With the very real possibility of an Ohio recount as announced yesterday by the new coalition of the Green and Libertarian Party candidates, I hope you'll take a look at this excellent article by David S. Bernstein in The Portland Phoenix. It's one of the best, most comprehensive overviews I've read of the situation, as it stands for the moment, on the ground in Ohio.

It pulls together the bulk of the most troubling reports of mistabulation, voter intimidation and suppression and potential chicanery in the registration, voting and counting processes.

Bernstein may have buried the lead though, because it's not until page 2 that he gets to the most scandalous nugget at the heart of the entire stinking mess there, and the systematic way in which the man in charge with regulating Ohio's election, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (who also just happened to serve as the Bush/Cheney '04 Campaign Chair in Ohio!) suffocated the minority vote through the invidious gaming of voter management and supression at the precinct by precint level.

Ohio received some $133 million from the Federal Government's "Help America Vote Act" earmarked to pay for new electronic machines in state.

To pave the way for these machines, which, the theory goes, were to have been more efficient (and more expensive), the state narrowed down the number of voting precincts. Closing and consolodating many of them largely, of course, in minority areas.

But at the last minute, after the precincts had already been gerrymandered, Blackwell decided the technology in the E-Voting machines was not proven secure.

So the $133 million stayed in the bank, but the plan for the reduction of the number of polling sites in minority areas stayed in place! Game over.

And what do you think happened next? Bernstein explains...

Mission accomplished. Infuriating. Our own electoral systems --- the very basis of our democracy --- are now officially and systematically gamed to within an inch of their life for the pure maximum partisan advantage of those in charge.

So when will we see reform of the electoral system so it's run by Nonpartisan Elections Boards instead of Partisan Party Hacks? As long as those who've benefited from the hackery are still in charge and entrusted with regulating the system, I'm guessing that day may not come any time soon.

Unless, of course, you're in the mood for a velvet revolution.

Democrat votes given to the Libertarians in Franklin County, Indiana.

Can someone please explain to me how not one of the scores of counting errors discovered so far has benefited Kerry? Every single error that I've seen has taken votes away from Kerry. What are the odds?

From the Indiana Star:

In a bit of exciting news (which also tends on personal-level to give me some confidence that I I voted correctly), Green Party presidential candidate, David Cobb --- who was on the ballot in all 50 states, I'm sure you're surprised to learn --- and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik will likely be calling for a full recount in the state of Ohio!

KPFK (90.7 FM in Los Angeles) broke the news yesterday in an interview with Mr. Cobb...

The full radio interview can be heard here...

They have issued a Press Release on the matter this morning with further details.

Well, this could be it folks! As a presidential candidates in Ohio, Cobb and Badnark are within their rights to demand a recount! And I'd hope that there's enough folks with a few dollars left in their pockets to cover those costs for the Ohio recount!

This is big (and very encouraging) news for a number of reasons, the least of which will be the ability to give all of the many punch-card ballots in the state a fresh look.

One of the stories I haven't covered here, while many others have, is Greg Palast's "Kerry Won..." article. Palast discussed the sizeable number of potentially "spoiled" ballots that were not counted for Kerry in Ohio during the initial count. A recount, and I don't know yet if that means it'll be a "manual" recount or not, may likely shake out as many as 93,000 possible new Kerry votes (by Palasts reckoning anyway). It's unlikely that all of the spoiled ballots would go for Kerry, of course, many are likely for Bush, or have no vote or more than one vote on them and "spoiled" for good reason. But the idea of a carefully monitored recount is good news by any definition.

(Perhaps we'll even get to figure out what the hell went on in Warren County on Election Night!)

On this blog, I've mainly been focusing on the many computer-related counting errors and/or possible cases of fraud, since those are the issues that I find most haunting as the country moves towards its mandated 2006 deadline for all-electronic voting. So, I've not bothered to point out the more speculative nature of reports like Palast's until now, because until a re-count possibility came into play, his theory was mostly unprovable speculation. That may all now be changing...

DONATIONS can be made for the recount to either of the following sites. They're working together...Can you imagine that?!:

Third parties are good for America...don't ya think?

UPDATE: 11/15/04 Recount fundraising goal has been met! Now seeking funds for "mobilization" costs and also volunteers to serve as "recount witnesses"! Click here for more info...

Just received this email...

Keep making noise, people! It works! (If anyone has a video clip, please let me know!)

UPDATE: I'm told the BRAD BLOG was featured somehow or another on Anderson Cooper's 360 last night on CNN. If anybody happens to have tape from that show, or knows where it may be available online please let me know.

Encouraging news this morning! From News Channel 5 in Cleveland...

Click for rest of story...

Happy to see them following up their promise! Finally! We'll see what will come of it. I've got some other encouraging news as well! But a few appointments shortly may keep me from reporting it until a bit later this afternoon...So, as they say...DEVELOPING...

Took 'em long enough, but MoveOn.org has finally gotten in the game as well! A mailing went out this morning to their enormous mailing list asking folks to join in their call to Congress for an immediate investigation into the Voting and Counting Irregularities in Election 2004!:

As well, if you haven't yet signed these others, please do so now...

UPDATE: Election Protection/People for the American Way get in the game as well!

Making progress, people!

On John Ashcroft's announcement...

This just in...

