Yes Virginia, the Election was Stolen from Bernie Sanders

Despite all the pleas for unity, and all the denials that nothing sketchy happened in the primary elections to affect the outcome, and the we Berners are just sore losers, mopre and more studies are coming to the conclusion that electoral fraud did occur and it overwhelmingly benefited Hillary Clinton. The most recent paper, "An Electoral System in Crisis," authored by lulu Fries’dat & Anselmo Sampietro in collaboration with Fritz Scheuren, a statistics professor and former head of the American Statistical Association, had this to say about the "irregularities" in this years primary elections (emphasis mine):

A large and growing body of research provides convincing evidence that U.S. electronic voting equipment in many areas throughout the country is not counting the votes accurately. This could be due to malfunctions in computer equipment that in 43 states is over a decade old , and long past its natural life. However, in many cases, the evidence strongly suggests that fraud is the likely explanation. These problems have been occurring since at least 2004, and are certainly present in the current 2016 presidential primaries.

The documentation consists of statistical graphs analyzing data from five presidential cycles, as well as off-year races from across the country. The data illustrates that there are unusually large discrepancies between small precinct and large precinct election returns, and noticeable differences between hand-counted and machine-counted precinct results. Even in isolation, the data gives cause for concern. The statistical evidence is reinforced by physical evidence and congressional hearings: manual recounts that do not match the totals of the machines being audited; and testimony under oath about direct knowledge of tampering with electronic voting equipment.

We examined the election results of the 2016 presidential primaries, and found irregularities in the overwhelming majority of the twenty-one states that we analyzed. The data indicates, in particular, that the totals reported in the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders may not be correct. In state after state, independent examination by two separate analysts found suspect statistical patterns giving Clinton inflated percentages, that in all likelihood are not fully based on actual votes; and leaving Sanders with what appear to be artificially depressed totals.

The difference between the reported totals, and our best estimate of the actual vote totals, varies considerably from state to state. However, these differences are significant—sometimes more than 10%—and could change the outcome of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. We found irregularities in the 2016 Republican presidential primary as well, and while concerning, we do not believe they are large enough to change the outcome of that race.

Fritz Scheuren, a member of the statistics faculty at George Washington University, and a former president of the American Statistical Association, has been a collaborator in this research. Examining the data from the study, Scheuren said, “As a statistician, I find the results of the 2016 primary voting unusual. In fact, I found the patterns unexpected [and possibly even] suspicious. There is a greater degree of smoothness in the outcomes than the roughness that is typical in raw/real data.”

It's becoming harder and harder for Hillary apologists to dismiss these claims of election fraud as the work of conspiracy theorists and/or unqualified graduate students; not when you have the a well respected former President of the American Statistical Association agreeing that the data is "unusual," "unexpected" and consistently smoother than is typical in "raw data." By the way, here is what the concept of smoothing data in statistics means.

In statistics ... to smooth a data set is to create an approximating function that attempts to capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise or other fine-scale structures/rapid phenomena. In smoothing, the data points of a signal are modified so individual points (presumably because of noise) are reduced, and points that are lower than the adjacent points are increased leading to a smoother signal. Smoothing may be used in two important ways that can aid in data analysis (1) by being able to extract more information from the data as long as the assumption of smoothing is reasonable and (2) by being able to provide analyses that are both flexible and robust.[1] Many different algorithms are used in smoothing.

In short, raw data in any field does not generally fit neatly along a curve or trend line. The data sets have to be adjusted, or smoothed, to make allowances for anomalies and outliers - that is data points that are inconsistent with the majority of the data collected. This is done in statistics to eliminate noisy data that makes it difficult to discern patterns. Raw data, whether in scientific experiment, marketing studies or voting that lacks noise is highly unusual. It strongly suggests that the raw voting data was tampered with. The fact that the vote totals varied so widely from the expected vote totals should alarm anyone.

Indeed, in the recent past, a Presidential Commission and individual Democratic elected officials have made the very argument the authors of this study are making - that these electronic voting machines are unreliable and capable of being hacked to manipulate the vote count and steal elections.

In January 2014, The Presidential Commission on Election Administration published a report stating, "Perhaps the most dire warning the Commission heard in its investigation ... concerned the impending crisis in voting technology. Well-known to election administrators, if not the public at large, this impending crisis arises from the widespread wearing out of voting machines purchased a decade ago (p.62.)” This report was issued over two years ago, but unfortunately very little has been done since then to rectify the problem. So the issues we are reporting here, of security problems on old and failing machines, are not surprising. However we did find security issues with even newer electronic voting equipment, such as the machines in New York State.

