ELECTION FRAUD, BLOWBACK AND HOW TO SUPPORT DEMOCRATS

[Bill Bored]

Let's look at the big picture:

Suppose you were Rove and you wanted to undermine support for the DNC and the Dem Party as a whole. You introduce enough doubt into the election system, exit polls, etc. to make everyone, esp. the Dems, think twice about placing their bets (contributions and time) on what is ultimately a rigged game. You make sure everyone knows that if the system is rigged, it's rigged to favor Republicans. You get Walden O'Dell to do that by saying he's going to do whatever it takes for Bush to win Ohio. You make sure there's lots of paperless e-votin' machines throughout the country, esp. in swing states, and you let the Democrats, or some elements of the party such as us, disseminate this information so you appear to have nothing to do with it (the information that is) -- just like the Rather memo.

Support for the party erodes because the Dems are powerless to prove the actual fraud and also powerless to stop it, except in some isolated cases or in the event of a landslide here and there. Some of the Dems may have even been complicit in the fraud unwittingly or otherwise, but that's another issue.

Now, without even actually stealing the election, you have impaired the Dems' ability to raise funds and you are free to bury them with disinformation, attack ads, etc. funded by your own loyal Republican contributors who either didn't get the memo that the process may be rigged, or who know, thanks in part to our efforts, that if it is rigged, it favors Republicans anyway. So the RNC can still rake in the bucks!

Brilliant ain't it?

If, as most of us believe, the election really was rigged, the DNC doesn't want us to know this because they can't fix the problem. They know we will not want to throw good money after bad but they want those contributions, so they tell us reports of fraud are merely "anecdotal."

So what's the answer?

I think we each need to contribute to the candidates of our choice directly, instead of through the DNC. This should be done before the Primaries to get better candidates on the ballot for the general election where needed, and afterward to target the funding to take back the Congress, etc.

Same for state and local races.

We could contribute more in states with paper ballots where fraud is less likely and make this known to the DNC. They will eventually get the message.

We can encourage candidates and their election lawyers to contest more election results in states without adequate safeguards to rule out count corruption. We can contribute to GELAC funds to support this. Kerry failed to use most of the money in his GELAC fund, but this doesn't mean others will follow suit, esp. if we make it a condition of our support for them in the first place. Make it a campaign issue!

What we should also be doing is pointing out that if the system can be gamed, it can be gamed by either side! We need to put some fear into the Republicans that they may have created a Frankenstein -- that there could be blowback from allowing the system to become so vulnerable to tampering and fraud -- that they may be the next victims -- that no party or candidate is really safe -- and for the evangelicals, that there but for the grace of God go they!

Only then can there be any true reform.

This is why it can be counter productive to continue to take the partisan view that the Republicans stole the election, without at least highlighting the possibility that it can work both ways.

The high within-precinct error in the Exit Polls certainly went both ways. It was just a little higher in the Bush direction and that's what tipped the scale. This is a point that has been made by very few of us, so eager to "prove" that Kerry won. But it has been well documented since Mitofsky's Jan. report. We should use it.

The fact is the system is broken, it can be manipulated to favor either side depending on who's in control of the machinery, and this is something that should concern every voter, including the Republicans. They will not share this concern if all we keep saying is that they can steal elections with impunity.

What do you think?