Machine rigs machines

If you're scratching your noodle over why Kentucky is one of few states where the Democrats didn't significantly improve their election performance, don't forget that it has quite a few Republican machine counties - and is a Republican machine state. Even though Kentucky has more Democrats than Republicans, the GOP controls economic projects - and still holds some major state offices and the Kentucky Senate, despite the routs since 2006.

It's a bit like how Saddam ran Iraq.

Nationwide, I doubt if McCain won a single county that isn't a machine county or is in a machine state. I think this was already true of Bush in 2000, but now the GOP is more of a regional party, and their machine counties are now smaller and more Southern.

Kentucky probably has no larger machine county than Kenton County. According to the county GOP's website, the county's entire fiscal court and most county offices are held by Republicans.

Believe me, it shows.

After current Republican congressman Geoff Davis's failed 2002 congressional bid, the county government website falsely declared Davis had won.

Proof of vote rigging occurred last Tuesday when disabled-accessible electronic voting machines in Kenton County failed to count votes. The machines were shut down, but not before many votes were hopelessly lost. Turnout in Democratic precincts was suspiciously low.

County officials counted on voters not noticing that the machines were rigged, but someone caught on, and that's when they had to set aside the machines.

As a result of the Republicans' blatant election fraud, a hotly contested Kentucky Senate election seems to have been won by the Republican incumbent. A recanvass was scheduled, but if there aren't some serious legal challenges to the GOP's win, then the Democrats really need to find tougher leaders. They can't drop the ball like they did in the 1998 U.S. Senate race, when the power went out in other counties and lost votes.

As for Kenton County, GOP fraud also occurred in a 2006 Kentucky House race. It was narrowly won by the Republican, but a heavily populated precinct near the Democrat's home counted only 64 votes, giving it only about a 15% turnout. The seal of at least one voting machine didn't match the packing slip.

To sum up, this is a fact: Republicans in Kenton County rigged the election - in 2006 and 2008. And they'll get away with it, because everyone is too browbeaten to keep the pressure on.

The GOP rigged it, and I'm calling them out on it.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=fe4c8508-f19d-486b-886f-be5f1b211039)