Election '06: Great Outcome, Flawed Votes

[struggle4progress]

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted November 10, 2006.

Don't confuse a good political outcome with a bad electoral process.

Election integrity activists face a quandary this week. After an Election Day where new voting machines failed from coast to coast, and GOP-favoring voter suppression tactics unfolded in state after state, this largely liberal-leaning community knows all too well that the machinery used to slam the breaks on the dreadful Bush administration is deeply flawed, that Tuesday night's vote counts shouldn't fully be trusted.

But will they say so? Will they stand with, gag, the apparently dethroned Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and demand the electronic machines in 27 counties be impounded and examined for vote-count problems? That could reveal, once and for all, why new electronic machines need to be junked. Or will political victory throw a wet blanket on a fired-up election integrity movement? ...

This is not to say that Democrats didn't turn out in droves, didn't tell exit pollsters that a majority of Americans wanted Republicans removed from power, and didn't win big. But do we really know how votes were and weren't counted on Tuesday night? No. Can we say the systems that failed so miserably in the day performed flawlessly on Tuesday night? No. Is this a difficult question to ask because most election protection activists are liberals -- and have been waiting for six years for the Bush administration to be stopped? Yes ...

http://www.alternet.org/story/44122/

[texpatriot2004]

1. Election Fraud is not a partisan issue nm

[eridani]

2. Wet blanket? No way!

Just walking away comparatively unscathed from a trainwreck does not absolve you of the need to have the safety investigation.

[In Truth We Trust]

3. K&R Hand Counted Paper Ballots NOW!

[OnionPatch]

4. We had enough votes this time

to override the fraud.......Will we have enough next time?

This problem must be fixed before the next election.

[BeFree]

5. Well, if DU is an indicator

of the mindset, then we've not missed a step. We've actually moved forward a great deal. But for now some of us are savoring a sweet victory in the long term battle to regain our democratic voting process.

And, afterall, Santorum has now joined us in our long term call for the machines to be impounded and examined. That is a leap forward in my book. Of course, Santorum will backtrack, but we never will.