Funny Things Start To Happen To You

Funny things start to happen to you when you start questioning the validity of a Presidential election. For example, you might look at an impending large scale assault on a couple major Iraqi cities, and wonder how the White House could invest such conviction in this forward an operation at this exact point if they felt re-election was that uncertain.

I know that I made the point that Bush looked emotionally vulnerable on the eve of the election, and that the White House staff also seemed to be questioning the faith. At the same time, I can’t help feeling (along with many fellow left-wingers) that Rove pulled something over on us.

I was one of those people who was watching the tracking polls yesterday, and — like others — couldn’t understand how Florida and Ohio could have deviated the way they did. I also have trouble believing that the Republican turnout was as high as it was in Florida, or that the pro-Kerry advantage in the gender gap didn’t play out more consistently over the swing states.

Personally, I’ve never been one for conspiracy theories. However, I also feel that a thorough analysis must be made into the role, performance and data trail (to the extent one exists!) of the electronic voting machines. I also am anxious to see correlations between vote patterns and the specific counties using these machines, especially in Ohio and Florida (particularly involving machines that produce no vote record.)

(Actually, I believe Bev Harris at BlackBoxVoting.org has already initiated this process through FOIA requests.)

I’m not charging anything irregular happened (even if I kick out a cartoon in the near term which suggests as much). On the other hand, if you refer back to my Rove warning last week (which includes the link to Joshua Green’s piece in The Atlantic about Karl and his desperate measures), I don’t see how you can fault me for being suspicious. In fact, given Karl Rove’s position and track record, I think it would be illogical and (I would argue, irresponsible) for me and the rest of us liberals not to possess these concerns.

I know, I know. I’m going to hear from a bunch of conservatives — and I hear from you folks everyday — that I’m completely off base. If I am so misguided then, why not join us in doing the responsible thing: make available all records and all data to prove that Rove and the equipment are clean, as well as support legislation and regulations to securely monitor, track and safeguard electronic voting.

(image: YahooNews)