By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features
Let’s be clear: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes (the largest number for anyone who didn’t actually win the presidency) and pretty much by the margin that was forecast. She wasn’t a “bad” candidate. It wasn’t that she didn’t talk enough about an economic policy that would lift up everyone, or that she didn’t have enough policies. It wasn’t that she didn’t offer the so-called white working class a vision of a better future. The election was stolen.
But more significantly, it is mind-boggling to realize that fewer than 100,000 votes spread across three states -- Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania -- separate Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and are what handed the Electoral College to Trump, negating the more than 2 million popular vote margin that Clinton has over Trump. That because of these few votes – and the voter suppression tactics behind them - the course of US and world history will be forever changed. That the lives of millions of Americans will be derailed from a future based on progress. That’s not hyperbole; one only needs to imagine history if the Scalia Supreme Court had not handed the Oval Office over to George W. Bush.
Does anyone doubt that if the situation reversed, Trump would have fought the result up to the Supreme Court (a la Bush v Gore), and his minions would have taken to the streets with guns?
But in a brilliant manipulation, Trump railed about how the election would be stolen, forcing the Hillary Clinton campaign, Obama, and Democrats generally to assert their confidence in the integrity of American election and to affirm the bedrock principle of an orderly transition of government, in order to prevent any contest. They were played.
Trump also spoke about the “hidden,” “invisible” Trump supporters who did not reveal themselves to pollsters, so that people should not question the difference between exit polls and the voting results.
It is apparent that the shortfall in Electoral Votes was the result of Voter Suppression, with states unleashed by the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, and voter repression tactics. But there is evidence also that in some key districts, the electronic voting machines may have been hacked in order to give the win to Trump, which demands that Democratic state committees sue for proper audit and recount.
Democracy For America’s Jim Dean is calling for an audit and two leading elections experts, Ron Rivest and Phillip Stark, made an urgent call to audit the vote in the USA Today late last week, after doing a forensic review of vote counts.
Add to this the reports that Russia hacked some state elections rolls, that they interfered with the election by hacking into Democratic National Committee and by paying trolls to disseminate false news.
Hillary Clinton is now leading Donald Trump in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes. Unfortunately, the popular vote is meaningless in our Electoral College system. Trump is winning the Electoral College vote thanks to very narrow leads in key swing states such as Wisconsin (27,000 votes) and Pennsylvania (68,000 votes). And two weeks after the election, Michigan is still too close to call.
“Voters in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan cast paper ballots that are counted by electronic machines. Fortunately, these machines can be audited to ensure that the results are reported correctly,” Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America, wrote in an email to DFA supporters.
Given the high stakes of this election -- and how incredibly close the vote is in crucial states -- it's essential that the American people have confidence the election was fairly won. That's why Democracy for America is joining the call for key swing states to audit the vote.
“An audit would not be a full recount, but a statistically valid sample that will prove whether the actual votes match the reported totals. If there's something wrong, we'll have evidence to take action -- before the Electoral College meets in December.
“I've heard from many DFA members in the last week who shared their concerns with me about the reliability of the election results. It's clear that voters are worried -- and we have a responsibility to address their concerns.
“With that concern in mind, two leading elections experts, Ron Rivest and Phillip Stark, made an urgent call to audit the vote in the USA Today late last week: It does not take much technology to conduct these audits: dice (to select random ballots), a pencil and paper, and access to the paper ballots. The calculations are simple addition and subtraction. They could be done by a fifth-grader. No programming would be required.
“This is an assurance of democracy our nation can afford and should perform routinely. Electronic-only voting systems should be replaced with systems that generate a paper trail, and election results should be audited against the paper trail to ensure that election outcomes are correct.
“There is still time to audit this election -- barely. States only have until December 13 to give their final results to the Electoral College.
“Americans should demand this simple step to ensure that the machinery of democracy worked.
DFA members have spent years working to ensure our elections are fair, accessible, and verifiable. That's why we're calling on swing states to audit their vote.”
Time is running out: Sign the "Audit the Vote" petition to demand swing states audit the presidential election before the results are certified and the Electoral College meets on December 19.
Green Party Candidate Jill Stein went through the motions of mounting a legal challenge to re-examine the vote totals in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - states that performed wildly different than polling suggested they would on Election Day. (www.nbcnews.com/...)
The Department of Justice, which would be the federal agency to address voting irregularities, was mum over whether or how many complaints have been filed, or how many voters found they were purged from the rolls, forced to vote by provisional ballot, only to wonder whether they were counted at all.
