Media, polls, elections, and voting integrity.

[imbobbbb]

for months a large percentage of the ron paul supporters have been screaming that the scientific opinion polls didnt mean any thing,didnt prove anything,werent accurate......now some of the same people are screaming that since the election results didnt match the opinion poll results there must be fraud because the opinion polls couldnt be wrong.you cant have it both ways,if you dont think opinion polls are accurate indicators of what the end result will be you cant then turn around and say the polls results prove fraud just because you dont like the outcome

[TnHilltopper]

Can't help but hear a loud sucking sound of late, the sound of my faith in our election process going down the proverbial toilet.

Iowa, where Republicans have a simple straw poll vote, unlike the Democrats who use the more intricate caucus method are expected to get the results back in just a few hours of the polls closing. 14 hours later, the last votes are finally tallied, way behind that of the Democrats, leaving many to wonder what the hell took so long. During the middle of this event, several people took screen shots from CSPAN (which was live) to show where vote counts for Rudy Giuliani were going down in the middle of the voting. How do the number of votes drop as more come in, odd. Of course Republicans promised the day before that they would show county results in live time but then did not. Also the Republicans promised in a press release that they would show the precinct totals, but again, did not.

Odd behavior in Iowa but it could just be voting glitches and simple human mistakes.

Moving on to New Hampshire we have a few other small problems. To start with the polling numbers were way way off. The entrance and exit polling data by various campaigns, the media, and scientific agencies were shown to be worthless when compared to the actual vote count.

Between some Ron Paul voters who noted that even know they voted, their county showed 0 votes for Paul that lead to suspicion that something was amiss. Dennis Kucinich and decided to call for a recount since the polling data was so far off. Not only are the hand counts showing a much different picture than was reported in several counties, many of the sealed boxes containing the ballots were slit on the side or their seals damaged.

Several people who were video taping the chain of custody in New Hampshire in order to monitor the whole process were told by Secretary of State Bill Gardner that they could not video tape the ballot boxes entering the building because, (and get this) mental patients from a hospital about a block away might wander into the parking lot/loading area. I guess we will all have to just wait and see.

On to Nevada where Ron Paul filed a complaint of "multiple inconsistencies." where voters have received postcards with incorrect caucus locations, that eligibility requirements to participate have been changed several times, and that several rural counties could run out of ballots.

"The inconsistencies, errors and multiple changes in the rules reek of playing politics with the what should be a neutral process," said campaign manager Lew Moore said in a statement. "The people of Nevada deserve to know exactly what the rules are and to know that those rules are being fairly enforced. This has not happened up to this point, and the caucus appears to be in chaos."

But hey, its only Nevada right.

If America votes for Rudy or Hillary, or even Scooby doo, I can live with it as long as it was a transparent, secure process that guarantees that even if I vote candidate "X", that my vote will reflect this. It seems today that the United States of America, the one country that struts around the globe sticking its finger in every ones chest and claims, we are #1 because of our freedoms and democracy is now on par with Hamas, Hugo Chavez, and every other banana republic. I can't help but think of the words of Joseph Stalin when he said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."

Now I accept it as human nature to lie, cheat, and steal to gain or hold power as it is an aphrodisiac unparalleled by few things. Public office, while allegedly held by public servants, is a place that has historically been the most corrupt of all positions in any given society, this is nothing new or surprising. What is amazing is the level of complacency and toleration to fraud and potential fraud that is held by the general public. All people need is the illusion that they are actually taking part in deciding the direction of their country. Like those types who attend church on Sunday's to settle in their mind a sense of self piety in order to live an immoral life the rest of the week. Never understanding that one has to live the part, not merely pay lip service to it.