At a congressional briefing on voter suppression, held on April 21, 2016, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) expressed grave concern about the security of the voting equipment: “There is a very insidious, treacherous and deceitful method of voter suppression, and it has to do with the integrity of the voting process itself... one possibility, and I think it's a very good one, is that someone's manipulating the counting of the votes. Someone is hacking into these computers that tabulate the votes."

And yet, when it comes to the recent primary elections between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, establishment Democrats have been quick to label anyone pointing out the many discrepancies in the vote tallies that consistently favored Clinton, nut-cases and "tin foil hat" conspiracy theorists. Funny, how that works, isn't it?

Which may explain the recent reports that Sanders delegates to the DNC convention are planning protests inside the convention walls, even as thousands of us will be protesting outside those walls. Like us, they know that what happened in this primary season to Bernie Sanders and to all of us who voted for him (or tried to vote for him) stinks to high heaven. For it isn't just evidence of voting machine shenanigans, but of voter registration purges in numerous states in which Democratic voters showed up on election day only to find they were no longer registered as Democrats, or many cases - such as the infamous purge of 120,000 voters in Brooklyn - no longer registered at all. The mess that was the California Democratic Primary election was just the last in a series of blatant voter suppression efforts that benefited Hillary Clinton at the expense of Bernie Sanders.

Indeed, our electoral system is do corrupt at ever level that the only solution may be to have our own "American Spring" to once and for all demonstrate to the power and moneyed elites that we have had enough and we aren't going to take it anymore. I'm all in with that. What do you say?

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that person sticks to numbers and his/her area of expertise. The people you quote seem to do exactly that and their argument is persuasive.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Damnit Janet's picture

How can we raise our kids to respect any law?

How can we expect our children to work hard and continue studying?

How can we teach our children to "serve and protect" when that today means beating, bullying and public executions?

When "Free and Brave" means just to STFU and get patted down each time you go out to a show or game?

How can we even begin to understand the crushing stress and debt that is on our younger generation's back?

How can I tell my kids that voting matters when both have seen it the corruption.

Hell, my daughter was the one who told me in 2012 that Obama was just another war criminal. Not just a forward looking apologist but an actual criminal.

Our kids know this is fraud and evil. Many of my daughter's friends have left the country to study and find work. The other ones... never came back from Iraq or Afghanistan.

The ones who want to make a difference... they left.

And the adults are still pretending there was even an "election".

We are going to need more quotation marks around here, Mabel, because nothing stands for what it truly means.

Peasants, Slaves and Enemies.

Voting... doesn't work. We need to kill money. We need to end money. It's the root. Of all.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

Steven D's picture

We live in a sham reality where we are told we have a democracy by a mega-sized corporate media outlets who depend on other mega-sized transnational corporations for their profits.

We've been lied to all my adult life. Bernie's campaign just provided the best example of the corruption and now more and more Americans have awoken to this ugly truth.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Damnit Janet's picture

I'm done marching or protesting. I am done being a target for the elite and their mercenary minions aka the brutal cops. There is an Empire which means there are Slaves. I refuse to be either.

Dark times ahead. Lots of preparation and hunkering down to be done. Going to focus on living simpler, cleaner and work more on walking one's talk.

My husband continues to do his wonderful Meals on Two Wheels. He's been doing it twice a week for ten years. Silently peddaling all this time. No blogging, nothing like that. He supported my actions but it he, all along, was the one making true change.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

Mark from Queens's picture

and a black, middle-aged like me, guy across the car smiled and shook his head.

He was a supporter too and we got into such a wide-ranging and edifying conversation I missed my stop. From election fraud, to the duopoly, the joke of a POTUS election staring us in the face, racism even in Australia where his son is currently working and the recent discovery of genocidal Aborigine mass graves, the tactics and effects of non-compliance ("what would happen if everyone stopped paying for the subway, and instead jumped the turnstiles? They couldn't arrest all of us," he said), the savage economic inequality destroying the middle class, a blossoming "Off The Grid" movement he showed me examples of and also how the gov't is cracking down on folks, etc.

I came away thinking, and I told him, that if there were more folks like him in this country we could very well have a successful revolution whose time is long overdue.

He gave me hope that there are indeed so many, so many out there who feel the way we do at C99, but maybe aren't speaking and writing about it, and perhaps many more who are not sophisticated enough in their thoughts to put it all together.

There's a moral in here, folks: wear your political buttons and t-shirts, stir the pot. They are the conversation starters this society desperately needs. At they very least we'll know We Are Not Alone (or A Loan), and best that we keep gathering comrades in the fight for justice, peace, liberty and freedom in an American world renewed by Socialist and cooperative principles.

