Election cheating begins early

I knew the Republicans cheat, but I didn't think they'd be so flagrant about it. In my view, the United States hasn't had a legitimate government since the 1994 midterm "election", but now the GOP's cheating is becoming even more obvious.

A new article by Greg Palast outlines several instances nationally in which the GOP is launching the latest round of cheating. Colorado's Republican Secretary of State purged one-fifth of the state's voters. Florida is refusing to accept tens of thousands of new voter registrations, despite the registrations being perfectly valid. Half of all the registered Democrats in one county in New Mexico found that their registrations mysteriously vanished - thanks to a Republican voting contractor.

There's a lot of biases guiding these purges. Not only do the purges affect Democrats almost exclusively. Not only do they disproportionately affect voters based on their race or ethnicity. They also affect voters based on their economic class: Several swing states are using a new federal law to purge voters who were victimized by foreclosures.

For too long, we've lived in denial about Republicans' cheating. This is not a problem we can just wish away. I'm now convinced that if the Republicans win in November, it will be only because of high-handed deceit like this. I'm also still convinced that a selective crackdown on vote carpools is a large portion of what did it in Kentucky from 2000 through 2004. (I admit the DLC's influence in the Democratic Party didn't help matters, but when the only other major party is the Republicans...)

Anyone who's an eligible voter probably expects to have a federally guaranteed right to vote. I would agree. If you find that your registration has somehow misappeared, or that the voting machine malfunctioned, or that your candidate received suspiciously few votes in your area, raise hell until the media gets off its high horse and takes notice.

(Source: http://www.gregpalast.com/2008)