Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott's announcement yesterday would be somewhat akin to George W. Bush asking then FEMA Chief, Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown to head up a review of how FEMA and the Federal government performed in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Or, perhaps asking Karl Rove or Dick Cheney to get to the bottom of that whole Valerie Plame outing thing.

The only worse, less independent person who could possibly be chosen to head up a "review" of what went wrong in this year's disastrous election in Florida would be Scott himself.

But since his hand-picked Sec. of State Ken Detzner carried out every single one of Scott's horrendous, un-American orders to restrict voting and voter registration and to try and toss eligible voters off the rolls this year, resulting in even active-duty military voters getting purged, all while ignoring actual, massive voter registration fraud carried out by the Republican Party of Florida itself (until it could no longer be ignored), it may as well be Scott himself in charge of this so-called "review" in which Detzner has been assigned to tell us all why it was that, among other things, voters were still in line trying to cast their votes at 2am on Wednesday morning in Miami-Dade, even as the President of the United States was delivering his re-election victory speech in Chicago.

Heckuva job, Scottie!

Scott has already, repeatedly since Election Day, declared that he did "the right thing" by slashing Early Voting from 14 days to just 8 in Florida this year, and then refusing to expand those hours on the weekend before the election --- unlike both of his Republican predecessors Governors Charlie Crist and even Jeb Bush --- once it became clear that voters were standing in line for 6, 7 hours and longer simply trying to cast their vote...

[UPDATE: As of 6:00pm PT, the KPOJ website has now flipped to "Fox Sports AM 620 Portland".]

This is horrible. Tonight, without warning, Clear Channel Communications-owned 620 AM KPOJ in Portland, Oregon, one of the most progressive cities in one of the nation's most progressive states, has flipped from its years-long progressive news and talk format over to Fox Sports as of 5:30pm local time.

KPOJ was the only commercial progressive talk radio station in Portland. The city will still have several other Rightwing talk radio stations, including one owned by Clear Channel, and they already have two sports stations, but the Bain Capital-owned media conglomerate is now killing yet another progressive voice from our publicly-owned airwaves.

An earlier piece today in The Oregonian had reported that the station would be flipping as of Monday. An UPDATE in the Willamette Weekly, however, reports that the station, which had long featured Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Thom Hartmann (who had broadcast for years out of KPOJ until moving his show to Washington D.C.) and other progressive talkers, will change to its Fox Sports format as of this evening.

The BRAD BLOG can now confirm that KPOJ has flipped its programming format and website to Fox Sports as of 6:00pm PT tonight.

When one company owns "competing" talk radio stations in the same town, and gets to decide which one enjoys a stronger signal and which one receives promotional dollars (and which one doesn't), "competition" in the market place is a mirage. It's the equivalent of a Coca-Cola distributor owning the sole rights to distribute both Coke and Pepsi in the same town. Which one do you think is going to sell better there? That's precisely what talk radio is like in almost every major market in the country now. One company, usually Clear Channel, generally owns both the "Right" and "Left" talk stations. (In Portland, Clear Channel owns Rightwing talk outlet KEX as well as KPOJ.) Promoting one station would likely decrease listeners and ratings --- and, thus, ad dollars --- for the other. Thus, there is no "free market" competition in talk radio.

This is hardly the first time that Clear Channel has done the same thing, in very progressive cities, underscoring yet again that there is no real, "free market" competition in talk radio over our publicly-owned airwaves. The market place is decidedly rigged...

Last Saturday, we told you about a rare case of polling place voter fraud, when a Republican voter attempted to vote twice in Nevada during Early Voting in the state. Appropriately enough, she was quickly arrested and taking into custody by the FBI. Nevada's system of preventing double-voting at the polls worked well and efficiently, it seems, despite the woman's deluded, disinformed, Fox "News"-fueled belief to the contrary.

Now, however, 56-year old Roxanne Rubin, the woman who was arrested when she showed up for work at the Riviera hotel-casino last Friday for her attempted voter fraud, is reportedly claiming that she was just "testing" the system.

