...According to Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman via Bradblog
...With the news of Chris Dodd's huge jump here in the dKos community...
2007 2006
Oct Sept Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan Dec Jul
Edwards 31 39 34 36 40 39 42 38 26 35 28 15
Dodd 21 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Obama 16 21 29 27 22 24 25 26 25 28 28
H. Clinton 9 11 8 9 6 6 3 3 4 4 5 2
...I will tell you now that we just don't seem to learn.
...Chris Dodd Co-Authored the Help Hack America's Vote Act.
from August 2006:
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) today hailed Connecticut’s choice of voting machines which are in accordance with the Federal requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which became law in 2002
...so what about the 2006 elections you might ask?
...We Dems won HUGE Right?
...Dems now have razor thin majorities in both the People's Houses and they just can't seem to get anything that was promised (and they were elected to office to do) because the mean old Republicans just won't help us change everything (amazing how effective a minority party the Republicans have become in ten months compared to six years in the wilderness by Dems...Huh?)
...No theft there in 2006 RIGHT?...Well...not so fast:
...I direct the reader to an important differing viewpoint here
for just what may have occurred in 2006.
Implications
The 2006 Election gave the Democrats control of both houses of Congress, by margins of 31 seats (233 – 202) in the House and two seats (51 – 49) in the Senate. The Democrats won 20 House races and four Senate races by margins of 6% of the vote or less.23 The odds are very good that the outcomes of most if not all of these races would have been reversed a month earlier, post-deployment of vote shifting mechanisms but pre-October surprises, before the resulting dramatic movement to the Democrats as reflected in the 17% Generic Ballot jump. The ballpark sans-October Surprise numbers: 222R – 213D in the House and 53R – 47D in the Senate.
Absent a very Blue October, which came too late to be countered by deployment of additional vote-shifting mechanisms, we can conclude that, with the assistance of the vote-shifting mechanisms already deployed, the Republicans would almost certainly have maintained control of both houses of Congress.
This should be a rather sobering observation for Democrats looking ahead to their electoral future and assessing to what extent the system is broken as they contemplate the various legislative proposals for reform.24
Conclusion
There is a remarkable degree of consensus among computer scientists,25 security professionals,26 government agencies,27 and independent analysts28 that U.S. electronic vote tallying technology is vulnerable both to unintentional programming errors29 and to deliberate manipulation—certainly by foul-play-minded insiders at voting equipment vendors, but also by other individuals with access to voting equipment hardware or software.30
...the consensus among us Stolen Election lunatic types is that the Republicans just failed to steal enough votes to carry 2006.
...Remember Karl Rove had the "Inside (real) Numbers" and was sure they would retain both houses.
...he miscalculated just how repellent the country finds these clowns and the stunningly bad news for Republicans in October (remember Foley?)...and consequently it would seem that the pre-loaded fix just wasn't quite substantial enough.
...Had we won all the votes this well-researched article shows, we would have much more power to do at least something in Washington other than to cave to THE . WORST . PRESIDENT . EVER at every opportunity.
...Now I have to ask... Just how is that razor thin Dem Majority in the House and Senate working out for You?
...No so hot it would seem ...read any diary here at dKos.
Then there is the DNC. Surely they are on it Right?
...An exhaustive five-month investigation by the VRI's research and investigative team identified grave problems in the administration of Ohio's voting system. More than 1 in 4 voters in Ohio faced problems at the polls, including illegal requests for identification, long lines, poorly trained election officials, and more. There were also dramatic disparities in voting conditions among different races; African Americans waited nearly three times as long on average as whites to vote.
Most important, the VRI's comprehensive investigation resulted in concrete recommendations that will help protect every American's right to vote and to have that vote counted. These recommendations cover voting equipment, training for poll workers, uniform standards, and much more.
...you can read the whole DNC report here
What have they done about it?
What have they done about Harriet Meirs?
What have they done about Alberto Gonzales?
What have they done about Iraq?
What have they done about Telecom Amnesty?
Unfortunately...The list goes on ad nauseum
...Why does anybody think that the 2008 election is gonna magically turn out differently than 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006?
...Not only that, but what if Chenney/Bush launch their Iran war just weeks/days before the 2008 (s)Election? Who but those of us who doubt will even be paying attention any attention?...The Corporate Media?...Pahleeeese!
...We "Fraudsters" (trademark by Markos himself) have been a vocal but persistent minority here for one reason: Perhaps we are all familiar with this quote:
"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin
...We have seen how this is true. Are we to see it yet again?
I will leave you with just a couple sentient snippets of the Fitrakis/Wasserman article:
It may just be the most important article you will read this year. It is not like we have not seen this before.
With record low approval ratings for the Bush/Cheney regime and the albatross of an unpopular war hanging from the GOP's neck, do you think that a Democratic presidential candidate will win the White House, get us out of Iraq, and end our long national nightmare?
Think again – the mighty election theft machine Karl Rove used to steal the US presidency in 2000 and 2004 may be under attack, but it is still in place for the upcoming 2008 election.
Evidence continues to surface from throughout the United States about this blatant Bush abuse of executive power. But we have traced the roots of the firings to an obscure Congressional hearing held at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on March 21, 2005, and to a shadowy GOP operative named Mark F. "Thor" Hearne.
The hearing was conducted by none other than former US Rep. Bob Ney(R-18th OH). The once-powerful Ohio Congressman (who is now behind bars) was the godfather of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA),
Along with Chris Dodd see above
the national boondoggle that mandated electronic voting machines for the American electoral process.
That the machines would cost taxpayers billions was a big plus for Ney. They would come from Diebold and other companies that poured money into Republican coffers. Thanks largely to the manipulations of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, these e-voting machine companies would help guarantee the GOP’s ability to steal elections.
The US Attorney Firings:
Thus it should come as no surprise that our exclusive investigations into the firings of eight federal prosecutors who refused to execute Rove’s plans for massive disenfranchisement of Democratic voters reveal a pattern of illegalities and fraud aimed at reducing the number of minority, poor and young voters at the core of Democratic support. In the wake of major news breaks, two felony convictions have come from the rigging of the illegal Ohio 2004 vote count and recount that gave George W. Bush a second illegitimate term. Stunning new admissions from county election boards that illegally destroyed voter records will almost certainly lead to new convictions. And the multi-million-dollar electronic voting machine scam that made possible the biggest electoral frauds in US history is under massive new attack, with key states moving to scrap the machines altogether in a desperate attempt to restore American democracy – but with the job far from done.
And lastly...The "Machine" is still in place:
Though Democrats carried Ohio in the off-year elections of 2006, our research indicates that the GOP still stole as much as 12% of the vote, and is still intent on disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of minority, poor and young voters. In a single election in Franklin County in 2006, a magistrate found that more than 83% of all the precincts were miscounted on the DRE machines.
And though DRE machines are under intense attack, their presence in 2008 will still be substantial, and will still subject the election to GOP theft.
The lessons of 2000 and 2004 are in the terror imposed on the registration process and the error perpetrated in the vote count. Only by saying "never again" can Americans hope to see a return to actual democracy.