Greg Palast | Did Chavez’ Pick Steal the Election in Venezuela?

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/did-chavez-pick-steal-election-venezuela-1366728636

How? That's what Chávez wanted Maduro to find out from me: how could US operatives jerk with Venezuela's voter rolls? It wasn't a mere policy question: Maduro knew Chávez wouldn't be allowed to survive through another coup.

My answer: They could steal the vote the same way Bush did it in Florida – in fact, using the very same contractor. Take a look at these documents... from the pile I reviewed with Maduro:

According to this once-secret FBI memo, ChoicePoint Corp – under a no-bid contract – had shoplifted Venezuela's voter rolls, as well as the voter rolls of Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico and Honduras, all of whom were on the verge of electing presidents from the political left.

<snip>

Chávez himself read my findings on potential elections theft – to his nation on his TV show – and then he moved swiftly, establishing an election system that Jimmy Carter, who has headed vote observer teams in 92 nations, called, "an election process that is the best in the world".

Here's how it works: every Venezuelan voter gets TWO ballots. One is electronic, the second is a paper print-out of the touch-screen ballot, which the voter reviews, authorises, then places in a locked ballot-box. An astounding 54 percent of the boxes are chosen at random to open and check against the computer tally. It's as close to a bulletproof count as you can get.

Still, the guy who lost bitched and – his bluff called – was allowed to pick all the precincts he wanted – 12,000 – to add to the audit.

What impressed me about Maduro and his boss Chávez was their reaction to the Third Ring and the attempted Florida-tion of their election. Instead of ordering mass arrests, Chávez' and Maduro's response was to strengthen democracy with a no-tricks voting system.

I should note that ChoicePoint, once exposed, apologised to Mexico's government, agreed to destroy its ill-gotten voter rolls and, soon thereafter, sold itself to a credit-rating company.

[idwiyo]

1. K&R

[snot]

2. Wow. K&R'd, and bookmarked.

[Unknown Beatle]

3. The US doesn't want fair elections,

otherwise tamper-proof and paper ballots would be in place.

[progressoid]

4. It's too bad that Palast writes as it relates to himself.

There's so much "I, me, my" in his writing that it often overshadows the actual story. Once in a while the personal narrative is nice but sometimes it's better to just tell us the story without sticking himself in every other paragraph.

[Zorra]

6. The plutarchs have the wealth and power to infiltrate almost anything.

Their interest in doing so is their own power, wealth, and control, social democracies are their antithesis.

President Chavez was and President Maduro is, totally aware of this.

Fortunately for Venezuela, they have some apparatuses in place to keep capitalist moles from undermining the foundations of their democracy. In this country, the moles and weasels are everywhere. They've gotten into the heads of many citizens, and just about everywhere else, including all areas of our government.

Greg Palast is an awesome investigative journalist. I hope Venezuela is able to continue to keep the moles and weasels out of their gardens and henhouses.

[Blue Owl]

7. ChoicePoint -- pffffffffft.

They're like the Monsanto of voting -- in it for the owners.