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ARCHIVED UPDATES Rick Gagliano | begun 11/10/04 and developing 11/14/04 11:00 AM Eastern: 38,000+ signatures
The pace of signing has slowed a bit over the weekend, but that was expected. Still, the count increases with each passing minute despite the petition having received NO mainstream media coverage. A number of blogs have helped publicize the effort and to them I am eternally grateful.
I've been waiting and watching the Sunday morning news shows and not a single one has mentioned anything about the continually increasing flow of strories and information concerning possible fraud and miscounts in the recent election. They act as though the recounts in Ohio and New Hampshire are not even real. Those states will be recounted. That is an absolute certainty. Instead, the network news shows are content to focus on Middle East speculation following Arafat's death, Dick Cheney's health, the departure of John Ashcroft from the DoJ and a smattering of news on Fallujah.
In addition to the disheartening state of the media, the level of contributions thus far has been disappointing as well. I hate to keep harping on this, but I only do so I can STOP harping on it. I've set a target of $2000 to help advocate the cause of the petition and deliver it to Congress on December 2, which is far less than what's needed to do an adequate job, but it will pay most of the expenses ($1000 for printing - the petition and first 100,000 signatures - and shipping, $600 to get me and the petition to DC, $400 for various miscellaneous expenses). Thus far, contributions received ($230 from 7 people total) account for just over 11% of that goal. Put another way, if the 38,000 people who signed the petition had donated 5¢ (a nickel) each, that would be $1,900 and I wouldn't be writing this. Even $5 or $10 contributions would help greatly.
Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the continuing flow of new names on the petition. It shows that there is a groundswell of support and there are likely millions more out there who would sign and donate if they only were aware of the petition's existence and that nothing less than our democracy, our rights and our freedom are at stake.
The petition itself shows up on google searches for 2004 election petition (3nd position) and presidential election petition (2nd position). Other searches yield varying results. And we are still in the top spot for most active petitions on petitiononline.com.
I continue to advocate for action and will not stop, with or without outside support.
WHY IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW THAT AS MANY AMERICANS AS POSSIBLE SIGN THE PETITION - MUST READ. VERY IMPORTANT! 11/13/04
11/13/04 11:25 AM Eastern: 35,000 and counting!
The Scribes Got Busy
Internet explodes in face of mainstream media lockdown
The good news is that 35,000 people haved signed the petition. The bad news is that so many have not. The mainstream media has done an extraordinary job of playing keep-away with public knowledge of this petition and the election controversy in general.
I watched the evening news last night as I usually do, flipping between NBC, ABC and CBS. There was nary a mention of the recall movements in New Hampshire and Ohio, or any mention at all of the continuing controversy surrounding the election. At least CBS didn't follow the lead of NBC and ABC and present a "debunking" story, calling all bloggers "conspiracy theorists" or "zanies" or whatever cute name they can assign to the unrelenting cadre of patriotic internet zealots who are pushing the issue.
It was heartening to see Charlie Rose have New York Representative Jerrold Nadler on as a guest along with John Schwartz from The New York Times, in a discussion of alledged voter fraud and Nadler's effort - along with six other House members - to compel a GAO investigation. Nadler made the case for an investigation which focuses on electronic voting and added that he hoped it would end up in a committee hearing.
Nadler stressed that there are voluminous reports of "glitches" and comuter malfunctions that have been reported to his office and those of his colleagues and asked, "how many (glitches) didn't we catch, and how do we correct that?"
Nadler also pointed out that a provision for adding printers to the voting machines sold by Diebold, ES&S and others to various districts around the country would have resulted in an added "layer of complication" and a cost per machine of roughly $60. The congressman stressed that, "these companies did a tremendous sales job," after the 2000 election fiasco in Florida. Though he used the word "glitch" far too often, the Congressman was sincere and tried his best to explain the potential for electronic voting problems as he struggled through the technical jargon. Overall, he rates an A+ for being the first public official to appear on national TV in response to the issues.
Schwartz, for his part, provided an exceptional example of why the New York Times has lost much of it's pre-eminence as a world-class newspaper. He was decidely biased against the internet "movement" - you know, those people that are threatening HIS job - and while he displayed a comptetence on the technology, he backed far away from the political implications, saying, "it's not my beat."
To quote Gomer Pyle, "Shezaam!" Just what is Mr. Schwartz's "beat" supposed to be? We're talking about voting machines and electronic tabulators. It's all about politics!
