Best Of TomPaine: Election Irregularities In 2004
TomPaine.com Editors
January 24, 2005
Democracy requires constant vigilance and regular participation. Elections are the tool for this and ours are endangered. Redistricting, electronic voting machines, voter suppression campaigns, provisional ballots. If your vote doesn't count, neither does our democracy. Here's a collection of the best of our post-election coverage.
Election 2004: Stolen Or Lost
Russ Baker
January 07, 2005
A handful of principledDemocrats in Congress objected Thursday to certifying the 2004 election. They were unsuccessful, and Congress ultimately ratified Bush's electoral victory. Many involved in the challenge, however, made it clear they weren't alleging fraud, but trying to shine a light on massive electoral problems. As time passes and allegations of fraud are investigated, the question about the 2004 election centers on who was to blame. Incompetence and dysfunction or high-level intentional misconduct? Russ Baker explains.
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The Bush electors in Ohio have cast their votes, even though the bitterly contested ballots that allegedly gave them standing as electors have not been recounted. When asked, the mainstream media will admit that there were rampant problems with this election. But there's no juicy story for them to cover because they don't believe a recount would change the outcome of the election. Thus, they neglect what's happening in Ohio. Here Comstock-Gay explains why it matters. For the best of TomPaine.com's coverage of the problems with election 2004, click here. |
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Lots of ink and pixels have been spilled about the need for electoral reforms in this country. Both to standardize how we conduct elections—and more importantly—to restore voter confidence in the system. Yet—argue election experts Richie and Hill—so far there's not enough consensus around reform. Topic: Agenda for electoral reform. Discuss amongst yourselves. For the best of TomPaine.com's coverage of the problems with election 2004, click here. |
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The judgement is now in from the advocacy groups who monitored the 2004 election. A new report released last week substantiates many of the concerns raised on TomPaine.com and elsewhere. To see the report, click here, and for all of TomPaine.com's coverage of Election 2004 irregularities, click here. Today, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., D-IL, argues that the lesson of 2004 is that our right to vote is not secure—we need a federal right to vote with standards and the enforcement of those standards by the attorney general of the United States, rather than the patchwork, chaotic and unequal administration by states that we now have. |
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In Ohio,questions persist about intentional or accidental voting mishaps. Which voting problem cost Kerry the most votes may never be known. Kerry's fate aside, Air America's Steven Rosenfeld's investigation found the inadequate supply of polling machines in Ohio shows a system badly in need of reform. |
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Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. In the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided—known as “spoilage” in election jargon—because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Drawing on what happened in Florida and studies of elections past, Palast argues that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots. So far there's no indication that Palast's hypothesis will be tested because only the provisional ballots are being counted. |
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