know that it was really you who sent the email hoping to make your voice heard, by sending him another email to that effect at his email address, ~~rpastor@american.edu~~ (Ed Note: Please write to Pastor for now at CDEM@american.edu - See this later article for an explanation as to why), which is posted on his public webpage at the American University, Center for Democracy & Election Management site. His phone number is also listed on that page if you'd like to chat with him, but we will do him the courtesy of not reposting it here.

We did our best to make notes of the extraordinary conversation that took place during the phone call as it unfolded...These are some of the highlights...or lowlights as the case may be...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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WaPo: 'Dizzying List of Electoral Problems' in 2004 Presidential Elections!

Reported on Page 17.

Jimmy Carter expresses concern that 'electoral process' may be 'shot through with fraud'

By Brad Friedman on 4/19/2005 2:23pm PT

A not too bad article on yesterday's Election Reform Commission hearing buried on page 17 of today's Washington Post. Amongst the quotes used from Carter and Baker --- seemingly taken from their unbroadcast press conference held after the hearing --- is this one from Carter:

"[W]e want to make sure that the electoral process has integrity --- that it is not shot through with fraud."

...Well, that's somewhat encouraging to hear. Though a pity that more such discussion did not actually occur in yesterday's hearings (Live Blogged here).

We've also heard from a reliable source that Carter spoke about "paper ballots" a number of times at that same press conference, and of using them as the counted ballot of record as they are overseas. That's also encouraging...if true...and if he can climb over the mountain of hard-right Bush/Cheney/GOP partisans and voting machine representatives who comprise and stack the commission against such real reform.

Also of note from the WaPo article was this little turn o' phrase:

Much of the testimony was anecdotal, with many bemoaning the lack of hard evidence that would indicate how widespread the problems are.

We're not sure who "many" refers to in the above, nor which "hard evidence" was lacking. We do know that the mountains of existing hard evidence of Election Irregularities from '04 was not presented at all in yesterday's hearings, and that John Conyers --- who presented 102 pages of same --- was not invited to share that evidence with this commission.

The evidence that was presented, specifically on the strawman argument of "Voter Fraud" and "Voter Registration Fraud" and even "Provisional Voting Fraud" was indeed anectodal, and yet that was the "evidence" that was allowed to be presented to the commission yesterday. We hope that things will change in the next (and presumably last) meeting of the commission, but we are dubious at best.

The WaPo piece, however, did manage to offer add small bit of refreshing light to the mainstream media blackout on this issue. A few notable passages from the article:

[T]he first hearing yesterday of the Commission on Federal Election Reform made it clear that the 2004 election was not without problems.
...
[T]he academics, advocacy group leaders and politicians invited to testify yesterday provided a dizzying list of electoral problems that might make some wonder how any ballots were counted in November.

They told of absentee ballots that were never delivered. Of voters who were arbitrarily struck from the rolls. Of confusing and poorly designed ballots. Of long lines at the polls. Of inadequate funds to train poll workers.

Some complained that polls are frequently inaccessible to wheelchairs. That bilingual assistance is lacking. That there are too few voting machines, especially in minority communities.

Others asked whether partisan officials ought to be in charge of elections. Whether the country needs a voting holiday to improve turnout. Whether the nation should adopt uniform poll closing times so elections called in the East do not depress turnout in the West. Whether photo identifications ought to be required to vote. And whether to create a "paper trail" for electronic voting machines.

"Years of inattention and, yes, complacency at all levels of government have given us an election management system that is not up to the task," said Kay Maxwell, president of the League of Women Voters. "We must look more closely at the next steps that need to be taken to bring our election system back to health."
...
"In the 2004 presidential election, the United States came much closer to electoral meltdown, violence in the streets and constitutional crisis than most people realize," professor Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School said in his written comments. "Less than a 2 percent swing among Ohio voters --- about 100,000 voters --- toward Democratic candidate for president John Kerry and away from incumbent Republican President Bush would have placed the Ohio --- and national --- election for president well within the 'margin of litigation,' and it would have gotten ugly very quickly."

Hmmm...It's almost as if the WaPo is suggesting that the '04 Election didn't go quite as smoothly as they, and the other corporate media outlets, have led Americans to believe up until now. Who knew?

Perhaps they'd like to begin investigating and reporting to the American people on some of the items in that "dizzying list of electoral problems"? America is still waiting...Perhaps we can bump it up to page 15 when that happens. As we like to say, it's only democracy at stake.

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Photo of the Moment...

