Guest Blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite.Org
August 11 is the date for the Iowa GOP presidential “straw poll.” In this “straw poll” Republican voters from all over Iowa will walk, drive, or share a bus to the campus of Iowa State University where they will be allowed to pay $35 each for the honor of casting a ballot for their choice for President.
This “poll” is semi-important within the world of Republican politics. Both McCain and Giuliani have decided to pass and will not participate. However, for the candidates who are lower down in the polls this “straw poll” may be all important. The supporters of Dr. Ron Paul, for instance, claim that he has thousands of supporters within the state and that they are going to do all they can to get them to Ames.
With all of that the supporters of Paul have got another gripe and concern that sounds much like the same concern many in the Election Integrity community have; the poll, which used to be done on paper ballots, hand-counted in public, will be conducted on Diebold Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. The Ron Paul group is very concerned that the machines will be gamed in order to make their candidate’s showing less than what it should be and in order to inflate the results for those whom the Republican National Committee (RNC) want to have a good showing.
The following email was sent by a member of Paul’s support group to a large list of Election Integrity groups:
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 9:51 AM
Subject: VOTE FRAUD RED ALERT: Diebold electronic voting machines to be used at Iowa straw poll!
The Iowa GOP has decided to use Diebold electronic voting machines at the Iowa straw poll on August 11th. The straw poll has always been counted in the open with paper ballots…until now. They are about to deny the people the vote again, this time to turn back the popular groundswell of support for Dr. Ron Paul.
Please investigate and spread the word! Please reach across the aisle and help! This affects ALL Americans! PLEASE MONITOR THIS STRAW POLL!
Yours in support of Ron Paul for President,
Steven Vincent
North Hollywood Ron Paul Meetup
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/104/
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”: Gandhi
Vincent is incorrect when he says that the straw poll has always been counted in the open and with paper ballots. In 1995 voting machines were used and there was some dispute because Sen. Dole and Sen. Graham got the same number of votes exactly.
Nonetheless, we’ll keep our eye on this one, as it could be an interesting moment with touch-screen Diebold DREs at the center of national attention on that day. Particularly if something goes — obviously — wrong. Unfortunately, the trouble with DREs, is that most of the problems aren’t obvious at all. Hence, the grave danger they pose to democracy…
I hope someone in the election integrity community does an exit poll and everyone that votes for Ron Paul signs an affidavit.
It should be very easy to do, ~6 candidates, no other issues, a few thousand votes. If they try to game this poll and anyone is paying attention it might provide the proof we have been looking for for so long.
John and Onyx,
I like the concept of “counted in public”. But lets add “stored in a third-party location”, “with sign in and sign out sheets”, and “store them in tamper proof, locked boxes”.
And video the whole damned process.
Yes I am a skeptic who has little faith in the system. Instead I have science in the system. Evidence chain of command proceedures are not overly complicated.
So paper ballots stored by an independent agent (bi-partisan sane committee), locked in tamper proof boxes, with sign in and sign out ledgers, no access except to store them on election day, count them in the open on election day, and store them. All on video.
That is the american way … to remove as much temptation and security weakness as possible.
If software driven machines are to be used, then they must meet the same criteria.
The headline of this thread says:
And another one says:
(The Crypt).
So Dr. Ron Paul is not afraid to think about things that MSM spawned “milque-toast patriots” are afraid to think about.
I like that.
… Dredd linked…
“Ron Paul warns of staged terror attack”
An update to that, Dredd…
Actually, it turns out that The Crypt flat out lied and that Ron Paul said no such thing.
Cindy Sheehan did.
What Ron Paul said was that there was a real danger of the Bush regime twisting any incident that does occur into an immediate excuse to attack Iran.
He’s right, of course… and Cindy may well be too…
Why’d the GOP pick those machines I wonder?…because they jus luvs them!
zap
Zbigniew Brzezinski was the one. All the others were just trying to get us to listen.
Awww, gee. A Rethuglican might get screwed by DRE’s because he’s not the PREFERRED Rethuglican?
Shucks, cry me a F%$#ing river.
Where the hell was he when Democrats were getting screwed by DRE’s in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006? I didn’t hear his yells then.
That’s HUGE that Ron Paul’s people have said, “the machines will be gamed”, you realize how HUGE that is? Great! Thanks, Ron! For noticing!
This is important, because real change takes place, when someone withing their ranks (Republicans) starts squawking about it. Nixon went down, when the Republicans started to turn on him, too. That’s what it takes. Ron Paul’s people are great for doing this. They are realizing, they pick who’s running WITHIN the parties, too! On these machines. So they’re screwing Republican voters, too. And they’re screwing Republican voters who are disenchanted with their Republicans, and vote for another party.
THEY’RE NOT JUST SCREWING DEMOCRATIC VOTERS!!!
Zap, 99, Big Dan
Paul seems to be the Kucinich of the republicans. Thanks for keeping an eye on The Crypt.
We would be up sh*t creek without a paddle if it were not for bloggers digging for the truth.
Hi Floridiot and CharlieL …
You know, you really have to check some of these things out. I read where Ron Paul is AGAINST net neutrality. Is this true? And if so, what is his reason? Also, I read he’s against govt college student loans. Any thoughts?
That being said, he still smokes all other candidates except for Gravel and Kucinich, in my opinion. It’s not just “black and white”.
