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How I Got Interested in Vote Fraud
1996 -- Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole. After all that had happened in the past four years, I wondered how very many people could possibly vote for Bill Clinton again. Dole wasn't spectacular, but anyone had to be better. Despite Media Spin to the contrary, most of the people I knew hated Clinton.
This was the second National election I had ever participated in. The evening of November 5th, I sat in my West Coast home, rapt with attention, as the East Coast polls closed. The numbers began to come in. Almost immediatly, they began calling states. And most were going to Clinton.
Besides my astonishment and disappointment, I was also concerned about two things. The first was that I wondered how they could so accurately be calling these states with so little data. The media presented these states as though they had been won. Occidentally, they would say something like, "With 5 counties reporting" or some such, but that was my only clue. I challenged the idea that they could predict a whole state with only 5 counties.
The second was that the polls hadn't yet closed in any of the other three timezones. It was only 5pm here in Washington. People were only just getting off from work! Most people vote after work and after dinner. Now, if 100% of the votes had been counted in the states they were reporting, this would only be a minor annoyance. But the fact that they claimed a state went to anyone before they knew the full count, long before the polls were closed in my state really bothered me.
Then the next time zone "results" came in. Then the media began saying things like, "It looks like Clinton will likely win". Then they became more and more sure. By the time the next set of polls closed, they had already called it -- Bill Clinton would keep the White House.
I was incensed! This was unfair! The polls had not yet closed in Washington state. It was just after 7pm here, with a clean hour left to go. California, that great-big electoral state to the south still had the same hour. I felt somehow violated. And I felt like something was not quite right. No one should be able to report the "final" outcome of an election before all polls have closed, and especially not before most of the votes have been counted.
I pondered this for some time, and I entertained the possibility that the media might be able to fake an entire election. Being a writer, I thought into what it would take. I already knew the media was biased. I had become jaded to that thought long before. So what if they never reported a single true vote? What if it was just all smoke and mirrors? Would anyone notice? Would the Dole-winning counties even notice if the media called their entire state for Clinton? Would each think, "Well, it's simple -- most of the other counties must have gone to Clinton." Was there any mechanism for a national check? Did anyone on a level higher than a county keep track of the other counties?
Of course, I had no idea. I had no idea how any of it worked. And I really didn't think anyone else knew either.
But I toyed with that idea. Sort of a "His mom said it was ok" kind of trick. I referred to it as "The Emperor's New Clothes" theory, that the Emperor came out parading in the buff, yet no one pointed, no one laughed. Each pretended to see the clothes too, no one wanting to seem foolish.
I toyed with that idea until this year. It seemed pretty crazy, far-fetched, yet still interesting. I kept my mind, eyes, and ears open.
Then before the elections this year, I started seeing a few articles about various kinds of voter fraud. Bob Dornan's loss of an election a few years ago, cigarette bribes to the homeless of Wisconsin to vote for Gore, fake ID cards being sent to non-citizens to Californians.
Then I paid close attention to my own voting. Did they ask for ID when I registered? No. Did they ask for my ID at the polls? No. What was to keep people from lying about who they were? Nothing.
Then during the elections. Missing ballot boxes in Florida -- ah, but it's ok, they've been found in a church. Missouri has complaints about people not being able to vote due to bureaucracy hassles. Then the whole Palm Beach County accusations.
So I started doing research. The more I found, the more incensed I became
And I hear about other people who are upset. My family. Co-workers. People calling in to talk radio. How can any of the other things we do -- campaigning, talking to people, volunteering, calling representatives, even voting -- be any good if our votes are being mis-reported, aren't being counted right, or if the dead are still voting?
But there is something we all can do. We start by educating ourselves. By spreading the word. By asking questions. By demanding a change in the laws and policies surrounding voting in our county and state.
