http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
Kerry Won
Greg Palast
November 04, 2004
Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of
votes cast are voided-known as "spoilage" in election jargon-because the ballots cast
are inconclusive. Palast's investigation suggests that if Ohio's discarded ballots
were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer
reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672
discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots.
Greg Palast, contributing editor to Harper's magazine, investigated the manipulation
of the vote for BBC Television's Newsnight. The documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes,"
based on his New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, has been
released this month on DVD .
Kerry won. Here's the facts.
I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have
a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's
my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and
New Mexico, it was John Kerry.
Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry
beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush
among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in
Ohio, Kerry took the state.
So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did
you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote
counted?" The voters don't know.
Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for
Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable
and it was predicted. [See TomPaine.com, "An Election Spoiled Rotten," November 1.]
Once again, at the heart of the Ohio uncounted vote game are, I'm sorry to report,
hanging chads and pregnant chads, plus some other ballot tricks old and new.
The election in Ohio was not decided by the voters but by something called "spoilage."
Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of the vote is voided, just thrown
away, not recorded. When the bobble-head boobs on the tube tell you Ohio or any state
was won by 51 percent to 49 percent, don't you believe it ... it has never happened in
the United States, because the total never reaches a neat 100 percent. The television
totals simply subtract out the spoiled vote.
And not all vote spoil equally. Most of those votes, say every official report, come
from African American and minority precincts. (To learn more, click here.)
We saw this in Florida in 2000. Exit polls showed Gore with a plurality of at least
50,000, but it didn't match the official count. That's because the official, Secretary
of State Katherine Harris, excluded 179,855 spoiled votes. In Florida, as in Ohio,
most of these votes lost were cast on punch cards where the hole wasn't punched
through completely-leaving a 'hanging chad,'-or was punched extra times. Whose cards
were discarded? Expert statisticians investigating spoilage for the government
calculated that 54 percent of the ballots thrown in the dumpster were cast by black
folks. (To read the report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, click here .)
And here's the key: Florida is terribly typical. The majority of ballots thrown out
(there will be nearly 2 million tossed out from Tuesday's election) will have been
cast by African American and other minority citizens.
So here we go again. Or, here we don't go again. Because unlike last time, Democrats
aren't even asking Ohio to count these cards with the not-quite-punched holes (called
"undervotes" in the voting biz).
Ohio is one of the last states in America to still use the vote-spoiling punch-card
machines. And the Secretary of State of Ohio, J. Kenneth Blackwell, wrote before the
election, "the possibility of a close election with punch cards as the state's primary
voting device invites a Florida-like calamity."
But this week, Blackwell, a rabidly partisan Republican, has warmed up to the result
of sticking with machines that have a habit of eating Democratic votes. When asked if
he feared being this year's Katherine Harris, Blackwell noted that Ms. Fix-it's
efforts landed her a seat in Congress.
Exactly how many votes were lost to spoilage this time? Blackwell's office, notably,
won't say, though the law requires it be reported. Hmm. But we know that last time,
the total of Ohio votes discarded reached a democracy-damaging 1.96 percent. The
machines produced their typical loss-that's 110,000 votes-overwhelmingly Democratic.
The Impact Of Challenges
First and foremost, Kerry was had by chads. But the Democrat wasn't punched out by
punch cards alone. There were also the 'challenges.' That's a polite word for the
Republican Party of Ohio's use of an old Ku Klux Klan technique: the attempt to block
thousands of voters of color at the polls. In Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida, the GOP
laid plans for poll workers to ambush citizens under arcane laws-almost never
used-allowing party-designated poll watchers to finger individual voters and demand
they be denied a ballot. The Ohio courts were horrified and federal law prohibits
targeting of voters where race is a factor in the challenge. But our Supreme Court was
prepared to let Republicans stand in the voting booth door.
In the end, the challenges were not overwhelming, but they were there. Many apparently
resulted in voters getting these funky "provisional" ballots-a kind of voting
placebo-which may or may not be counted. Blackwell estimates there were 175,000;
Democrats say 250,000. Pick your number. But as challenges were aimed at minorities,
no one doubts these are, again, overwhelmingly Democratic. Count them up, add in the
spoiled punch cards (easy to tally with the human eye in a recount), and the totals
begin to match the exit polls; and, golly, you've got yourself a new president.
Remember, Bush won by 136,483 votes in Ohio.
Enchanted State's Enchanted Vote
Now, on to New Mexico, where a Kerry plurality-if all votes are counted-is more
obvious still. Before the election, in TomPaine.com, I wrote, "John Kerry is down by
several thousand votes in New Mexico, though not one ballot has yet been counted."
How did that happen? It's the spoilage, stupid; and the provisional ballots.
CNN said George Bush took New Mexico by 11,620 votes. Again, the network total added
up to that miraculous, and non-existent, '100 percent' of ballots cast.
New Mexico reported in the last race a spoilage rate of 2.68 percent, votes lost
almost entirely in Hispanic, Native American and poor precincts-Democratic turf. From
Tuesday's vote, assuming the same ballot-loss rate, we can expect to see 18,000
ballots in the spoilage bin.
