So what do we do if the elections are stolen?

[meldroc]

We've all read twenty different stories about the latest dirty tricks the GOP's stooping to so they can retain power - hacking the voting machines, purging voter rolls, obnoxious voter ID requirements, intimidation, misinformation, etc.

I'm cautiously hopeful that it won't be enough - the Democratic tsunami will be too strong, and when it's over, we'll have taken back the House, and maybe the Senate.

But what if that's not the case? We all go out and vote, but when it's all over, the Republicans have somehow managed to retain a slim majority in an election filled with voting machine "malfunctions," long lines, disenfranchisement and misconduct.

I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely convinced that the Republicans cannot retain the House in the current environment given a fair election, so if things don't go our way, it's time to fight.

So how do we fight? Protests? Lawsuits? Something else? What can we do that would most effectively help us take our country back?

I'm personally up for a November 8th protest. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm clueless about lawsuits, but I'll join a class action suit.

[AtomicKitten]

1. Take a page out of Mexico's playbook and take to the streets.

eom

[FogerRox]

11. Nov. 11th, the 1st saturday after the election, see you in DC. OK ?

[AtomicKitten]

14. I'll be there.

After seeing Moore's F9-11 depicting the inaugural route in 2000, we MUST be there if this goes down badly - again. We cannot roll over again.

[elocs]

19. How did that ever turn out for the Mexicans? n/t

[AtomicKitten]

20. the latest

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15768328.htm

[elocs]

21. That was one damn fast reply!

I no sooner had gotten back to the thread and there it was. So it is still up in the air, but highly likely to remain the same? Got to give them credit though, the left in Mexico actually did something. I wonder if they would have relaxed if during the campaign their candidate had told them he vowed to count every vote and make every vote count?

[AtomicKitten]

22. it is suspected that America has "helped"

elections in other countries as well - just spreading the love with EVM fraud

[bluerum]

2. Move to Washington and live in the streets along with millions of

other very pissed off Americans.

[slackmaster]

3. Ask "So what do we do if the elections are stolen?" again

And sit with our collective thumbs up our collective ass, unable to prove the elections were actually stolen but insisting they were, remaining utterly incapable of seeing that our choices had anything to do with our failure to regain control.

[meldroc]

7. Great. So how do we prove the elections were stolen?

I'd start with lots of poll watchers (what do you have to do to become a poll watcher?), subpoenaing Diebold's source code, and documenting every bit of shenanigans possible.

While we're at it, make sure we have some good, impartial exit pollers out there, so we have a good baseline for what the election results SHOULD be. IIRC, the international gold standard for proof of election fraud is a statistically significant difference between the exit polls and the official count (which happened in the last two presidential elections...)

I don't know about you, but I want some effective action this time, not just another round of ineffectual bitching and whining.

[slackmaster]

12. If elections were stolen, it probably had nothing to do with Diebold

Elections can get stolen the old-fashioned ways: Registration fraud, vote suppression, and ballot box stuffing. Those are all provable, and have been proved before.

Determining that a voting machine is rigged would be trivially easy, by capturing one and conducting a controlled mock election. Nobody has done it yet.

But all that still neglects the possibility that we ourselves are to blame for our losses. How about a little honest self-reflection?

[Buzz Clik]

4. I'm guessing it will follow a familiar pattern:

Get angry.

Post crazy shit on the internet.

In a few weeks, lose all the angry momentum and degenerate into a bunch of whiners.

That's what we did the last two times. Why do anything different this time?

[slackmaster]

15. Yes, I think we should skip step 1 and go right to step 2 NOW!

Post crazy shit on the Internet. Why wait for the election?

[Drum]

5. ...

[Richard Steele]

8. Verily.

[meldroc]

10. I know exactly how you feel...

It's that I didn't want to break any DU rules by making certain suggestions, not that I'm not open to them...

[Drum]

13. Heavens no, not that kind of mayhem, but

V's really big work consisted of convincing the people to open their eyes....

[elocs]

23. Right. Had V not convinced them over the course of the year,

the people never would have gathered enough courage to act against a government that was far more repressive than ours is now.

[Lars39]

6. National strikes would have the most impact.

Shutting the country down by passive means, protesting at tv and radio stations,etc.

[FogerRox]

9. Nov. 11th, the 1st saturday after the election, see you in DC.

[Red Zelda]

16. What do we do if we win

and the freakbags on the other side claim the election was stolen???

[slackmaster]

18. You know they will

Claims of cheating by one's opponents have replaced acceptance of responsibility.

[wundermaus]

17. buying boycott protest

Simply stop buying anything but absolute essentials. Buy only from small, local businesses. Drive only when absolutely necessary and pool trips to 1 or 2 days a week to minimize travel. Pay off all credit card debts and then Stop using credit cards.

[mikelewis]

24. Same thing we've done the past 5 years... nothing.

[Cleita]

25. We need to raise Hell and demand hand recounts by

unaffiliated auditors before any winners are declared, sworn in, or even allowed to breathe a sigh of relief. It means that County Clerks, SOS's and any other agencies involved with the elections need to step aside and allow outside auditors access to all the records.

So if the Supreme Court tries overstepping its jurisdiction again or any other hanky panky is afoot by election officials or party leaders, we need to get out in force and demand accountability.

Enough is enough!

[Ian David]

26. "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible,,,

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1407

[elocs]

27. The Republican vote fraud did not happen by accident.

They worked for years to attain it, gaining the power to do so by winning what seemed to be inconsequential local and state elections. If the Ohio Secretary of State had been a Democrat in 2004, would Bush have been reelected? Or Harris in Florida in 2000? Democrats have been too trusting and not vigilant enough in the past to prevent the Republican election fraud to bite them in the ass.