Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State

Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/8/greg_palast_in_ohio_on_gop

By: Democracy Now
Date: 2016-11-08

In an on-the-ground report from the battleground state of Ohio, investigative reporter Greg Palast has uncovered the latest in vote suppression tactics led by Republicans that could threaten the integrity of the vote in Ohio and North Carolina. On some polling machines, audit protection functions have been shut off, and African Americans and Hispanics are being scrubbed from the voter rolls through a system called Crosscheck. "It’s a brand-new Jim Crow," Palast says. "Today, on Election Day, they’re not going to use white sheets to keep way black voters. Today, they’re using spreadsheets."

The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters

The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters

Will an anti-voter-fraud program designed by one of Trump's advisers deny tens of thousands their right to vote in November?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-w435890

By: Greg Palast
Date: 2016-08-24

When Donald Trump claimed, "the election's going to be rigged," he wasn't entirely wrong. But the threat was not, as Trump warned, from Americans committing the crime of "voting many, many times." What's far more likely to undermine democracy in November is the culmination of a decade-long Republican effort to disenfranchise voters under the guise of battling voter fraud. The latest tool: Election officials in more than two dozen states have compiled lists of citizens whom they allege could be registered in more than one state – thus potentially able to cast multiple ballots – and eligible to be purged from the voter rolls.

The data is processed through a system called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, which is being promoted by a powerful Republican operative, and its lists of potential duplicate voters are kept confidential. But Rolling Stone obtained a portion of the list and the names of 1 million targeted voters. According to our analysis, the Crosscheck list disproportionately threatens solid Democratic constituencies: young, black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters – with some of the biggest possible purges underway in Ohio and North Carolina, two crucial swing states with tight Senate races.

New Proof The Election Was Rigged Against Democrats!

New Proof The Election Was Rigged Against Democrats!

http://leecamp.net/8138-2/

By: Lee Camp
Date: 2016-09-09

I just talked with two election experts – Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller – both incredibly accomplished in their fields. They agreed that this election was indeed rigged, and even though it has been Donald Trump spouting off about election rigging, perhaps he didn’t realize that the machinery was in place to rig it in HIS FAVOR. Greg Palast estimates that 1.1 MILLION people, mainly minorities, were knocked off the voting rolls in swing states using a system called “Cross Check.” That system accuses people of being “double voters” even though there is absolutely no proof. Cross Check is used in 30 Republican-led states. On top of that, Palast discovered that ballot protection software on the new Ohio voting machines was TURNED OFF. Election law expert Bob Fitrakis actually took Ohio to court last week to make sure the ballot protection software be turned ON. However, the judge sided with the state and said to leave it OFF on election day!

Professor Mark Crispin Miller agrees with Palast, saying that this election was stolen from the Democrats in a similar fashion to 2000 and 2004. And this is not coming from a fan of Hillary Clinton. Miller pointed out that Hillary Clinton is a neo-liberal who was intent on continuing to gut the social safety net and allowing the big banks to run wild. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a fair election. Furthermore, this is not just about the Presidency. This election theft impacts congressional and gubernatorial races as well.

I strongly believe that if Hillary Clinton – and the corporate Democrats in general – had ACTUALLY stood for something, then people would’ve had a reason to stand with them. This is why Bernie Sanders would’ve won this election easily. (He would’ve beat the margin that was stolen.) People believed what Bernie Sanders said, and that’s why he attracted an enthusiastic following. Even most Hillary voters didn’t take her at her word. Her actions proved that she supports trade deals, supports war, supports weapons contractors, supports oil and gas, and supports the big banks. If the left ever wants to win again, they need to start TRULY standing for something, rather than just feeding people lies while enriching themselves.

The two interviews mentioned above will air tomorrow night on Redacted Tonight: VIP. At 6pm ET tomorrow they’ll also be posted to YouTube.com/RedactedTonight.

