"Bipartisan" call for a recount...pssst, it's not who you think.

[Zeitgeist]

Green & Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount


WASHINGTON -- November 11 -- David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties, today announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a recount of the presidential ballots cast in Ohio.

“Due to widespread reports of irregularities in the Ohio voting process, we are compelled to demand a recount of the Ohio presidential vote. Voting is the heart of the democratic process in which we as a nation put our faith. When people stand in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, they need to know that all votes will be counted fairly and accurately. We must protect the rights of the people of Ohio, as well as all Americans, and stand up for the right to vote and the right for people’s votes to be counted. The integrity of the democratic process is at stake,” the two candidates said in a joint statement.

The candidates also demanded that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired the Ohio Bush campaign, recuse himself from the recount process.

The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and independent reports of voter intimidation, mis-marked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters. A number of citizens’ groups and voting rights organizations are holding hearings this Saturday in Columbus, Ohio to investigate voting irregularities and voter suppression in the Ohio 2004 general election. The hearings will be held from 1-4 p.m. at the New Faith Baptist Church, 955 Oak Street. Voters, poll workers, journalists and voting experts are invited to testify. A second hearing will be held on Monday at a location TBA, from 6-9 p.m.

The Cobb and Badnarik campaigns are in the process of raising the required fee, estimated at $110,000, for filing for a complete recount. The campaigns are accepting contributions through their websites. The Cobb-LaMarche website is http://www.votecobb.org. The Badnarik-Campagna contribution page is https://badnarik.org/.

The Cobb and Badnarik campaigns have displayed a level of cooperation and civility rarely found in electoral politics. The campaigns jointly participated in and/or sponsored a series of independent debates. Cobb and Badnarik were also simultaneously arrested in St. Louis protesting their exclusion from the restricted, two-party corporate-sponsored debates.

To see an investigative report by Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which asserts that the Ohio vote was improperly decided, see http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php.

For an article detailing a dozen ways in which the Ohio vote was potentially manipulated, see http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810.

[GermanStar]

Perhaps they could solicit donations from the Amish.

[KirkVining]

This whole vote fraud thing is starting to snowball. I think it is a wasted effort, but this has become an article of religion on the Democratic forums. They have raised millions for recount efforts, and are backing a Nader in another big effort in New Hampshire and North Carolina. You can't rely blame them. The statistical anomalies are just to great to be explained by margin of error, something definately went wrong somewhere. The big problem is these trackless voting machines have shaken peoples faith in democracy. We need to get rid of those freaking things.

[kerry]

NPR yesterday had a piece on those odd Florida numbers that Kirk posted. They repeated the explanation that the fact that Republican votes far exceeded the number of registered Republicans is explained by a trend for democrats to vote republican in the south. But again, they showed no previous numbers from prior elections to verify the truth of this claim. Those Florida numbers still look very odd to me.

[KirkVining]

What is really odd is that all of the polls, pre election polls, post election exit polls, internal campaign polls, all show a consistent spread on only one side of the margin of error - which the rules of statistics say must have a "special cause". If the errors were random, a plus on one side of the median for Kerry, a minus in the other side of Bush, they would be the result of "common cause" - randomness that is an expected behavior in such large data sets. It is such a fundemental rule - its basic to all manufacturing quality control - a QC guy who gets a chart like that shuts down the production line and checks for something that is wrong. I think we owe it to the electoral system to do the same thing, figure out what is. One guy says he can find a statistical correlation in the optical scanning machines that he traces to the computers they feed into that all use the same software program. that sounds pretty suspicious, but there is so much jump-to-conclusion going on with the Dems, who knows if the guy is even right. But I think an investigation is warranted on the special cause aspect alone, and I believe the Nader guys are going to use that as one their prime legal arguments. Personally, I have my own theory - the special cause was Ossama Bin Laden. I think his appearance gave a late push to Bush. But that would only explain the pre-election poll errors.

[sfloriII]

Originally Posted by KirkVining

The big problem is these trackless voting machines have shaken peoples faith in democracy. We need to get rid of those freaking things.

Yeah, I hate the darn things. Something inside me just doesn't trust an electronic machine to tally things up without the possiblity of fraud.

Fraud can happen anywhere, but the computer is way too vulnerable.

[boneheaddoctor]

The Democrats lost......no amount of recounts is going to change that. As much as I hate Kerry I have to respect him for accepting his loss so gracefully.

Anyone who thinks Kerry won is seriously dilusional and needs to immediately seek psyciatric help.

[sfloriII]

Originally Posted by boneheaddoctor

Anyone who thinks Kerry won is seriously dilusional and needs to immediately seek psyciatric help.

I don't think Kerry won either-- heck I didn't vote for him. But I still don't like the new computer polling machines.

[boneheaddoctor]

Originally Posted by sfloriII

I don't think Kerry won either-- heck I didn't vote for him. But I still don't like the new computer polling machines.

I like the ones we have where I voted. Only an idiot could screw up. That makes them perfect for Florida and the Alzheimer patients who don't know what year it is going to vote.

And anything that makes a clear distinction of yes or no is better, None of this having both candidate having holes punched but having people argue about which hole was bigger. Digital is good, its yes or no. No arguing about "intent" and weather the hole is big enough to count or not.

[PHAEDRUS242]

VD's back online...

[mikemover]

I read about that earlier. I'm a big supporter of Badnarik, the libertarian candidate, and of "3rd parties" in general....but this is an embarrassment.

It's just a re-hash of the same sore-loser, race-baiting crap we heard from FL Democrats after the last election. Why does this drama happen every time there's a close vote? I especially don't understand why these 3rd party candidates are participating in the absurdity....they are usually "above" such conspiracy-theory rubbish. Just because the margin was close does not imply that there was fraud.

I DO think the new computer machines, although easy to use and easy to count, they SHOULD print a paper back-up copy that can be used in case of a software glitch or system failure or other unforseen disaster, or the unlikely event of a REAL case of hacking or fraud (UNLIKE what we're hearing from Ohio today).

Mike

[MTI]

Originally Posted by PHAEDRUS242

VD's back online...

Yes, and you better not disparage his point of view, otherwise he's going to take financial retribution against Phil and Fastlane.

[PHAEDRUS242]

We'll start a collection, for every dollar he doesn't give Phil, we'll make up the difference.

[GermanStar]

You guys are rough.....

[boneheaddoctor]

Originally Posted by MTI

Yes, and you better not disparage his point of view, otherwise he's going to take financial retribution against Phil and Fastlane.

That was in reference to the idiot that used to moderate this board. Not by people I disagree with here. That mod was biased. And if they supported that mod I would not support them.