Possible Election Fraud in Three House Races — Where’s Al Gore?

28 Comments

1. For all the whining about stolen elections from democrats over the years, the reality is that the only stolen election I can think of off hand is the one that happened in Washington state over the governors race.

   The reality is that the democrats control the voting apparatus, counting methods etc in almost every urban area where complaints are most often made.

   Democrats have mastered the dead people voting.

   In the end I think whining about stolen elections is a waste of time, the Washington race pretty much taught me that if you call for a recount the democrats in charge will find the votes to put or keep their guy on top.

   But it would be nice to know where Al Gore and all the other “stolen election” whiners are, they should be calling for recounts and accountability.

   Comment by just me — November 11, 2006 @ 9:05 am - November 11, 2006

2. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we hear the squeals of pain! I could just take the attitude you guys have taken over the elections in 2000 and 2004 and say tough luck but I for one actually want our elections to be honest and so hope you guys will now join the effort to fix the ongoing mess that is the way we conduct them.

   Comment by Ian — November 11, 2006 @ 10:32 am - November 11, 2006

3. Ian, once again, and in pure liberal fashion, fails to grasp the point of GP’s post.

   The difference between we conservatives and Ian’s fellow perpetual victims is that we understand that the election process is not perfect, but remains fair. Further, the very notion that few (if any, really) aspects of American life are perfect seem to be what drives the left; a central belief that not only are they alone aware of this fact, but that Divine Providence has determined that anything on the right is woefully incapable of fixing it.

   Taken to it’s logical conclusion, this theory explains what is so wrong about liberalism: the almost Quixotic self-serving arrogance that allows them to believe that they (and they alone, mind you) possess the intellect and attendant ability to bring about Utopia.

   Note to Ian: nobody here is interested in following in Mr. Gore’s footsteps. Petulance doesn’t look very good on us (although, realizing we’re not perfect, we still may indulge once in a while).

   Thus endeth the lesson.

   Eric in Hollywood
   dusting off his old copy of Ayn Rand’s “The Virtue of Selfishness”

   Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — November 11, 2006 @ 11:04 am - November 11, 2006

4. America is not a tool to be used and abused for ideological purposes. As a result, conservatives aren’t tempted to throw away our patriotism (move to Canada), throw away our souls (my fellow citizens are all sheeple), and we don’t need to destroy the democratic infrastructure (end the electoral college, never accept an election turnout, create doubt about all processes) just because we didn’t win. We, unlike the Left, still love America no matter what.

   Comment by VinceTN — November 11, 2006 @ 11:25 am - November 11, 2006

5. In Florida’s 13th District

   It’s impossible to say how many voters out there are pissed off because they think they’re being phone-stalked by the local Democratic candidate. And there’s no way to tell just what the effect will be at the ballot box. But the intention is clear: suppress the Democratic vote by harassing voters with repetitive phone calls and deceiving them about who it is that’s calling them.

   Consider, for example, Florida’s 13th District, where Christine Jennings is currently locked in a recount battle. The final tally shows her down 386 votes. In the last three weeks of the election, the NRCC spent $58,326.78 on robo calls against Jennings, according to FEC reports. At five to fifteen cents a call, the NRCC bought itself between 388,000 and 1.17 million calls in the district. Approximately 250,000 people voted in the 13th on Tuesday.

   Voters there report being inundated with calls — so much so that some decided not to vote for Jennings. From The Herald Tribune:

   “We’re just glad it’s all over,” said Betty Beatty…
   “They bugged us with their phone calls something terrible,” said Betty, who voted for Buchanan because “with all her calls, Jennings, Jennings, Jennings, I wouldn’t have voted for that woman if she were the only one running.”

   As we noted yesterday, according to the official count Republican Vern Buchanan edged out Democrat Christine Jennings by only 368 votes — but there seems to have been a huge voting problem in one county, where electronic machines registered no votes for the contentious congressional race from a large number of voters. That glitch apparently cost Jennings the race, and the fight seems sure to head to the courts (both sides have their legal teams in place).

