Sunday, May 29, 2005

"The Silence of the Scams: Psychological resistance to facing election fraud"

From a post on SeeingTheForest.com:

If you want to know why most people, including our purported "leaders", are ignoring the obvious evidence of vote fraud, it's worth checking out "The Silence of the Scams: Psychological resistance to facing election fraud" by psychologist Diane Perlman. Her article appeared in one version here Perlman discusses various aspects of the psychology of electoral domination--what is being done to people and how they allow it. What we should be trying to figure out is how to get people to stop allowing themselves to be misled and intimidated, and willfully shutting down their critical faculties.

Posted by: Kate Forrest at May 27, 2005 08:36 PM

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******* From the article *************

Some Links for Detailed Accounts of Voter Fraud

For a proper psychological understanding of suppression, it is necessary to recognize the quantity and quality of information being suppressed. The extent of fraud and ignorance of it are mind-boggling. Below are some links with detailed information.

Links for detailed information about voter fraud

A Guide to Ohio and New Mexico Recounts: Statistical Anomalies and Evidence of Voting Machine Malfunction and Fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election January 5, 2005
By: Audit the Vote and Help America Recount

Analysis of 2004 Election Irregularities

TV Networks Officially Refuse to Release Exit Poll Raw Data
By Gary Beckwith, The Columbus Free Press, 22 December 2004

Thom Hartmann in “Dialing for Democracy—Now Is Critical
January 3, 2005, CommonDreams.org

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

Partial list of incidents reported in the news

Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two)
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman

end .................

Read and weep. It illustrates the real size the fight that lay ahead. It's the Sheeple again darnit.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Buy This God Dammed Book NOW!! - What Went Wrong In Ohio:

What Went Wrong In Ohio:
The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election


Introduction by Gore Vidal
Edited by Anita Miller
Category: Politics/Current Affairs
Format: Trade paperback, 160pp, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 0-89733-535-x
Price: $10.95

About the Book
This fascinating and disturbing book is the official record of testimony taken by the Democratic Members and Staff of the House Judiciary Committee, presided over by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Member. Originally released in January, 2005 by the Committee and now available in print for the first time.

Witnesses included both Republicans and Democrats, elected officials, voting machine company employees, poll observers, and many voters who testified about the harassment they endured, some of which led to actual vote repression.

While shreds of the electoral chaos in Ohio were reported in the press, the issue soon faded from public view. What Went Wrong In Ohio provides new insights into the abuse and manipulation of electronic voting machines and the arbitrary and illegal behavior of a number of elected and election officials which effectively disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in order to change the outcome of an election.

Reviews
“I urge every American citizen to recognize that the integrity of our electoral process is at stake. We must face the hard truth that the system in its present form is too easily subverted. We must address this continuing erosion so that, in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ What Went Wrong in Ohio should be required reading for all who believe the right to vote is fundamental to freedom and the spirit of democracy.” —Bob Kerrey, President, New School University

“The only relevant civics lesson to emerge from the swindle that was last year’s presidential election. Any citizen who neglects to read it does so at his or her peril.”—Lewis Lapham, Harper’s Magazine

“An entirely new kind of ‘how to’ book: a ‘how to steal an election’ book. Forget Denmark—there was something infinitely more rotten in Ohio, where GOP election mechanics, not content to let the Supreme Court declare him president a second time, did all they could to help George W. Bush once more hijack the highest office in the land. John Conyers deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor—if there is even a shred of it left in that once noble institution.”—Larry Gelbart, Writer

end..................

Now go buy the book and read it.

Eschaton Reports: What Went Wrong In Ohio

The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election

Introduction by Gore Vidal - Edited by Anita Miller

This fascinating and disturbing book is the official record of testimony taken by the Democratic Members and Staff of the House Judiciary Committee, presided over by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Member. Originally released in January, 2005 by the Committee and now available in print for the first time.
Amendment: Rep. Conyers' blog.

In re some of the discussion in the comments, I've written a number of posts on this topic, particularly just after the election, notably and here and here. (You'll find other, shorter posts on the subject on the same archive page.) More recently, this post looks at the response to the Edison/Mitofsky evaluation.