Keep Fighting,
Lee

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The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters

The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters

Will an anti-voter-fraud program designed by one of Trump's advisers deny tens of thousands their right to vote in November?

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-w435890

By: Greg Palast
Date: 2016-08-24

When Donald Trump claimed, "the election's going to be rigged," he wasn't entirely wrong. But the threat was not, as Trump warned, from Americans committing the crime of "voting many, many times." What's far more likely to undermine democracy in November is the culmination of a decade-long Republican effort to disenfranchise voters under the guise of battling voter fraud. The latest tool: Election officials in more than two dozen states have compiled lists of citizens whom they allege could be registered in more than one state – thus potentially able to cast multiple ballots – and eligible to be purged from the voter rolls.

The data is processed through a system called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, which is being promoted by a powerful Republican operative, and its lists of potential duplicate voters are kept confidential. But Rolling Stone obtained a portion of the list and the names of 1 million targeted voters. According to our analysis, the Crosscheck list disproportionately threatens solid Democratic constituencies: young, black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters – with some of the biggest possible purges underway in Ohio and North Carolina, two crucial swing states with tight Senate races.

Six Million Adults Who Won't Influence This Presidential Race

Six Million Adults Who Won't Influence This Presidential Race

One in 40 Americans can't vote because of a criminal conviction. But the rules aren't exactly fair

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/six-million-adults-who-wont-influence-this-election-w443693

By: Matt Taibbi
Date: 2016-10-06

On July 7th in Staten Island a few months back, Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed the death of Eric Garner, sat in court conferring with his family. He was about to agree to plea deal on drug and weapons charges that would send him to prison for a while.

The term – four years – had already been settled. But some specifics were left up to him. In particular, he was given a choice as to which of his many drug charges he could swallow.

"They're telling me I've got to cop to weed, crack or heroin," he said. "But since weed isn't a felony, it's got to be crack or heroin."

The United States is one of just four countries in the world that enforces post-release restrictions on voting. Spencer Platt/Getty

How Much Faith Do You Have in the Vote Counting Process?

How Much Faith Do You Have in the Vote Counting Process?

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/09/23/much-faith-vote-counting-process/

By: Jeff Schechtman
Date: 2016-09-23

In an age of digital and online voting, there is no way to know if the announced results of any given election faithfully express the intent of the voters. This is not only because digitized voting machines can be hacked or manipulated. The fact is, modernday ballots are not available as public documents — even after elections.

Dr. Jonathan Simon, executive director of Election Defense Alliance, tells WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman that this is a risk we should not be taking when so much is at stake. Simon makes a data-driven argument that our computerized voting system is frighteningly vulnerable to corruption and partisan sabotage — at a time when corruption and partisanship are rampant. He argues that we have sacrificed transparency for convenience and speed, and that nothing short of votes counted observably and by hand can undo the damage to democracy.

Dr. Jonathan Simon, author of CODE RED: Computerized Election Theft and the New American Century Photo credit: PopulistDialogues / YouTube (Creative Commons Attribution license - reuse allowed) and CodeRedPublishing

The Media Can’t Get Its Story Straight on Election Hacking

The Media Can’t Get Its Story Straight on Election Hacking

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/10/17/media-election-hacking/

By: Dan Engelke
Date: 2016-10-17

In August, the corporate media was falling all over itself with breathless coverage on how Russia is interfering in the US election. Back then, stories citing experts suggested that voting machines were vulnerable to tampering that could change the outcome of the vote. A month later, something curious happened.

By September, government officials were doing all they could to tamp down those concerns, and the media duly reported their reassurances.

Should the public be comforted that election mischief will be homegrown?

The articles, usually citing active government officials, serve a dual purpose in reassuring the public: First, there is no way Russia can hack the election, despite cyber hacks in the Illinois and Arizona voter registration banks. Meanwhile, the message is also to insist Russian President Vladimir Putin is still giving orders to disrupt US cyberspace. This latter message culminated in the Obama administration publicly blaming the Russian government for trying to influence the election in early October.