By Brad Friedman on 4/18/2005 3:35pm PT

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AP: 'Federal Elections Hampered by Machines'

By Brad Friedman on 4/18/2005 1:25pm PT

Just posted by AP...

Federal Elections Hampered by Machines

Federal elections are still hampered by inadequate voting machines, outdated registration and poor training of poll workers despite a 2002 law passed to improve the system, witnesses told a special commission led by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

The system has been improved by the "Help America Vote Act," but "we've still got a ways to go," Carter said Monday.

Understatement of the Year Award goes to Carter!

Other than that, however, what's interesting about the article is that the AP got the tenor of the hearing all wrong! But this time, the lazy, inaccuracy of the MSM works out nicely, thank you!

They didn't cover (for the most part) the continuous drumbeat all day that morphed Election Irregularities/Fraud into Voter Registration Fraud and thus a call for Jim Crow-style Photo ID rules!

So three cheers --- in this case --- for a lousy, lazy, MSM who seem to have written their report before the event actually took place! Looks like the phoney-baloney "Election Reform" commission may not have gotten their money's worth! At least so far. We're certain the Cybercast News Service and the other fake GOP News Services will shortly lend a hand.

See BRAD BLOG's Live Bloging of today's Commitee Hearings here...

UPDATE Bloomberg's take...

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CONYERS UNLEASHED! DECRIES ELECTION REFORM HEARINGS AS 'OUTRAGEOUS', 'RACIALLY-CHARGED'!

FULL STATEMENT NOW RELEASED!

Conyers: "Substance of the testimony alleging 'voter fraud' was a fraud itself"!

By Brad Friedman on 4/18/2005 11:15am PT

The office of Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), ranking minority member of U.S. House Judiciary Committee and longtime Election Reform champion tells The BRAD BLOG that Conyers has expressed outrage at the tenor of today's hearings and the morphing of election irregularities/fraud issues into voter registration/fraud issues!

We'll note that, despite having compiled 102 pages of evidence on Election Irregularities in OH, Conyers was not invited to participate in these hearings though he has recently written a letter to Carter [PDF] volunteering to help in any way while expressing disappointment about Baker's position as co-chair.

UPDATE: Conyers' full no-holds-barred statement, condemning today's hearing in no uncertain terms has now been released! A few highlights here, but the whole thing is well worth the read!...

The first meeting of the Baker-Carter election commission was disappointing and, at times, outrageous and tainted with racially-charged innuendo. Let me make absolutely clear that I greatly admire former President Jimmy Carter and believe he was insightful and on-target throughout the hearing. However, given the incredible lack of balance and profound lack of good faith demonstrated by some of Carter's fellow commissioners and many of the witnesses at this hearing, at times he seemed to be a very lonely voice of sanity.

The remarks of Mr. James Baker, III, which were echoed by a number of right wing political operatives called as witnesses, seemed to have a singular purpose of spreading hoaxes and conspiracy theories about ineligible Democratic voters being allowed to cast votes. The remedy was cleverly repeated like a broken record, "photo ID, photo ID, photo ID." Right wing pundit John Fund was called as an "expert" witness by the hearing and offered racially charged proposals with racially charged rhetoric.

The substance of the testimony alleging "voter fraud" was a fraud itself.
...
At the outset, Mr. Fund laid bare the nasty, racial underbelly of these proposals. The right-wing has been long engaged in tactics to suppress minority votes, but rarely lets slip about such tactics, as Fund did today. In a discussion about provisional ballots, Mr. Fund said that Congress should allow precinct workers to determine whether a provisional ballot should count because they would know who "looks as if they belong in the neighborhood." Wonder what he meant by that?
...
For a moment, I was encouraged when someone appeared to have bumped the phonograph and the broken record of "voter id" suddenly stopped. Instead, a new broken record began repeating "no voter verified paper ballot, no voter verified paper ballot, no voter verified paper ballot."

On a panel supposedly designed to address "voting technology," only one of the four witnesses, Professor David Dill, spoke of the need for a voter verified paper ballot. Two of the witnesses on this panel spoke in total opposition to such a proposal.

The pattern of the hearing was clear: Republican political operatives, with little or no track record of involvement in voting rights issues, facing non-partisan advocates for civil rights. Predictably, this hardly was a fair fight. The deck was stacked from the beginning.

What can be said of a commission that holds such a hearing? What hope is there for the recommendations of such a Commission? I am scheduled to meet with Commission officials this week and I am trying very hard to have an open mind. But, frankly, at this point - seeing this first hearing - I think we should all be very wary of this Commission's objectives.

