How to Stop the November Elections From Being Stolen

"We can't let the machinations of possible electoral problems prevent us from getting to the polls in massive numbers; in fact, it is an argument to get even more people to vote, so that the majorities are foolproof." -- Robert Greenwald, producer, director "Iraq for Sale" and "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices."

Emotions are running high as the midterm election approaches, and polls show Democrats are ahead in many key congressional races. Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, the latest Associated Press-AOL News poll found that likely voters overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans.

Voters are angry with President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, and say Iraq and the economy are their top issues. In the poll, 56 percent of likely voters said they would vote to send a Democrat to the House, and 37 percent said they would vote Republican -- a 19-point difference. Only 12 percent of likely voters say they are enthusiastic about the administration. The percentage of those who say they are angry with it has grown to 40 percent from 32 percent in early October."

In the light of such overwhelming poll numbers, Democrats and progressives sense the opportunity to win back at least one of the houses of Congress, perhaps both, ending the iron rule of the Republicans. But -- there is a big "but."

The hope of many Democrats for success on Nov. 7 is sharply tempered by still-fresh memories of perceived Democratic victories turned into defeat in 2000 and 2004. Even more disconcerting is the fact that since 2004, there has been overwhelming documentation of voter repression and fraud. The result is that many believe that past elections have been stolen, and efforts to prevent people from voting -- especially minorities -- have been successful.

Voter protection groups gearing up

In the face of the fear about what might be in store come election day, a veritable cottage industry of voter protection/election reform groups and coalitions has emerged. It includes ElectionDefenseAlliance.org, Do More Than Vote, VerifiedVoting.org and the Velvet Revolution, which has developed an Election Protection Strike Team (the Strike Team has offered rewards for evidence of fraud and have a hotline for people to call: 1-888 VOTETIP), and MoveOn.org has a comprehensive progressive voter contact program to reach out to voters.

Other innovative efforts are emerging and ratcheting up their operations for Nov. 7 to protect the vote and stymie the voter shenanigans that have frustrated the country in recent elections, including: Video the Vote, which is taking advantage of inexpensive video cameras and the internet, planning for their teams to be the eyes and ears of the voter protection effort. Meanwhile, Working Assets has created a Voter Protection Immediate Response Network for using text messaging to alert voters of problems where they may send a message about a short and easy action that could be taken -- like get more voting machines to a precinct that is overloaded.

Overcoming the negative expectations

However, part of the struggle leading up to the election is to neutralize negative expectations about voting and counting, as well as increased turnout amidst widespread worries that votes won't be counted or that voters will be turned away at the polls. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, told Ian Urbina of the New York Times:

...[E]pisodes of voter suppression that were dismissed in 2000 as unfounded recurred in 2004 and were better documented because rights groups dispatched thousands of lawyers and poll watchers. In addition, the first national data-tracking tool, the Election Incident Reporting System, offered a national hotline that fed a database of what ended up to be 40,000 problems. This hotline is live for the 2006 election at 1-800-OUR-VOTE.

Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told the Times, "This notion that elections are stolen and that elections are rigged is so common in the public sphere that we're having to go out of our way to counter them this year. This will be the first midterm election in which the Democratic Party is mobilizing teams of lawyers and poll watchers to check for irregularities, including suppression of the black vote, in at least a dozen of the closest districts."