   As The Herald Tribune reports, there was a 13 percent “undervote” for the Buchanan-Jennings race in Sarasota County (meaning they registered 13 percent fewer votes for that race than for the other big races) — far more than in other counties. And according to an analysis by the paper, “[i[f the missing votes had broken for Jennings by the same percentage as the counted votes in Sarasota County, the Democrat would have won the race by about 600 votes instead of losing by 368.” Jennings won 53 percent of the counted votes in the county.

   Despite the fact that there was clearly a problem in the county — the Herald Tribune reports that they received complaints from “more than 120 Sarasota County voters” on Election Day — there’s resistance (surprise, surprise) from the Florida Secretary of State’s office to look into it:

   “I’m not sure there’s even a problem,” said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State, who oversees elections. She said the office had not received a single complaint or contact about the race.
   Nash repeated [Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy] Dent’s suggestion that voters may have intentionally decided not to vote in the congressional race.

   “It could be a protest vote. There’s a lot of different reasons people undervote,” she said. “Certainly undervoting is the voter’s prerogative.”

   Nash said no state investigation is planned.

   In Connecticut

   The Connecticut state party is making calls promising voters that if you vote Republican, then they’ll stop robo calls.

   In Pennsylvania

   Poll monitors encountered countywide problems with voting machines in Allegheny County, where machines were not working and there was a lack of paper or provisional ballots—long lines resulted, with some voters leaving polling places without voting. EP officials were following up with election officials to resolve the problems. Additional voting machine-related delays were reported in Philadelphia and in Lebanon County.

   In Ohio

   EP volunteers and the EP hotline received widespread [reports] of voting machine problems leading to delays, as well as problems with confusion implementing the state’s photo ID requirement. Additionally, one polling place opened late because of an overnight break in. A local TV station aired footage of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s battle with an optical scan voting machine, which repeatedly rejected her ballot.

   In Maryland

   The Steele campaign recruited six busloads of poor and homeless Philadelphians to hand out flyers to Maryland voters portraying Steele and his ticketmate, governor Bob Ehrlich, as Democrats. Steele is currently Maryland’s lieutenant governor; Ehrlich is governor.

   “People started screaming, at us, ‘Do you think we’re that stupid? What are you trying to pull?’ ” El-Bedawi told the writer. “I said, ‘I didn’t know it was a lie! I’m from Philly!’ And they said, ‘Then go back to Philly!’ ”

   “I am so angry and upset, I don’t know what to do,” said El-Bedawi, who’s particularly shattered that he and at least 200 other Philadelphians didn’t get home from Maryland in time to vote here.
   “These people think we’re too stupid to understand the magnitude of what we did.”

   What they did, said El-Bedawi, was cheat an entire community of unsuspecting voters.

   And just because they didn’t know they were doing it doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel awful.

   In Arizona

   Justin has an interview with a poll watcher in Arizona who reports that a trio of men–one with a firearm visible–are harrassing Hispanic voters at a polling station in Tuscon.

   The poll watcher is a member of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The group has notified the Department of Justice and the FBI and were told by the feds–get this–to keep an eye on the situation.

   In Chicago

   I live in Arlington Heights, IL, outside of Chicago. I’m in Mark Kirk’s House District. This morning none of the electronic voting machines were working. Therefore the wait to vote was around 30 minutes, since they were using paper ballots.
   As an aside, on the table next to the election judges was a box of donuts from the Republican Party of Wheeling Township, thanking the election judges for their service. Democray (and bribery) in action!

   In Tennessee

   Went to my precinct to vote and all 3 machines were not working. This precinct has a lot of lower-income families and public housing. They finally got one of the machines going, but the lines were out the door – I waited close to an hour and had to get to work. I wasn’t the only one – most of those leaving were young(er) working people more likely to vote Democratic. I’ll be coming back later to vote, but how many of those that left will be able to do that? You would think the machines would have at least been tested and working before the actual election day.

   In Missouri

   Secretary of State Robin Carnahan raised concerns about potential voter confusion in Tuesday’s elections, citing her own experience casting an absentee ballot as an indication that some poll workers may wrongly be asking voters for a photo identification.
   Carnahan told The Associated Press on Monday that a worker at the St. Louis Election Board asked her three times to show a photo identification when she voted absentee last Friday – despite a Missouri Supreme Court ruling striking down the photo requirement.

