University of Penn. Professor on Electronic Voting: 'If you haven't looked into this, it is worse than you can possibly imagine'...
By Alan Breslauer on 10/8/2007, 9:32am PT  

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

University of Pennsylvania professor Steve Freeman, author of the important book, Was The 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count, sat down with The BRAD BLOG at the 2nd Annual National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles on Friday.

Below are clips from our video interview with Freeman, broken down into five easy viewing segments, including his contention that his initial investigations into electronic voting led him to believe "There has to be some safeguard, it can't be this easy to corrupt. But it is. Even worse. If you haven't looked into this it is worse than you can possibly imagine."

The video clips, and text snippets of his answers to our questions, all follow below...

Who won the 2004 presidential election? - Freeman's short answer: John Kerry. He explains that while the official vote count gave George W. Bush a narrow margin of victory in Ohio of 120,000 votes and a slim electoral win, exit poll data indicates that Kerry actually won Ohio by 500,000 votes and won the national vote by a 6 million vote margin.

More video Q&A's follow below...

What is the significance of the November 2004 Ukraine exit polls and the 1992 presidential election exit polls? - Says Freeman: "The incredible irony is that at the same time members of the administration were saying the exit polls indicate fraud in the Ukraine --- undersecretary of state John Tefft was giving testimony saying that exit polls are one of the few reliable measures for showing mass scale election fraud. At the same time, Ed Gillespie, the head of the Republican National Committee, was speaking before the press conference saying that the press should abandon exit polls, they don't work anymore."

As a professor of business management, did you have any interest in election integrity issues prior to 2004? And what can individuals do to learn about election integrity issues? - Freeman: "It wasn't until 2004 when I really investigated the system and just, absolutely stunned. At first I thought I must not understand this. I looked at electronic voting and I said, well there has to be some safeguard, it can't be this easy to corrupt. But it is. Even worse. If you haven't looked into this it is worse than you can possibly imagine."

Why do we have voting machines and is there a solution to our election problems? - Freeman: "It is funny to hear myself speak like a radical on this issue. I've spent my life starting businesses and teaching in such radical institutions as Harvard Business School system and Wharton. Running businesses, starting businesses and teaching business school students. But when you are talking about privatizing elections you are really giving up the security we have that elections are unfettered and free."

What can individuals do to help ensure fair elections? - Freeman: "The key fact is that this is not a hypothetical threat. It has happened. Elections have been stolen. Read my book, Read Fitrakis's book, read BRAD BLOG and learn what is happening."

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