Spoilage has a very Democratic look in New Mexico. Hispanic voters in the Enchanted
State, who voted more than two to one for Kerry, are five times as likely to have
their vote spoil as a white voter. Counting these uncounted votes would easily
overtake the Bush 'plurality.'
Already, the election-bending effects of spoilage are popping up in the election
stats, exactly where we'd expect them: in heavily Hispanic areas controlled by
Republican elections officials. Chaves County, in the "Little Texas" area of New
Mexico, has a 44 percent Hispanic population, plus African Americans and Native
Americans, yet George Bush "won" there 68 percent to 31 percent.
I spoke with Chaves' Republican county clerk before the election, and he told me that
this huge spoilage rate among Hispanics simply indicated that such people simply can't
make up their minds on the choice of candidate for president. Oddly, these brown
people drive across the desert to register their indecision in a voting booth.
Now, let's add in the effect on the New Mexico tally of provisional ballots.
"They were handing them out like candy," Albuquerque journalist Renee Blake reported
of provisional ballots. About 20,000 were given out. Who got them?
Santiago Juarez who ran the "Faithful Citizenship" program for the Catholic
Archdiocese in New Mexico, told me that "his" voters, poor Hispanics, whom he
identified as solid Kerry supporters, were handed the iffy provisional ballots.
Hispanics were given provisional ballots, rather than the countable kind "almost
religiously," he said, at polling stations when there was the least question about a
voter's identification. Some voters, Santiago said, were simply turned away.
Your Kerry Victory Party
So we can call Ohio and New Mexico for John Kerry-if we count all the votes.
But that won't happen. Despite the Democratic Party's pledge, the leadership this time
gave in to racial disenfranchisement once again. Why? No doubt, the Democrats know
darn well that counting all the spoiled and provisional ballots will require the
cooperation of Ohio's Secretary of State, Blackwell. He will ultimately decide which
spoiled and provisional ballots get tallied. Blackwell, hankering to step into Kate
Harris' political pumps, is unlikely to permit anything close to a full count. Also,
Democratic leadership knows darn well the media would punish the party for demanding a
full count.
What now? Kerry won, so hold your victory party. But make sure the shades are down: it
may be become illegal to demand a full vote count under PATRIOT Act III.
I used to write a column for the Guardian papers in London. Several friends have asked
me if I will again leave the country. In light of the failure-a second time-to count
all the votes, that won't be necessary. My country has left me.
***
From Donna Warren
Hey all,
Many of you are emailing and asking what's next. I am sending the text of an
email I received from Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, including her commitment to
pursue legislation and this time from a far stronger platform than before.
Some of you worked with every fiber of your being and I'm sure feel hurt and
deflated. For those with loved ones inside, the pain remains a constant. What we
must keep uppermost in our minds is that Californians support reform. That is our
starting point for the next stage.
If you are not in a FACTS chapter, form one (we will help)! If you are in a
chapter, strengthen it! If we do not have your information, please email us with
your name, address, city and zip and your phone number and we will put you in our data
base.
Victory has been deferred, not defeated. Please contact us to stay involved
this is from Jackie
Dear Geri,
I know the loss of Prop. 66 is a blow. But the fact that it cost millions, and
they had to lie so boldly and repeatedly to do it, is a very good sign. I am pursuing
a meeting with Baca (LA County Sheriff) , Father Boyle, you and me. We will not let
this go, I promise you. And we will now be able to show that at least 80% of those
polled, without the lies, think it is time to reform "Three Strikes." Please tell
everyone that it is not "over", and it will never be "over" until the day is won."
Get ready. Get rest. Never give up.
Love,
Jackie
geri silva
FACTS Executive Director
213/746-4844
310/365-3319 - cell phone
***
Ashcroft Likely to Leave Post
By Curt Anderson
The Associated Press
Thursday 04 November 2004
WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft is likely to leave his post before
the start of President Bush's second term, senior aides said Thursday.
Ashcroft, 62, is described as exhausted from leading the Justice Department in
fighting the domestic war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Stress was a
factor in Ashcroft's health problems earlier this year that resulted in removal of his
gall bladder.
Ashcroft is expected to resign before Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration, said aides
who spoke only on condition of anonymity. They said there is a small chance he would
stay on, at least for a short time, if Bush asked him.
The attorney general has not officially informed his staff of his future plans,
spokesman Mark Corallo said.
At a news conference, Bush said he hasn't made any decisions about his Cabinet.
Ashcroft, a former two-term governor and senator from Missouri, has long been a
favorite among Bush's base of religious conservatives. He also is a lightning rod for
Democrats and other critics on issues ranging from the anti-terrorism Patriot Act,
which expanded rules for eavesdropping, to abortion rights and gun control.
Names that have been floated in recent weeks as a possible replacement include
Ashcroft's former deputy, Larry Thompson, who would become the first black attorney
general. Others include Marc Racicot, who was Bush's campaign manager, and White House
general counsel Alberto Gonzalez, who would give Bush a notable Hispanic appointment.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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