Krugman, NYT: Saving the vote.

[dand]

Everyone knows it, but not many politicians or mainstream journalists are willing to talk about it, for fear of sounding conspiracy-minded: there is a substantial chance that the result of the 2004 presidential election will be suspect.
As usual Krugman hits a home run.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html

[xchrom]

1. since the 00 and the 02 elections were

suspect, why should this one be different?
election reform along with corralling corporate interference is needed in a big way.

[Beetwasher]

2. Man, Krugman's ON THE CASE!

The best. The absolute best. Words can't describe this man.

[wildeyed]

3. Independent exit polling sounds like a great idea.

It is good to know that not all of our journalists are AWOL.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. If Bush carries Florida with Kerry leading in the polls

If Bush carries Florida with Kerry leading in the polls, it will be more than suspect. Frankly, I will not believe it nor accept it.

A few recommendations put forward by Professor Krugman worth mentioning:

There is still time for officials to provide enhanced security, assuring the public that nobody can tamper with voting machines before or during the election; to hire independent security consultants to perform random tests before and during Election Day; and to provide paper ballots to every voter who requests one.
Voters, too, can do their bit. Recently the Florida Republican Party sent out a brochure urging supporters to use absentee ballots to make sure their votes are counted. The party claims that was a mistake - but it was, in fact, good advice. Voters should use paper ballots where they are available, and if this means voting absentee, so be it. (Election officials will be furious about the increased workload, but they have brought this on themselves.)
Finally, some voting activists have urged a last-minute push for independent exit polling, parallel to but independent of polling by media groups (whose combined operation suffered a meltdown during the upset Republican electoral triumph in 2002). This sounds like a very good idea.

[althecat]

5. It is rather ironic to recall that back during selection 2000...

.. when Greg Palast attempted to get the NYT to run the felon purge story... when all the work was done... legal and otherwise and the story had even been run in the UK.. the NYT decided to ignore this.