Posted on 11/06/2012 8:46:52 AM PST by Question_Assumptions
THE world has watched the American Presidential election with mounting disbelief as tales of incompetence and skullduggery have emerged. None of these electoral misdeeds have surprised me - but I am puzzled that they have taken this long to be uncovered. I know they occur: I fixed an election myself.
In 1976, I was a campaign worker for Jimmy Carter and during the Democratic primaries, I was sent to Pennsylvania for a day to help out in any way I could. The night before the election, I was told I would be a poll-watcher in a district in South Philadelphia. I had no idea what this entailed but it was explained that I would be at a polling station to ensure that the process went legally and smoothly.
South Philly, a heavily Italian district, was a stronghold of Carter's opponent in the primary, Henry "Scoop" Jackson, an old-guard Democrat with strong links to the labor unions and with Philadephia's Italian-American Mayor Rizzo in his camp. The Carter consensus was that Jackson would win easily in South Philly, but I was there to make sure he did so lawfully. "Check the back of the machine as soon as you get there," I was advised. "Make sure there are no votes registered on it before the place has opened."
This shocked me. Every time a vote is cast, the back of the voting machine records it on what looks like a car mileage gauge, so at the end of the day the poll supervisors know how many people have voted. If the gauge registered a number of votes before the poll had opened, someone would have to have rigged the machine. Not only was this profoundly un-American, I couldn't believe it could happen in 1976.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
How is it that there has never been this kind of fraud in favor of Republicans? Coincidence?
I know a number of Democrats who will tell you that only Republicans steal votes, rig machines, and throw away Democrat’s registration forms.
This is why it is so important for every pro Romney registered voter to vote. To carry the day he will need a lot of “insurance votes” to make up for the illicit votes cast for Obama via their so called ground-game.
I know someone (a Democrat) who had to rip her dead first husband’s page out of the voting book in Hudson County NJ, aftr repeated repeated requests to have it taken out. She could see signatures that he was voting, even though he was dead. The poll workers objected and she dared them to call the police. I’m sure it happens in some Republican strongholds, but I find it difficult to believe it happens with the machine precision that it happens in urban Democrat strongholds.
“How is it that there has never been this kind of fraud in favor of Republicans? Coincidence?”
It’s in the nature of who we are, and who they are.
Who came out with the voter suppression mantra early on? It was merely a very old political tactic so as to provide PR cover for what the Dems were planning to do everywhere they can all along.
I hate say this, but there was a time that Philadelphia was run by a Republican machine. The Democrats learned a lot of their dirty tricks from Republicans and felt entitled to use the tricks on Republicans as payback.
Interesting story ping
I know, but I have never seen a single instance of it. The best Dems can do is make hysterical claims about voting machines, claims that are based on projection. There has always been dem fraud; it seems to me it’s getting so bad that it is going beyond just swaying really close elections. I think fraud may have contributed 5 % to Harry Reid in 2010, for example. If it continues, the choice for Republicans is to accept losing, cheat, or give up on ballots as the way to decide isues. It is a bad set of choices. I think that first priority for a Republican admin is a package of voting reforms that include ID, a new federal investigative bureau for voting fraud, and stiff prison time for voting illegally. Right now, illegal voting is only punished if you are Republican. Get caught, well, boys will be boys.
btt
How long ago are you talking about? The 1920s? Dems have controlled the inner cities since FDR, and the only machines I am familiar with are the Dem ones in NY and Boston, and Chicago. If the GOP controlled Philly with a machine, it was long ago and short-lived, and not characteristic of Republican governance. Corrupt machine politics, power for the sake of power, not policy, is part of the lifeblood of the Democrat party.
This is why the machines need to have two counters. When I worked as a precinct chief in Fairfax county, VA, we had a number of safety protocols designed to insure the integrity of the vote. I’ll detail them here:
(1) Each vote machine was delivered in a sealed configuration with a metal band securing it and stamped with a unique number. We had this number in advance and knew exactly what to expect. Moreover, each individual voting machine had a serial number that we were privy too. That made it easy to determine by inspection that a particularly numbered machine (1234) was secured by a metal band (567-890).
(2) Each voting machine had two counters. One was a protected analog counter and was essentially an odometer. It recorded the total number of votes ever taken on the machine. Our standard process was to verify that the protected counters had numbers which matched what our Poll Opening procedures/worksheets.
(3) The other counter was a digital counter and when the polls opened, it was certified as reading ‘0’.
The thing which is incredibly disconcerting is that we know how to put safeguards in place to reduce the chances of fraud. Even in Fairfax County, VA, they tried to make sure that poll worker’s party affiliation was evenly split, with the Chief of Precinct reflecting the party of the governor by tradition, and the Asst. Chief the other party.
Poll watchers were completely free to observe our poll set up and initial certification and our poll close process, complete with all of the totalizing, recording, and final signatures and sealing of the results.
Transparancy is so important during elections and if Romney wins, there needs to be a serious conversation about the integrity of voting.
bfl
Republicans dominated Philadelphia politics from the civil war to the early 1950’s. The corruption started to occur in the 1910’s and 1920’s. Don’t think of this as a conservative thing. There were and still are “progressive” Republicans.
We keep missing the bigger issue....why do they cheat? Why do Democrats spend millions of dollars and cheat for these measly government jobs? For the bucks? Good grief, Paleface Lizzy Warren made over $350,000 in one year for teaching one class at Harvard. Who gives up a sweet gig like that for Senator’s pay? They have to be elected because THAT IS WHERE THE REAL MONEY TO BE STOLE IS. Rob a bank and you might get shot. Rob the public treasury and get re-elected. Politics isn’t some cross-town high school football game for the Democrats. Politics is where fortunes are made for them. They’ll do anything to win.
Corruption afflicts any entrenched power structure. Republicans and Democrats reward themselves and their supporters if they can. I wasnt aware of a Tamanny hall type machine of Republicans in Philly, the kind that perpetuates its rule through patronage and vote fraud. If there was one, I have learned something new.
Thanks Question_Assumptions.
When I worked for Nixon-Lodge in 1959-60 in Cook County (IL), I could tell you stories of what I saw going on at Kennedy-Johnson HQ and CC voting stations, that make this pale in comparison. This stuff is SOP for dems. The newspapers/TV were in on it, even way back then. Nothing’s changed; other than it’s more subtle and refined.
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