To make matters worse - if that's even possible - a story which appeared in the Washington Post, entitled Worst Voter Error Is Apathy Toward Irregularities, metro columist Donna Britt chides idle Americans for taking the potential issue of voting fraud with too cavlier an attitute. While Ms. Britt details some of the abuses and glitches that occurred on election day, she failed to point out that SOME people are concerned and taking action. Apparently, she and the rest of the media are unaware of the existence of the petition and the 35,000+ signatories - and I told her so in an email.
Yesteday, I mentioned the quitude of Friday and expressed my inner feeling that something big was about to happen. I may have been presient, because not an hour after I posted that update here and on bellaciao.org (I cannot begin to thank these people enough for providing such an accessible forum for the open exchange of ideas) that four or five articles appeared on the web, all probing, questioning and challenging the efficacy and honesty of the recent elections. I was right. Something big was happening, but it was not news or an explosive new research paper, or new evidence. That something big was happening in offices and kitchens and workspaces spread far across this grand old country of ours - the scribes got busy. Dedicated writers put their fingers to the keyboard and against all odds, at their own peril, continued the long, arduous task of presenting their case for what may become known as the worst crime against democracy in our history, to the world. Something big is happening. The American people are about to upset the status quo of the Washington elite. And if it isn't ugly enough for you now, just wait. It's going to get even uglier.
11/12/04 3:45 PM Eastern:
Calm Before the Storm
Is the sizzle off the steak, or are we on a break?
The media still has not picked up on the petition, though I note that all efforts - including Moveon.org's petition to Congress, Ralph Nader's call for a recount in New Hampshire, the Green and Liberal party candidates call for a recount in Ohio, the now "urgent" request for an investigation by the GAO by members of the House, Bev Harris' BlackBoxVoting.org massive "Help America Audit" effort, Kerry's lawyers "fact finding" in Ohio, and all that's happening out in the blogosphere - are moving forward at a similar, deliberate pace.
It's good to see that this is not hysterical or rabid, though I know that the spirit is high and blood is running rich through the veins of patriots on either side of the issues.
Almost forgotten in the recent crush of news, the give and take of the internet versus the mainstream media, is the extraordinary work being done by the staff and volunteers at verifiedvoting.org, the group that manned the phones before, on and after election night and also had field workers throughout the country, logging problems and "incidents" related to the 2004 vote.
In a report on their website updating the Election Incidence Project, they note that the "Election Protection Hotline received 175,213 calls of which 46,219 used the automated polling place locator provided by the phone system. On Election Day itself, the Hotline received 87,841 calls of which 23,957 used the polling place locator."
States receiving the most Hotline calls were:
1. Florida (16475)
Those are impressive totals and possibly an indication that there was widespread voting disturbance in a wide variety of locales. That three of the top five states on the list were "battlegrounds" is of some note, though verifiedvoting.org has kept a low profile and officially has found no egregious tampering or malicious intent.
Nevertheless, their site is worth visiting if only to read the volumes of incident reports from Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and elsewhere on their EIRS (Election Incident Reporting System) database. Does it add up to anything? Voter intimidation, odd worker behavior and changing rules do not add up to anything, but we know there were at least some people bent on denying access to polls at the very least. The EIRS database will provide solid background for any investigation that may be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown" continues to be the lonely voice in the wilderness of cable TV news. Olbermann has given both sides of the "voting fraud" issue ample coverage, despite there being no hard evidence to date. Olbermann bears watching, however, as one does not know whether he's following a reporter's gut instinct or simply especially tuned into what he calls the "blogosphere."
One gets the feeling, on this quiet Friday afternoon, like the calm before the certain storm, that something big is about to happen.
Meanwhile, the internet does its job, silently, dutifully logging the names of the now more than 32645 people who have electronically signed the petition calling for a Congressional investigation into the 2004 election.
The Naysayers Weigh In
ABC, NBC give internet theorists short shrift
Instead of conducting investigations and research with an open, unbiased mind, the mainstream media has chosen instead to take the path of least resistance in reporting on the various allegations of voting fraud in the the 2004 election.
On Wednesday, ABC news saw to it that internet "conspiracy" theories were sufficiently debunked so that they could focus on the "real" stories going into the weekend - the death of Yassir Arafat and the war in Iraq.
While the evening news show hosted by Peter Jennings managed to calm some of the claims made on the internet (how much debunking can one do in 60 seconds?), they managed to do so without serious inquiry.
In much the same vein, Chip Reed took the internet bloggers and controversial web sites to task in a piece for NBC's Nightly News, though the material managed to include a clip of a feisty Ralph Nader saying, "This election was hijacked from A to Z."
