Irrespective of party or candidate preference, we presume that you would be appalled, alarmed and outraged as the citizen of an enduring democracy if a vote was rigged or fixed. Athletes are expelled from their sport for such conduct. We sneered at Iron Curtain and "banana republic" countries for such conduct in their politics.

And yet, Jimmy Carter recently stated that U.S. elections fail to meet international standards and that the Carter Center would decline to monitor our elections due to their huge methodological deficiencies. We allowed extreme right-wing Republican business owners to design, manufacture, and program electronic voting machines used throughout the country, machines without paper verification that have been proven by computer experts to be easily vulnerable to hacking. We fail to require independent, non-partisan voting boards and officials. We fail to provide standardized, tamper-proof and manipulation-proof voting procedures. And as a predictable result, we are now faced with massive testimony regarding voter suppression in Ohio and overwhelming statistical evidence of vote counting fraud in several states. This evidence can be accessed through numerous links on our site and have convinced me and millions of others beyond a reasonable doubt. For summaries of evidence, see www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/986.

Here is a more recent article from Jan. 31 2005 that is titled "Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of  U.S. Presidential Election Results" which bolsters the original suspisions of foul play and goes on to raises serious doubts about the Republican claim that Kerry supporters skewed exit poll results by virtue of thier higher levels of participation.

Here is yet an even more recently published work on the corrupted election (Feb. 15, 2005): http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1970

As a Ph.D. and scientist, I'm not easily sold. I’m also a psychologist. This scenario may appear unthinkable and wildly unlikely to many citizens, but as a psychologist I find it not only likely but predictable.  Vote fraud perfectly fits the enduring Bush/Cheney/Rove behavioral pattern.

With nearly four years for the right-wing foxes to play unsupervised in the electronic voting henhouse, and in the light of Bush's personal history and his administration's record of flagrant, continuous violations of rules, truth and law, how can any sensible person believe that the vote wasn't rigged? Why else would a company that makes ATM machines design voting machines without paper receipts? It would have been entirely out of Rovian character to allow a fair contest.

The long Bush history of outright deception, habitual doublespeak, bait-and-switch campaign-to-policy tactics, flagrant quid-pro-quo corporate patronage, and an ongoing strategy of deliberate manipulation through false appearances – summarized by Kevin Phillips (a former Republican) as "the politics of deceit" – is extensively documented in at least a dozen meticulously detailed books over many years. The neocon strategies and attitudes are unapologetically Machiavellian and their style secretive and authoritarian in the extreme. An extensive reference list on these matters is provided on our site. Mr. Bush’s physical examinations even show abnormally low autonomic arousal, which is consistent with a psychopathic personality that would help to explain his recorded life history.

I assume that, upon discovery, you would resent being conned, treated with contempt, and played for a sucker. But that is exactly what the Bush administration has done to the American people. I invite you to start reading and discover this for yourself. As an American citizen you should be very angry, but not at the messengers who bring this to your attention.

This is not a partisan issue.  There have been flagrantly corrupt Democratic administrations in New York (Tammany Hall) and Chicago (Richard Daley).  The last president to involve us in a disastrous, falsely marketed war was a Democrat, Lyndon Johnson.  That war killed 58,000 Americans, some 850,000 Viet Cong – most of whom felt they were defending their country from U.S. control – and between 2 and 3 million Vietnamese citizens altogether, only to end up where they started with Ho Chi Minh as president of a unified Vietnam, the same leader who would have been elected by an overwhelming margin in 1956 had the U.S. not blocked the election originally scheduled by the Geneva Treaty. We lost the war, no dominoes fell, our freedom and security were not compromised in any way, and today the dreaded communist regime of Vietnam provides an American tourist destination, especially for U.S. combat veterans still seeking psychological healing 35-40 years later.

In our 2004 election we see what I devoutly hope is the final straw that, once fully exposed, will collapse the corrupt and unprincipled Bush/Cheney regime. The heretofore unfailingly accurate exit polls indicate that Kerry won. The same pattern of evidence was enough to trigger a revolt and a revote in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian election rigging, evidenced by exit polls showing 54% for the alleged loser, has received extensive press coverage while the identical pattern in Ohio, where exit polls showed 53% for Kerry, has been almost totally ignored by the U.S. mainstream media that have reportedly "locked down" this story.  By the twin criteria of citizen demand and press support for honest elections, Ukrainian democracy appears considerably more advanced than our own.

Based upon exit polling data at 9 pm eastern time on November 2, after the polls had closed in the three key swing states, the unerringly accurate Zogby poll was calling 313 electoral votes for Kerry, even in the face of massive Republican voter suppression. Suddenly, like magic, the vote count turned toward Bush – but only in jurisdictions with electronic voting, a mean disparity of 6% between exit polling and reported results, all favoring Bush, in the three key states. In states using paper ballots, the vote counts closely matched exit poll data (less than 1% disparity). The likelihood of this occurring by chance has been calculated by a University of Pennsylvania statistics professor at one in 250 million, a conclusion confirmed by re-analysis at MIT.

Thus, these data cannot be casually dismissed as paranoid delusion, wishful thinking or an unfounded “conspiracy theory” by sore losers. Especially after the outrageous 2000 voter manipulation and suppression in Florida that clarified the Republican ethical model and contempt for the electorate.

As a veteran who has walked among the vast sea of graves in the American cemetery at Normandy, I know that they did not die on the beaches of France for future leaders who, after avoiding personal risk in time of war themselves, would steal the votes of their countrymen. In the names of all those Americans who have left their lives and their limbs on a battlefield, and those who have carried lifelong visions of horror locked in their nightmares and their memories, we are entitled to demand a full investigation and a relentless media spotlight upon these deeply disturbing, unanswered questions that it is the constitutionally protected duty of a free press to provide.  Our press must be the watchdogs, not the lapdogs, of our government.

And if fraud is found, hell should have no fury like that of a democracy deceived.

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Copyright 2004 Jack Dresser, Ph.D.