Mass ballot rigging taking hold in Britain

[Dancing_Dave]

"Postmen threatened with death? Stolen votes? Bribery? The sort of mass ballot rigging usually seen in dodgy Third World regimes is taking hold in Britain. And the outcome of the General Election could be at stake. Malcolm Macalister Hall investigates
21 March 2005


It's a miserable, drizzling fag-end of a day as Mohammed Saeed drives around the streets of Bordesley Green, on Birmingham's east side, to show me the area that used to be his manor. Staring bleakly through the windscreen, he mutters darkly about being cheated.

It's pretty much like any inner city here - terraced houses, corner shops, a mosque, Somali restaurants, streets jammed with cars. Much of Birmingham's Kashmiri, Pakistani and Somali population live in this ward. Saeed, 40, used to be one of its councillors - until he lost his seat in last June's city council elections. "It was a very hard door-to-door campaign," Saeed says morosely. "And then the votes were stolen."

It's a startling claim - but he is not the only person making such charges. In fact, his complaints are part of what could be the biggest ballot-rigging scandal in Britain in a century. Over the past four weeks, a specially-convened election court in Birmingham has heard shocking allegations that, here in Bordesley Green and also in Aston, another inner-city ward, last year's council elections were rigged - on a grand scale."

Read all about it at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=622071

Boy, Blair sure does know how to follow the Bush Regime script!

[leftchick]

1. dodgy Third World regimes ?? Like The USA???

:eyes:

[newscott]

2. It can't happen there!!!!

:evilgrin:

[fedsron2us]

3. Another great 'New Labour ' experiment

They pushed postal voting hard in the last round of local elections in an attempt to increase the turnout. The net result was a huge increase on voting fraud. Personally, I believe if people are too lazy to walk to the local polling station to cast a paper ballot then they get the government they deserve. Postal ballots should be reserved for those with genuine infirmities who are unable to vote by other means.

[AP]

9. Washinton is switching to total postal ballots too. Damn you Tony Blair!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/216208_elections16.html

All elections in Washington state would rely on mail ballots only, beginning in 2008, under a bill approved by the state House yesterday.


Voting by mail is touted as a way to improve ballot security and reduce the cost and complexity of elections. Some critics say that it erodes security or that it diminishes communities by eliminating the tradition of voting at polling places on Election Day.


The approval on a 58-38 vote came hours after Secretary of State Sam Reed held joint news conferences in Seattle and then in Portland with his Oregon counterpart, Bill Bradbury, to promote vote-by-mail elections. Oregon switched to statewide mail-only voting in 2000.

...

The biggest advantage of voting by mail, Reed said, is that voters are better informed about their choices. "They have that ballot sitting in front of them on what issues, what candidates," he said.


Vote-by-mail elections generate higher levels of voter participation, Reed said, and they cut governmental costs by 20 to 30 percent through savings in hiring and training poll workers and leasing and equipping polling places.


They also simplify elections, he said, which could reduce the mishandling of ballots and other mistakes that have fueled disputes over the 2004 governor's race, in which Democrat Christine Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi by 129 votes after a hand recount. Rossi is suing to set aside that result.

[Selteri]

4. At least their news doesn't calll them conspiracy nuts. NT

[Dancing_Dave]

7. Another thing they've got are real Liberal Democrats

Who look likely to make some gains from their standing by principles, including opposing the Iraq War:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,9061,1443448,00.html

[Alizaryn]

5. Lets hope THEIR media helps them to get it repaired.

[Dancing_Dave]

6. Now Blair is promoting religion too!

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1443470,00.html

Even though he obviously has no shame himself...;)

[Alazarin]

8. Finally, a real challenge to Blair!

Reg Keys, whose 20-year old son died in Iraq has decided to run as an independent candidate against Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/4365705.stm

Brings back memories of Martin Bell in his white suit! Maybe decapitating NuLabour might be the best way to rid them of their phoney 'Third Way' strategic-triangulation politics.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi Alazarin!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[AP]

10. Interesting part of the article:

In 2000, concerned about falling turnouts and apparent voter apathy - and intent on "modernising" the electoral system - the Government extended postal voting to anyone who requested it, without requiring them to give a reason. It's called postal voting "on demand". In some areas, particularly in the inner cities, take-up has been dramatic. Electoral authorities insist there is nothing suspicious in this. In Birmingham, postal vote applications soared from 16,000 in 2001 to more than 70,000 last year. The biggest rise was in Bordesley Green, where applications leapt nearly tenfold in a single year, from 900 in 2003 to 8,600 in 2004 - despite the fact that there were polling stations all over the ward.


It's a sensitive issue, but electoral bodies and experts privately agree that inner-city areas of high ethnic-minority population are vulnerable to manipulation of the postal vote system. Ayoub Khan says: "One aspect of the culture is a system of hierarchy that doesn't just extend within the family - it extends into the families of your first cousins, second cousins; and within most extended families there are certain adults who play a very key role." In other words, the deep respect in which elders and senior family members are held means that "key adults and community leaders who have affiliated themselves with a party are in a position where they can extract postal votes in the hundreds".

[Melissa G]

11. recommended! n/t

[Dancing_Dave]

12. Thank You!

:pals:

[TheLastMohican]

13. Get out on the street and protest.

Ukraine did it, so can you! But I doubt it. Dissent is not allowed in quasi-democratic countries.

[tommcintyre]

15. Disappointing, but not surprising. The new trend in "Manufacturing Consent"

Apparently, manipulating the media is not enough for them any more to assure their hold on power. This appears to be a developing trend in established "Democracies". First the U.S. - now Britain? Can Europe, Australia, etc. be far behind (If it's not already happening there)?

True Democracy is "problematic" for the established capitalistic and cultural (religions) elites. As they continue to pursue increasingly selfish (not in the majority's best interest) agendas; it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a "consensus" with media control/brainwashing alone.

The increasing growth of minority populations in these countries only compound their risks of losing power, since minorities are generally the most "left out" in these societies - and consequently most likely to "revolt" in the voting booths. So it is not surprising to see the greatest electoral disenfranchisement efforts in these areas first.

It seems that the increasingly blatant self-serving agendas of the power elites is making it harder and harder for them to maintain "the illusion of Democracy".

Personally, I think this acceleration will lead to their "undoing" - sooner than later. This cycle has been played out in history repeatedly by despots, and ALWAYS with the same results - their fall.

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS." Gandhi

[bitchkitty]

16. I love English journalism -

"If the allegations are true, some sections of the electorate showed rather more interest than the Government intended."

Although he might have mentioned Florida and Ohio among the third world regimes in the intro.

[bin.dare]

18. and "a miserable, drizzling fag-end of a day ". how delicious!

[Stevepol]

17. Computer fraud in the US is the linchpin of everything.

The computer vote counting must be made fair in the US. If the machines are used, demand a voter-verified paper ballot and audits for every election. Better yet, push for paper ballots for all elections. The discrepancies between the exit polls and purported results in the 04 election point to systematic and widespread fraud in the US vote counting, probably machines that default to the Republican candidates on various over- or under-votes or mis-votes, etc.