And she's not the only one. On Election Day, another Republican, this one a party-trained poll watcher, was detained in New Mexico after claiming to have been "testing" the system by obtaining a second ballot.

Ironically, after years of false allegations of "Democratic voter fraud" by the GOP and their minions, it has been Republicans this year who have been found defrauding the system in state after state, in case after case. They are failing their own "test"...

On Election Night, Democrats and progressives celebrated the reported defeat of far Rightwing Tea Party-backed Rep. Allen West (R-FL22) by his Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy in Florida's newly redistricted 18th Congressional district in Eastern Florida.

With precinct votes unofficially tabulated in the three counties which comprise the new Democratic-leaning district --- Martin, St. Lucie and part of Palm Beach --- Murphy reportedly leads West by 2,456 votes out of 318,200 electronically tallied to date. That number does not include what West's campaign manager describes as "tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted in Palm Beach County and potential provisional ballots across the district."

Nonetheless, Murphy has declared victory, which carries no particular legal weight, while West has filed legal documents in St. Lucie and Palm Beach calling for the impounding of voting systems, paper ballots and a hand-count of those ballots.

West may be a far Right extremist. A fair amount of evidence even suggests that West may be certifiably insane. But, even far right, possibly insane candidates, and especially their supporters, deserve to have their votes counted in a way that they can know, for certain, that they either won or lost an election.

Given the oft-failed, easily-manipulated, unoverseeable electronic voting and tabulation systems --- each with a long and well-documented record of failure and miscounts --- used in the three counties that make up Florida's new 18th district (as well as the rest of the state of Florida, and the rest of the 50 states for that matter), West and his supporters have every reason to demand a public, 100% hand-count of paper ballots before conceding defeat. Particularly in an election with such a slim margin, as reported by the flawed electronic systems, said to stand between the two candidates...

Today on my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show: My take on what did and didn't go right and wrong during yesterday's 2012 elections --- there was plenty of each --- and what now needs to be done about it all.

Plus, investigative journalist Bob Fitrakis from Ohio's Free Press on OH Sec. of State Jon Husted's secret, uncertified, "experimental" software installed on vote counting systems in 39 counties just days before the 2012 election, and Fitrakis' state and federal lawsuits to try to block it...

Download MP3 or listen online below [appx 58 mins]...

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to nap for a while. Need it desperately. But lots to do. So, back soon...

We've got a lot of mopping up to do around here today, tomorrow and in the days and weeks ahead. There are still races outstanding, recounts apparently coming and, despite encouraging reported results yesterday, an electoral system left in shambles. If you haven't noticed or guessed, yes, we intend to hold President Obama to this remark (and many more) from his victory speech last night.

Keep in mind, by the way, that while the President was promising to "fix that" problem, at 2am ET, voters were actually still reportedly in line to vote in Miami-Dade County, FL. An American disgrace.

For the moment, however, we're scrambling to prepare for our KPFK/Pacifica Radio show an hour from now, during which we'll have plenty to discuss, and will also be joined by Bob Fitrakis of Ohio's Free Press, to discuss the matter of OH Sec. of State's Jon Husted's last-minute, uncertified, "experimental" software installed secretly on the vote tabulators of 39 Buckeye State counties and Fitrakis' day in two different courtrooms challenging it yesterday. [UPDATE: That interview is now posted here.]

So, for now, two quick things. One: Our usual reminder that while much of the front-end voter suppression stuff yesterday was plainly obvious, it's often not until the days and, sometimes, weeks or more after any given election that the most serious concerns about election integrity issues having to do with things like voting machines and computer tabulators begin to come to light. And two: Since we were so buried yesterday chasing down incoming reports and talking about what was going on on more media outlets than we care to count, we didn't get to offer a compiled list of reporting voting system problems.

Here's a few of those problems that we can all start digging into a bit...

"I want to thank every American who participated in this election ... whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time ... By the way, we have to fix that." - President Barack Obama, November 6th, 2012

From the front page of the Fox "News" website...