BRAD BLOG's LIVE BLOGGING of today's hearings can be read in this previous item...

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LIVE BLOGGING: BRAD BLOG Covers CSPAN Coverage of Baker/Carter Election Reform Commission Hearing...

Baker Presides, Whitewash Begins, 'Voter' Fraud, Not 'Election' Fraud is Focus!

Other News Channels Ignore Hearings...

By Brad Friedman on 4/18/2005 7:57am PT

Panel meets seperately from audience. James A. Baker, III --- the Bush family loyalist who went to the Supreme Court demanding that America's votes not be counted in 2000 --- presides over first panel.

CSPAN covers it live. All other Cable News channels cover choice of pope...

Secretely seated Commission's website here.
RAW STORY article on fixed commission here.
VELVET REVOLUTION's campaign to inform the public here.

...WE'RE FOLLOWING...LIVE BLOGGING...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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After the BRAD SHOW Premiere Episode...

(Downloadable Archives Now Available Here)

By Brad Friedman on 4/17/2005 1:15am PT

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you.

The network said we blew away (numbers wise) all of their current weekend shows! And it kept building throughout the 4 hours. So thank you for helping to spread the word!

Please feel free to thank the satellite network with a quick email for giving us the opportunity!

Resting now. (And be sure to catch the repeat of tonight's show at 12noon - 4pm ET on Sunday, which is 9a - 1p PT for the mathematically impaired! Catch it online via RAW STORY's Easy Links or IBCRadio.com or IBCRN.com.)

Oh...one more thanks (at least!) to Winter Patriot for keeping the Open Show Threads here up and running all night! I had no net access from the studio, so was flying blind! Hope to fix that by next week...So thanks WP for keeping the place in great shape while I was "gone"! More to come...After some rest...and a few more radio appearances tomorrow!

UPDATE: Last night's show can now be downloaded for you podcasting pleasure...All files here MP3, we'll try to get alternate formats in the future when we catch up with things. And, sadly, the swell bumper music at the top of each hour (the rock n' roll, I mean, not that jazz crap) has been cut out of these versions as well. We'll try to correct that later as well. Download away!...

HOUR 1 (Guest: Clint Curtis)

HOUR 2 (Guest: Andy Stephenson)

HOUR 3 (Guest: Larisa Alexandrovna)

HOUR 4 (Guest: Robert Koehler)

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The BRAD SHOW On The Air - (Preshow Info)

LIVE TONIGHT 4p - 8p PT (7p - 11p ET)!

Listen Up!

By Brad Friedman on 4/16/2005 12:46pm PT

The sudden premiere of The BRAD SHOW On the Air via RAW RADIO is just hours away! (See the previous item for more details on what the hell that means if you don't already know!) At this late hour, we've still got some mountains to climb to get on air, but we're working on it! Keep your fingers crossed!

RAW STORY has some skinny, some donation links where you can support and direct links to the LIVE WEB STREAM. You can also support by making a donation to BRAD BLOG. We are, for the moment, listener supporter! I'll explain why on the air...

Quick show details:

The BRAD SHOW On the Air via RAW RADIO
on the IBC Satellite Radio Network!

Broadcast via satellite around the world!
Streaming via IBCRadio.com or IBCRN.com
Direct Links to LIVE Stream via RAW STORY
7.330mhz Shortwave
Cellphones Mobile Broadcast Network via Mymbn.com
Broadcast Affiliates include: WWPR 1490am Bradenton/Tampa, Florida (Hi Tom!)
LIVE: Saturday 7p - 11p ET
REPEAT: Sunday 12noon - 4pm ET
Show Call-in#: (to be posted soon!)

Scheduled guests for our premiere episode:

HOUR 1: Vote-Rigging Software Whistleblower, Clint Curtis!
HOUR 2: Vote Fraud Investigator, Andy Stephenson!
HOUR 3: RawStory.com Deputy Mng. Editor & Investigative Journalist, Larisa Alexandrovna!
HOUR 4: Tribute Syndicate Editor & Columnist, Robert Koehler!

Hopefully BRAD BLOG stalwart and friend, Winter Patriot, will be able to post an open thread here at each hour of the show where you can yack away about the show, how we're doing, and post questions if you can't get in via phone. I'll try to keep my eye on the discussion.

Stand by...it could be bumpy (but hopefully fun!) ride!

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BRAD BLOG On the Air! - Saturday Night 4p - 8p PT (7p - 11p ET)!