   (Yawn)
   Shall I go on?

   Comment by tonto_cal — November 11, 2006 @ 12:25 pm - November 11, 2006

6. Elections are a fraud, pure and simple.

   When I voted in Anne Arundel County, precinct 11 (Linthicum Library) on Tuesday, an election judge was helping an elderly lady vote. There is absolutely no privacy at the polling place, so I was able to hear quite clearly when the election judge said “Now, for U.S. Senate, you can vote for Ben Cardin or for Michael Steele.” And that’s all she said! She didn’t mention that the voter could choose Kevin Zeese or a write-in. This is an outrage, and I have shared the information with the nonestablishment candidates who were on the ballot.

   The two-party establishment — legislators, election officials, debate organizers — have made it impossible for anyone to compete with them. Minor fringe parties are condemned to stay minor because of the dirty tricks. Their marginal status is a result of the policies of the establishment, not vice versa. I am convinced of this even more after my experience on Tuesday.

   Comment by kdogg36 — November 11, 2006 @ 12:48 pm - November 11, 2006

7. See what I mean?

   These poor souls make my case in far more cogent a fashion than I could ever HOPE to.

   Eric in Hollywood

   Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — November 11, 2006 @ 12:53 pm - November 11, 2006

8. GP, Nancy Pelosi is everyone’s house speaker. Democrats didn’t say that Dennis Hastert wasn’t their house speaker. He was, whether they liked him or not. That’s what a majority of Congress voted for.

   The CT article that you link to doesn’t claim any kind of vote fraud. If there were vote fraud in CT-2, I’m sure Rob Simmons or his people would be more upfront about it.

   After what the Republican candidate in Loretta Sanchez’s district did earlier this year, it’s pretty obvious that there is some vote fraud which is far, far worse than some of the examples cited in this story.

   Comment by Carl — November 11, 2006 @ 12:54 pm - November 11, 2006

9. “Facing Tuesday’s loss, Resolving to Move Forward with a Positive Attitude”

   “Nancy Pelosi – NOT MY HOUSE SPEAKER.”

   Schizoprehenia.

   Comment by sean — November 11, 2006 @ 3:22 pm - November 11, 2006

10. #1. One of the stolen election whiners seems to have written this post.

    Comment by sean — November 11, 2006 @ 3:26 pm - November 11, 2006

11. People, people. Nancy Pelosi, if elected by a majority of members of the House of Representative to the post, will become THE Speaker of the House. Not MY Speaker. Not YOUR Speaker. THE Speaker.

    Comment by Will — November 11, 2006 @ 3:52 pm - November 11, 2006

12. 3: No, the difference is that conservatives are better at explaining away things than actually looking at / investigating to get to the bottom of things. They are much more accepting of a corrupt system (like the computerized voting system) that they believe, in the end, will benefit them.

    Comment by Kevin — November 11, 2006 @ 4:59 pm - November 11, 2006

13. Well Kevin several states have used computer balloting for years, I voted in some of them.

    But if I had my honest preference it would be the very old fashioned paper ballot, where you mark an X or similar by the name of your candidate. No punches involved, and pretty easy to count, and not much change when it comes to the recount. Not as quick as computers, optical scanners and the like, but probably one of the more reliable methods provided you don’t have some shifless person in a back room marking ballots for their candidate.

    Which brings us to the reality-no system of voting is going to be perfect, and mistakes are often just that mistakes not intentional behaviors meant to deprive people of their right to vote. I would be willing to bet that a comparison of all systems would probably indicate a similar “spoiled ballot” rate, and all of them would have ways to cheat the system.

    I think if there was a GOP diebold consipiracy, this election would have been the perfect one to use, given the closeness of some of these races. I think in the end, democrat complaints of the Diebold conspiracy can now be relagated to the tinfoil hats.

    Comment by just me — November 11, 2006 @ 6:03 pm - November 11, 2006

14. One, I agree with Carl; although we may not wish her to be, Nancy Pelosi is Speaker of the House, and in that capacity, she represents all of us.

