If only we could go back to 2000 and start over. I worked on Gore’s campaign and was devasted by the loss.
By running for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris, Florida’s former secretary of state, has stirred up some ugly memories. And that’s a good thing, because those memories remain relevant. There was at least as much electoral malfeasance in 2004 as there was in 2000, even if it didn’t change the outcome. And the next election may be worse.
In his recent book “Steal This Vote” – a very judicious work, despite its title – Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I’ve seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: “Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.”
Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida’s ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris’s “felon purge,” which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.
But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration’s legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation’s feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan’s supporters are camped in Crawford, and America is more bitterly divided than ever. Meanwhile, the whitewash of what happened in Florida in 2000 showed that election-tampering carries no penalty, and political operatives have acted accordingly. For example, in 2002 the Republican Party in New Hampshire hired a company to jam Democratic and union phone banks on Election Day.
Just more proof of all the lies, corruption, chaos that came with Bushco.
I guess the question now is how will we trust the voting ‘outcome’ in the next election?
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April 25, 2005 — The OSCE has been monitoring elections in emerging democracies ever since the fall of the Berlin wall, but now it has done something different and uniquely controversial. It has turned its attention to the United States, issuing a report that highlights numerous areas in which this past November’s presidential and Congressional elections failed to meet international standards.
One would have thought the voter reform movement in this country would jump at the chance to see the United States judged by the same criteria as Ukraine, Georgia or Kyrgyzstan–especially since the report finds it badly wanting. In black and white, is authoritative proof that the disenfranchisement of ex-felons, the uneven rules applied to provisional balloting, the unreliability of voter registration procedures and the dual role of election supervisors – who also help run partisan political campaigns – are not merely objectionable. It also violates international norms to which the United States, as a participating member of the fifty-five-nation OSCE, is a leading signatory.
And yet the OSCE’s twenty-nine-page report, published in April has not generated a single column inch in any US newspaper.
[…]
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It’s the last line that’s so incredibly depressing…’not generated a single column inch in any US newspaper.’ I guess without doing a rant on the media I think I’ll adopt and paraphrase the Clinton campaign or I guess it was their war room slogan…’it’s the media, stupid’.
I seem to recall a report like this also came out just before ahem 9/11 happened and thus was drowned out by that horrible day and everything that followed.
Something I haven’t understood for a long time is why we don’t have a standardized voting procedure in place for the whole country instead of this mickey mouse each state, each country has their own rules, machines and way of doing the voting…that really makes absolutely no sense at all. Nor does the fact that their is such a small time limit on voting.
OSCE U.S. Elections Page. Report rendered in HTML from .pdf. Nicely done Oui. Thanks for the reminder.
Paul Krugman doesn’t speak for the NYTimes, and it’s not properly an article, it’s a column. I mean, I suspect he’s right and I want to read the book, but I think the distinctions are important.
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Similar comments made – roseeriter adapted title @ Daily Kos ::
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How will we trust the next election? We won’t, although I’m sure the media will tell us to just accept and move on. Until we can push, drag through some real voting reform it’s hopeless to my mind. It’s infuriating. Another good book on the subject is The Best Democracy Money can Buy by Greg Palast.
Not just the media. kos, Reid, Clinton, and all the rest of the Usual Suspects will tell us, after we lose big in 2006, “nothing you can do, just focus on 2008”. And again in 2008, and 2010, and 2012…
For example – support Conyers and encourage Kerry/Edwards to stay involved with a still pending Ohio lawsuit that will help settle questions about the recount process.
this isn’t – to me about 04 – it’s about 06 and 08. We have to make sure the “irregularities” are prevented.
Please check this letter from PDA/Conyers
This is one reason that real election reform must be one of the top five issues, maybe even one of the top three issues, that Democrats run on in 06.
There is nothing more important in American democracy than the vote. This is a visceral issue for most people, and a particularly important one for minorities, especially African Americans who are keenly aware of voting rights, particularly as parts of the 1964 Voting Rights Act come up for renewal.
This is something of an outside the box issue but could have wide appeal if done properly. It just takes one successful candidate to put it on everyone’s agenda.
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“If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars
who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National
Committee at the Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of
every citizen of the United States. And if these allegations prove to
be true, what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money
or other precious property of American citizens, but something much
more valuable – their most precious heritage:
the right to vote in a free election.”
Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina
Powerful statements from one of my political heroes – thanks to the internet – these quotes become available at the finger tips.
Who were sorcerer’s apprentice during the Nixon WH years?
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Answer to your question is, I think, Cheney and Field Marshall von Rumsfeld