That said...Fox' Chris Wallace just reported he heard from the Romney campaign "who is unhappy with us for calling Ohio for Barack Obama". Karl Rove makes a case that Romney can still win Ohio, says the call by Fox is "premature". In a trip to the Fox 'News' "Decision Desk" room, Megyn Kelly is told by their statistician that there aren't enough votes out there for Romney to win. The "Decision Desk" says they are "99.95%" certain.

And then...

[Now UPDATED at bottom with comment from Philadelphia's election chief, City Commissioner Stephanie Singer .]

Okay, this one is quite troubling. It's being reported that long time voters in Philadelphia have been showing up to vote today, only to find out that they are not on the voting rolls anymore at all.

In the bargain, "large numbers" of voters are being forced to vote on provisional ballots which may, or may not be counted later.

This is beyond the reports we've seen all day of voters being forced to vote provisionally after inaccurate instructions that they must have a Photo ID to vote. These are long time voters, who have voted for many years in the same place, simply missing from the rolls.

Does this indicate a larger problem than we can even know about yet in Pennsylvania? Here's the details...

Luckily, it's "only" Florida.

More than 12,500 voters received robocalls this morning from the Pinellas County, FL Supervisor of Elections office, letting them know that the deadline for turning in their absentee ballot was "tomorrow", the day after the election. Unfortunately, the real deadline for turning in absentee ballots is 7pm today, Election Day, Tuesday, November 6th.

Pinellas County is home to Tampa and St. Petersburg. So here's why this monumental screw-up, presuming that's what it was, seems to have happened...

We just posted an item about the Rightwing's pretend "non-partisan" "election integrity" group True the Vote having forged the names of its own volunteers in Franklin County, OH where they have now been barred from participating in poll-watching.

Now we see this from the Houston NAACP [PDF]...

The Houston Chronicle picked up the story today as well.

Well, imagine that, the very first reported fraud of Election Day 2012 appears to have been committed by the supposedly anti-fraud, Rightwing "election integrity" group, True the Vote, in Ohio. Their election observers poll-challengers, as Plunderbund reports, "will not be allowed in Franklin County polling locations" today after they appear to have forged signatures of their very own volunteers...

This seems to be the first official video of touch-screen vote-flipping 2012, reportedly captured today in Pennsylvania, where elected officials so disrespect their own voters that they still force almost all of them to vote on these 100% unverifiable systems...

Congrats, and thank you to the voter who was wise enough to capture the problem on his video cell phone! He described the problem this way on the YouTube page where the video was posted:

Of course, this same sort of thing has happened every single election since 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting was forced on Americans ten years ago or so, but when it was first heavily reported by Democrats as having happened in 2004 all across the country, Republicans (and elections officials of all parties) called them "conspiracy theorists" and sore losers. Here's just a couple of examples caught on video from 2008. I've even written an entire chapter for Sonoma University's Project Censored book, Censored 2010, about the largely unreported nationwide vote-flipping epidemic during the 2008 election.

This year, it's been the Republicans who have finally decided, wisely, to be concerned about it. Last week, the GOP sent a letter [PDF] to top election officials in six different states, offering bad advice to them about what they should do, after a few unconfirmed complaints of touch-screen votes flipping from Romney to Obama were reported.

We briefly reported on the matter a few days ago this way:

Fortunately, it's being reported that the machine seen above has been taken out of service, rather than re-calibrated as so often happens, and as the GOP stupidly requested be done in such instances.

[Update: Mother Jones is now reporting that PA Dept of State officials are saying "they recalibrated the machine, did a test run, and put it back online." That's the dumbest thing they could do. Wonder who "fixed" it?]

All of that said, last night we offered several tips for voting today in ways that might help maximize the chances of your vote being counted and counted accurately. We included these quick tips on WHAT TO DO IF YOUR VOTE FLIPS ON A TOUCH-SCREEN MACHINE:

First and foremost:

• If you have problems or see problems at the polls, be sure to report them to 866-OUR-VOTE, or at OurVoteLive.org!

