Vote fraud

1. Democratic Underground and Velvet Revolution put together a powerful, artfully-done mini-documentary on vote fraud. I'm surprised I haven't linked to it before.

2. Business Week thinks the vote fraud "conspiracy theory" is worth pursuing -- as long as it's the right theory. Or rather, the right-wing theory, which holds that Venezuela controls ES&S. This theory is, so far as I can tell, groundless; Antonio Mugica, the largest shareholder, happens to hold Venezuelan citizenship, but that doesn't make him a partner of Chavez. (Would that he were: I trust Chavez a hell of a lot more than I trust Bush.)

That said, tracing the ownership of the various voting machine manufactureres over the years is a nearly impossible task for any outsider. Mugica gained control of ES&S in March of 2005. Before that, in 2002, an earlier incarnation of the firm was known as Business Records Corporation, which counted Tom Eschenberger among its top execs. Eschenberger was involved in a conspiracy to bribe Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen. (The bribe-taker did time; the bribe-maker got immunity.) Did Business Week see fit to complain about that?

Frankly, I trust ES&S now more than I did before, when the theocratic Ahmanson family owned it.

3. A terrific New York Times piece on the drive to disenfranchise:

Florida recently reached a new low when it actually bullied the League of Women Voters into stopping its voter registration efforts in the state. The Legislature did this by adopting a law that seems intended to scare away anyone who wants to run a voter registration drive. Since registration drives are particularly important for bringing poor people, minority groups and less educated voters into the process, the law appears to be designed to keep such people from voting.

It imposes fines of $250 for every voter registration form that a group files more than 10 days after it is collected, and $5,000 for every form that is not submitted — even if it is because of events beyond anyone's control, like a hurricane.

There's more...

4. This issue will heat up soon. A major figure is writing a major piece for a major publication on the subject of vote theft. The right-wing propagandists will have to hit the author of this piece with every weapon in their arms cache. Expect to see the resurrection of debunked claims about 1960. I wonder which 'winger will be the first to drag out the adjective "ruthless"...?