Why weren't we able to counter the repubs election day shenanigans?

[Mountainman]

Now we are talking about how bad things were in some places and we said the same in 2000 by why couldn't we do anything about it.

Any state that had a person who was in charge of elections and was on Bush's reelection team should have been suspect after FL and Harris in 2000.

We knew that the disenfranchisement would happen in poorer neighborhoods.

All the lessons learned in 2000 did not matter that much.

Why don't we have moles in re pub planning organizations?

The time available on election day is too little to do much in. Our preparation had to have been done months in advance. Why didn't we know how many voting machines would be available in the poorer precincts?

If there are laws passed in states, one should be that no party should be in charge of elections in any state.

I felt that weeks before the elections that I wasn't hearing anything but "we will count every vote." I thought that was going to be on election day not weeks after. What does it matter if we know there was fraud and in 2006 we have it again.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. The bigger question is: Now that the Dems know how the Repubs

cheat, will they do anything in time for the 2006 elections. And just in case they forgot:

(1) They need to push states to go from individual county voter rolls to a one state roll to cut down on double voting through absentee ballots.

(2) They need to make the number of booths consistent per capita, throughout the state.

(3) They need to demand paper ballots for verification of all touch-screen black boxes.

(4) They need time to examine the source code.

[sphmug]

2. it's the machine

It's because they have spent 40 years building an army of think-tanks, newspapers, cable news networks, bought-and-sold pundits and other such things. We have CAP, ACS, PFAW, Air America and not much else. It's a good start, but it will take a long time to catch up.

[eagler]

5. Exactly ! And we will continue to lose as long as

we fail to resurrect a new revised Fairness Doctrine. There is nothing more important than this one issue because without it right wing broadcasting will grow stronger and stronger. It is the most dreaded threat of the right wing. This combined with the Telecommunications Act almost guarantees our demise.

[sphmug]

6. part of it

I think that's part of it, but we really need to accept some of the blame ourselves. While we were basking in the embarssing defeat of Barry Goldwater and the utter disgrace of Richard Nixon, the GOP was funnelling millions of dollars into building an empire which could drown out all truth in favor of their new reality.

If we are ever to compete on a level playing field, it means building the same machine ourselves. This has started in the last four years, with many liberal policy, networking and media groups springing up, but it will take time, and until then we are starting every race in a hole.

[eagler]

7. If we are unable to get our sid eof the story out on an equal

footing then nothing else matters. People living in the blue states have some access to liberal and moderate commentators but here in the red states right wing blather is virtually all ther is 24/7.Talk radio is by far the most influential media of them all and because of the latest FTC rulings TV and newspapers are headed that direction. Once the media is controlled completely we're dead! Game over. The Fairness Doctrine worked for 40 years. It very much needs to be applied to talk radio! It is safe to say that the future of the world depends on it.

[rzemanfl]

3. We were afraid of losing our place in line.

[sportndandy]

4. The Dark Side of the Force is Seductive

But the reason Dems didn't counter pug shenanigans is because Dems don't go in for shenanigans. We registered and we talked about the issues and we turned out in record numbers. The proper thing to do now is to keep investigating fraud until we have a)prosecuted the evil-doers and b)safeguarded the system for the future. Thats is the right way to counter shenanigans.