KRUGMAN ON GOP VOTE FRAUD
What They Did Last Fall

From the New York Times courtesy of Working For Change:

But both reports show that votes were suppressed by long lines at polling places - lines caused by inadequate numbers of voting machines - and that these lines occurred disproportionately in areas likely to vote Democratic. Both reports also point to problems involving voters who were improperly forced to cast provisional votes, many of which were discarded.

The Conyers report goes further, highlighting the blatant partisanship of election officials. In particular, the behavior of Ohio's secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell - who supervised the election while serving as co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio - makes Ms. Harris's actions in 2000 seem mild by comparison.

And then there are the election night stories. Warren County locked down its administration building and barred public observers from the vote-counting, citing an F.B.I. warning of a terrorist threat. But the F.B.I. later denied issuing any such warning. Miami County reported that voter turnout was an improbable 98.55 percent of registered voters. And so on.

Click here for the rest.

Krugman, like many moderates, isn't ready to say that the GOP stole the election in Ohio. Hell, for that matter, I don't really know myself--the only reason I'm willing to take the leap of faith is because I'm certain that they stole Florida in 2000; it's nice to know, at least, that Krugman agrees with me on that one. What Krugman does say about Ohio in '04 is that the Republicans tried as hard as they could to steal it, and that this seems to be business as usual for both parties. It just seems that the Republicans are better at it these days--indeed, it's been quite a while since JFK's father sent Frank Sinatra to the mob bosses in Chicago to rig the voting in Illinois back in 1960; the Dems haven't been quite as competent as that for many years. At any rate, if politics are this dirty, there's now one more reason, in addition to the ever present corrupting influence of corporate cash, among others, to believe that US democracy is a sham.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$