    I could just take the attitude you guys have taken over the elections in 2000 and 2004 and say tough luck but I for one actually want our elections to be honest and so hope you guys will now join the effort to fix the ongoing mess that is the way we conduct them.

    Good. An excellent place to start would be the requiring of all voters to show photo identification clearly establishing identity and voter registration clearly establishing citizenship.

    Furthermore, since you wish for paper ballots, I will allow them under the condition that the voter’s name, address, and signature be placed on them.

    In San Francisco, the election process, dominated by Democrats, is simple; you walk into the polling place, tell the registrar your name, and sign the log, then go vote. Once your ballot, which is unidentified, is put into the machine, it is sealed.

    However, what they forget to mention is that the name and address of all voters is posted OUTSIDE the polling place — ostensibly so that you can tell if this is the correct one.

    Realistically, though, it only facilitates fraud; campaign volunteers or paid individuals can go from precinct to precinct, pick names off the list, and attempt to vote under those names, especially early in the morning. Since it is impossible to identify the ballot cast or the voter casting it, even if the legitimate voter shows up later, nothing can be done.

    The requirement of a photo ID to vote and the labeling of the paper ballots would make correcting this quite simple.

    But that’s why it will never happen.

    Comment by North Dallas Thirty — November 11, 2006 @ 8:20 pm - November 11, 2006

15. Again, my case is made, pure and simple.

    Eric in Hollywood

    Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — November 11, 2006 @ 8:42 pm - November 11, 2006

16. #15: Again, my case is made, pure and simple.

    Well, the electoral process is simply not fair. The deck is stacked overwhelmingly in favor of the socialist two-party establishment.

    Comment by kdogg36 — November 11, 2006 @ 9:22 pm - November 11, 2006

17. Yes, the Democrats stole the election and all the polls that show Bush to be highly unpopular, they’re just fiction. He actually has an approval rating of 65%.

    Right.

    In reality, the American electorate stole the election from the GOP, having told President Bush the electoral equivalent of “we’re just not that into you anymore.”

    Comment by Chase — November 11, 2006 @ 10:08 pm - November 11, 2006

18. Or you could look at it this way…

    On November 7th, the same day Britney Spears filed divorce papers with Kevin Federline, the American people filed divorce papers with President George W. Bush.

    That has a nice ring to it. 🙂

    Comment by Chase — November 11, 2006 @ 10:19 pm - November 11, 2006

19. #12:

    it would be the very old fashioned paper ballot, where you mark an X or similar by the name of your candidate.

    Well, our optical scan ballots here in Phoenix are essentially that except you complete an arrow next to your choice. At least there is actual paper to look at if a recount is required. The idea of a “recount” with a paperless touch-screen machine is ludicrous – it will just spit out its totals again. I would prefer that there be paper ballots that are hand-counted but if you insist on computerized voting, then the software must be open-source and a percentage of all precincts must be selected and random for handcounting.

    As for proper voter ID, I have no problem with that as long as there is a fair mechanism such that people can obtain the appropriate ID at no cost. Otherwise it’s just a poll tax by another name. Frankly, the idea that illegals are trying to vote is preposterous since the vast majority go to great lengths to avoid contact with officialdom for fear that they may be found out. I’m far more concerned that a citizen of this country is denied the right to vote either by bureaucratic negligence or malicious intent.

    Comment by Ian — November 11, 2006 @ 11:10 pm - November 11, 2006

20. Bruce, thanks so much for linking to my petition on this matter. It is very important, and the fact that previously, the most prominent allegations of election fraud have been leveled at the GOP does not make what has happened this cycle excusable.

    I would strongly encourage all of those who have posted comments here, and who are worried about this matter, to email me and add their names to the petition.

    The more names I have, the more likely it is that DoJ will take this seriously. Which is an absolute necessity, frankly.

