A patient walks into his doctor's office.
"Doc, I'm really sick. I have a tumor the size of an orange growing here, I'm constantly nauseated, tired, throwing up all the time, unexplained weight loss...My dad died of cancer...and I think I might have it too."
"How do you know you have cancer?"
"Well, I have all the symptoms...Something is seriously wrong with me, Doc. Can you run a test or something?"
"Look, I'm not going to investigate your illness unless you prove to me you have cancer."
"But...that's what the test is for..."
"Do you think you have cancer?"
"Maybe. Yeah."
"Can you prove it to me?"
"Well, no...but...that's why I came here, so you can test me..."
"Then you're out of luck. Come back to me when you can prove to me you're dying."
Two months after the Presidential election, there has yet to be a smoking gun that Bush was not the legitimate winner. No "clear and convincing evidence" has been made public, no whistleblower has emerged to attest to some vast right-wing conspiracy to steal the election.
Yet November 2 left many plagued by a sense that something went terribly wrong on Election Day. After two months' worth of anecdotes, affidavits, hearings, and number-crunching, the word "fraud" has begun to escape from the lips of many concerned citizens.
At this point, the only people investigating the disturbing events that transpired in Ohio are the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, along with various activists and concerned citizens.
In a few days, Congress will likely approve the slate of Electors from Ohio. For those of us who have been investigating the election in Ohio, that day will be a sad and tragic day for America.
For in approving those Electors without due consideration of all the "statistical oddities", coordinated voter suppression, abuse of power, and fraudulent activity, is to essentially proclaim "We, as Americans, are comfortable with a diseased democracy."
Armando's Challenge, linked below, is an attempt not to prove fraud, but to lay out the symptoms, the many circumstances which suggest that Ohio's election was not fair, and possibly not legitimate.
It is a bit lengthy, but a fast read because of the graphics and bullet points. If you don't want to read everything, just scroll to the last five pages or so :)
I've posted it as a Word document and not a .pdf so you can copy and paste whatever sections you'd like to discuss/rebut/correct.
My hope is that, after reading it, you will acknowledge the injustices that occurred, and you will act to remedy and prevent them in the future.
Let's hear what you think.
Armando's Challenge 2.1 MB .doc (sorry to dial-up users!)
Mirrors:
here, courtesy of Pachacutec
here, courtesy of by foot
Update [2005-1-3 7:57:0 by georgia10]:: Until I upload a corrected version, may we can hold off on emailing it around? I should have a corrected version up later today.