At the same time, the controversy continues to swell. Newspapers across Ohio report that lawyers for defeated Democratic candidate John Kerry are on the ground in the state on a "fact finding" mission, checking for irregularities and inconsistencies.
Nader, earlier in the day called for a recount of the New Hampshire vote at the behest of some 2000 ardent supporters. Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Bednarik are seeking a recount of the election in Ohio.
Activist Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org is reportedly seeking a recount in Ohio under a law that grants the privilege to any group of five or more voters. Harris has already begun filing a massive Freedom of Information Act request for volumes of information relating to the election nationwide and has activated a corps of researchers and common citizens in a "Help America Audit" effort.
All of this seemingly has fallen beneath the radar of corporate media, who seemingly are content to accept the results from November 2nd without a second look or even so much as an audit.
The controversy begins with the wide discrepancies between exit poll numbers which were circulating during the day of the election that showed John Kerry ahead or close in several key states but soon changed as the vote swung mysteriously in Mr. Bush's direction as the evening progressed. The arguments continue through destruction of registrations, allegations of intimidation and unusual behavior by workers at polling places, odd counts in various locales and the overall implications of electronic voting, which many detractors say is easily rigged, easy to hack, and more likely than not to be inaccurate.
Overnight, a study of the key "battleground" states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida surfaced on the popular website bellaciao collective. The report, entitled "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy," by Steven F. Freeman, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, examines, with scientific rigor, the differences between the exit poll data and final vote count in the three key states. One conclusion made in the report is that the probability of the anomalies occurring together in all three states is a statistical impossibility of 250 million to 1.
Dr. Freeman's report has yet to undergo peer review or critical analysis, though he openly welcomes and encourages any such analysis or challenge to his findings.
We may not have to wait long for challenges or a salutary "debunking" as CBS has yet to weigh in on the entire voting matter. Since ABC and NBC have run stories on consecutive evenings, it's a good guess that CBS will make some kind of effort on their Friday night news broadcast. Naturally, FOX, the fourth rail in the third estate, is expected to not even mention any question on the validity of the vote, as the network of the neocons is too busy waving the flag over the military battle in Fallujah.
Obviously, more effort has to be taken on the part of the mainstream media to dispel the doubts cast upon the election process, or they too will be cast into the role of coconspirators by much of the suspecting public.
Over 30,000 have signed an online petition calling for a Congressional investigation into voting irregularities in the recent election and the numbers climb with each passing minute.
As noted below, the first donations have come in, and I'm hopeful that enough will follow to allow this petition to make its way to the halls of Congress. Despite the mainstream news media ignoring the petition and glossing over the controversy - actually tonight on NBC they tried to completely eviscerate it with "experts" and a statement by John Kerry - the force of our voices will not diminish, but rather, grow louder!
Nader has filed for a recount in New Hampshire where irregularities and inconsistencies in voting were detected on a large scale. (Full story)
After this update is posted, I will be contacting Nader's office and urge him to sign our petition publicly, which would be just the kind of high-profile statement needed to get the media to PAY ATTENTION! 26809 and counting.
UPDATE, 11/11/04 7:42 PM - Donations have begun to come in. We are on our way!
11/11/04 4:00 PM Eastern: CLOSING IN ON 25,000 SIGNATURES
By the time most of you read this, the petition will have amassed 25,000 signatures. As the numbers grow, it will become increasingly difficult for the media and Congress to ignore the outpouring of interest in a demand for answers.
Since the last update, I received a call from David Owen at petitiononline.com. He informed me that their technicians were in the process of removing as many of the spoof signatures as they could locate. If you know the numbers of certain signatures that should be removed, the process for contacting petitiononline.com is explained on our FAQ Page.
Also, I was informed of certain printing costs. The following is from the donations page and it eplains the expenses involved:
I just got some numbers from petitiononline.com. The cost of printing out the names and addresses by them is ONE CENT 1¢ PER NAME. That's very reasonable, but the question is, how many names will there be by the time this needs to be sent to Congress?
First, the key date is December 7, by which time states must determine any controversy relating to the appointment of electors. So, the petition must be delivered to Congress prior to that date. By December 1, 19 days from now, the petition should have at least 300,000 signatures, possibly many more. One solution is to print out a portion and deliver the rest of them via email (a link to the petition should suffice) to each individual Senator and Member of the House. That should suffice. Still, the printing of just 100,000 signatures will cost $1000. Shipping the official copy will be an additional expense. Petitiononline.com is located in Oregon, while Downtown Magazine and I are in Rochester, NY. At 100 signatures per page, that's 1000 pages, so shipping will not be awfully expensive. I am figuring around $100.