Unsung heroes like your husband, Janet, are the people who also give me faith.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Hetrose's picture

What you say is sadly so true. It is as if someone came in the night and switched counties on us, leaving us with not the first shining Democracy in the world but just another third world wasteland run by the maniacal few to the detriment of we peasants.

I have always believed Lust for Power is the root of all evil, money being only a tool in the quest. Evil seems to be something unique to humans. Where else in creation to you see it? Not, in the rest of animal kingdom, for survival is the law there and what may seem cruel is merely acts of seeking that survival, food, procreation, etc., and cannot be accurately labeled as evil or with evil intent. Yet animals other than humans show all the "good" traits that humans like to claim as all our own: intelligence, loyalty, love, generosity, cooperation, et al.

What a madhouse this world has turned out to be.

Peace.

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...What a madhouse this world has turned out to be.

Only because power and money-mad lunatics have been permitted to gain endlessly at the expense all others and else, through the 'old boys network' in politics and direct purchase of government officials and policy. They now have the money and power to attempt global take-over, drained from the people and environment they regard as expendable.

If we no longer allowed the lunatics to run the asylum, in great part by voting for their candidates and otherwise implying consent if only by omission of protest, the current madhouse could become asylum in another sense.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

kharma's picture

Thanks for this essay Steven D, tweeted and rec'd.

  1. [Tinfoil Hat On]-This is very troubling but what is more concerning is that if this is true, then who decides that the machines will lean Hillary, or Bush or wherever? It would seem that this would mean that the powers that be either coordinate between each other on how to tilt their machines or all of the elections manipulated by one group. Either way not good at all. [Tinfoil Hat Off]
  2. There is no manipulation and the elections are legitimate and science is wrong.

I'll go with science all day.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

featheredsprite's picture

What I found [and still find] so disturbing is that it was so goddamn widespread.

The historian in me says this is a case of the Old Order defending itself. If we disturb the entire Establishment that much, maybe we are part of a revolution.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

jwa13's picture

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When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.

shaharazade's picture

Other then the Bushies selection I have never seen such a blatant fix. I thought that was a RW coup turns out it was a by-partisan coup. The Democrat's and Republicans are complicit. Starting in 2006 when people voted the Dems. a majority because they had had enough of the odious Bush regime the Dems blew off their majority. Then came the great bait and switch of the marketing PR candidate with an empty pocket full of hope.

All we got was a badly produced kabuki show where in 60=a majority along with victories for compromise with the lunatics we voted out. Dirty backroom deals with the 'owners of the place' became accomplishments. Why did the Democratic congress not obstruct the lunatic RW? They sucked as the loyal opposition to the Bush regime and they sucked worse once they won by a good majority. Of course they coordinate with each other. My tin foil hat says that The Hairball in his horrific strait on fascist, KKK campaign is the perfect foil for The Mad Bomber.

There is a good cop bad cop con going on here. They both make peoples hair stand on end for good reason. The Obama administration expanded the Bush regimes lawlessness, wars and looting. So now the gloves are off and we are supposed to elect another Clinton administration that nobody but the brainwashed fear riddled Dem. partisans want. This time around the game is obvious and the complicity is bypartisan. Fear is all either side is offering. Evil vs lesser evil does not cut it at this point. Bernie's campaign and the movement he gave voice to showed us exactly what the Democratic party is. It needs to be gone daddy gone.

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darkmatter's picture

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Haikukitty's picture

If we can't even point to "the will of the people" we can't ever hold anyone accountable, and might as well pack it up. I'm not saying that change can't happen outside of electoral politics, it can and does. But a state without fair elections is not a state that generally treats its outside activists well - as we are seeing play out before us...

It's depressing, and it is a number one issue right now.

ETA: Do you know the Andrew Bird song Dark Matter, darkmatter?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kw3xQXyZA4]

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darkmatter's picture

ETA: Do you know the Andrew Bird song Dark Matter, darkmatter?

Well, now I do! Amazing song. So much good music out there. Thanks!

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continue to vote into law measures unpopular with the majority of people(as polls indicate) to the detriment of the majority.
Obama signs into law odious legislation and whimpers that it's part of "must-pass" bills - an obvious charade. The people need to take back the political process wherever and whenever possible.

The ox herding picture: #10 in a series : )

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

NonnyO's picture

The graphic looks like any number of paper cut art of the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Ox being one of them. I have several sets of paper cuts of Chinese Zodiac art, some quite fancy, some elementary. It's quite a unique art form, the paper is tissue-thin. [I was born in the Year of the Dog.]

