A recent conversation and a video bring back memories and posts covering the 2004 election.
The question I asked myself and answered was “Do I believe the 2004 election was stolen by a conspiracy?” The short answer is “Probably not, it was likely was stolen by several small conspiracies and individual actions”. A conspiracy takes just two or more people conspiring to commit a crime. Four years ago we reviewed Witness to a Crime, by Richard Hayes Phillips, the evidence he generated showed a variety of problems with the 2004 results in Ohio. The evidence seems to point to at least several small conspiracies that together added up to enough votes changed to alter the Ohio result, and the election result. As we have said before, to our knowledge none of the accusations in Witness to a Crime have ever been refuted. We also witnessed the voter suppression in Ohio, perhaps the least likely to be a conspiracy was the Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, rejecting voter registrations not submitted on very heavyweight paper.
Less certain is the claim that votes were manipulated on external severs, and the related small airplane death of a potential conspirator.
Several of these actions, conspiracies, and suspicions were covered yesterday on DemocracyNow!, interviewing Craig Unger on his new book about Karl Rove, Boss Rove.
The video also reviews the sad story of the unfortunate, strategic prosecution/persecution of Gov Don Siegelman. That is half the story. The other half is his stolen re-election.
We should cautiously consider the context. 2004 was our last close presidential election. We are in the midst of an apparent multi-state, swing-state, open conspiracy to suppress votes via unnecessary voter ID. The 2012 election may again be close, like those in 2004 and 2000.