Then I have to arrange a trip to Washington, DC, and take the petition with me. That trip should cost another $500 - $1000 (depends on how I go and hotel rates). I can drive it - it's about an 8-hour trip. Flying would be preferable.
So, just to get me and the petition with 100,000 signatures on it (we need at least that many just to be significant), will run in the neighborhood of $1500 to $2000. It's not a huge sum, but enough to be a burden. Naturally, more signatures means more cost, but I'll spend whatever I have at the time in order to get the maximum number of signatures on a petition that I deliver.
There are other costs, such as those below, that I have not included in these calculations. To date, exactly ZERO DOLLARS have been contributed. The need is real.
This story is happening fast. Within the last hour, I have heard that RALPH NADER is caling on Senators Kerry and Edwards to challenge the voting process and defend their votes. Moveon.org (no more links to these slimeballs) started their own petition two days after I emailed them asking for their help in getting the word out about the REAL petition, and Diebold Source Code has been discovered. Here's the actual email text I received: The message was apparently posted on the Daily Kos blog.
Here's the comment I sent to moveon.org:
Nice going guys. Two days after I contacted you, asking you to promote the petition I started, you start your own. That's fairly counter-productive and also cheap grandstanding. I also note that you did not mention my effort, which has resulted in over 21,000 signatures.
See: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?uselect&1
We're all working toward the same end. Too bad you feel a need to take all the credit.
Rick Gagliano
Meanwhile, the petition zoomed past 21,000 signatures. We will not be denied our rights!
11/11/04 9:00 AM Eastern:Happy Veteran's Day! I wanted to say that before anything else. Please be sure to honor our veterans in any way you feel appropriate. I realize that many of you have negative thoughts about our situation in Iraq and our men and women serving there. If you are opposed to the war, remember that it is not the fault of the troops. They are only following orders, doing their duty. We should be proud of them and honor them, despite our views on what they are doing.
As the number of signers to the petition approaches 20,000 (18,600 and counting at present), I am still awestruck from the steady stream of signatures. We must continue to carry on and not let this issue die. To that end, I have been trying to promote the petition and provide support here. Yesterday, I added a FAQ page, this update page, a page for donations (nobody seems to want to go there), and a mailing list. Some of you will already have received a mailing, others may sign up. The sign up form is available on a number of relevant pages.
Today, I have set up and launched a message board. I'm always somewhat wary of these, but this is a good one, hosted on my site, and I have very solid administrative controls. All new registrants to the message board need to provide a valid email address. This will cut down on the number of spoofs, fools and assorted jokesters. I have the ability to delete posts and deny access, and I will, if I find posts offensive. The forum is for open discussion, planning and exhange of ideas. Here's the link: Election Petition Discussion Board.
There's also a box of links pertaining to the petition on the home page. At the very least, interested parties can be directed there.
I'll be spending most of today, tomorrow and the forseeable future as I did yesterday - promoting the petition, answering questions, begging. The support I've received thus far has been tremendous in terms of signers and thank you notes. There's more work ahead. Next update at NOON.
11:15 PM Eastern: 16,000 and climbing. Thanks again to all the good Americans who have signed. Keep telling and emailing the link to your friends. I just received an email from a stuffy kind of guy who informs me that he won't sign it because "there are several substantial substantive and grammatical errors that cause me to think that it's potential power is being severely compromised," and won't recommend it to his 4700-member group "that focused on opposing the election of
George Bush in 2004"
This is the most disingenuous email I have received in days. Not only does this miscreant not tell me what's specifically wrong with my petition, but he employs triple-double alliteration (several substantial substantive, potential power), and titles his email as, "Your Petition - Please fix the errors." Insulting. Of course, he offered his editorial services without mentioning any charge. I'm sure the bill will be forthcoming before I even see what grammatical errors he's located.
To the fact that he headed a group which focused on opposing the election of W in 2004, all I can say is, NICE JOB! I should hire this guy?
In any case, rewriting the petition would void all of the signatures, so the chances of that happening are about as good as finding Osama bin Laden. I really wonder sometimes. Here we are trying to protect this guy's freedom and all he can think about is making a fee for some free-lance work. Ah, it's late. The trolls are out! More in the AM.
8:00 PM Eastern: AMERICA ON CRUISE CONTROL. Names continue to be added to the petition, now past 14, 000 and continuing on a steady pace. I have contacted a local TV station - WROC, Channel 8, in Rochester, NY, but they have yet to get back to me. I wonder if the media blackout includes affiliates. Of course, I'm not the most popular fellow in town either. I'm either relatively unknown by the current crop of young, hustling news reporters or remembered with relative disdain by the senior staff who recalls my days as publisher of a wild weekly newspaper back in the 80s.