• Catch any problems at the polls on photo or video? Upload it to YouTube and social sites, and tell VideoTheVote.org! Also tag it with the #VideoTheVote hashtag.

• Be at the polls when they close and photograph and video tape the results tapes that are printed out from electronic systems. Results have a way of changing between the time they're printed out at the close of polls and the time they show up on the web. Your photographic evidence could help save an election!

• Watching results on the web throughout the night? Take screenshots, save them as you go, and include a timestamp in the filename when you do. Those web results also have a way of changing, sometimes in the wrong direction, throughout the night. Your evidence could help save an election!

Vote on a Paper Ballot!

• In some places, it may be too late to vote on paper ballots. In others, know your rights and whether you are entitled to vote on a paper ballot if you wish, even if they try to direct you towards an electronic voting system. For example, in OH and CA every voter may vote on paper if they wish and if they know to ask for one. So (politely) demand a paper ballot! Check with your County Clerk or Sec. of State if you're not sure.

• A touch-screen system with a little paper printout is NOT a paper ballot! Those paper printouts are never counted and your vote will be 100% unverifiable, like Barack Obama's foolishly was. We made this short toon to explain that point quickly in 2008, so let's roll it out once again...

If You Must Vote on Touch-Screen and Your Vote Flips...

• Try to capture it with your cell phone camera
• Call poll supervisors to observe the problem.
• Fill out a problem report.
• Refuse to vote on that machine.
• Request that the machine be taken out of service.
• Get the serial number of the machine if possible (may be difficult in some cases).
• Tell other voters in line which machine it was and that they should NOT vote on that machine!
• Report it to county/town election office.
• Report it to the Secretary of State.
• Call local reporters and tell them the story.
• Call 866-OUR-VOTE and tell them.
• Contact bloggers and Election Integrity websites.
• Raise holy hell.

Other Useful Stuff to Keep in Mind

• Make sure you have the exact type of ID you'll need to be able to vote before you leave for the polls. If you're unsure what type of ID is needed, check with your Sec. of State or County Clerk.

• Be prepared for disgracefully long lines, particularly in swing states. Your vote definitely won't get counted, much less accurately, if you leave the line before voting.

• If you're challenged by a pollwatcher, take their picture with your cell phone, get their name, and then report it to 866-OUR-VOTE. But do NOT leave without voting, at the very least on a provisional ballot. But try to vote on a normal ballot, not a provisional ballot, if you possibly can.

• If you're in line when the polls close, you still get to vote. Period.

• Help others stay in line. If you can offer water, folding chairs, a snack, etc., to those in line fighting to cast their vote, you're doing a great public service for what's left of our democracy.

• Share this list and/or this blog item with others. Print it out, share it via social networks, etc. to help spread the word.

Election protection begins with you! Good luck! You may need it!

Got any more advice we should add to this list? Let us know in the Comments section...

Wow! We've got a new winner of the much sought, if incredibly rarely bestowed "BRAD BLOG Intellectually Honest Conservative Award!" It's so rarely bestowed, in fact, that it seems like several years since we've found anyone to bestow one upon for some odd reason...

Via Tal Kopan at Politico...

Here's the short clip. Try to ignore the remarkably daft Chuck Todd when you watch it...

Might have been nice if Schmidt had said something about this earlier, for example when his old boss, during a 2008 Presidential Debate falsely claimed that ACORN was "perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." Or when his party was on a tear passing purposely disenfranchising polling place Photo ID restriction laws in advance of this year's Presidential election.

Nonetheless, so desperate are we to find an Intellectually Honest Conservative out there somewhere, anywhere, that we'll even generously overlook all of that today and simply say: Congratulations, Mr. Schmidt! And thank you!

P.S. For those new to The BRAD BLOG, please note that "voter fraud", which is exceedingly rare, especially by voters at the polling place, is not the same as "election fraud" by insiders who are able to game the system via manipulation of things like voter rolls and electronic vote tabulation systems which can be manipulated in a matter of seconds to flip the results of an entire election with little possibility of ever being detected. You're welcome.