Gallup: Only 1 in 4 Americans Very Confident Votes Will Be Counted Accurately

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003315816

Gallup: Only 1 in 4 Americans Very Confident Votes Will Be Counted Accurately


NEW YORK Gallup reports today, less than two weeks from the midterm elections, that a new poll finds that only about one in four Americans are "very confident" that votes across the country will be accurately cast and counted and that workers at voting facilities will be capable of resolving any problems. "The public places equal trust in electronic or computerized ballots and paper ballots to correctly record its votes this year," Gallup relates.

"Republicans and Democrats differ in their overall confidence in the country's voting system, with Republicans much more likely than Democrats to express confidence in the accuracy of the vote counts, in the workers at polling facilities, and in the trustworthiness of electronic ballots."

The overall number expressing a high degree of confidence, in the poll taken Oct. 20-22, is 28%, with 4 in 10 Republicans very confident versus only 17% of Democrats. Republicans also express more faith in electronic ballots than Democrats.

[cautiouslywaiting]

1. Of course

they're more confident about electronic ballots. They know how it will turn out. That's why I voted absentee.

[Copperred]

2. ITS ELECTION FRAUD...NOT... VOTER FRAUD

FORCE THE PRESS TO GET IT RIGHT...

THE VOTERS ARE NOT CHEATING.....


THE ELECTION AUTHORITIES ARE....

ELECTION FRAUD.................


DEMAND FULLY TRANSPARENT FEDERAL VOTING STANDARDS

[EFerrari]

11. I can't find the term "vote fraud". Where is it? n/t

[liberalmuse]

3. I voted on Diebold yesterday, and all I can say is...

America is FUCKED! We are not currently under a representative democracy. I have absolutely ZERO confidence in this system. I was handed a card w/a microchip a monkey could reprogram. Although Diebold printed my votes, I did not get a copy. My mother took the survey after she voted and said she was not confident her vote counted. Unfortunately, I missed the survey after I voted. :(

[Demoiselle]

4. Why isn't there a bigger uproar, then?

Why didn't the reforms start in 2001? Why does the press wait until two weeks before the
election to point out "possible" problems? Why aren't we storming our state capitols? Why don't we seem to care
that the ONLY power we have over these pigs is a properly recorded vote? That lonely little crumb of power is
being systematically taken from us....why aren't we in the streets?

"If God had not wanted them shorn, He would not have made them sheep."
Sorry. I'm in a very bad mood this morning.

[bling bling]

16. Because Bill Clinton told us to "get over it."

Because only 3 or 4 politicians dared to bring up the subject and when they did it didn't get mass coverage.

And popular liberal blogs like Daily KOS will tombstone anyone who brings up the nutty topic of election fraud.

The topic has up to now been totally stigmatized by the media, our politicians, and by people on our own side. It's better to not give the RWers any "ammo" to call us all leftist nutcases. Until it becomes more "safe" to join in on the discussion, that is.

Hopefully this is a topic that will soon be approved as acceptable discussion considering it's kinda sort-of important that people trust the voting system in a democracy. The fact that so many people are skeptical of the integrity of our system is unacceptable.

Voting procedures should not be so complicated and technical that people feel like only a rocket scientist can determine whether or not the system is in fact working properly or not.

My gut tells me the system is vulnerable to fraud. And that the BFEE capitalized on that vulnerability in both elections. And we'll see how these next elections play out. Rove and Bush are so confident they'll keep the house and senate I'm already concerned about it. Even Peggy Noonan's column today talked about how many Republicans are hoping they lose this election so I feel strongly that if we don't win it'll just reconfirm my suspicions.

My fear is the plan is in place so that they'll lose some seats but conveniently not quite enough to lose control of the house and senate. I'll rest a little easier on the voting issue if it doesn't play out that way.

[maryallen]

32. Because the Democratic Party didn't care to examine '04 Ohio votes ...

Subpoenaed by Bob Fritakis et al.

Read an article today (Googled "hacked voting machines," "Karl Rove") explaining how some activists are examining actual ballots from the '04 Ohio Presidential election and finding real patterns of fraud. According to Fritakis, the national Democratic Party has not sent one person to survey these votes.

Obviously, the party -- and many current politicians -- have an interest in maintaining the status quo.

