The October surprise could be... the messy, clouded election

[scottxyz]

What if the "October surprise" turns out to be a the messy, clouded election itself? (A "November surprise" actually.)

- So many states have adopted paperless, buggy computerized voting systems which can´t be audited and don´t allow recounts.

- Florida is once again using phony felon lists to illegally block people from voting.

- Republicans have set up fake voter-registration drives, discarding Democratic registrations.

- Thousands of Rebublicans in Ohio are being paid to "challenge" people´s voter registrations, in an effort to suppress turnout.

If Bush comes in a close second, Rove will sue immediately (and send out his rent-a-mobs) - that´s his modus operandi.

If Kerry comes in a close second, thousands of disenfranchised voters will sue immediately - that´s their only hope of living in a constitutational democracy.

Even though the crisis in 2000 was small, just some lawyering and recounting, Republicans started panicking that just a few weeks of "not knowing" could a threat to our democracy, and we should just go with the guy Bush´s cousin at Fox called first, arguing we couldn´t afford to take the time to figure out who really won.

Could the Republicans be hoping for even more confusion this time (with maybe even some mayhem thrown in for good measure) - so they can again start panicking and argue that "for the good of the country" let´s just go with the incumbent?

Could that be the "surprise"?

If it is, how can we counter it?

[bettyellen]

1. we won't be fooled again!

Alot of pre emption going on, people doing what they gotta do to make sure their vote counts this time. Many people asked me how to make sure their registration went through. A of of people registered more than once, just in case. Awareness is up on all the scams out there, and they were out there 4 years ago, Now people believe it. The only scary thing is those darn machines with no receipts. I think there shld be constant exit polls to make sure there's no more funky bad data popping up. In my town the challangers also keep tabs on who on their side voted already, and by 5 pm people are out calling the missing supporters. So they have a real tight handle on how the vote is going.
If it goes for Kerry, the shrublets will blame their own darn machines. Maybe they'll get hacked and we'll have to redo it with paper ballots. I think barring the machines, it's a lock for Kerry. They are the unknowable factor, the only thing that scares me aside from that troll/ dick / thing that crawled out from under a rock.