Letters to the Editor
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Great article
Manjo raises excellent points that blow away RFK Jr's assertion that the difference between Conally and Kerry proves anything. There is one additional problem with Kennedy's claim.
However, lets say for the sake of argument, Connally was known as a Democrat or campaigned vigorously under the Democratic party affiliation and thus she was seen as the “Democrat” in race of Chief Justice while the other candidate, J. Thomas Moyer, was seen as the “Republican”, and yes there are these 12 counties where Connally’s vote exceeded Kerry’s. It turns out, a similar “anomaly” occurred on the Republican side. Bush’s vote total was 500,000 higher than Moyer’s, yet in four counties, Bush’s total is 15,000 votes below that of Moyer. Now, lets say Kerry had won the election and someone told you Bush’s total was below that of another candidate in an officially nonpartisan judicial race and there were a couple of claims from Republican activists that dead people had voted, would that convince you the election was stolen?
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Seriously?
To the Editor:
Seriously? The discrepancies in the 2004 election are being reported on in a major publication for the first time, (which is sad) and Mr. Manjoo is trying to refute this? Seriously?
The debate that could be extremely beneficial to the degredation of our democracy and your first impulse is to say that all of the irregularities that this election had were in the tin foil hat box?
I have been a regular subscriber for a very long time now and I am reconsidering that yearly payment that I make to get the "premium" content that you provide, just for the fact that you are not willing to at least admit that the 2004 election was at best, extremely shady, at worst, outright stolen.
The direction that our country has taken since this election is frightening to many progressives and liberals and unless we do something about it, we can start "debating" on which right wing candidate to choose from since there will be no alternative.
Maybe Mr. Manjoo can look into the new "detention" centers that are springing up around the country that are menat to house... who? Dissenters? Lberals? We have regressed so much, it is disheartening to think tha Salon, my favorite news site, is going to take the safe road and not fight for our democracy.
Thank you,
Cohe Bolin
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The Ends have fallen off the World of Reason.
The far right has their Intelligent Design, Homosexual Agenda, and the far left has their 2004 stolen election.
They have no basis in fact, reason nor logic and all are demonstrably wrong, yet their adherents are the superglue of conviction, and nothing will prey them off the perch of the true believer.
While I want to believe that the 2004 election was stolen, the problem is rational people require proof. Simply having a conclusion and looking for evidence to support that conclusion is not an argument, it’s a justification and is the method used by Holocaust Deniers, people that believe the lunar landing were faked and that someone other than Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him.
They type of stolen election being presented isn’t even possible in the manner described, as it requires the assistance of Democratic Party observers. Even inflating vote totals is difficult because the other side is checking, much less transferring votes from one candidate to another.
The type of Republican election fraud that occurs is of the nature of attempting to reduce turnout of Democratic voters. Jamming phone lines, placing signs challenging ability to vote, having police cars patrol near polling places, giving false information on where and when to vote, purging voter rolls, etc. Rarely are these types of activities actually enough to sway even a very close election, and the 2004 election was not one of those rare cases.
While keeping people from voting is repugnant and we should endeavor to fight against such schemes, if we allow ourselves to become convinced that this alone was the reason for the 2004 outcome, then we lose the opportunity to correct our mistakes in time for 2008.
Bush would have won 2004 even if everyone who wanted was allowed to vote, even if Blackwell was not in charge of Ohio voting. I know plenty of otherwise rational people in Ohio that voted for Bush in 2004. We want to ensure these people do not vote Republican in 2008, and cancelling Salon membership because it doesn’t always feed us the palatable information we may desire does not help win in 2008.
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NO???
How much time did you spend in Ohio before, during, or after the 2004 election, Mr. Manjoo?? Well, I LIVE in Ohio, Mr. Manjoo, and I've been in a state of outrage for the last 20 months over what went on here. And I'm now watching Ken Blackwell steadfastly refuse to step aside as our Chief Elections Officer while he runs for governor. He gave Ohio to George Bush in 2004 and he's now in the process of giving Ohio to himself in 2006.
RFK Jr. posed a question and presented a lot of information ... it's pretty obvious, at least to me, that he thinks there's more than enough doubt about the integrity of the election here in Ohio to merit a full-blown investigation. But you clearly don't agree -- you've decided the answer to his question is NO, and apparently that's that. It seems to me that ANY objective journalist would be calling for an investigation, but as so many others in this forum have already pointed out, you only seem interested in defending the position you took 20 months ago.
If Ken Blackwell has nothing to hide, Mr. Manjoo, then why is he refusing to acknowledge or count the petitions submitted by Ohio's Green Party candidate for governor, Bob Fitrakis, even though Fitrakis has obtained more than twice the number of signatures required to be included on our November ballot? I'll tell you why, Mr. Manjoo. Because as a certified candidate with full legal standing, Fitrakis has pledged to escalate the Green campaign to unearth more of what really happened in Ohio 2004. Could it be that, as an attorney, Fitrakis's ability to drag our Secretary of State into court could blow things wide open? Of course the Greens will first have to haul Blackwell into court to force official certification of their petitions. Presumably there will be another in a long line of rulings by the Ohio courts every time Blackwell tries to circumvent the electoral process here in Ohio. Meanwhile, of course, the Greens can't do any campaigning, and that's obviously exactly what Ken Blackwell wants.
Shame on Salon for continuing to allow you to "report" on this issue. We deserve a lot better!!! Although I'm not willing to give up on Salon just yet, as many others are, it'll be a cold day in hell before I waste any more of my time reading anything you write.