“The Justice Department does not tally the number of callers to determine whether federal action is warranted. Investigatory decisions are based solely on the facts and evidence as they relate to the federal statutes the department enforces,” a spokesman for the Justice Department said in response to an emailed query.
The DoJ states that it encourages individuals with specific complaints of voter fraud, discrimination or other violations of federal voting rights laws to report them to the department.
Prior to the election, the Justice Department provided information about its efforts, through the Civil Rights Division and Criminal Division, to ensure that all qualified voters have the opportunity to cast their ballots and have their votes counted free of discrimination, intimidation or fraud in the election process, which also provides information on how to file complaints:
Civil Rights Division:
The Civil Rights Division is responsible for ensuring compliance with the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote and the criminal provisions of federal statutes that prohibit discriminatory interference with that right.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of a wide range of federal statutes that protect the right to vote including: the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Acts. Among other things, collectively, these laws:
- prohibit election practices that have either a discriminatory purpose, based on race or membership in a minority language group, or a discriminatory result, with members of racial or language minority groups having less opportunity than other citizens to participate in the political process;
- prohibit voter intimidation;
- provide that individuals who need assistance in voting because of disability or illiteracy can obtain assistance from a person of their choice;
- provide for accessible election machines for voters with disabilities;
- require provisional ballots for voters who assert they are eligible but whose names do not appear on poll books;
- provide for absentee ballots for service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living abroad;
- require states to ensure that citizens can register through drivers’ license offices, public assistance and disability services offices, other state agencies and through the mail; and
- include requirements regarding maintaining voter registration lists.
The Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section enforces federal criminal statutes that prohibit voter intimidation and voter suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion.
On Election Day, Nov. 8, 2016, the Civil Rights Division will implement a comprehensive program to help protect the right to vote, including:
- The Civil Rights Division will conduct monitoring in the field at polling places around the country (locations for monitoring will be announced closer to Election Day).
- Civil Rights Division attorneys in both the Voting and Criminal Sections in Washington, D.C., will be ready to receive election-related complaints of potential violations relating to any of the statutes the Civil Rights Division enforces. Attorneys in the division will take appropriate action and will consult and coordinate with local U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and with other entities within the Justice Department concerning these complaints before, during and after Election Day.
- Civil Rights Division staff will be available by phone to receive complaints related to voting rights (1-800-253-3931 toll free or 202-307-2767) or by TTY (202-305-0082). In addition, individuals may also report complaints, problems or concerns related to voting by fax 202-307-3961, by mail to voting.section, and by complaint forms that may be submitted through a link on the department’s website: www.justice.gov/....
- Complaints related to violence, threats of violence or intimidation at a polling place should always be reported immediately to local authorities by calling 911. They should also be reported to the department after local authorities are contacted.
Criminal Division and the Department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices:
The Department’s Criminal Division oversees the enforcement of federal laws that criminalize certain forms of election fraud and vindicate the integrity of the federal election process.
The Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and the department’s 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices are responsible for enforcing the federal criminal laws that prohibit various forms of election fraud, such as vote buying, multiple voting, submission of fraudulent ballots or registrations, alteration of votes and malfeasance by election officials. The Criminal Division is also responsible for enforcing federal criminal law prohibiting voter intimidation for reasons other than race, color, national origin or religion (as noted above, voter intimidation that has a basis in race, color, national origin or religion is addressed by the Civil Rights Division).
The U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country designate Assistant U.S. Attorneys who serve as district election officers (DEOs) in the respective districts. DEOs are responsible for overseeing potential election-crime matters in their districts and coordinating with the department’s election-crime experts in Washington, D.C.
On Nov. 8, 2016, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will work with specially trained FBI personnel in each district to ensure that complaints from the public involving possible voter fraud are handled appropriately. Specifically:
- In consultation with federal prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., the DEOs in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI officials at Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and FBI special agents serving as Election Crime Coordinators in the FBI’s 56 field offices will be on duty while polls are open to receive complaints from the public.
- Election-crime complaints should be directed to the local U.S. Attorney’s Offices or the local FBI office. A list of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and their telephone numbers can be found at www.justice.gov/.... A list of FBI offices and accompanying telephone numbers can be found at www.fbi.gov/....
- Public Integrity Section prosecutors are available to consult and coordinate with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the FBI regarding the handling of election-crime allegations.
- Again, complaints related to violence, threats of violence or intimidation at a polling place should be reported first to local police authorities by calling 911.
“Both protecting the right to vote and combating election fraud are essential to maintaining the confidence of all Americans in our democratic system of government. The department encourages anyone who has information suggesting voting discrimination or ballot fraud to contact the appropriate authorities,” the DoJ stated.
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