Smile

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

pictures showing the student has tamed his inner self, the ox, and has reached Nirvana. A couple of schools of Zen (Ch'an in Chinese) used variations of this series of paintings.

Maybe the poster will let us know.

Cheers.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

ngant17's picture

as far as the Chinese calendar goes so far.

Renshen_Year.jpg

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And precisely because this issue supersedes all others, no one is talking about it.

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Hawkfish's picture

This is how I explain watergate to my kids: it wasn't just corruption but an assault on the last resort to fix that corruption - voting.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Thank you! This primary rigging cannot be accepted yet again as a 'done deal' or we're all toast!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

NonnyO's picture

That's the way the Monied Powers that Be WANT things, and media is in collusion with them for "exciting" election night coverage. Remember, only six media corporations control news for the entire world....

NOTHING about US elections has been the same since 12 December 2000 when SCOTUS stopped the Florida recount. In '04, OH became the "battleground" state. In '08 both FL & OH were "battleground" states, and then by '12 PA came into play. Remember KKKarl Rove's apoplectic reaction when OH was called for Obama? The election was being monitored and the PTB decided not to fix the e-voting totals, and no one told KKKarl. This year is the first time I recall such a huge discrepancy in primary totals in so MANY states, and if the general election follows the primaries, NY, AZ, CA will be added to the number of "battleground states."

After '00 & '04 more states purchased (hackable) e-voting machines with no paper trails (ergo, no way to DO a recount), and more and more election results have gone completely off the rails. Worse, there is voter disenfranchisement via voter registration, political parties changed in databases (if they did NOT list political party affiliation and have to re-register every primary and every election, this cockamamie scheme could easily go against the political party doing the nasty shifts).

The big mystery is that state legislators already know there is a problem with hacking e-voting machines..., but they actually approve and buy hackable e-voting machines (minus the ability to recount paper ballots) anyway!!! Why not go the simpler route of paper ballots and optical scanners so ballots can be recounted if it's too close or there are other irregularities???

The more complicated a voter registration system is, the easier it is to disenfranchise and defraud registered voters.

The more states that have e-voting machines with no paper trail, the easier it is to pre-program a win for one candidate or another.

Those of us who have optical scanners of paper ballots which can be recounted by hand, the less reason there is to try to throw an election. I don't know about other states, but MN has a history of close elections, so we have state laws that control recounts of paper ballots if optical scanner totals fall within a certain amount less than one percent, in which case the state pays for the recount; any totals close but above that the candidates can request a recount, but they have to pay for recount expenses..., and all recounts are held in public spaces where anyone can watch.

In nations where elections are monitored, any variance more than 2% different from exit polls is assumed to be rigged, and a recount is held or a new election called. If you've been following the people who have filed law suits over rigged elections, part of which involves pre-&-post-exit poll "corrections" you already know some raw data (before "corrections") has had differences in two digit totals, many in high single digits. Those primaries, especially closed primary elections where those who list Independent on their voter registration cards, clearly disenfranchised voters who would have voted for Sanders, and in other cases where political party was changed without the voter's knowledge defrauded voters whose provisional ballots were never counted. Exit poll results were wildly off the mark in some of those cases. I shudder to think what will happen in the general election.

So..., be prepared to hear about rigged, stolen elections online only (and I AM expecting certain states to have rigged totals that vary wildly with raw exit poll totals pre-"corrections"), because the stories will most likely never, ever reach the desks of Mendacious Mainstream Media's infotainment snooze anchors to be broadcast to the nation.

I am already weeping in frustration anticipating the horror of the DNC candidate choice (thanks to superdelegates who chose $he-Who-$hall-Not-Be-Named eight months before the first primaries and caucuses).

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

Remember Hillary's surprise come-from-behind win in the 2008 New Hampshire primary? The pre-election polls for all the candidates in the GOP race were accurate, within the margin of error. So were the percentages for the Democrats, except Hillary Clinton. Here is what I wrote at the time:

Were the Polls Wrong in NH? Or Did Obama Get Diebolded?

There was a statistically-significant discrepancy between precincts that hand-counted ballots and the Diebold-counted precincts– for Clinton only.

... Some are trying to account for Clinton’s results by citing the “Bradley Effect”, which implies that pollsters were lied to by many people who said they would vote for Obama but didn’t. Others say there was a last minute switch by Independents who decided to vote for McCain in the Republican primary instead of Obama. Neither of these theories explains why Obama’s pre-election poll numbers turned out to be accurate.

Some observers believed that Hillary’s “tears” reported in the media brought more women voters out. A partial recount of the NH 2008 primary found some problems, but concluded that the vote-counting machines were not at fault.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

is a data specialist whose also been doing some very good work on all this.

