Election Fraud?

There probably has not been a day that has gone by since the election that I have not received an email or found an article on the web from someone crying about the outcome of the election and blaming it on election fraud. Having no real data to back up my skepticism of these arguments, I criticized them anyway.

Here's an article from people who seem to know what they are talking about when it comes to the electoral system and statistical analysis. They argue that even granting Kerry all of the contested votes the "Kerry won" crowd say he should have recieved the numbers that they trot out still would have not given him enough votes in Ohio. And given Bush's overwhelming increase in numbers in the popular vote particularly in blue states, the fraud numbers they come up with still don't add up for a win for Kerry. They also argue that the statistical analysis of some of the "the vote was fixed" folk is just plain wrong. Lot's of people in Florida other southern states register as Democrats but vote Republican in presidential elections. This is true whether one uses a electronic voting machine or not.

The authors of the article argue that the problem is not outright fraud but a disallocation of resources for voting machines and infrastructure to wealthy areas making their voting process far more efficient and accurate than in poorer and more Democratic areas thus giving an advantage to the Republicans from an institutional point of view.

The "left" needs to look inward. The backbone of the left, the labor unions, spent tens of millions on Kerry and keeping Nader off the ballot. They will get nothing from these efforts. Other social movements, particularly the anti-war movent have suffered because of the electoral focus of many "leftists" over the last year. They spent their time going door to door for a corporate shill (particularly insurance and pharmacuetical companies) and supporter of the war when they could have been out organizing protests against poluters or the war or organizing workers in factories or in service industries.

Presidential elections are a waste of time. The Democratic party has been spending a lions share of its resources on the top of the ticket for years now and the results are disturbing. A majority of state houses, governships, and even some big cities are now run by Republicans. This is a direct result of the Democratic parties abadonment of core principles and playing to the suburbs or middling voters. The base is not being organized around issues because they are too busy, particularly at the top of the ticket, trying to keep Wall Street and up scale socially liberal suburbanites happy. They need to start putting all their efforts into organizing the stae houses on the local level so that the votes will trickle up not down.

The Republicans have done the opposite of the Democrats since 1964. They have turned hard right, energized their base and people across the country have responded because even if they don't agree withem on all of the isuues at least they stand for something. Quick name three issues John Kerry was FOR, OK just one. Here's the lesson not the lesson of the 1992 election of Bill Clinton that brought us NAFTA, GATT, welfare "reform," more cops and jails and war in Bosnia, oh yeah and years and years of talk about Hillary!