Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?
This is not conspiracy theory. This is not hearsay. There is evidence. There are witnesses. There is an investigation. If what appears to be true is true, there will be convictions.
The election was stolen with not just one tactic, but with several. Some of the things we know for a fact are true. We know they tried to suppress the vote; there are documented cases of shredding of Democratic voter registration cards in several states, and flyers sent out to Democrats telling them they could not vote. On other things, the evidence is certainly pointing towards fraud and we are waiting for more conclusive results and analysis. The biggest question is about the use of electronic voting machines. If the allegations are true, they were able to change the will of the people, right under our noses, on computers that were never tested for security.
Below is a brief summary of the key points, followed by links to articles with more details and information. This website will updated as more information becomes available.
Key points
- Electronic Voting Machines: The key to it all was the use of electronic voting machines, that produce no paper trail. These were manufactured mainly by the two companies ESS and Diebold. Both of these companies are supporters of the Republican Party. Walden O'Dell, the CEO of Diebold, said in a 2003 fundraising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." He is a very high level contributor to the Republican Party and he has been to the Bush ranch. Chuck Hagel, the Republican Senator from Nebraskia, used to own ES&S, and he used his own machines to get elected to the United States Senate.
A bill was introduced in the House and Senate to outlaw these machines and require a paper printout of each vote so that they could be verified and/or recounted. You'd think that everyone would be in favor of this bill, which only ensures that votes are counted properly. However, the bill was stalled by the Republican Party, led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and it was not allowed to come to vote.
Shortly after the November 2rd election, countless stories of problems with the machines began to surface. Many people tried to vote for Kerry and said that when the final confirmation screen came up it said they voted for Bush. In one precinct in Ohio, over 4,258 votes were given to Bush where there were only 638 registered voters.
In addition to the touch screen machines that produce no paper trail, we are now finding more and more evidence of problems with the "optical scanners" that were used to tabulate the results in many states. In this case, many people did fill out a paper ballot, and these ballots were fed into scanners that totalled the results. These scanners were also manufactured by Diebold and ESS in many cases and are easily hacked.
Many more stories about the black box voting machines, optical scanners, their problems, and the investigation into their tampering are listed on the main page. Blackboxvoting.org is leading the way in the investigation to proving the results were tampered with.
- Exit Polls: Exit polls were taken in every state. In the states that had verifiable paper trails for their ballots, the exit polls were virtually the same as the real results. However, in the battleground states where electronic voting machines and/or electronic tabulators were used, the exit polls were mysteriously very different from the final reported totals. And in nearly every state that is off significantly, it's in the direction of more votes for Bush. Judge for yourself and view the data here. Also check the main page for more independent analysis of the exit polls, including one from a U of PA professor. With fairly simple math he demonstrates that the odds of the exit polls being off as far as they are, just by chance, in only the three states of OH, FL, and NM, is around 2 million to one.
- Unusual Results: In the areas where computers were used to cast votes or tally them, some very strange results have surfaced. In just one county in Ohio, over 97,000 votes were originally cast than there are registered voters. Since then they have "corrected" the numbers but mysteriously, the total vote for the county did not change. In one precinct in Florida it was discovered that when the votes hit 32,000, a machine started to count backwards. Many people reported that when they tried to vote for Kerry, the screen said they voted for Bush. There are over 50,000 complaints like this registered. If you view the complaints which are available online, it is clear that almost every one resulted in a "glitch" that favored Bush. And for every "glitch" that has surfaced, we have no idea how many have not been noticed.
University professors and statistical experts have combed through the election results and have found alarming abnormalities. In Florida, they have found an unexplained correlation between the type of voting machine used, and the tendency for Democrats to vote for Bush. There should be no correlation between the type of voting machine and any voting patterns whatsoever, and experts have called for an investigation.
- Voter suppression: In addition to the electronic voting machines, there was widespread voter intimidation and disenfranchisement on election day. In many democratic areas, people waited hours to vote, while Republicans "challenged" voters' rights to vote, forcing them to fill out a provisional ballot instead of a real ballot. The provisional ballots were not counted on election day and we may never know how many of them there were, or what rules were used to qualify them.
Flyers were sent to democratic areas with an array of false information on them. People were told their voting precinct had changed, that their voter registration was not valid, or that they would go to jail of they tried to vote. There are many reports of not enough voting machines being placed in heavily democratic and minority areas, and in some cases there were voting machines available, but they were not deployed. There is a lawsuit pending regarding this. The list of shenanigans goes on and on, read more below.
- Investigations: There are already several investigations underway. The General Accountability Office of the Federal Government has accepted a request sent by 13 congressmen to investigate the voting irregularities. The House Judiciary Committee has sent a letter of inquiry to Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell citing dozens of problems on election day. Mr. Blackwell has also been sued for abuse of power. A group of lawyers has filed papers to contest the election results in Ohio (this is different and separate from the recount).
Now the details, facts, articles, and information, that may lead to the prosecution of the perpetrators of one of the biggest crimes in the history of our country. Are you ready to go to the MAIN PAGE?
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