“If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we’re going to have a tough time in this election.”

–Michigan State Representative John Pappageorge (R), July 16, 2004
   (Detroit is 88 percent black in a predominantly white state)

It’s almost as open as Pappageorge let slip back in July. Election fraud has already been found well under way in a dozen or more states, and by sheer coincidence, it is 100% Republican. And as in Michigan, much of the GOP fraud is aimed at keeping African-Americans from voting. This coming from a party that lauds itself as “The Party of Lincoln.”

It’s more visible in Philadelphia than anywhere else as of tonight, where the Bush campaign staff attempted a last-minute drive to shuffle around polling places in Philadelphia–again, a predominantly black city in a predominantly white state. The Bush team argued that they wanted to relocate 63 polling places because they allegedly lack sufficient handicapped access, and because of “intimidation.” Said Matt Robb, the Republican leader of the 48th ward in South Philadelphia, “It’s predominantly, 100 percent black. I’m just not going in there to get a knife in my back.” Another gem of a Republican said they were trying to change polling places in black neighborhoods because “The black neighborhoods are the ones that do the funny stuff. What are you supposed to do?”

This request comes at the last minute, after 1.1 million Philadelphians have already been mailed directions to the polling places. A switch at this point would be strategically timed to confuse and disenfranchise the greatest number of minority and Democratic voters. The white population in 53 of the 63 affected districts is only 10%.

In case you’ve lost track of the numerous early-bird election fraud events by the GOP (a tidal wave of others will come fast and thick election day, you can bet on it), here’s a quick list to remind you:

• Wisconsin: In Milwaukee, another city with a densely Democratic African-American population, more ballots were needed else the central-city districts run out, leaving thousands unable to vote. Guess who tried to block extra ballots from getting delivered? Yep. Republicans again.
• Florida: Jeb Bush, acting against the advice of Florida officials who informed him that the felon list was flawed, pushed for the list to be put into action secretly, actively denying public access to the information. Only after a court order released the list did we find that thousands of Democratic-leaning African-Americans entitled to vote would have been purged, while Republican-leaning Cuban felons had been removed from the no-vote list. Bush called it a “mistake.”
• Florida Again: Republicans caught immigrants who had just been naturalized and urged them to register to vote. The forms they gave the brand-new citizens had already been filled out as Republican.
• Florida Yet Again: U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler had to file a lawsuit in order to get a paper trail of votes in Florida. The GOP vigorously opposed him. The electronic machines that the GOP wanted to be without a means of vote verification are made by a company run by a Bush campaign manager.
• Ohio: Here’s where that Bush campaign manager is. He’s Walden O’Dell, CEO of Diebold, the company that makes voting machines that will be used nationwide. One would think that, in his position as the guy who makes the voting machines without paper trails, O’Dell would be careful to at least sound somewhat fair. Well, guess what. Aside from being a huge Bush supporter and state campaign manager, he also stated publicly that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”
• Nevada: Former state Republican Party Chair Dan Burdish attempted to wipe 17,000 Democrats off the voter rolls. He was prevented from doing so, but tried anyway.
• Also Nevada: The first reports of the Nathan Sproul (former head of the Republican Party and Christian Coalition in Arizona) organization, Voters Outreach of America (VOA), a self-purported “non-partisan voter registration company” which is, by sheer chance, funded by the Republican National Committee. In Nevada, workers from within the VOA charged that the company was hiding their affiliation, and working outside shops and malls, was getting hundreds and probably thousands of Democrats to register to vote through them, and then destroying the applications so the Democrats would be deprived of their votes.
• Oregon: VOA was also found to be doing exactly the same thing in Oregon, where a worker reported that he was told that he “might” destroy Democratic applications.
• Pennsylvania and West Virginia: Here VOA did not destroy Democratic applications, they just denied Democrats the forms to register, sometimes falsely posing as pollsters asking who people were voting for, they would press Republicans to register while Democrats were thanked and the conversation ended. Not exactly kosher if you’re “non-partisan” and advertise yourself as such.
• Virginia: Even Nader is getting into the act, albeit via Republicans. In an attempt to get Nader on the ballot, Nader state campaign coordinator James P. Polk made 10 false statements in an official capacity, and has been indicted by a special grand jury . Polk is a former Republican activist.

Many of these and more are listed here.

What about Democrats? In Colorado, Republicans are making allegations of Democratic voter fraud. Only one problem: there is no evidence that any fraud is being perpetrated by Democrats. Some people are registering multiple times (though only being counted once); in other cases, false applications are being filled out by people registering others and getting paid by the registration. None suggest any organized fraud, nor does any evidence in the state suggest that Democrats or Republicans are guilty of transgressions more than the other.

This is a Republican game we’re playing, folks. And we’re not even two weeks away from the election yet. And you can bet your bottom dollar that we haven’t found half the election fraud that’s happened so far–most times people are smart enough to do it clandestinely. And as election day approaches, the amount of GOP fraud will steamroll until there will be just too damned much to stop.

Hopefully, Kerry will win despite this–and his poll numbers, as well as electoral vote counts, are suggesting he is headed that way–and so the fraud will matter slightly less. But if Bush gets a crucial state by a few hundred votes again–or even several thousand, this time, due to the scale of this year’s fraud–then we will have an historic second theft of the presidency on our hands.

Update: Here’s a site which keeps track of all the election fraud.