His blog is well worth a look.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Blasphemy101's picture

Cl7A7IzUkAAKQOV.jpg

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War, War Never Changes - Fallout Series

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

exit polls large.jpg

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

featheredsprite's picture

and said they would look into the problem. Whether they do or not, at least they did not ignore me.

In case you missed it: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

I then emailed the news networks, starting my message with "I have filed a complaint with the FCC against you because . . . "

There is an outside chance that we can restore journalism in this country and that would help put some integrity into the election process.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

EdMass's picture

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

My background was in data analysis and on election night in CA, I was hovering my mouse over the counties on an interactive map and the percentages for the five other candidates (not Bernie or Hillary) were so consistent, I wondered if I had actually moved my mouse enough or not to get to a different county. I have put the CA county results, as well as the district results, into Excel and can easily see how "smooth" the five candidates' results are. I also did this for previous presidential elections in CA, and did not see the same thing. I have read about the possibility of capping votes and then giving them to someone else (easily done in software) - it looks to me like that was done here, as well.

I created an account just to add to this, as it is a hot topic for me. I lurked for about 6 years at TOP and followed you all here when things got ugly over there.

I would love to hear what a real statistician thought about the pattern of the counts for the five other candidates.

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Hetrose's picture

Thank you for this, Steve. I had no option but to have come to this conclusion myself. Confirmation is always nice. I will be passing this along.

Peace.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

I am fairly confident that many of the elections going back to at least 2000 have been rigged. Presidential in 2000 and 2004 and a number of gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional after that. I am even more confident that there are no technical reasons that we can not make our system absolutely secure. The system is allowed to remain insecure because it suits the wishes of certain people. I don't know who they all are (Karl Rove is certainly one), but they serve the wishes corporate interests. The question is how we fix this. Wringing our hands will not help. Bernie can't say anything even if he believes the nomination was stolen from him, because that would allow the corporate media to write him off as a dangerous conspiracy theorist and invalidate all he stands for. Voting machines and procedures are largely controlled at the state level and I don't think most state legislators are in on the fix. Should we be working through our state representatives--not claiming electoral fraud, but demanding that we have a secure, verifiable system. After all should we have a system that is inferior to India or Venezuela?

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I believe I found this article yesterday, from a link from Kossacks for Sanders, posted by star_belly_sneetch. It's long, but damn, I've been wondering why we are just supposed to get behind Hillary, as if nothing fraudulent at all has happened. I cannot and will not support a candidate who wins by cheating. This is not a celebration of the first woman president. I am sick to my stomach, that for all the reasons mentioned, we just go on...

http://consciouspolitics.org/the-silence-of-the-scamspsychological-resis...

What can we do? I'm ready to fight!

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In life, as in dance, grace glides on blistered feet. ~Alice Abrams

Mark from Queens's picture

about the voting patterns. Shouldn't that alone be something that would send any intrepid journalist out hot on the trail of a potentially major story? Not today's venal lapdogs who are hoping to get invited to their parties and whose self-worth and immorality is easily preyed upon with empty promises that if they tow the line there will be something in it for them.

I haven't found anybody in NYC who isn't at least suspicious, if not downright indignant that this crucial primary contest was stolen. Just my own friends/acquaintances and others I've met around the city personally had been purged, given provisional ballots, or had party affiliation changed. I wonder if there's some sort of repository for folks to register their personal stories. There are definitely tens of thousands, if on only a quarter of my city block I know of two personally.

NY was the stop gap for the Criminal Clinton Cabal, where like RW media operatives and the police, it didn't matter how it looked to the public or media if the immediate desired effect could be achieved, which was the perception that Bernie wasn't as strong as he seemed if he lost (NYPD similarly broke many civil rights/liberties during Occupy, and Murdoch's propaganda media outlets consistently run untruthful headlines, both designed to thwart or malign the threat, damn the consequences which will be dealt with at a later date after they've accomplished what needed to be done that moment).

Problem was they showed him losing ridiculously, which made most people incredulous. The exit polls were way off , the ratio of people who showed up in public to support Bernie compare to Hillary portended a tidal wave result, and even public Dem officials who had endorsed Her Heinous (i.e. DeBlasio, Schneidermann) had to acknowledge how disconcerting it was that there were rampant incidents of election fraud/suppression and a disturbingly high amount of citizens purged.

There's no way in hell, despite the mindless HRC cheerleaders regurgitating propaganda saying otherwise, that the massive crowds of people who showed up to hear Bernie speak in person in NYS, easily approaching 100-200k, didn't come out to vote. And, committing to showing up at the rallies always means convincing others in your circle to do the same, even possibly volunteering.

