Ohio Election vs Bihar Election
This is according to Harper Magazine's Mark Crispin Miller. No claims to say that I believe what he says, but after History Channel this is the second person who seems to say that this election was rigged big time. What i found interesting was they drew inspiration from our very own Bihar - for people who may find it offensive - I can say Great Minds think alike ;)
Some of the points that i found interesting - For the complete article please read it from Harper's latest Magazine
1. Before the day of election - 59 daily newspaper endorsed Kerry or no one - this is including the Financial times and The Economist. All these newspapers during the last election had backed Bush. 26 State exit polls predicted wins for Kerry, a statistical failure so colossal and unprecedented that the odds against it happening A/c to National Election Data Archive Project were 16.5 million to 1.
Since Ohio was the deciding state this time - Major electoral games (ahem frauds) are listed here
2. One of the key players - Kenneth Blackwell - Secretary of State Ohio - co-chair of Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio. According to New York times, new registerations rose to 25 % in Ohio's Republican Precent and 250% in Democratic Precent. At Kenyon college which is predominantly Democratic area - there were only 2 machines for 1300 would be voters - people had to stay in line for hours and finally got tired and left the place. In contrast, at nearby Mt Vernon which you must have got it by now a predominantly Republican area, there were ample of waiting machines and no lines. Not that there was a shortage of machines, as in the nearby storage facility 125 machines collected dust.
3. Analysis had shown that the county needed minimum of 5000 machines, but the election officials decided that they could make ado with 2866 machines ????
4. Another cool thing that the State seceratry tried to pull off - he tried to reject all Ohio voters registerations forms which were not printed on white, uncoated paper of less than 80 lb test weight. Naturally under public pressure he had to withdraw that rule ;)
5.Tried to dienfrachise voters through a process called caging - basically question the right of voters who were homeless, serving abroad or simply because they did not sign anything that was concerning Republican Party.
6. Issued directives to not let Media cover the election by saying that they would be "loitering" around voting areas. Media officials were supposed to be atleast 100 feet away from the polling areas. Foriegn monitors who were there to study the election process were also banned from the voting area for the same reason. In 11 other states they were allowed to watch with no problems
7.Major counting errors , One reported by washington post in Ohio's Mahoning county - 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of kerry votes to Bush column - but did not ask why. In Perry county number of Bush votes exceeded registered voters as high as 124%. Youngstown reported 25 million negative votes - to make up the difference ;)
8. Dirty tricks on election day -
- Voters were falsely told that their polling place had changed. By phone or by door hangers
- Phone calls instructing that they were not supposed to cast votes until the next day
- Special volunteers came up to deliver completed absentee votes
- At several polling places, election personnel or hired goons "challenged" voters - to produce
documents confirming their eligibility to vote
And so much more -- And we complain about Bihar ; )
Any Comments people
Some of the points that i found interesting - For the complete article please read it from Harper's latest Magazine
1. Before the day of election - 59 daily newspaper endorsed Kerry or no one - this is including the Financial times and The Economist. All these newspapers during the last election had backed Bush. 26 State exit polls predicted wins for Kerry, a statistical failure so colossal and unprecedented that the odds against it happening A/c to National Election Data Archive Project were 16.5 million to 1.
Since Ohio was the deciding state this time - Major electoral games (ahem frauds) are listed here
2. One of the key players - Kenneth Blackwell - Secretary of State Ohio - co-chair of Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio. According to New York times, new registerations rose to 25 % in Ohio's Republican Precent and 250% in Democratic Precent. At Kenyon college which is predominantly Democratic area - there were only 2 machines for 1300 would be voters - people had to stay in line for hours and finally got tired and left the place. In contrast, at nearby Mt Vernon which you must have got it by now a predominantly Republican area, there were ample of waiting machines and no lines. Not that there was a shortage of machines, as in the nearby storage facility 125 machines collected dust.
3. Analysis had shown that the county needed minimum of 5000 machines, but the election officials decided that they could make ado with 2866 machines ????
4. Another cool thing that the State seceratry tried to pull off - he tried to reject all Ohio voters registerations forms which were not printed on white, uncoated paper of less than 80 lb test weight. Naturally under public pressure he had to withdraw that rule ;)
5.Tried to dienfrachise voters through a process called caging - basically question the right of voters who were homeless, serving abroad or simply because they did not sign anything that was concerning Republican Party.
6. Issued directives to not let Media cover the election by saying that they would be "loitering" around voting areas. Media officials were supposed to be atleast 100 feet away from the polling areas. Foriegn monitors who were there to study the election process were also banned from the voting area for the same reason. In 11 other states they were allowed to watch with no problems
7.Major counting errors , One reported by washington post in Ohio's Mahoning county - 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of kerry votes to Bush column - but did not ask why. In Perry county number of Bush votes exceeded registered voters as high as 124%. Youngstown reported 25 million negative votes - to make up the difference ;)
8. Dirty tricks on election day -
- Voters were falsely told that their polling place had changed. By phone or by door hangers
- Phone calls instructing that they were not supposed to cast votes until the next day
- Special volunteers came up to deliver completed absentee votes
- At several polling places, election personnel or hired goons "challenged" voters - to produce
documents confirming their eligibility to vote
And so much more -- And we complain about Bihar ; )
Any Comments people
posted by Aatma at 8/01/2005 11:34:00 PM
3 Comments:
US is not better than India in terms of elections. I feel, the recent Electronic polling in Indian Elections has defeatd the way US voting system prevails. (refer to the Palm Beach counts)
Interesting.! How come these stats didn't show up in NY TIMES? or any other Pro-Democrat media.!
To me...this incident happening in the US....has even beaten BIHAR.!
The stats were completely ignored by all the big newspapers, Washington post reported the incident, but it was just like - ok it happened, but so what we don't care.
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