There seems to be no shortage of political pundits willing to give their opinion as to why Sen. John Kerry lost the 2004 Election. Other than a few radio talk shows and foreign newspapers, the media has failed to address the recurring problem of voter fraud that brought shame upon this country at the close of the 2000 election and, again, in this election. The reason most people seemed surprised that Bush was re-elected is because most people did not vote for him. This was evidenced by the exit polls, which were, until the 2000 election, a reliable predictor of the next President. The exit polls showed Sen. Kerry ahead of Bush in many of the “key” states. This data was consistent with the national polls conducted the week prior to election, which had Kerry slightly ahead in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. However, much like in 2000, the media began “projecting” the winners as early as 8 p.m. EST, with a mere 1% of the total precincts reporting. A little after midnight, most, if not all, of the networks had called the election for Bush. Never mind the fact that states like OH, NM, or IA had yet to report their results. Neither before, during, nor after the election did anyone speak about the rampant violations of state and federal voting laws, carried out, in most part, by Republican party members that believed, rightfully so, if nature were to take its course George Bush would be back in Crawford, Texas fishing with his dog.

To date, mainstream media has not found it necessary to questioned the decision of certain state officials who decided to outsource our most important right to private corporations like Diebold & ES&S, which are owned by major contributors to Republican party. These two corporations manufactured the e-voting machines used to calculate 33% of the nation’s votes, and there is strong evidence that the machines were compromised, or otherwise programmed, to manipulate the vote. It wouldn’t be the first time. During the 2000 election, Diebold’s electronic voting machines in Volusia County, Florida, showed a Socialist Party receiving 9,000 votes while showing VP Al Gore at –19,000. Bush mysteriously gained 4000 votes in that same county. Diebold claimed it was a “faulty memory chip,” but the “malfunction” caused several networks to erroneously call the State for Bush. During this election, George Bush was given 4000 votes for a county that has fewer than 1000 residents. Even more troubling is the fact that several “key” states’ executives dismissed their constituents’ demand for e-voting machines that transmit a copy & print a paper receipt of the results. How can we preach to the world about democracy and freedom when, for the second time in eight years, voter fraud and voter intimidation have stained a national election while mainstream media sheepishly moved on to less controversial topics. Isn’t it time we address this problem? Several people have advised me to lick my wounds and get ready for the 2006 election. But what will the 2006 election (or any election for that matter) mean when voters’ choices can be substituted by electronic voting machines, which are control by private corporations with specific political alliances—machines that can be programmed and manipulated to give false-positives; machines that may have very well succeeded in committing the greatest fraud upon the American electorate, while simultaneously making our “democracy” the laughing stock of the world.

I wish I had something combative and pithy to add...but this disheartens me completely.