But I think we should talk about some of the other things Ron Paul is for, while we’re having a love affair with him.
I want to make it clear, that I DO like Ron Paul, and for many years.
Kucinich/Paul 2008… or Paul/Kucinich 2008. It would be a beautiful marriage. Protect, enhance, and institute the services we need, repeal the laws we don’t. Sure, my infatuation with them is probably based in the fact that they’ve not been bought off yet, but can’t I fantasize about a system where I feel like the government works for me?
I’m gonna say right now, they’d have my vote. I could probably get about 20 other people on board as well.
It might be the last, great chance to tear down this freakin’ two-party-no-spine system we have now. Maybe with a couple of radical constitutionalists (it’s so sad that I just typed that) in the office, congress would actually get off their asses and at least make somewhat sporting attempt at defending their lobbyist-funded positions, or, in the in the Democrat’s case, the lobbyist funded LACK of a position on important topics.
Man, I don’t know if I’m alone or what. I used to be all about the conservative radio, with the Limbaugh and whatnot. I was sucked into that world because, as somebody with a more than passing interest in news, it was quite obvious that the whole system was being gamed by big money. I towed the crazy conservative line until 2000, when I saw both candidates whoring themselves out, and voted for Nader. I can tell you, there’s a seething antipathy for both parties among my peer group about how that choice was lambasted by the Democrats, which is why I gave them another extended middle finger in the ’04 election (cast no vote for pres). I actually voted Dem in ’06, since they seemed to actually grow a spine, and watched them sell out yet again on Iraq… for a minimum wage hike. Thanks for that.
Anyhow, I’m probably just an annecdote, as opposed to an actual trend, but… it’s good to vent.
Ron Paul’s supporters (my self included) have good reason to not trust the black box voting machines. With the machines there is not a single ballot to verify.
When the tax payers best friend (ten years in a row – by the National Tax payers Union)and a pro-life candidate who is a medical doctor that has delivered over 4,000 babies (it is not a federal issue) is intentionally excluded from a debate hosted by a “tax payer” friendly group along with a “pro-life” group — yet they invite pro-war Christians who have voted for bloated government spending — the stench of hypocrisy is thick.
Ron Paul is the only thing left that might save the Republicans from completely adopting corporatism (fascism). His staunch support for the rights of all citizens via focusing on keeping the government functions narrowed to respecting the constitution is a refreshing breath of fresh air that no other politician seems interested in.
The difficulty with a candidate such as Ron is it takes a great deal of research and learning to understand how good his positions are – it is easier for an Attention deficit population to simply accept a quick jingoism and move on rather then understand the inherent problems with institutions like the federal reserve, the IRS, homeland security …
I can not and will not EVER support any member of the Rethuglican Party who served from 2000 to 2006.
Each and every one of them were enablers of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Hadley, Faithe, Pearl, Rumsfled, Ashcroft, Gonzales, Rice, Powell, Scalia, Roberts, Alito, et al.
Each and every one of them chose to support PARTY over COUNTRY when it really mattered.
Each and every one of them is a dirty, stinking traitor to the oath they took, no matter what “positions” they may now have.
What CharlieL said.
Exactly, have been saying so since at least 2000.
Publicans – traitors, one and all
I think if the Republicans are going to clean out there party, of the “self-proclaimed” conservatives, it’s got to being with the “genuine article”, the “real deal” REAL conservative Ron Paul. The ONLY Republican I can think of, who REALLY IS a conservative.
And the same goes for the REAL liberals Kucinich and Gravel.
And here’s what I always say: There’s more in common between REAL liberals and REAL conservatives, than between the Real liberal Democrats and the Democrats, and the REAL conservative Republicans and the Republicans. That’s a real tongue twister, but you know what I mean.
It’s like this too: I’m white, and I have more in common with a BLACK middle-class/poor guy, than a rich white guy. I have more in common with a middle-class/poor Iraqi civilian, than a rich American.
Onyx, fine ideas and indeed they should do them. But the Clint Curtis campaign did the same thing and came up with proof that FL-24 was gamed by way of thousands of signed affadavits indicating the election results were not consistent with how people actually voted. The Democratic-controlled panel dismissed his election challenge and that was that. So what good is proof?
I have zero faith in the system from either side. The Dems are too stupid or beholden to the same corporate interests to see the NeoCon terror, theft & election fraud machine for what it really is. All still ascribe legitimacy to the regime and pretend the “president” is a well-meaning bungler, not the sick evil f*** determined to bankrupt our treasury and dismantle our government he truly is.
It’s going to take firebrands like Ron Paul to get up on the soapbox and yell as loud as they can on national TV that in America today we launch false flag terror attacks against our own citizens in order to steal trillions, and we rig elections both here and around the world (Mexico, anyone?) Why doesn’t Paul team up with Kucinich or Keith Ellison or Barbara Boxer and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the election fraud machine and another one to reopen 9-11 and ask the hard questions? Until politicians are willing to tell Americans the truth, there will be no justice.
CharlieL, Ron Paul was one of the few Republicans who voted against the war and against the Patriot Act. I would hold off on boxing him in with all the other traitors in his party. He’s not a neo-con, but a founding father-like candidate. Check his record at http://www.ronpaul2008.com.