Rational Recounts...

While the mainstream media and their self-appointed pundits have attempted to cool the controversy around vote count anomalies, independent investigative action is taking place along a number of fronts.  Third-party candidates, supported by a rapid influx of individual contributions, have instituted a recount in Ohio.  Polling experts continue to find problems, some coming into the fray only after careful study of the data, others verifying early conclusions and debunking the debunking.

Ultimately this is an exercise in reality.  It will take a lot of investigation on the ground and at the scene to find evidence of fraud.  This will take time.  There will be a lot of pressure to stop looking, both from right-wingers who will chuckle at conspiracy theories and whine about sore losers, and from more rational moderates who look skeptically at the evidence available so far.  Skepticism is good, and must be met by equally rational efforts to determine what really happened out here in reality, not in spin-land.  The screeching from the right is less productive, but it must also be met, not with left-wing counter-screeching, but with a message that can be easily understood and endlessly repeated.

I think Stirling Newberry found a very good candidate.  Unless we look for evidence of vote rigging we will never know: is our vote secure?  It's homeland security meets democracy, with some cyber-terrorism thrown in.  You can't defend a flawed system, you can only sweep it under the rug.  As Newberry writes:

Would you trust your money to a bank that had consistent accounting irregularities? Why trust your vote to a system that does? Unfortunately, the question isn't even asked.

Denying there are problems is only possible as long as evidence of problems are dismissed, downplayed or ignored.  Getting the evidence is the main goal, but putting the case to the public is essential to allow that to move forward.

- jack*

Comments

[Travis Allison]

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