[bling bling]

34. That's infuriating.

WTF is wrong with these people? Are they intersted in serving the public or is this just a job and a paycheck to them? What could possibly be more important?

What's that saying about Democracy dying and nobody cared? Whatever it is, it sure seems to apply to the 2004 elections.

I'd honestly be perfectly happy about being proven wrong about election fraud. I'd be relieved (well, in a weird sort of way) to find out that Bush won fairly and legitimately. I just want it proven beyond a doubt that our election process in 2000 and 2004 were not fraudulent so that I can rest assured that our Democracy hasn't been totally corrupted by the GOP.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

33. Palast says...

from Armed Madhouse...

Why Kerry Caved

Add up the spoiled and provisional ballots lost in Ohio, New Mexico and Iowa, and John Kerry would have overtaken George Bush's teeny lead - if all the votes were counted.
But Kerry conceded, and not without reason. Ohio was the key, and, let's face it, just as Katherine Harris stopped the count of spoiled punch cards in Florida in 2000, Ohio's Blackwell would likely have done the same in 2004.
Still, the Democrats could have stood before the Supreme Court and argued, as Martin Luther King said, "Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Kerry's attorney could have told the Justices, and the world, that this election brought back the methods of the White Citizens Councils and the hoodless Klan tactics of Operation Eagle Eye, outlawed 40 years ago. But before justice could get flowing, any well-read civil rights attorney would know that the man identified as "Bill" who directed the harassment teams of Operation Eagle Eye back in the 1960's was, by 2004, none other than William "Bill" Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Case dismissed.

[Phredicles]

5. This is a huge story (or should be)

When the electoral process has lostthe public confidence, then any "elected" goverment is at best of dubious legitimacy. We are frickin' looking up at Ukraine at this point - not a pretty picture.

[AllexxisF1]

6. Exactly.

Public confidence in the voting system is more important than even public confidence in the dollar. Without fair and accurate elections the entire base of who we are crumbles and falls into endless shadow. This is something that needs to be fixed and fixed quickly. If Democrats come out in droves for this election yet still loose and all the evidence looks fishy...your going to see riots in the streets. Its not going to be pretty.

[bemildred]

8. Yes, exactly.

The government has been illegitimate since the USSC selection of 2000. And it's all been downhill since then.

[groovedaddy]

7. More on e voting & fair elections

More on e voting & fair elections

American Statistical Association President’s letter on the important role that statisticians will need to play in monitoring and improving the quality of our country ’s next and future elections:

http://www.amstat.org/news/StatisticalIssuesInElections.pdf

Report says 10 states not ready for electronic vote. Scientist hacks into new polling machine on TV. From The Guardian
Six years after the emergence of the now infamous "hanging chad" in the 2000 presidential elections, monitoring groups warn that technological glitches and hackers could throw next month's mid-term elections into chaos.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102706Z.shtml
Another Stolen Election Headed Our Way? An interview with Mark Crispin Miller
By Andy Ostroy
The Ostroy Report - Thursday 26 October 2006
While I firmly believe that part of the Repugs' strategy to win elections is to steal them, I don't profess to be an expert on voting fraud. There's plenty of very dedicated folks like Mark, Brad Friedman and Bobby Kennedy Jr. who've thankfully been carrying that torch, making the rest of us painfully aware that the problem exists and that if, unchecked, it can and will happen again. If you don't believe that, all you need to do is monitor the blatantly corrupt actions of people like Kenneth Blackwell-Ohio's Secretary of State, gubernatorial candidate and loyal Bushevik-to get a greater sense of the threat facing Democrats at the polls.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102606D.shtml

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[Jawja]

9. Hmmmm. 1 in 4.

About 25%. Isn't that *'s base? :shrug:

[EFerrari]

10. So why the uproar NOW?

Why NOW when Democrats are set to sweep -- or would sweep clean elections?

[Peace Patriot]

15. They've created chaos in Iraq, all the better to fleece us and the Iraqis.

So maybe the plan all along has been to create chaos in our election system, so that nobody knows who won, many are disenfranchised by voting machine "breakdowns," and confusion in Congress and other jurisdictions, and possibly civil unrest, occur.