    My email: editor@gopprogress.com

    Comment by Liz Mair — November 12, 2006 @ 12:25 am - November 12, 2006

21. Well, this is a fun site full of gay republicans who the real republicans don’t want(talk with some of the christian right and see what they say about homosexuals) and who the army doesn’t want, and who cannot distinquish between supporting the troops and opposing the republican war based on lies and deceiption which is turning Iraq into a killing field ripe for recruiting and training Al Quaeda. I thought after all these years I had heard it all. Have a nice day and watch your back for the “sleeve Christians” and while you are at it check out http://www.leestyle.blogspot.com for reality.

    Comment by dan — November 12, 2006 @ 1:45 am - November 12, 2006

22. I voted for Heather Wilson. We had paper ballots this year because the Dem governor absolutely insisted. We have voter ID cards without pictures and didn’t have to show ID (if we didn’t have the card? I donno) There was a list of registered voters and we signed it as we checked in. Then we got to fill out the paper ballots by filling in ovals completely with an ink pen so the optical scan could read them. When we were all done we put them in a machine… did it count the votes? No clue. The only information displayed was a counter indicating one more ballot.

    Last time was with electronic, touch screen voting. I liked it. This worked too. For me, at my precinct, it was just fine. No lines on election day and we had all the ballots we needed.

    But as to how secure the voting method is… it just moves the point of fraud. How do I know that my ballot got counted at all? I just have to trust people. Who’s in power locally? Democrats. And considering the government here, I’d go with the (liberal) local blogger who said of early voting that he felt about as assured that he ballot would go where intended as if he’d just been to a Guatamalan post office.

    There were the instances of next to no ballots delivered that is quoted above. I know of people who tried to vote early and had to wait so long they left and never voted at all. They are still recounting ballots, still counting absentee ballots. Who’s in charge of this circus? Do I know my vote was counted? How can I? It’s all done on faith. Paper ballots can be destroyed or “lost” or “found” just as easily as electrons can be added or subtracted.

    And as for “Pelosi, not my speaker”… getting all self-righteous about *that* can wait until people start claiming that George Bush is their President, hmm?

    Comment by Synova — November 12, 2006 @ 1:43 pm - November 12, 2006

23. Bruce writes: “Maybe only Democrat votes count in Al Gore/Howard Dean/John Kerry’s America?”

    Hey, they count twice in Detroit, Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, Lansing, Saginaw, Muskegon and all across the UP.

    Comment by Michigan-Matt — November 12, 2006 @ 1:50 pm - November 12, 2006

24. Possible Election Fraud in Three House Races ? Where?s Al Gore? …

    Possible Election Fraud in Three House Races ? Where?s Al Gore? Gay Patriot In the spirit of ?every vote must be counted? that was Al Gore?s mantra, I completely agree with Liz at GOP Progress that the NM-1 and WA-8…

    Trackback by Bill's Bites — November 12, 2006 @ 3:09 pm - November 12, 2006

25. [Comment deleted.  This commenter has been repeatedly banned from this blog.]

    Comment by Anon1 — November 12, 2006 @ 7:51 pm - November 12, 2006

26. Anon1 (aka He Who Must Not Be Named) sniped…

    You’ll find him in the same place where all the Republicans were during that election.

    Is this some attempt at being cryptically funny, or is it simply the best you could come up in response to the original article?

    Just wondering, mind you.

    Eric in Hollywood

    Comment by HollywoodNeoCon — November 13, 2006 @ 12:02 am - November 13, 2006

27. It was just revealed today that unsecured SACKS of absentee ballots have been found in the WA-8th district. They estimate 20,000 such ballots are in these sacks. This is the same kind of nonsense that has plagued King County elections in 2004, 2002, and even 2000 (not to mention all of the off year local elections in-between).

    And yes, King County is under the control of Democrats … top to bottom.

    Comment by GOPValues — November 14, 2006 @ 12:51 am - November 14, 2006

28. I’m dusting off my “IMPEACH CONGRESS” bumper sticker and putting it on my car just to be on the safe side.

    Also, let’s not forget that Nasty Pelosi (aka the Wicked Witch of the West) was SELECTED, not ELECTED. Wonder if the Drive-By Media will have popularity polls on her like they did with Newt Gingrich? Methinks not.

    And they say that the media is not biased. Scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites all.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

    Comment by Peter Hughes — November 14, 2006 @ 10:44 am - November 14, 2006

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