In any case, news is news, as the saying goes, and 14,000 signatures in just over a day is news. Well, maybe. There are now some questions and answers on the FAQ page with more to come. One such question concerns the deadline for the petition. Technically, since it is a petition for Congress to open in investigation into the election, it can be delivered to them at any time. Realistically, the electors meet on December 13, a date that may or may not be unlucky, depending upon which side of the aisle you sit. I'd like to think that the petition be delivered at least a week before that date, though hopes of actually stopping the electors in their tracks are dim. The idea is to get Congress to actually take a good, long, hard look, weigh evidence and see if there's anything there. That will take time, but time is on our side, I beleive.
Recent serious challenges to Presidents have come in their second term (Nixon-Watergate and Clinton-Lewinski), they all have been dealt with by Congress in some way, shape or form, and they both developed well after the president had been inaugurated and comfortably in office. Our situation may be the same. The point is to not give up, keep digging, keep sharing information and continue to work for the goal of an honest democracy.
The truth will come out, but only if we press for it.
6:00 PM Eastern: DRIVE TIMEThe last hour saw a bit of a slowdown, but not much. We're still headed rapidly towards 13,000, which will be reached within minutes. It's drive time in the East and Central time zones, so unless people are signing via cell phones or blackberries, many are away from computers for a while. Not a problem. The numbers continue to roll in and I'm getting more info from various sources which I hope to pass along tonight. I will also tonight put up a signup for a mailing list, so I can update signers with any important info.
If you know anyone with a large public presence, like a movie star or pro athlete, who would like to go public with their signing, please inform them of the petition. A couple of well-placed endorsements or public appearances by a big time star would increase visibility tremendously. Back at 8:00.
4:00 PM Eastern: OUR FINEST HOUR! Well over 1000 signatures in just the past hour, putting us over 11000. 20,000 by midnight is now an outside possibility. What can I say except thanks and God Bless America, no matter which God you believe in.
3:00 PM Eastern: We crossed the Rubicon that is 10,000 signatures. What's interesting about this is that those 10,000 signers happened in roughly a 24-hour period. This is a good sign of things to come, I believe, as news of the peitition is just beginning to percolate. While I was out, I managed to catch a little of the Rush Limbaugh show. He was chastising ABC News for airing a story on the interest in whether the vote was rigged. They called it "Conspriacy Stories" or something like that, and they made the case that we were way off base. According to ABC News, I suppose, if they say there's no story there, there's no story there. Yeah, sure. Thanks for fanning the flames.
Getting back to Rush, while he was blathering on about how ABC News was biased and maybe irresponsible, he continually used words like "kookie", "wacko", "nut case" in characterizing the people who were investigating the election and the people who wrote articles or managed web sites covering the issue. If you signed the petition, you're now a nut, or a kook, according to the bastian of "conservative" talk radio. Do your friends and family consider you a nut? Doubtful. But in the all-seeing eyes of the infallible Mr. Limbaugh, you are. Remember, this is the guy who says he's right 99.7% of the time. Methinks his percentage may be falling a bit, and soon.
Hearkenng back to a pop hit - "If Loving You Is Wrong," - well, if petitioning the government for an airance of grievances is wrong, I DON'T WANT TO BE RIGHT.
My advice to the mainstream media: Keep pooh-poohing this story. And to Rush: every time you call another one of us a kook, three more sign the petition. Inmates running the asylum, indeed...
1:00 PM Eastern: 900 new signers in the past hour. We are at 8400 and climbing, but more work needs to be done - especially by me. I have to do some actual business for a couple of hours, so the next update to this site will be around 3:00. Stay tuned.
12:00 Noon Eastern update - The numbers continue to amaze. Over 7500 have signed the petition as of this writing. Over 1500 in just the past two hours! I am getting email from all over, except from media (gee, go figure!).
I'm trying to put up some FAQs on that page and create a mailing list. Keep checking for updates every couple of hours and I'll do my level best to keep this rolling.
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Ralph Nader has weighed in, saying in no uncertain terms that the election was flawed. He called on the Kerry/Edwards campaign to keep their promise to have every vote counted, saying, "Our offices are being flooded with faxes and e-mails asking for assistance in resolving these irregularities ‚ a lot of them are citizens who voted for you. You must now take action to give our nation the fair accounting it deserves from the 2004 election and to protect democratic processes in future elections. Although your party extended considerable funds and manpower to unconstitutionally drive us off the Ohio ballot, in the spirit of good government, I urge you to make this effort now."