It was the same kind of energy and enthusiasm Obama generated in 2008. There were children and teenagers stopping to say how much they liked Bernie. The similar outpouring of art (always a decisive sign) was ever-present and so inspiring. The camaraderie at the campaign offices, among volunteers, at the rallies with complete strangers - just like Obama.

There's no way I'll ever believe he lost.

The Clintons have nothing else but, "it's her turn next," and now "be Very Afraid of Drumpf." They hid her away from the public as much as possible, and expect to reveal her new & improved, remade, pivoting "brand" as something the public will never buy. For the next layer of folks who haven't really started to pay attention yet she's being springing forth like Jack In The Box, to potential voters who have been sick of her, family dynasties, corrupt and arrogant politicians. And they're expected to fall for this? It all smells so bad, and is not lost upon anyone anymore.

They had to steal this. And they did it with help of the DNC shared voter list that was compromised, no doubt helping zero in on the Sanders-leaning/supporting Dem voters who were then summarily purged from the primary voter rolls.

Anybody know what the latest is on the Bob Fitrakis lawsuit?

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

ZimInSeattle's picture

that matters, or something like that Stalin once said. Wonder if his 'exception' in his term "American Exceptionalism" was prophecy of our lack of a functioning democracy? It's absolutely appalling how anyone questioning the legitimacy of the primary election are derided as nut job sore losers by ClintonBots. To believe there wasn't election fraud favoring Hillary happening this past primary is to believe GWB wasn't helped by Jeb! and Katherine Harris in FLA and then appointed to the presidency by SCROTUS.

I used scare quotes around the word “allegations” because the truth is plain to see and undeniable by anyone with a microgram of honesty: Hillary Clinton cheated. If the rules had been followed, Bernie Sanders would be the nominee.

Emphasis added.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

It appears they are counting at the Democratic Convention too.
Microsoft technology to usher in new era of Iowa Caucuses

Microsoft Interknowlogy (retch!) - 2016 DNCC Philadelphia

Project / DNCC Windows Voting App
Partner / DNCC and MIcrosoft
Industry / Civic Tech

When the Democratic National Convention Committee needed an app for voting during the convention back in 2012, they turned to Microsoft and InterKnowlogy. Designed for tablets and touch, we created an intuitive experience to allow delegates to vote on ballots. The app also fed data to the Jumbotron screen, quickly updating which states have submitted results and how many are left. With a short timeline, we leveraged our NUI app development and industry leading design processes to quickly deliver a robust voting app. For the 2016 Democratic National Convention, we updated the ballot reporting app with a host of new features including a U.S. map that shows the interim vote count and enabling real-time viewing of that delegate voting by state on the convention floor.

Oo shiny! Who gets to see that code? Is it open source or at least in escrow for security experts to study and certify? Hm?
I do lose my mind about these issues. Free Software, Free Society that's what I think. Show the code! It's a damned public election fer cryin' out loud. oof

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Older and Wiser Now's picture

Over on KFS, MO has written a nice article about things we can do RIGHT NOW!

Clearing up a little bit of double-vision on a Monday afternoon... how we can proceed in a way that makes our voices HEARD and the revolution does not die on the vine

So, in talking with our beautiful and fierce and incredibly thoughtful mod team, we are prioritizing into "long-term" and "short-term" goals to stitch up those wounds and emancipate ourselves from the absurdity and farce of the current political world we live in.
Here is the short-term, time-sensitive, clock-is-ticking like a guillotine and it's our necks on the line PLAN for the revolution RIGHT NOW (note: this is now, now, and only now):

Please click on the link to read the whole thing. I love MO's writing, I think this piece is excellent.

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~OaWN

Hillary must be exasperated with having to make speeches to win the nomination, since she's not receiving $250K per speech.

We all know Bernie won the nomination, but he was screwed over by the establishment and so were we all. Establishment politician words are meaningless and worthless, and we all know how low they go to keep their gravy-train.

Barbara Boxer at the Nevada caucus was a blatant example of election fraud. Why was she even in that State? Had no problem wondering how California election would turn out with her vulgar actions.

Establishment greed tried to destroy a decent, morally honest Senator Bernie, but he's still in the fight for principled issues for the 90% and proper change. Waiting to hear what he's got up his experienced sleeve and still believing in him.

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TK

I have spent 12 years working for voter protection. In that role I have seen all sorts of crap. I could go on at some length about how voter suppression works.

But this article is badly researched, and makes several assumptions which are flat wrong.

