Republicans Plot to Steal White House | Common Dreams
I really like the alternative coverage in Common Dreams, but they do pick up stuff from everywhere. This article is one of Paul McGeough’s from the SMH!
Republicans Plot to Steal White House | Common Dreams.
Some samples:
The reality of voter fraud in the US is that it is virtually non-existent. It has been known to happen, but studies reveal its probability is less than that of being struck by lightning – just 0.0009 per cent in Washington State and a very remote 0.00004 per cent in Ohio.
So welcome to the state of Florida, where the state emblem is the hanging chad. Remember, it was here that just 537 votes in the recount drama of 2000 threw the presidency to George W. Bush.
But wait!
It is not an issue of fraud. Voting figures for 2008 reveal the reason Republicans are so determined to shrink the period in which early voting is allowed for this year’s election – it seems to have given Obama a leg-up.
In North Carolina, where more early votes were lodged than were cast on polling day, Obama won the state by less than 15,000 votes. More than half of the black votes were cast early, compared with just 40 per cent of white votes – so there is a good chance a shrunken window for early voting could damage Obama.
In Florida, the Republicans’ critical point of attack on early voting was to ban pre-poll voting on the Sunday before election day. This is sickening and arguably racist, because it is a deliberate attack on the practice of African American churches bussing their congregations to vote after they attend services.
In an editorial, The New York Times rails against the assault on early voting – ”it is the latest element of a well co-ordinated effort by Republican state legislatures across the country to disenfranchise voters who tend to support Democrats, particularly minorities and young people.”
The legendry African American congressman John Lewis was equally blunt – ”There is a deliberate, systematic attempt to win or steal the election before it takes place … it’s a sin; it’s obscene.”
Perhaps I should be more sympathetic towards our own electoral system, Julia and Tony notwithstanding.