In an Oligarchy, Voting is a Tool to Manufacture the Illusion of Consent

In an Oligarchy, Voting is a Tool to Manufacture the Illusion of Consent

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/10/21/oligarchy-voting-tool-manufacture-illusion-consent/

By: Dylan Charles
Date: 2016-10-21

If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far from election 2016 it’s that the American people do not understand their government.

The perception is that we have a democracy, and that in this democracy we the people have vested power in our government which we exercise through the act of voting. ‘Throw the bastards out,’ has long since been the war cry of the impotent democrat, yet we no longer even have a democracy to cling to, and although most people choose to ignore it, this fact of life has been visible for decades.

An oligarchical government is a form of rule in which a small group of wealthy individuals have control over the critical mechanisms of state power, industry and economy. These people are unelected, unaccountable and they exercise control on behalf of their personal financial interests, drawing on the productive power of a nation to support their lifestyles and geopolitical ambitions. The ruling class in such a nation is often comprised of dynastic families who pass the baton of power back and forth between themselves, managing the illusion of change and evolution while never actually ceding their franchise over the masses.

The Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton phenomenon is a contemporary example of this exchange.

Voter Suppression Is a Much Bigger Problem Than Voter Fraud

Voter Suppression Is a Much Bigger Problem Than Voter Fraud

Trump’s rigged election lies distract from the real threat to American democracy.

https://www.thenation.com/article/voter-suppression-is-a-much-bigger-problem-than-voter-fraud/

By: Ari Berman
Date: 2016-10-20

Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the legitimacy of the presidential election is an unprecedented attack on the foundation of American democracy and rightly drew widespread condemnation from political and media leaders.

Yet many Republicans, while condemning Trump’s comments, still stoked fears of a rigged election after the third presidential debate. “Let’s not kid ourselves, can we please not act like voter fraud and irregularities don’t exist,” said RNC Chair Reince Preibus. “I don’t think you’re going to get Republicans to back down on the fact that voter fraud is real and it needs to be dealt with, but it isn’t something in most cases that overthrows an election.”

Rigging the Election - Video I: Clinton Campaign and DNC Incite Violence at Trump Rallies

Rigging the Election - Video I: Clinton Campaign and DNC Incite Violence at Trump Rallies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuJGHuIkzY

By: Project Veritas Action
Date: 2016-10-17

In this explosive new video from Project Veritas Action, a Democratic dirty tricks operative unwittingly provides a dark money trail to the DNC and Clinton campaign. The video documents violence at Trump rallies that is traced to the Clinton campaign and the DNC through a process called birddogging.

A shady coordinated communications chain between the DNC, Clinton Campaign, Hillary Clinton’s Super PAC (Priorities) and other organizations are revealed. A key Clinton operative is on camera saying, “It doesn’t matter what the friggin’ legal and ethics people say, we need to win this motherfucker."

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Rigging the Election – Video III: Creamer Confirms Hillary Clinton Was PERSONALLY Involve

Rigging the Election – Video III: Creamer Confirms Hillary Clinton Was PERSONALLY Involve

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEQvsK5w-jY

Date: 2016-10-24

Part III of the undercover Project Veritas Action investigation dives further into the back room dealings of Democratic politics. It exposes prohibited communications between Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC and the non-profit organization Americans United for Change. And, it’s all disguised as a duck. In this video, several Project Veritas Action undercover journalists catch Democracy Partners founder directly implicating Hillary Clinton in FEC violations. “In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground,” says Creamer in one of several exchanges. “So, by God, we would get ducks on the ground.” It is made clear that high-level DNC operative Creamer realized that this direct coordination between Democracy Partners and the campaign would be damning when he said: “Don’t repeat that to anybody.” The first video explained the dark secrets and the hidden connections and organizations the Clinton campaign uses to incite violence at Trump rallies. The second video exposed a diabolical step-by-step voter fraud strategy discussed by top Democratic operatives and showed one key operative admitting that the Democrats have been rigging elections for fifty years. This latest video takes this investigation even further.

