The Election Will Be Stolen

I've voted via absentee ballot since 2000. I've wanted to make sure, in the event of a recount, that there was a record.

This year I've voted via absentee ballot again, this time, to make sure that some voting machine doesn't switch my vote, as I stand there watching with my mouth hanging open.

That's what happened to a lot of voters during the 2004 election. According to a Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., they saw their votes for Kerry turn into votes for Bush. These changes were then reflected in the discrepancies between exit polls and the official counts.

Sadly, the networks retracted their initial statements questioning how the official results could differ so much from the exit polls (used by the U.S. to determine if elections in other nations are fair) and announced that the exit polls had to be wrong.

So what do you think the chances are that we are going to see a repeat of that whole debacle next week?

Consider the predictions by Bush, Cheney and other G.O.P. talking heads who are predicting that it's going to be "a good day for Republicans" - despite all the polls projecting otherwise - and that they are going to hang onto Congress.

Another clue: Bush has barely campaigned on behalf of his fellow Republicans.

You may think that's because he's been recognized as an albatross around their necks and they've shunned him.

I don't think that's it. I think he knows he needn't bother to do more than make a cursory show of it.

Otherwise how can he be so confident that Republicans are going to maintain control of the House and Senate, despite all the polls that show they will, at the very least, lose control of the House?

Is it braggadocio?

Is it an effort to convince the public they are unbeatable so people get depressed, stay home and don't vote?

Is it more of BushCo's inability to see reality?

Or do they have the election fixed?

I think the answer is "E" - All of the above.

It's documented that there was a vulnerability in the Diebold machines that could have allowed votes to be tampered with.

If you read the article by Kennedy it becomes shockingly clear that those in power fixed the 2004 election. So why on earth wouldn't they fix this one, given how crucial it is to their maintaining power?

Also, it should be easy. The same voting machine corporations are in charge of the election - which was, basically, privatized in 2004.

Also, given that if this cadre loses control of the government now it may never get it back again, do you think they'll stop at anything to maintain it?

I don't.

Look for exit polls to show Democratic victories while the "official counts" show a razor thin victory by Republicans. They'll have to make it close, if they hope to fool the nation once again into thinking the vote was legitimate.

If the Administration was willing to take us into a war on lies and if - as the evidence overwhelmingly suggests - 9/11 was an inside job, then why on earth would they stop now?

Our only hope is that the technicians in charge of the voting machines will figure out what those chip changes mean and won't go along with them.

But, if the machines are tampered with, then Americans may awaken on November 8th to the realization that our nation bears no resemblance to the America we were all taught to believe in.