How Bush Won CA in 2004 [View All]

[Eloriel]

They’ve already created the backstory.
Four days before Arnold announced, the Washington Times reported that the Bush/Cheney team thinks they can win CA and NY in 2004.

The next step: get a Republican elected
They dumped the man who funded the recall to the tune of $2 million of his own funds (Congressman Darrell Issa), to run an action figure who comes complete with his own built-in name recognition, money, and automatic media coverage from a star-struck press. Sure, they had Arnold in their sites since at least April of this year, though the plan was originally for 2004. They had to muzzle him not long after his announcement, though, to save him from himself, and have been reminded that he comes with some of the same Enron baggage as Gray Davis.

Still, it could work.

Especially if the recall ballot just happens, by sheer coincidence, to be the biggest and best vote suppression technique in history, something that always disadvantages Democrats. With 135 names listed in random order on the ballot, voting will be a chaotic nightmare, and many people won’t bother or won’t have the time or patience to tough it out. Think moms with hungry children in tow, workers docked by the hour, elderly folks with bad knees.

Next: Send Bush – and plenty of pork – to California.
They’ve already promised to make a big play for California. Add some federal largesse, some cooperative or merely biased pollsters to ask the right questions of the right people (or interpret the data favorably) and little by little Bush will look like he’s moving up in the polls and viable. That alone will convince some to vote for the “popular guy.”

Finally, cook the books.
The recall election will have been debacle enough (think Florida 2000 on steroids) that despite the fact that Californians are even now being warned about them, everyone will be clamoring for computerized voting. And what a relief for Rove&Co., since electronic voting systems, owned by Republicans, have provided some of the most stunning Republican victories* in history. Voila! Bush wins California! Another Rove coup.

*See for example Senator Chuck Hagel, victories by Republicans Perdue and Chambliss in GA despite no change in demographic turnout, Allard in CO and Coleman in MN, Riley in AL, and three different Republican candidates in Comal County, TX, who each won by exactly 18,181 votes in 2002.

Even MORE Voting Irregularities with computerized voting systems
http://www.workersrighttovote.org/more.htm
http://blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=12
http://pub103.ezboard.com/bsoldiervoice
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/illustrative.html#24
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive/july2003/kewearchive_july1-14_2003.html

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST? You bet.
http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm#DIEBOLD%20ELECTION%20SYSTEMS,%20INC
ESSENTIAL READING: How safe are computerized voting machines? Not at all:
PIMA COUNTY (AZ) REPORT: http://www.pimademocrats.org/votingreport/votingintegrity.htm
HOPKINS/RICE REPORT: http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf)
Diebold Rebuttal to Hopkins Report: http://www.diebold.com/checksandbalances.pdf
Rubin et. al. - response to Diebold rebuttal: http://avirubin.com/vote/response.html
HARRIS REPORT (and other articles by Harris): http://www.blackboxvoting.org/access-diebold.htm

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
BlackboxVoting: http://www.blackboxvoting.com and http://www.blackboxvoting.org
Dr. Roberta Mercuri: http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html
Lynn Landes website: http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachines-TechnicalIssues&Standards.htm
Dr. David Dill’s Verified Voting: http://www.verifiedvoting.org/drefaq.asp
CalTech/MIT report: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/voting2facts.html