whoa

Before the news and political pundits start telling the Democratic party how they need to be more "evangelical" or less intellectual or more "moral," let's look at what the situation is.

The opponents (sometimes known as the Republican party but identifiable as a radical right wing segment of said party) have made it clear that they will do anything to get/stay in power.

• Prevent black voters from voting? - Fine.
• Lie, to lead a country into war? - Sure.
• Expose a covert agent of the US in order to exact revenge (and consequently warn enemies not to cross them)? - Why not?

Given their history, what do you think are the odds that they'd commit voter fraud. I mean actually messing with the vote numbers?

Well, lets look at the facts. Walden O'Dell, the head of the Diebold company (which makes electronic voting machines), in a letter last year to fellow Republicans, made this statement:

I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year.

- Wally O'Dell, CEO Diebold

Most of us know that these machines are notoriously insecure.

For the first time in history, it may be possible to rig an election on a national scale. Vote-rigging has been part of every election process in history — but never before have so few people had access to so many votes at once!

This statement is from BlackBoxVoting.com web site and Steven Levy, of Newsweek writes about the topic of electronic vote tampering in his article. This has already become a topic of major interest in the blogosphere. I mean doesn't it seem strange that all these "exit polls" turned out to be way off?

Again, from BlackBoxVoting.com comes this report:

I entered my vote for John Kerry and after I finished entering all my votes, it took me to a review page. I then saw the "presidential vote" saying George Bush. I didn't mention it at the polling office because i thought it was my error. After I talked to my friends and several of them experienced the same thing. I just wonder how many people DIDN'T check their votes.

So, given Greg Palast's latest report and the people we're dealing with, lets wait until the votes are fully counted before we tell the Democrats how they have to change.