At the Common Dreams News Center, Thom Hartmann writes:
The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the “erroneous” exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren’t erroneous at all – it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it’s critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?
Maybe Florida went for Kerry, maybe for Bush. Over time – and through the efforts of some very motivated investigative reporters – we may well find out (Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org just filed what may be the largest Freedom of Information Act [FOIA} filing in history), and bloggers and investigative reporters are discovering an odd discrepancy in exit polls being largely accurate in paper-ballot states and oddly inaccurate in touch-screen electronic voting states Even raw voter analyses are showing extreme oddities in touch-screen-run Florida, and eagle-eyed bloggers are finding that news organizations are retroactively altering their exit polls to coincide with what the machines ultimately said. [Continued...]
You can call it conspiracy theory whackjobbing all you want, but the simple truth of the matter is – and has been for long before we even knew who would be running against the incumbent president – the American people have allowed a very flawed system (paperless electronic voting machines) to be installed at many polling places around the country. If there happened to be a need for a recount (for the sake of any party), it would be pretty much impossible to verify a solid number because of this system. It should be our top priority to ensure that, by the time the midterm elections roll around in two years, all electronic voting machines leave a paper trail that can be double-checked for accuracy if the need should arise. If we don’t, then we’re suckers and our complete election system is susceptible to fraud – or, at the very least, the suspicion of fraud. Under such a scenario, no one wins.
