Sunday, October 26, 2008

How They Are Stealing the Election in West Virginia

Note the tense. It's not future tense, because the stealing of the election is already in process.

First, they had to set the stage. This began way back in May, after the primary, when The Daily Show and later NPR did stories in which they seemed happy to get the most ignorant examples of life and parade them out. I'm not linking them as I'm sure you've heard about them, and a search of this blog will have the articles that we wrote on them at the time. The most recent story is from the New York Daily News, hardly a bastion of liberal thought. (Hat tip to Buzzard Billy for this story.) These ridiculous stories were all about how the ignorant hicks living in West Virginia were not going to vote for a black man and thought Obama was a Muslim. Both ridiculous. We've got problems with racism in West Virginia, but I've seen no worse problems here than in the rest of the US. We have problems with racism because we are a part of the US, and racism is a national problem, not one relegated to a particular region. But the point of these kinds of stories is to demonstrate that West Virginia is a racist state, beyond hope of enlightenment. And for this I consider the media to be at least complicit in this part of the rigging, if they're not downright aiding and abetting in this crime.

With the popular notion that a bunch of racist idiots is never going to vote for a black man, the scene is laid for the latest. Republican Secretary of State Betty Ireland went with the ES&S voting machines, a Nebraska-based company whose machines are known to have serious security flaws and being easily hacked. These machines were rejected by the state of Ohio (yes, OHIO, that handed Bush a second term in 2004). Yet they're good enough for the voters in West Virginia, according to Betty Ireland. She even gave an award for special services to an official from that company. This story details the whole nasty bit. Suffice it to say that Ireland is doing her job very, very well by choosing the easiest way to make sure that WV goes Republican this year. Conveniently, she's decided not to run for re-election, even passing up on an offer from Charles Minimah, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State.

And so, where are we now? Well, AG reported on the switching of Obama votes for McCain in Putnam and Jackson counties during early voting. The Film Geek reported on the same thing happening in Martinsburg. The same thing has also been happening in other parts of the state. I'll continue to update with links as I validate them.

Strangely enough, NO ONE knows about this. My parents had no idea, and they pay attention. So what can we do?

Well, Sagacious Hillbilly reported on a complaint that he made to the Secretary of State's office. So how did that work out? Not too good. Jennifer from AG has posted links to independent agencies that can help. Use them.

Finally, PLEASE, get the word out! Forward this post to anyone who needs to read it. Link to it. Heck, copy and paste it to your blog. I'd prefer attribution, but this issue is much more important than my own ego.

It may be a done deal. This has been orchestrated so carefully that it may be too late already. But as Atticus Finch says, "Just because we were beat a hundred years before we started is no reason not to fight." Stand up for your rights as Americans. If they take our votes, the other rights don't matter all that much.

UPDATE 10/27: Problems also in Berkeley, Ohio (Wheeling) and Monongalia (Morgantown) counties. I'm not sure of Berkeley, but Ohio and Mon counties are almost always Democrat. They went for Kerry in 2004.

UPDATE 2 10/27: This story hits Slashdot.

6 comments:

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

As an Obama voter, I'm outraged. As an American, I'm appalled. Whether one is for McCain, Obama, or an Independent, fair is fair. To steal someone's vote is worthy of a long stretch in prison.

I hope people use their cellphones to video record their vote.

BTW, Laurel, I ran across a wonderful YouTube of Ron Howard (lil Opie Taylor of Mayberry). You may have seen it. Love it.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

Also, thanks for that tip. I'll get to that soon.
~ Kit

Anonymous said...

I knew about it and blogged about it, but nobody seems too concerned. I'm so depressed that this is happening and that people are oblivious.

That being said, a coworker is married to Nick Casey, who is the WV Democratic Party Chairman, and he said the party is "already on it" and that the Republican party will not get by with stealing our votes. I'm not sure what's being done about it, but this is definitely not being ignored.

Did you see the video from Jackson County on Huffington Post? *fury*

Kit -- I didn't think of using my phone to record my vote. Great idea!

Anonymous said...

Hello ML,
You have a misperception in the post. Ohio County is usually Republican. 2006- or was it 2004?- was the first time in 30 years that Ohio County sent two Democrats to the House.
KD

MountainLaurel said...

Thanks, KD, for the correction. I know that Mon County is very Democrat, but I hadn't realized that about Ohio County.

And it's so great to hear from you! Drop me an email as I think I may have lost yours in the move.

MountainLaurel said...

And Kit, Yes, I saw that and about died laughing. Love it too!

Anonymous said...

I lost ALL my emails, can't do it.

kd