Its sad to see this. I could go through the examples. The NH from 2008 is funny - because in some wards Clinton benefits and in some she gets hurt. In most of the Wards in Nashua the total vote is around 1500. The recount usually effected about 10 ballots, of .7% of all the ballots. I believe Nashua uses optical scanners - which Florida went to by and large after 2004. In those cases ballots have bubbles which you use to fill in. In general you get some undervotes that way because the scanner can't pick up a bubble which is incompletely marked.

So I have no idea in looking at the NH example that anything is proved at all. There is no consistency from ward to ward benefiting one candidate.

The paper says:
". In practice what happens is that the larger a sample of votes that you collect,
the closer you should get to the candidate’s average percentage of support in that locale. This is easy to
see in action. If you and your friends support a candidate, it does not mean the candidate has that level
of support overall. But a broader sample of voters in your community will generate a more accurate
picture of the candidate’s actual level of support. This is the basic concept behind all polling; and this is
the principle that is the foundation for the CVT graphs. "

Except that ISN"T the way it works as any veteran of Florida politics can tell you. CVT works great if voters are evenly distributed, but they fricken aren't. In Florida the last to count are always Broward, Dade and West Palm. A significant portion of the votes that are counted late in Florida will be Democratic. This also true within counties. Bigger precincts tend to come in last IF the technology is the same. And so in 2000 the Bush call was revoked when Broward and Dade came in, and as the larger precincts in those counties started to come in.

And big precincts always different demographically from smaller districts. Very differently.

AND THE COUNT DIFFERENTLY. Precincts on paper are rural, and Republican for example.

So for some, this is where the Bernie effort ends: repeating an analysis from a Rand Paul supporter who couldn't understand why he did better in small precincts as opposed to big ones.Really the example tends to prove the opposite of what is being suggested.

I doubt I will convince anyone. But Bernie didn't win New York and he didn't win California. That is sheer tin foil hat nonsense.

And so I leave this site.

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Haikukitty's picture

Perhaps you could explain why the Republican polls were perfectly accurate then?

Perhaps you might like to visit some other sites instead to learn a little more about why this isn't nonsense at all:
http://blackboxvoting.org/

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kharma's picture

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

....to the possibility that Sanders may have won NY if 100,000+ voters had not been purged from the voter rolls. intentional or not, we can't be sure where those votes may have gone had they been able to vote but we'll never know now, will we? or that Sanders may have won CA if the AP had not come out the night before to proclaim Clinton the presumptive nominee? we'll never know now, will we? AZ is also to be mentioned here.

it may seem incredulous to you to even consider the question but it is quite dismissive of the possibility with no reasoning, ergo, a blatant attempt to shut down any contradictory theory. questioning the possibility for either of these if the conditions had been different is not conspiracy theory, it's genuine curiosity. i don't believe there is any way for an expert, such as yourself, to say it would have been impossible so it just hangs out there for us to consider what an alternative result may have been.

thank you for your contributions to C99.

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Please read in full at source, if possible.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/16/clinton-does-best-where-voting-ma...

May 16, 2016
Clinton Does Best Where Voting Machines Flunk Hacking Tests: Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders Election Fraud Allegations

by Doug Johnson Hatlem

At the end of the climactic scene (8 minutes) in HBO’s Emmy nominated Hacking Democracy (2006), a Leon County, Florida Election official breaks down in tears. “There are people out there who are giving their lives just to try to make our elections secure,” she says. “And these vendors are lying and saying everything is alright.” Hundreds of jurisdictions throughout the United States are using voting machines or vote tabulators that have flunked security tests. Those jurisdictions by and large are where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is substantially outperforming the first full wave of exit polling in her contest against Senator Bernie Sanders.

CounterPunch has interviewed hackers, academics, exit pollsters, and elections officials and workers in multiple states for this series taking election fraud allegations seriously. The tearful breakdown in Hacking Democracy is not surprising. There is a well-beyond remarkable gap between what security experts and academics say about the vulnerability of voting machines and the confidence elections experts and academics, media outlets, and elections officials place in those same machines.

In Leon County, Bev Harris’ Black Box Voting team had just demonstrated a simple hack of an AccuVote tabulator for bubble-marked paper ballots. Ion Sancho, Leon County’s Supervisor of Elections, also fights back tears in the Hacking Democracy clip: “I would have certified this election as a true and accurate result of a vote.” Sancho adds, “The vendors are driving the process of voting technology in the United States.” ...

... Until someone comes up with such a workable theory, election fraud benefiting Hillary Clinton to the tune of a 120 to 150 pledged delegate difference, is the best explanation we have. People wanting to prove this theory should be suing for a technologically sophisticated and independent review of results and the voting results’ entire computer ecosystems in places like Ohio, South Carolina, Alabama, Boston, Chicago, New York, and many others.