(~~Hopefully!~~ Almost Definitely!)

Tune in via IBCRadio.com! And Help Spread the Word!

By Brad Friedman on 4/15/2005 1:03pm PT

If all goes well, The BRAD SHOW on The RAW RADIO Network (of RawStory.com fame!) ~~may~~ will be launching LIVE tomorrow evening (Saturday) from 7p - 11p ET (4p - 8p PT).

This has all come up quite suddenly, and it will take a miracle to get on the air...I'm in the process of trying to pull off a miracle.

Since the lead time for all of this was too impossibly short to even consider selling ad time on the show, now would be a swell time to Donate to The BRAD BLOG if you haven't done so recently in order to help pull off this little miracle.

I've said for a long time "Be the Media". Apparently, I wasn't kidding. With your help, we may very soon have a much louder megaphone!

Details here soon on how and where and if to listen!

UPDATE: Looks like The BRAD SHOW on RAW RADIO will indeed be premiering tonight (Saturday) from 4p - 8p PT (7p - 11p ET)! It's gonna be seat-of-our-pants LIVE radio...if we make it onto the air! But we're gonna go for it!

We'll figure out the affiliates when we learn more (we believe one of 'em is in Florida! Hi Tom!) but for now, tune in Saturday night at the above mentioned times via IBCRadio.com to listen LIVE! And we hope to be taking your calls to boot!

I'll explain how this all came about (a bit) during the show tomorrow as we pull off a miracle!

Scheduled guests for our premiere episode:

Should be a killer show...if we can show up on the air! We'll pray the democracy gods will be on our side! PLEASE spread the word since this is all so late in coming! And the better the numbers, the more the network will want us back for a second helping!

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Radio Emergency!

By Brad Friedman on 4/15/2005 12:43pm PT

Any of you good BRAD BLOG readers know any folks in the radio biz in St. Louis? If so, please Email Me asap! THANKS!

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YES to Election Reform! NO to Baker & his Anti-Reform Cronies!

Velvet Revolution Launches Massive Email Campaign to Jimmy Carter and the National Election Reform Commissioners!

ALSO...Putting Boots on the Ground at this Monday's Commission Hearings!

By Brad Friedman on 4/15/2005 9:28am PT

Velvet Revolution, a coalition of nearly 100 true Voting Rights and Election Reform organizations is launching a major campaign to bring former-President Jimmy Carter's attention to their myriad concerns about the secretly seated Blue-Ribbon National Election Reform Commission! Specifically, they are calling for James A. Baker --- the architect of the Bush/Cheney strategy to ensure that America's votes would not be counted in 2000 --- to resign immediatelly along with a number of the anti-reform partisans and voting machine company officials who have been appointed secretly to this commission!

VR is calling for the American people to send an Email webletter to President Carter and the National Election Reform Commissioners, demanding Baker and cronies step down immediately or, in lieu of that, Carter leave this commission in protest of the cynical and mind-boggling hoax being perpetrated on those who understand the need for true Election Reform in America!

The "YES to Election Reform! NO to James Baker & his anti-Reform Cronies!" is now up and online.

The address for the new Velvet Revolution action:
http://www.velvetrevolut...ng=0730E07D500040E02150F
...Please spread it far and wide! And be quick about it!

Also...action on the ground at the first Commission Hearing this Monday! See this Election Reform Coalition Press Release for details!

And finally, if you have no idea what we're talking about, turn off Fox "News" and see RAW STORY's explosive exposé from yesterday on the Commission and its secretive, insidious, partisan, pro-voting machine makeup!

Spread the word! Feel free to use the "Email it to Someone" link at the bottom of this item!

Be. The. Media! It's only your democracy at stake!

(BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of Velvet Revolution)

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RAW STORY BREAKS EXPOSÉ ON BAKER/CARTER ELECTION REFORM COMMISSION CONTROVERSY!

Reports That the Fix is in on Secretly Seated Blue-Ribbon Commission!

Stacked with Partisan Operatives!

By Brad Friedman on 4/14/2005 1:57pm PT

RAW STORY breaks open the Carter/Baker Election Reform Commission hoodwink!

Frontpage headline screamer:

CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND BAKER-CARTER ELECTORAL REFORM PANEL, STACKED WITH GOP VETERANS; CARTER CENTER DENIES ROLE; SECRET SERVICE QUESTIONS; KERRY CAMP: 'DISHONEST'

Full story now here.