Justice Through Music, which strongly supports the democratic principles of transparency and honesty in the electoral process, is offering at least a $100,000 reward to any person or persons who provide conclusive and verifiable evidence that the results of the 2004 presidential election were not correctly tabulated because of one or more of the following reasons: 1) hacking into the voting machines; 2) software or coding problems with voting or tabulating machines; 3) multiple counting by machines or humans, 4) improperly implanted codes in voting machines; 5) tampering with voting machines, voting cards or final tabulation numbers; 6) officials or machines not counting all the votes or adding votes; 7) official influence which changed vote totals, or other problems with vote tabulation not noted here. All information and evidence should be submitted to reward@jtmp.org. Questions should be submitted to questions@jtmp.org.

There's been much talk about the 97,489 more votes than voters cast in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. A plausible explanation for the huge difference between votes and actual voters, as reported via the Cuyahoga County website), is being attributed by County Officials to the strange method they have for including absentee ballots into the vote counts separately from the Election Day voters. Or something.

So setting that oddity aside for the moment, take a look at this interesting graph. I have not been able to confirm the specific numbers it shows, so I can't testify to it's accuracy, but I'm posting it here because, if accurate, this seems worth getting out to the world for further scrutiny.

Though it's difficult to read this small, the trend-lines are all that really matter here (The full sized graph is here).

If correct, this graph would seem to show that precinct-by-precinct in Cuyahoga County, Ohio --- where Cleveland is, and thus it's a heavily Democratic county --- the larger the turnout in each precinct, the smaller the percentage of the vote for Kerry!

The GREEN trend line is the size of voter turnout in each precinct, and the BLUE trend line is the percentage of votes for Kerry.

While conventional wisdom is often wrong, if the above numbers are accurate, it does seem a bit odd to say the least that the higher the turnout in a strongly Democratic county (Kerry won Cuyahoga 63%-33% if I recall correctly), would result in a smaller percentage of votes for the Democrat!

I don't know what to make of it, or how to explain it, but it seems worth putting out there for the armchair investigators.

UPDATE: I was asked what the balloting/counting methods are in Cuyahoga County. Apparently punch card, as counted by machines made by our old friends at ...Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S). Source

Apparently this story appeared last Friday, but I missed it. I'm trying to keep all of these stories straight, report them only once, and attempt to confirm them before passing them on.

In this case, as many as 22,000 miscounted votes were caught in time to reverse the results of two different races in state races in North Carolina according to the Charlotte Observer.

Please remember the announced margin of "victory" for Bush in Ohio was about 135,000 in a state of 5.5 million. How many of these types of errors went undetected and/or unreported in Ohio?

How many more of these types of articles do you we need, folks? The system is a disaster, and Congress is sitting on their hands waiting for the Electoral College deadline to pass.

Sign this online letter now if you haven't already! And this one too!

MyDD has a telling analysis of the situation in North Carolina where problems with vote counting (some votes apparently counted twice in some places, 4,500 votes completely lost elsewhere, etc.) may require a re-vote in all, or part, of North Carolina.

Nonetheless, it's telling that, though the Republican candidates for President and U.S. Senate were able to claim victories down there, Democrats somehow had virtually all the rest of the success in NC.

The NC Democratic candidate for Governor won in a landslide (55%-44%), Dems won control of the NC House by at least 3 seats, and in the NC Senate the Dems added to their "already healthy" margin. Additionally, the first openly gay lesbian to be elected to the NC statehouse was also victorious in her Senate race!

That victory on the state level mirrors other results around the country, where Dems solidly increased their foothold, or took control of many State Legislatures and Governships.

Even Dallas, TX(!!!) elected a lesbian/hispanic Sheriff!

All of which just serves to make me even more suspicious of the election results.

Republicans control the "Solid South" says conventional wisdom --- but then how does one account for North Carolina? "Value voters" showed up and gave Bush his victory, says CV, and yet gay and lesbian candidates had unprecedented victories in "solid" GOP strongholds.

It's certainly reasonable to assume that voters preferred the GOP at the national level while opting for Dems back at home...for whatever reason. Had there not be so many other oddities in the days following this election, I'd likely not have given it all too much thought. But taking everything we now know about highly improbable disparities in the Exit Polling --- where alleged "inaccuracies" just happened to only benefit Bush and never Kerry in the final results --- along with everything else we now know about the manufacturers of the E-Voting and Counting machines, their secrecy and their exceedingly close ties to the Republican party, it all just adds to my existing suspicions here that something stinks. Bad.

I've lived in L.A. for nearly 10 years now. I've never seen armored tanks in the streets.

Last night, during an otherwise peaceful anti-war demonstration in front of the Federal Building in Westwood, two armored tanks were called out.

Here's the story, here's the QuickTime video. What the hell is this country coming to?

(Via Raw Story)

UPDATE: The links above are not broken as one reader reported, but traffic at both the page and the video is now very heavy, so keep trying. Here, in the meantime, is the text of the article:

UPDATE: AMERICAblog now has more details on this.

Please sign this Online Petition calling on Congress to open an immediate investigation into possible fraud and/or mistabulation of votes by the American People in Election 2004.

Then use this link to ask everyone you know to sign it as well!

(A reader points out that your name, city and state will be available to those who choose to view the petition signatures. Obviously, I have no fear of publically speaking out against what's happening, but if you have any privacy concerns, just enter your first initial, last name, city, state. E-mail address is required for cross verification; but if you check the box for "privacy," no one will see your e-mail address. What's important is that you sign it and stand up bravely to demand that our votes be counted properly! Go sign it now!)

UPDATE: Act for Change --- a rather large activist group --- is finally getting into the game! They too have an ONLINE PETITION / EMAIL DUMP! They will send your Email straight to your U.S. Congress people for you! Please sign that one as well! And again, let your friends know about it!

BuzzFlash is running a recent editorial of mine. It begins this way:

Click here to read the rest at BuzzFlash...