And, I would add, suing for a fair and independently overseen election process in a Dem nomination redo - enough with letting big money corruption get away with the murder of democracy: the line must be drawn and held NOW, not yet more always 'jam tomorrow, never today', when tomorrow never comes.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Truth Vote says there are now 32 lawsuits on election fraud filed. That gave me some hope.

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[deleted]

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pfiore8's picture

one essay you disagree with and you leave? i am sorry.

with all of the corruption, you really think this is a bridge too far for Dems?

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“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"

but we are not. We SAY we are free but we are not. We SAY we have representational government but we do not. We are an Oligarchy instead. Time to clean up all that pay to play corruption and send them all back home.

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glitterscale

Cassiodorus's picture

And with something more than an offhand speech complaining about a badly-run election.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

I suspect that the people need to make the demand. A politician pointing this out can be dismissed as self-interested/a sore loser, when it's the people - all of them, not just those deprived of votes in that particular election - who've been defrauded. And if the people continue to lie prone and unprotesting while this is done, it will never be undone.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

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Love is my religion.

karl pearson's picture

I'm not surprised by the results of this study but am happy that some statisticians are reporting the irregularities of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. The past president of the American Statistical Association adds much credibility to the study. The Democrats will have no moral ground to stand on when they scream about Republican voter suppression. As badly as the Repub elite wanted someone other than Trump, they didn't have the voting irregularities that the Democratic party had.

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And try to forge an alliance over this one issue? For the purpose of making more noise. I assume that they too like to have their votes counted correctly. This might be a unique opportunity, I'd guess that they would be more receptive to this discussion in relation to Clinton than they would to Karl Rove.

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You've brilliantly captured an opportunity too good to miss - imagine the American people at last united against voting fraud in general and Clinton corruption in particular. As Bernie understands, all Americans are fellow-citizens and the artificially created divisions media-propagandized into society in order to weaken the 99% for use by the 1% might well at least partially break down under this, so, bonus!

These elections and the government of any stripe exist for the people - would be amazing for citizens to occupy them, together, at long last!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

If they're not already aware, we can show them the exit poll data showing how well their system worked compared to ours even on the same machines. Ask them if they're comfortable that some machines appear to have a Clinton bias when Clinton is an option. I'm guessing they will consider that a bug, not a feature.

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Exactly - lots of proof exists and the Clintons (and the DNC) have certainly made it very obvious how appallingly corrupt they are.

And maybe even show them some of the squirrelly stuff from some of their own previous elections? It just comes down to who the corporations and billonaires want in to help them suck Americans dry and that's something that everyone needs to understand.

Great that you've thought of this - seems such an obvious thing, too, now that you've brought it up!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

[deleted]

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I suspect the reason no electoral reform was that any type of reform would remove the ability of the Dem establishment to control the primaries--so both sides had no compelling reasons at least for their primaries. Look at 2010 when the Dem establishment in AK was able to defeat Bill Halter against blue dog Blanche Lincoln by using a bunch of shenanigans. And now Hillary....

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I want to apologize to Damit Janet because her picture ended up with the post. I could not remove it. I have friends that will enjoy this blog so I didn't want to delete it.

Steven, she does have a pretty smile to go along with it. I don't know why it picked up her picture instead of yours.

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[deleted]

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Haikukitty's picture

exactly correct. Proofs of election integrity should always be demanded and provided, whether your "team" wins or not. Once we lose that, we've lost everything. So... we've already lost everything, the question is is it too late to get it back?

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Late Again's picture

was a fairly blatant tell: namely, that the dog didn't bark.

I mean, all this obvious voter suppression: Democratic voters purged or their registration changed, lack of polling places in Democratic precincts, hours-long lines to vote, exit polls wildly divergent from actual results only on the Democratic side.. . the natural assumption would be that every Democratic candidate would be up in arms over these issues, seeing as how it was Democratic voters affected.

But only one side objected to suppression of the Democratic vote. Only one campaign's supporters joined individual state lawsuits. The other campaign and their supporters were strangely silent, as though all this was expected and ordinary.

In other words, the dog should have been barking, snarling and straining at the end of its chain in protest. Instead, it didn't bark at all or react in any way. And that's the giveaway.

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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

[deleted]

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I do question whether MOST Repubs would get on board, just as I question whether MOST Dems would. OTOH, there might be a chance. This is a real "Enemy of my Enemy" issue. Time to start making inquiries. Will report back if I find anything useful.

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"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes