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  •  What, exactly... (none / 0)

    ...can we do to help out?

    Yes, in fact, I do drive a Volvo.

    by KTinOhio on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 11:39:32 AM PDT

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    •  How we can help (4.00 / 7)

      (1) Volunteer to help in the recount as an observer, county coordinator, etc. They urgently need volunteers who can donate their time, particularly people with legal training or experience as election officials.

      (2) Donate toward the costs of food and shelter for volunteers and other mobilization expenses.

      (3) If you live in Ohio, Volunteer to offer food and shelter to the Ohio Recount volunteers.  That helps stretch out the money.

      More information about how the recount is going is on the home page of the Green candidate, David Cobb.  You may also be able to find info on the website of the Libertarian candidate, Michael Badnarik.



      Thanks to the thousands of people who have already donated toward the initial filing fees and expenses, they have already met that goal and can now move forward with the actual mobilization:

      •  Yay! (none / 0)

        Thanks for posting this list.  I just went and signed up.  Hopefully, they can find a place for me to observe the recount (since I offer no other skills, unfortunately) right here in town, since I live in the county seat.

        I've felt completely useless and angry ever since 11-3.  I live in Knox County, OH, where all the Kenyon students got screwed and were forced to stand in line til 4:00 am to vote.  Somehow, I feel like if I'm able to participate in the recount, that will be my own little bit of revenge.  :)

        Bush/Cheney - in your guts, you know they're nuts.

        by Lufah on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 01:38:34 PM PDT

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        •  I'd like to hear more about this. (none / 0)

          I don't see how this is possible given the size of Kenyon College.  Damn, what did they make you do, copy out the ballot by hand?

          I hated Bush before it was cool.

          by daveriegel on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 02:17:16 PM PDT

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          •  I'm not a student (4.00 / 3)

            And I didn't even realize what was going on until MSNBC mentioned that people were still voting in Franklin and Knox counties in Ohio after midnight.  I think CNN and NPR reported on it as well.  I was confused - I had voted by absentee ballot, but everyone I talked to reported about 45 minutes-1 hour standing in line for voting.  I had no idea where in Knox County (which only has a population of about 50,000) this could be going on.

            I found out about it the next day.  Students waited in line until 4:00 am to vote.  There was a crappy article in the local newspaper about how it was all just an unlucky confluence of events, blah blah blah - they said they had 2 polling stations open, but one worked very slow for about 3 hours until it was fixed.  It was a whole bunch of "Not our fault!!  This happens!"

            Except Gambier (where Kenyon is located) is pretty much the only reliably liberal area in this county, and they were the ones to have this problem?  Also, in the months preceding, there was a scare campaign directed at the students to try and stop them from registering to vote in Ohio - telling them they could be committing a felony, etc.  The local Dems did their best to correct this disinformation, but enough crap has happened directed at Kenyon that the whole thing feels wrong to me.  Just like this whole election feels wrong to me.  :)

            Bush/Cheney - in your guts, you know they're nuts.

            by Lufah on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 02:26:11 PM PDT

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            •  You ought to report that here ... (4.00 / 3)

              http://www.votersunite.org/

              If it isnt already. Lots of complaints logged by states on the site.

              And that goes for anyone else who knows of irregularites, fishy occurrences.

              Might be worth checking it out.

              Should a "progressive" Dem blog dwell in the safe zones of a tame party, or should it drive a tame party to break out?

              by NYCee on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 04:44:53 PM PDT

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            •  Difference between (none / 0)

              fraud and gaming of the elections.

              I've no doubt these stories are true (or that they effect impact of election), but this kind of thing, deplorable though it is does not constitute fraud.  Its the way the party in power GAMES elections which should indicate to people that elections aren't a clear, direct reflection of the electorate's will.  Like any information collection system (what else is an election?) it can be skewed, and often is.

              The problem fraud folks have is that this kind of gaming isn't illegal.

              Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. --Elie Wiesel

              by a gilas girl on Tue Nov 16, 2004 at 05:31:19 AM PDT

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              •  Gaming is illegal if (none / 0)

                it has racially disparate effects.
              •  It damn well ought to be (none / 0)

                There's a Constitutional amendment I could get behind!

                Oyez, oyez!

                Any efforts made to coerce, intimidate, discourage, or disenfrachise voters or otherwise interfere with the casting, counting or handling of ballots shall henceforth be considered a capital crime under federal law and those convicted shall be hanged by the neck until dead.

                So say all of we!

                •  While I agree it ought to be (none / 0)

                  it isn't.  And pointing to these examples are as instances of fraud, even though they are easily fraudlent in a moral sense, doesn't consistitute proof of any legal definition of fraud.  I think that's what's hard for people to come to grips with: there's a great deal of the following kind of thinking, since we know that the Repubs game the system that's enough for me that they also commit fraud. While its not hard to believe they might (or even likely do), its not enough to demonstrate that they have committed fraud, simply because we know they have turned gaming elections into a science.

                  Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. --Elie Wiesel

                  by a gilas girl on Tue Nov 16, 2004 at 06:22:59 PM PDT

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        •  Same thing happened at Univ. of Miami in Florida (4.00 / 3)

          My wife and I were Kerry volunteers in Miami-Dade County, Florida.  Exactly the same thing happened at the University of Miami as happened at Kenyon College, except that it for some reason only seemed to make the local news.  They provided a total of either 2 or 3 voting machines for the precinct which covered the University, supposedly on the basis of poor turnout in the primary (which was held after the Presidential nomination was decided).  Students were still standing in line long after midnight, and long after the state had been called for Bush.

          Much the same thing happened in Little Haiti during the early voting, when the polling place there had less machines than those in some other neighborhoods, despite lines that were at times longer than 4 hours (as compared with much shorter lines at polling places with more machines that just happened to be in heavily Republican areas).

          "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security." -Ben Franklin

          by leevank on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 04:05:35 PM PDT

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          •  I suggest the same to you as above. (none / 0)

            http://www.votersunite.org/

            This is a good site that has tons of complaints (irregularities, appearances of malfeasance, suppression) logged next to states.

            Maybe yours has not been logged.

            Should a "progressive" Dem blog dwell in the safe zones of a tame party, or should it drive a tame party to break out?

            by NYCee on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 04:48:33 PM PDT

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          •  The same sort of thing... (none / 0)

            Happened in Franklin County, OH. I was volunteering with Just Democracy at the OSU student union polling place, which covered the entire university (50k people, unsure how many registered voters), and I believe a few other precincts. Either two or three machines were provided. Early in the day, the line was somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours. Around 6 or 7, the line appeared to have doubled. I have no idea how long the people at the end of that line ended up having to wait, but I did see a number of people leaving because they didn't have the time or patience to wait. On the other hand, however, it was very encouraging to see so many of my fellow students giving a crap enough to wait so long in line to vote. I talked to one girl who had been given the run-around and sent to 4 different polling places (each polling place would tell her no, she was in the wrong place, go vote here), and was still trying, and a few people who waited in line for an hour and a half only to be told they were at the wrong place and they'd need to go wait another hour and a half to vote somewhere else.
            I was surprised, though, that the county didn't send over some more machines or something. It seems like someone made the reasonable assumption that a lot of students, of all people, would not be willing to wait very long, and since they go overwhelmingly Democratic, this might be strategic. I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, and I understand turnout has been incredibly low at the student union in the past, but it seems like the county should've been more prepared to alleviate long lines. This could be a bureaucratic oversight, or it could be that someone is in someone else's pocket.
            That said, Just Democracy is nonpartisan, and man, was it hard to be nonpartisan for 3 hours.

            Mamas and grandmamas love you, 'cause that's all they know how to do. But you never planned on the bombs in the sand, or sleepin' in your dress blues.

            by Jello2028 on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 07:20:32 PM PDT

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          •  Same Thing at University of South Florida (none / 0)

            Precinct 353 at the University of South Florida had the same exact thing happen.  I can't find the link to the article anymore and tbo.com took it down. But basically, the lines were so long with only 3 voting machines that they brought in a 4th at 3:30 pm. They also moved another of the campus precincts to a mobile home off to Skipper road and it was locked behind a chain link fence, alot of students had no way to get over there and if they were able to, met the locked fence. They also stated they weren't informed of the precinct change..of course, our Republican SOE said of course they were, the same guy who left a Democrat County Commission Candidate off a precinct's ballot. I wish I could find that link.

            "Doing My Best to Piss off the Conservative Right..."

            by MelvinFrohike on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 11:16:58 PM PDT

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        •  They are having hearings, (none / 0)

          I think they started today. Be sure to go an testify - what they did was illegal and should result in criminal prosecution.

          Victim of the *other* war America is waging.

          by nephalim on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 07:33:41 PM PDT

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      •  I think the excess above the $110,000 (4.00 / 2)

        does go to expenses for volunteers.

        Havent we ponied up enough for the time being?

        We paid for the total asked for. Let's not be excessive, ie, openended 24/7 ATMs.

        We did our job moneywise. Now let's see some action.

        (Skinflint student dying to see PERFORMANCE, not requests for more dough.;-)

        Should a "progressive" Dem blog dwell in the safe zones of a tame party, or should it drive a tame party to break out?

        by NYCee on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 04:55:29 PM PDT

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    •  Here are some places to go/Things to see: (none / 0)

      To record any suspect, suppressive, irregular occurrences you know of. There are a multitude listed next to the states where they occurred. All sorts from large to small.

      http://www.votersunite.org/

      Here is an action center with alerts, contacts (relevant Congressional members, Jimmy Carter, media, etc) and info from Jonathan Simon of Verified Voting. In it he rebuts an argument made against the NC anomalies diaried yesterday.

      http://www.donotconcede.com/

      He is here, too, on Scoop.

      http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/29/4c/200411111345.8ffc617c.html

      Chart of Florida touch screen v scanner discrepancies by counties.

      http://www.ecotalk.org/Florida2004.htm

      Should a "progressive" Dem blog dwell in the safe zones of a tame party, or should it drive a tame party to break out?

      by NYCee on Mon Nov 15, 2004 at 07:57:20 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

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