Out From Under

This is a list of vote tabulations in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio, precinct by precinct. There are 30 precincts in which the number of votes is higher than the number of registered voters. The total overages are about 93,000 votes. That's one county in Ohio. Now, that's ballot stuffing, folks, and whether it's Democratic or Republican, it needs to be addressed. But you know, given Ohio's result, given the disparity between exit polling and "official" results in the state, given Diebold's CEO's "commitment to securing Ohio's electoral votes for George Bush," I'm going to bet on the fraud coming from the Republican side of the ledger.

The reporting doesn't stop there. Keith Olbermann on MSNBC tonight mentioned that a county in Ohio locked out the press from monitoring vote counting due to a "Homeland Security" directive. Because we all know that the middle of Ohio is a top al Qaeda target. And in addition, an Omaha, Nebraska news channel is reporting that 10,000 more votes than voters were counted in their state. Now when you have to steal Nebraska, that's really covering your bases.

Here's another one:

SANFORD, Fla. -- Several hundred ballots in Seminole County, Fla., mysteriously got wet and were rejected by voting machines Tuesday, according to Local 6 News. The wet ballots were apparently discovered unmarked Tuesday at the Community United Methodist Church in Casselberry, Fla.

Sanford is heavily black, by the way. I guess it's not so implausible that ballots would mysteriously get wet, right? I mean, Florida's near the ocean, right?

So this story is getting out somewhat, in a few media outlets. The goal is to get ALL media outlets to cover it. Otherwise, they won't.

letters@nytimes.com
letters@latimes.com

p.s. Kos lays out a very compelling set of policies that could be bundled into a "Voter Protection Act," one which could even be bipartisan if there were such a thing anymore. It's a good read. He includes a national standard for voting machines, a standardized machine-per-voter ratio in every precinct (so people aren't waiting 5 hours to vote in one place, and 3 minutes in another), expanded vote-by-mail and early voting, same-day registration, a centralized voter-registration database for all states, and picture ID required (I've been voting for 12 years, in 4 different states, and have never once been asked to show ID at the polls). This last suggestion is brilliant:

Kerry should make this his Big Cause. He's got a 2-million-strong email list that will likely be put to work. If Ohio becomes a battleground, then great. If it doesn't, Kerry should devote the next four years to proposing and pushing voter reform initiatives, both at the federal and state levels.