-Avedon 11:37 PM

end ..................

Do as the man says...read, read and read!

Fla. County Urged to Ditch Voting Machines

MIAMI - Miami-Dade County's elections chief has recommended ditching its ATM-style voting machines, just three years after buying them for $24.5 million to avoid a repeat of the hanging and dimpled chads from the 2000 election.

Elections supervisor Lester Sola said in a memo Friday that the county should switch to optical scanners that use paper ballots, based on declining voter confidence in the paperless touch-screen machines and quadrupled election day labor costs.

Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties chose touch-screen machines after the 2000 election fiasco. The machines have caused problems during at least six elections, including the September 2002 primary, when some polls could not open and close on time and Democratic primary results for governor were delayed by a week.

Miami-Dade would be the first place in the nation to ditch the iVotronics machines for paper-based balloting, said Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb., the company that makes the devices.

Sola said it would cost $9.4 million to $12.3 million to equip the entire county with optical scan machines.

His report was forwarded to the county commissioners who must decide whether to get rid of the machines. The touch-screen machines will be used in elections while the issue is decided, officials said.

end..............

Finally...talk about requesting the obvious.

Wathc this go nowhere.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Better Interviews Said Key to Exit Polls

Better Interviews Said Key to Exit Polls
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
Sun May 15, 3:55 AM ET

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Better training of interviewers to get a proper sample of voters after they cast ballots will be key to improving the performance of exit polls, one pollster who handled the 2004 election surveys said Saturday.

Exit polls on Election Day 2004 overstated support for Democrat John Kerry overall and in many key states, which led to widespread confusion that day about the election eventually won by President Bush.

The exit polls contacted more supporters of Kerry than of Bush because of "the failure of interviewers to follow the selection rate," said Warren Mitofsky, who conducted the exit polls along with Joe Lenski of Edison Media Research.

In exit polling, properly trained interviewers are supposed to follow a carefully designed strategy of contacting voters, such as every fourth or fifth voter, to get a random sample.

Mitofsky has said the discrepancy between exit polls and the vote count was caused by several problems with the polls done for the television networks and The Associated Press.

Highlighting findings of a report made public in January, he told the national meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research that even though the exit poll data did not line up with actual vote counts, the exit pollsters and members of the National Election Pool did not "project" an incorrect winner.

"All our projections were correct," he said.

The early — and unauthorized — release of exit poll data on Web sites and blogs helped create the perception that Kerry was going to win the election. Mitofsky said he wants to restrict the release of exit poll findings within the NEP news organizations until 6 p.m. to reduce such confusion in the future.

In past elections, early results often become more accurate as additional results are tabulated, but the polls remained skewed toward Kerry until late in the evening — heightening confusion.

Kathy Frankovic, head of polling at CBS News, said bad calls were avoided because of stringent new safeguards put in place by several media organizations after difficulties in the 2000 election and exit polls.

Mitofsky said the 2004 problems could have been caused by several factors:

_haphazard choice of voters to interview

_lengthy questionnaires

_legal restrictions that kept exit poll interviewers 50 feet or more from voting locations

_hiring of too many young interviewers

_inadequate monitoring of interviewers

Some researchers are still quarreling whether the problems were with the exit poll or the vote count and possible fraud.

Much of the attention has focused on Ohio, which had reports of technology failures, voter confusion and overcrowded polling stations in minority neighborhoods.

Ron Baiman, a research professor from the University of Illinois at Chicago, questioned whether the difference between the exit polls and vote count had been adequately explained and called for further investigation.

But Steven Hertzberg, a nonpartisan researcher investigating election results in Ohio, said "we're not seeing significant shifts in one direction or another" that one have changed the outcome of the election in that state.

___

On the Net: Exit Poll report:
http://www.exit-poll.net/election-night/EvaluationJan192005.pdf


end ....................................


By defanging the believability of Exit Poling data, they set the stage for 06 and 08.

Prediction: After the 06 elections they will claim that the changes that were made to improve the relaiability of the resulting data, actually caused errors. The GOP wins and the Dems loose, again.

I hate that every major prediction I have made has come true. In 06, you will see me proven right again.

BG..