Election results...

[Aki]

I find it interesting how 90% of all African Americans voted for Kerry.

[lindagarrette]

That may because Bush represents the "extreme white." He is a no-tolerance kinda' guy.

There's a news article going around from some libertarian who claims the election was decided by the Massachussetts Supreme court when it ruled same sex marriage was OK. To many people that, more than any other, even abortion, was the "family values" issue that clinched his victory, especially in the "battleground" states, like Florida and Ohio.

[Freethinker]

Black Box Voting is what got Bush Fla and Ohio.

Imagine a fund raising letter that states: "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.". Seems innocent enough. Until you discover who wrote it. This letter, which promises to deliver the Ohio vote to Bush on '04, came from a major Bush contributor... and PRESIDENT of Diebold, one of the companies that makes the new touch screen voting machings that have absolutely no tracking system. No paper trail. And has built into the software, programming that lets them predetermine voting results. It can actually change individual votes to achieve any predetermined percentage outcome. And with no paper trail to follow, there is no way to prove anything after the fact.

Other than analyzing trends.

Exit polls were highly accurate in Mich, Wis and every state around Ohio and Fla. Those that did not use these machines. Just as they were accurate in Ohio areas that did not have these machines. But surpise suprise, in what is considered Democratic strongholds in Ohio, that had strong Kerry exit poll numbers, reflected a completely different outcome from the machines.

These same machines had been pulled out of use in some states because they messed earlier elections up so much. In the 2000 election proof that the Diebold-made system in a Florida County was malfunctioning came early on election night, when the central ballot-counting computer showed a Socialist Party candidate receiving more than 9,000 votes and Vice President Al Gore getting minus 19,000.

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

http://home.earthlink.net/~acisney4/id14.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm

[Freethinker]

Now we hear the Republican spin. The "Mandate" Bush is claiming he will use to his extreme advantage.

Kerry received more votes than ANY candidate in US history, except for Bush.

Bush had worst re-election % since 1917!

The worst re-election % of a sitting War time pres EVER in the entire history of the US!

Mandate? My ass!

http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/11/3/18299/5488

[Tim_Lou]

well, at least bush won the election.....

in my school, kerry got around 1000 votes (from teachers, staffs, students...etc)
bush got only 500 or so. nadar, i forgot...

its probably because of the fact that the school is in NJ...hehe

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: Tim_Lou
well, at least bush won the election.....

He was DECLARED the election winner.

That is very diferent from actually WINNING the election.

[Freethinker]

Just a few of the Ohio voting issues:

Ohio Secretary of State (responsible for overseeing the Election) is Ken Blackwell, is also co-chair of the Bush campaign.

Some of the polls used (Fla nightmare) butterfly ballots. On which Kerry appeared on Line 3, but you had to punch out Line 4! Those that punched Line 3 (next to Kerry's name) were counted as Bush votes!

Inner City locations with higher voter numbers than the Burbs, had fewer voting machines. Causing up to 15 hour waits to vote. Discouraging voting in Democratic areas.

In Lake County, Ohio, some people received a memo on bogus Board of Elections letterhead informing voters who registered through Democratic and NACCP drives that they could not vote.

[Freethinker]

In other areas:

students at Florida State and Florida A&M universities had their party registration switched to Republican and their addresses changed. The latter would affect their ability to vote since they would not be registered at the proper site. The media traced the source to a group hired by the Florida Republican Party.

In Allegheny County, Pa., fliers on a bogus county letterhead were handed out and mailed, saying that “due to immense voter turnout expected on Tuesday,” the election had been extended. Republicans should vote Tuesday, while Democrats should vote on Wednesday – the wrong day.

In some Milwaukee black neighborhoods, a flier warned people that they could not vote in that election if they had already voted in another election that year. “If you violate any of these laws, you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you,” the flier said.

In Charleston County, S.C., a fake letter supposedly from the NAACP threatens voters who have outstanding parking tickets or have failed to pay child support with arrest. A similar flier was distributed in Baltimore in 2002.

In Nevada and Oregon a former employee of Voters Outreach of America has come forward to say that he saw the company, which was being paid by the Republican National Committee, destroy Democrats' registration forms, while it was handing in forms filled out by Republicans.

[Stargazer]

I'm disapointed with both the voter turnout as well as the result. Four years with Bush, and the support is still this strong? Where have people been the last four years? And then the turnout; 55%? I'm used to 85%, and even that is a bit too low. For one of the oldest democracies in the world, one could normally expect more than the youngest democracy, Afghanistan, which had a 69% voter turnout. One could also expect the elections to go smoothly, without selfappointed "challengers", or dishonest people spreading misinformation, or suspicious voting machines. For a country so eager to spread democracy around the world, it's remarkably uninterested in its own democracy. But yes I know that the voter turnout is not the single most important thing (as Switzerland has had lower numbers than that, for example, and in Soviet it could be very high), yet it might tell us something.

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: Stargazer
For a country so eager to spread democracy around the world, it's remarkably uninterested in its own democracy.

You assume that spreading Democracy was actually a goal. It might have provided an excuse, but I can assure you it was NOT high up on the list of ACTUAL reasons.

We now have an oil pipeline thru Afganastan, which we could not accomplish with the Taliban there. And we have 14 PERMENENT Military bases in Iraq where we had NONE before. Along with the largest Embasy we ahve anyplace in the world.

You talk about turnout for voting in Afganastan. What of the 14 of the 18 candidates that boycotted it because it was a sham?