After the November 2nd elections, a lot of our community ignored the cries of voter fraud and disenfranchizement. Most of these people called themselves "Reality-based" and stated that we needed to move on and accept the fact that we lost. Voter fraud was "a thing of the past" and even if it does happen, it happens on so small a scale that it could never actually effect the outcome of a presidential election.
Guys, I think we are in a pre November 2000 mindset.
More beyond the fold.
(source =
http://www.beyondintractability.org/...)
Election fraud couldnt happen en masse. Not in a small town where everyone knows each other. It certainly wouldnt hapen in small towns wehre the "votes dont matter" anyway. Well, let me tell you a story that has gotten almost ZERO press coverage despite its grave implications for the current state of the country. I will introduce you to a small town called Appalachia in Virginia. It is like most other backwoods towns, with a total population of only around 1300. The US Census Beauro reveals saddening facts about its population... 41% of children there live in poverty. Such places exist throughout the entire country.
In Appalachia in 2004, Mayor Ben Cooper was getting ready for his own election. The nights before, several people noticed that their absentee ballots had never gotten to them. Most people just assumed that they would get them later, and several people simply wrote it off. Little did they know that their small, "insignificant" town was part of a massive voter fraud where over 1000 charges would be cast.
The next day, several people noticed suspicious events going on throughout the town. Voters were "escorted" into the voting booths and had votes cast for them. The city council and mayor were at the booths, offering pork rhinds, alcohol, and other favors for votes. All of this was absurdly illegal... but it went unreported for over 2 years.
"so what," you say. Voter fraud cannot happen on as massive a scale to change the outcome of a presidential election. I say you are wrong. Small towns like this dot the country and account for a large chunk of the votes that any presidential candidate recieves. Here's a little dose of reality for all of you so called "reality-based" democrats:
From the roanoke times, cited at the bottom of the page:
Sabato, who has written books about dirty elections, said he wasn't surprised by the Appalachia scandal. "I don't think it's restricted to the odd, occasional, off-year location election. This is a way of life in some of those communities."
Thats right. People believe that this is a way of life for many communities. Dont expect voter fraud to take place in some massive, urbanite area. It is harder to disenfranchise thousands of voters at once than it is to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands broken up into tiny pieces. I wonder what this county did for the November 2004 elections.
So I demand this story to get more coverage. It puts the VERY real issue of voter fraud on the radar, and I think bloggers need to do more investigation into this mayor. It is sickening to think that this could be hapening in many such small towns in our country.
Here is the article this was inspired by, and it is a good read:
http://www.roanoke.com/...