From RAW Reporter Larisa Alexandrovna's Exclusive:

Deep GOP, partisan and Voting Machine Company entanglement in formation of Commission!
Unauthorized use of the Carter Center name by the Commission on all of its literature though Carter Center says they will have no involvement whatsoever with Commission!
Commission hold hearings in separate room from audience who may only watch via closed-circuit TV!
Background security checks required for audience members by Commission, denied by Secret Service!
As well, BRAD BLOG has learned that the Commission has given the reason for separating audience from Commission is due to Secret Service security concerns. However, as of yet, we have been unable to confirm any such Secret Service request that any such directive came from them! (Warren County anyone?)

Velvet Revolution (an organization comprised of nearly 100 real Election Reform and Voting Rights groups and co-founded by BRAD BLOG author, Brad Friedman) issued a press release on March 30th, calling for Baker to immediately step down from this commission.

VR has now launched an action to allow citizens to contact Carter and the rest of the Commission to let them know we've had enough boondoggling of our democracy! Click here to send Email to Carter & the Commission! Say no to Baker & his anti-Reform cronies!

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

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Democracy in the Balance: The Silent Scream of the Mainstream Media

Tribune Syndicate's Robert Koehler Rips the Corporate Media a New One, Says Election 2004 'Stolen'!

And some personal notes, thoughts, photos (and even some quick video) from Nashville's National Election Reform Conference...

By Brad Friedman on 4/14/2005 1:17pm PT

As mentioned yesterday, the Tribune Syndicate's Robert Koehler has dropped a killer column on Election 2004 and the National Election Reform Conference which we attended, and spoke at, last weekend in Nashville.

Koehler was the one member of the MSM brave enough to show up in Nashville and to share a stage with both ourselves and Free Press' Bob Fitrakis (editor, writer and attorney who joined the lawsuit in Ohio to have its vote count set aside).

As it turns out, Koehler is one of the good guys still fighting the good fight in the MSM, and his column today --- which out and out declares the 2004 election to have been stolen --- hits on so many pistons it's virtually impossible to pull out just the money quotes. So we strongly recommend you read the whole thing. Here's the first and last few grafs to whet your appetite...

The silent scream of numbers
The 2004 election was stolen — will someone please tell the media?

As they slowly hack democracy to death, we're as alone — we citizens — as we've ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the nation's founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

It's time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It's just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It's more like: “Oh no, this can't be true.”

I just got back from what was officially called the National Election Reform Conference, in Nashville, Tenn., an extraordinary pulling together of disparate voting-rights activists — 30 states were represented, 15 red and 15 blue — sponsored by a Nashville group called Gathering To Save Our Democracy. It had the feel of 1775: citizen patriots taking matters into their own hands to reclaim the republic. This was the level of its urgency.
...
In contrast to the deathly silence of the media is the silent scream of the numbers. The more you ponder these numbers, and all the accompanying data, the louder that scream grows. Did the people's choice get thwarted? Were thousands disenfranchised by chaos in the precincts, spurious challenges and uncounted provisional ballots? Were millions disenfranchised by electronic voting fraud on insecure, easily hacked computers? And who is authorized to act if this is so? Who is authorized to care?

No one, apparently, except average Americans, who want to be able to trust the voting process again, and who want their country back.

Additionally, there was some coverage of the event during and after, by Laura Luxor of The Tennessean. Her two --- much appreciated pieces --- are here and (from their front page) here.

As to a few other random and personal thoughts, and photos (and even a bit of video) from the event...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Clint Curtis Makes Wisconsin's Capital Times!

And More Questions are Raised about Whether Your Vote is Being Counted!

By Brad Friedman on 4/13/2005 4:42pm PT

Must be something afoot...Now it's Madison, Wisconsin's The Capital Times jumping into the Clint Curtis fray as a part of their online Daily Briefing item headlined "Is Your Vote Being Counted?":

In Florida, a computer programmer named Clint Curtis has made the allegation he was directed to add code to a vote counting program to cause votes to switch from one candidate to another. Here's a link to the story. I'm not making any statement here as to whether his allegations are true or false because the investigation is ongoing. The question is whether this could be true, or if we have controls in place to prevent this. I don't see anything that would prevent this from happening, particularly since voting companies refuse to provide their source code under the guise of "trade secrets".

The article also hits much of what BRAD BLOG readers have known about for months concerning the evils of the likes of Diebold and ES&S, etc. And granted, they may not be the Miami Herald (who also discussed Clint Curtis earlier today), but hey, the word is getting out! And better late than never! Democracy may be saved after all!

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