I've been mulling this over with the many reports in the war profiteering corporate news monopolies about "chaos" on election day. Maybe they're not warning; maybe they got a glimpse into Karl Rove's crystal ball and they're predicting, that is, pre-writing the Rove narrative again. Now we're all set up to expect "chaos" and won't notice that the machines are only "breaking down" (and tossable "Provisional" ballots distributed) in locations critical to Bush-Cheney-Rove's predicted Bushite "pod people" majority in the House. The "conspiracy theorists" who notice the pattern will be debunked, marginalized and ignored; the corporate news monopolies will all descry the "chaos," and avow that our broken election system really oughta be fixed some day; Dennis Hastert will decide who sits in Congress (as he did in CA-50, before the vote count was finished), and we get two more years of torture, suspension of habeas corpus and tax cuts for billionaires.

Maybe they never intended to "count" votes this time; just to make it impossible to do so, with any certainty--I mean beyond the uncertainty of Bushite corporations "counting" all the votes with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls.

Maybe they feel they can't get away with outright stealing so many elections this time, with the poll numbers so against them--without endangering their electronic election theft capability for future purposes.

Chaos. It worked in Iraq, to the tune a trillion dollars. It worked in New Orleans (Halliburton right there for the first no-bid contract). Will it work Nov. 7?

Maybe combine chaos in election with "incident" in the east Mediterranean (i.e., Gulf of Tonkin), now on "high alert." I'm scaring myself here (martial law). I tend to write spooky scenarios, even though I do have a lot of faith in the American people to restore democracy here and put things right. But Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are some very, very guilty and possibly desperate dudes, who would think nothing of hitting this country with a wrecking ball to save their own sorry hides.

ADVICE: The ONLY guarantee that you will be able to cast a vote in this election is voting by Absentee Ballot. In Calif, the deadline for requesting an Absentee Ballot is OCTOBER 31. Still plenty of time. (Voter reg date already gone past, but if you're registered, you can still get an Absentee Ball.) (Check local rules for other states.) DO NOT COUNT on being able to vote on election day.

PROTEST: Absentee Ballot voting is also a PROTEST against these diabolical machines. BOYCOTT the machines! It looks like about half of California voters are engaging in this protest. I hope they know enough to throw Bruce McDiebold out of the Secretary of State's office. Note: Vote for DEBRA BOWEN!

[Peace Patriot]

17. Just a tidbit more of evidence that "chaos" might be the plan:

I noticed in Bruce McDiebold's directive on providing paper ballots in case of "machine breakdown" AND for voters who request a real ballot (our right by law in Calif--thank you, Kevin Shelley!), McDiebold watered down our right to a real ballot by giving permission to corrupt county election officials to substitute in "Provisional" ballots for real ballots. He said that, if they run out of real ballots, "provisional" ballots will be "treated like" real ballots. Uh-huh. Tell that to Ohioans! And since McDiebold doesn't care a crap what they actually do, and will never follow up on it, and they all know this (it's carte blanche for election fraud in California, for the Kevin Shelley witch-burners--a dismaying number of our county election officials), the stage is set for strategic disenfranchisement by "machine breakdown."

[diva77]

21. Hi Peace Patriot- do you have link to definitive article

that spells out Shelley's exoneration-? thanks!

[Peace Patriot]

24. Sorry, diva77, I had to go out for most of the day. Attorney General

Bill Lockyer found no wrongdoing by Shelley and dropped the investigation. I'll see if I can find the source. I imagine a google of Lockyer Shelley would find it. It was an AG announcement, as I recall.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Well, here's find how do you do? McPherson is asking Lockyer to sue Shelley!

Will Diebold persecution of this man never end? I'll look into this further.

http://humboldt.cox.net/cci/newslocal/local?_mode=view&view=LocalNewsArticleView&articleId=1842452&_action=validatearticle

McPherson Wants Shelley To Pay For Improperly Spent Voting Funds
 10-17-2006 7:13 AM

(Sacramento, CA) -- The state of California owes 3-million-dollars to the federal government for voting funds, allegedly, improperly spent by former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Current Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, who is running for reelection, is now asking Attorney General Bill Lockyer to sue Shelley to recover the money. The "Chronicle" says the 3-million-dollars includes 500-thousand-dollars spent for purposes not allowed under the Help America Vote Act and the other two-and-a-half-million-dollars went toward allowable activities but lacked proper paperwork. Shelley spokesman Sam Singer says Shelley was never found personally responsible for any wrongdoing and did not misuse the funds. Singer called the call for a lawsuit a shameless election-year ploy for McPherson.