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

States Keep Weaseling Around Court Orders Blocking GOP Voting Restrictions

Clerk Note: {forgotten}

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States Keep Weaseling Around Court Orders Blocking GOP Voting Restrictions

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/voter-restrictions-state-court-orders-undermined

By: Tierney Sneed
Date: 2016-10-06

“You take a step back and it’s really appalling,” said Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project who has been involved in many of the legal challenges to state voting restrictions.

“I mean the Department of Justice and other groups, we have all won the cases ... you would have thought we would have been finished with this whole thing, when, up until Election Day, we have to stay on these people," Ho told TPM.

At times, it’s hard to pin down whether issues red states have faced in implementing court orders have been motivated by bureaucratic incompetence or something worse. But the pattern is undeniable. In almost every state where voting rights advocates have scored a major legal victory in recent months, they have had to threaten to drag state officials back into court over the shoddy job election administrators have done following the rulings.

Voter Fraud Lawsuit Hits Hillary’s Campaign

Voter Fraud Lawsuit Hits Hillary’s Campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU3yz_8sOwo&feature=youtu.be

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The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Could the U.S. election be hacked? It's not so unlikely

Could the U.S. election be hacked? It's not so unlikely

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pringle-election-hacking-1.3713911

By: Ramona Pringle
Date: 2016-08-10

Recent attempts at campaign-directed cyber-attacks have raised red flags about just how vulnerable the upcoming U.S. election is to hackers.

With the FBI currently investigating alleged Russian efforts to undermine the Democratic Party through hacking attempts, how concerned should elections officials – and voters — be about the security of electronic voting procedures?

What is to keep the U.S. election process free of hackers when even large corporations can't keep their data secure?

Yes, It's Possible to Hack the Election

Yes, It's Possible to Hack the Election

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hack-election/story?id=41489017

By: Richard Clarke
Date: 2016-08-19

After reports of alleged Russian hacking into Democratic Party computer networks, some commentators have suggested that the Russians could hack the results of the U.S. elections. Other analysts have, well before this year’s campaign, suggested that election results in the U.S. could be electronically manipulated, including by our fellow Americans. So could an American election’s outcome be altered by a malicious actor on a computer keyboard?

I have had three jobs that, together, taught me at least one thing: If it’s a computer, it can be hacked. For Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, I served as the White House senior cybersecurity policy adviser. For President Barack Obama, I served on his five-person post–Edward Snowden investigative group on the National Security Agency, intelligence and technology. And for over a decade I have advised American corporations on cybersecurity.

Those experiences confirm my belief that if sophisticated hackers want to get into any computer or electronic device, even one that is not connected to the internet, they can do so.

The "Shocking" Truth About Election Rigging in the United States

The "Shocking" Truth About Election Rigging in the United States

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37486-the-shocking-truth-about-election-rigging-in-america

By: Victoria Collier
Date: 2016-09-05

RICK: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
POLICE CAPTAIN RENAULT: I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
CROUPIER (handing Renault a pile of money): Your winnings, sir.
CAPTAIN RENAULT: Oh, thank you, very much... Everybody out, at once!
(Scene from  Casablanca.)

If there is anything positive to say about the 2016 elections, it's that they have finally forced an end to the official denial of computerized election rigging. In the past month, the fact that our voting technology is a hacker's paradise has been validated by no less than all the major TV news networks: NBC, ABC, CBS, Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, USA Today, The Hill, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Politico, and a dozen other outlets.

Of course, the corporate media and political parties are now professing "shock" at the very prospect that US elections can be manipulated, and yes, even stolen. 

Yet it has long been an open secret that game-changing races have been decided not by voters, but by insiders; from the presidential race of 1960, appropriated for John Kennedy by Democratic muscle in Chicago, to the two victories secured for George W. Bush by GOP fixers in  Florida and hackers in  Ohio. Among other  suspect elections in recent years are key Congressional races hijacked by combinations of voter suppression, gerrymandering, dark money and the ugly little secret of American elections: rigged voting machines.

Eustace Moitt checks voting booths for supplies at a polling station in New York, on June 26, 2012. (Todd Heisler / The New York Times)

Fabricated Claims About Russian “Covert Plot” to Disrupt US Elections

Fabricated Claims About Russian “Covert Plot” to Disrupt US Elections

http://www.globalresearch.ca/fabricated-claims-about-russian-covert-plot-to-disrupt-us-elections/5544484

By: Stephen Lendman
Date: 2016-09-08

Hillary is so irreparably tainted and unfit to serve, her key strategy is diverting attention from her wrongdoing two ways – bashing Trump beyond customary campaign jousting and spreading misinformation and Big Lies about Russia, using the media as press agents to do her dirty work.

Neocon Washington Post editors and staff one-sidedly support her, one of many examples of how low US media scoundrels have sunk – transforming themselves into disgraceful laughing stocks.

The way to stay misinformed and brainwashed is by following their reports. WaPo’s latest anti-Russia harangue is claiming a potential covert plot to disrupt November elections.

The Dirty Tricks of Election Thieves

The Dirty Tricks of Election Thieves

http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/08/31/dirty-tricks-election-thieves/

By: Dan Engelke
Date: 2016-08-31

Republican operatives have employed a series of “dubious practices” that will result in millions of eligible voters to be purged from the rolls ahead of the election, investigative reporter and filmmaker Greg Palast told WhoWhatWhy.

Among these tactics is the implementation of the “Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program” that is used in 30 GOP-controlled states. Its stated purpose is to make sure that voters are not registered in different states. Supposedly, a strict methodology is applied to guarantee that eligible voters are not inadvertently included.

However, Palast claims the program is being used to prevent millions of likely Democrats from voting. In his new film “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” he details the “scams” used to steal the 2016 presidential election.

Greg Palast Photo credit: Greg Palast / YouTube

Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

Clerk Note: Worth going to the source URL to see the interactive images as you scroll down the short article.

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Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/01/us/elections/nine-percent-of-america-selected-trump-and-clinton.html?_r=0

By: Alicia Parlapiano and Adam Pearce
Date: 2016-08-01

The United States is home to 324 million people. Each square here represents 1 million people.

Vulnerable Voting Machine Raises Questions About Election Security

Clerk Note: Saw a short Facebook video involving 341 pennies, each representing 1 million US Citizens. It removes pennies for those too young to vote or not allowed to vote. It shows dramatically how small the two major parties are in representing the US, let alone the even smaller numbers that supposedly nominated the Republican & Democratic presidential candidates. 161 million US citizens did not vote for them. We already know about the disenfranchise games in the primaries.

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Vulnerable Voting Machine Raises Questions About Election Security

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/16/399986331/hacked-touchscreen-voting-machine-raises-questions-about-election-security

By: Pam Fessler
Date: 2015-04-16

Computer security experts have warned for years that some voting machines are vulnerable to attack. And this week, in Virginia, the state Board of Elections decided to impose an immediate ban on touchscreen voting machines used in 20 percent of the state's precincts, because of newly discovered security concerns.

The problems emerged on Election Day last November in Spotsylvania County. The AVS WINVote touchscreen machines used in precinct 302 began to shut down.

"One machine would go and crash. They'd bring it back up. Another one would crash," said Edgardo Cortes, the state's elections commissioner. "Starting in the early afternoon, they brought in a piece of replacement equipment that experienced the same issues when they set it up in the precinct."

Cortes added that elections workers had a theory about what had caused the problem.

"There was some interference," he said, "potentially from a wireless signal from an election officer [who] was streaming music on their phone."