West Virginia

Since 2000 the specter of election fraud has haunted America's elections. There is little question that things have gone wrong in our elections in recent years, from gun toting rednecks threatening Hispanic voters to voter caging to what appears to be manipulation of voting machines by Republican biased companies. It is unclear if this kind of activity has actually affected the outcomes of elections, and if so how many elections, but problems have been frequent and almost always favoring Republicans. It should be noted that this year, to date, accusations of fraud that favor Democrats has been largely debunked, while accusations of fraud favoring Republicans has led to actual arrests in at least two cases.

Since 2000 the reaction to apparent election fraud has ranged from denial to panic. Panic is NEVER appropriate. And I will deal with the denial end when I have more time. But the truth is, neither panic nor denial are terribly effective strategies. What is effective is preparation and action. Barack Obama's unprecedented legal team is one example of this. But there is a much quieter example that is already paying dividends: the Secretary of State Project. The Secretary of State Project (SoS) was created by concerned citizens to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost vehicle for online donations to key Secretary of State races. They got started in 2006 and won five key races. You want to hear preparation, compare the list of states that the SoS project won in 2006 to our key swing states this year: Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa and...yep, Ohio. This success in 2006 should be reassuring to America in 2008, as recently pointed out by the Secretary of State Project:

Via BradBlog we have two videos. The first one shows an early voter recounting how the machine kept flipping her vote from Democrats to Republican :

In this second video we can see West Virginia Jackson County Clerk, Jeff Waybright demonstrate how when their electronic voting machines (ES&S iVotronic) "flip votes" even after they have been calibrated properly.

There is more at stake this year than just the White House. The Republicans have mismanaged just about every state they have been running...and have turned American democracy into an embarassment with fraud, intimidation and, quite probably, outright stealing of elections.

Given the probably stolen elections in FL in 2000, GA Senate in 2002, Ohio in 2004, and Florida and North Carolina in 2006 (Congressional races), it seems our election system has some pretty serious problems and/or corruption in it. Even a Republican cybersecurity expert has said that it is probable that some of these elections were fraudulent. Florida's elections are so inadequate that the Carter Center, which monitors elections worldwide, refused to monitor Florida in 2004 because it didn't meet the minimum standards for democratic elections.

John McCain has pulled out of Michigan, effectively ceding that part of the rust belt to Obama. Well, I've been saying it for years now, quite literally: It's STILL the Economy, Stupid! That is something the Bushs and McCain have never understood. Americans do NOT want more trickle down "Voodoo" economics when they can barely afford to heat their homes, feed their children and get healthcare.

But there is more news, not widely covered, that really shows the depth of McCain's problems among working class Americans...you know those "Joe Sick-packs" Palin loves to wink at. From the border between West Virginia and Pennsylvania comes the story that more than 400 mine workers walked out on the job after the mine owners and the NRA started filming an anti-Obama ad at the mine:

More than 440 workers who are members of the United Mine Workers of America took what's called a Memorial Day instead of going to work.

Union officials say they took the day to protest after a film crew from the National Rifle Assocation showed up at the Consol mine last week to interview union workers.

They say the crew tried to get union coal miners to speak out against Barak Obama.

I'd say that backfired on the mine owner and the NRA.