[Peace Patriot]

It's coming from the Bushites on the EAC (fed election commission--the

derelicts, sellers of our right to vote, killers of our democracy):

Feds order California to repay voting funds
BY STEVE LAWRENCE, Associated Press
Article Last Updated:10/16/2006 10:39:29 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO - Federal elections officials told California on Monday to repay nearly $3 million in Help America Vote Act funds, saying the money was mismanaged under former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

Shelley's successor said the state should sue to try to force Shelley to repay the money.

"It is wholly unfair and unacceptable that the taxpayers of California would be required to lose funds that would otherwise be used for education, transportation and public safety due to the documented misconduct and mismanagement of Kevin Shelley," Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, a Republican who is running for re-election, said in a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

A spokesman for Lockyer, Nathan Barankin, said his office was reviewing the letter, but added that it would be difficult to force Shelley to reimburse the state.

"The legal standard for establishing personal liability on an elected official is very high," he said.

A spokesman for Shelley, Sam Singer, called McPherson's request a "shameless election-year ploy."

"Secretary Shelley was never found personally responsible for any wrongdoing relating to HAVA, nor did he misuse these funds," Singer said. "Mr. McPherson's attempt to pin the bill on Mr. Shelley is a shameless election-year ploy and not deserving of further comment."

[robinlynne]

30. lie. McPherson is not running for reelection. he was not elected. He

was appointed by the republican governator.

[EFerrari]

18. Chaos is their favorite tool. But this isn't exactly chaos.

I was pointing to the report after report lately questioning electronic voting. It's pointed and direct.

So, why this clarity now?

[robinlynne]

29. interesting question!

[ileus]

12. Diebold paid me 55 bucks yesterday for my vote....

Wait a minute that was my banks ATM, nevermind...

[mitchum]

13. Will the other 3 overthrow the regime?

When is enough enough? How long will people play by the rules of the game when the game is rigged?

Note to SS personnel monitoring this site: I am merely ASKING questions. Now you can get back to wasting my tax $$$

[lpbk2713]

14. Wednesday evening I received a call at home.

The young lady said she was doing a Gallup poll. I didn't ask her what it was reagarding but I really didn't know if it was legit or not so I told her I didn't care to participate.



I wish I had now.

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Why didn't Victor Kayam keep his mouth shut! This remnant of the

Republican Party really seem to have taken his watch-word to heart? "We loved the company(Diebold) so much, we bought it!" Terribly impressionable.

[cyberpj]

20. Not that that means our Congress should have done anything about it.

:sarcasm:

[IndyOp]

22. CONFIDENCE LEVEL SAME AS IN 2004...

I think the last 'paragraph' is important...

"The confidence level is about the same as in 2004, Gallup reports. Voters have more confidence in their local polling places than the national picture."

GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV

:kick:

[Jamastiene]

23. Or as MSM will say, a whopping 25%

of Americans still believe in the American way.

[HockeyMom]

25. I am confident

Living in a Blue State with Lever Machines. Neither Hillary nor Spitzer are going to lose this election with 30+++ percentage leads. Take it to the bank.

How about a Lever Machine in every precinct in the COUNTRY?

[texpatriot2004]

26. I have zero confidence in our "elections" nm

[mhatrw]

27. How about doing & publishing these polls BEFORE it's too late. n/t

[mcscajun]

31. I don't know whether to be overwhelmingly sad or incredibly glad.

Sad that our country has sunk this low, glad that 75% are at least half-awake to one reality, or, Option C: massively depressed by the following:
"The confidence level is about the same as in 2004, Gallup reports. Voters have more confidence in their local polling places than the national picture."

Nothing new since 2004, and we all know what happened then, plus the delusional inference of the last clause above: "Hell, nationally we're fucked, but MY Town/State is just fine."
Excuse me while I find a nice hard wall.
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead::banghead: :banghead: