AP reports: "A federal grand jury indicted five people Wednesday on charges they bought votes for the November election in Caldwell County. A grand jury in Charlotte handed down the indictments on nine counts of conspiracy to commit or committing vote buying against each person. The indictment charges that Wayne Shatley, Anita Moore, Valerie Moore, Richard C. Hood and Ross Banner offered and paid people in some cases $25 to vote for all of the Republicans on the ballot or just for Republican sheriff's candidate Gary Clark."

James Moore and Wayne Slater have written a hard-hitting book about Karl Rove - called "Bush's Brain." Here's an excerpt from Chapter 16 (available for download): "In the Florida governor's race and the Texas senate campaign, automated calls were being made against Democrats [Bill McBride and Ron Kirk] from purportedly gay rights groups. The callers told voters Kirk and McBride were supporters of gay marriage... 'It's almost eerie, what Rove has done,' one Washington consultant said. 'He dismantled the Democrats so effectively they just stood there dumbstruck. He silenced their opposition with intimidation, picked apart institutions, just basically destroyed dissent, and he wrapped all of this in patriotic hues. I'm telling you, it's scarily phenomenal. The Republicans won the battle by obscuring the domestic issues with Iraq and terrorism, just as Karl Rove had advised almost a year earlier."

Josh Marshall writes, "A few days after the (NH) phone-jamming story broke, PoliticsNJ.com ran a story suggesting that [GOP Marketplace President Allen] Raymond might also be the unnamed consultant at the center of another phone-banking scandal last year in New Jersey... And there's more. Raymond is... also the Executive Director of a big-time GOP pressure group: the Republican Leadership Council (RLC) [whose] board includes Sens. Bennett, Nighthorse Campbell, Collins, Domenici, Kyl, Murkowski, Snowe and Specter and Reps. Dreier, Greenwood, Foley, Franks, Johnson, Pryce, Quinn, and Upton... The day before the election, the RLC paid GOP Marketplace $28,983.62 for 'phone bank' work. Did that twenty-nine grand buy legitimate phone bank work? Or the sort of services Raymond was providing in NH? And who else did Raymond's outfit work for last fall? ... Back in NH, party chair Kathy Sullivan wants answers. 'I want to find out who paid for it, who authorized it, and who knew about it.'"

BlackBoxVoting.com writes, "No one certified the patches- No one is explaining the files in a folder called 'rob-georgia'... In early February, 2003, programmers for Diebold Election Systems admitted that they had been parking highly sensitive company files on an unprotected web site, a serious security mistake by anyone's reckoning. The very next week officials from the state of Georgia admitted that a program 'patch' was administered to over 22,000 unauditable touch-screen voting machines in Georgia. This took place shortly before the November 2002 election... Unfortunately, no certification lab seems to have examined what was actually on this patch." No one is answering questions of what this patch does, or who authorized it, or for that matter, the 20+ people who installed it in each of the machines. We Demand An Investigation!

The Executive Director of the NH GOP was recently fired for his role in a criminal conspiracy to keep voters from voting by jamming a Democratic get-out-the-vote phonebank. Now the investigation is widening to include Allen Raymond, the head of several Republican groups, his largest donor Robert Levine, and the Republican National Committee - which paid Raymond's group $75,600 for "phone calls." We demand prosecution of these criminals!

Bev Harris writes: "In early February, 2003, programmers for Diebold Election Systems admitted that they had been parking highly sensitive company files on an unprotected web site, a serious security mistake by anyone's reckoning. The very next week officials from the state of Georgia admitted that a program 'patch' was administered to over 22,000 unauditable touch-screen voting machines in Georgia. This took place shortly before the November 2002 election...Putting patches on 22,000 voting machines without looking at the underlying code has put the Georgia election results in doubt...No official at Diebold or the Georgia Secretary of State's office has provided any explanation at all about the OTHER program patch files - the ones contained in a folder called 'rob-georgia' on Diebold's unprotected FTP site. Inside 'rob-georgia' were folders with instructions to 'Replace what is in the GEMS folder with these'...GEMS is the Diebold voting program software."

Here's another good example of what the Republican Party thinks of democracy. In Manchester, New Hampshire, an Election Day operation allegedly ordered by a Republican telemarketing dealer jammed get-out-the-vote phone banks operated by the city's firefighters union and the state Democratic Party. The attack lasted long enough to hinder efforts to reach people who needed rides to the polls. State Republicans initially denied they had hired the firm, but now they're admitting they did but were unaware of what the firm was doing on their behalf. Phone jamming is a federal offense, and the local police department has asked the Justice Department to take action against the jammers. As a result of the allegations, Chuck McGee, the State Republican Party Executive Director, has resigned. We demand a Special Prosecutor for Stolen Election 2002!

Writes Monica Friedlander: "On Nov. 18, almost two weeks after the Nov. 5 elections, Alabama's Democratic Governor Don Siegelman dropped his request for a recount and conceded the state's top office to Republican Bob Riley. Only two-tenths of one percent out of 1.36 million votes cast separated the candidates -- that after the election had first been called for the Democrat. Deja vu? You bet. Alabama 2002 is an eerie rerun of Florida 2000 -- minus the outrage."

It took Colorado officially one full month to complete a recount in the 7th Congressional District, where Bob Beauprez (R) leads Democrat Mike Feeley (D) by 122 votes. And on December 9, 535 UNCOUNTED ballots were discovered - the result of problems with new voting machines. "The county had new electronic machines this year, after 32 years of using punch card ballots... Of the three problematic early-voting machines, two inadvertently placed their tallies in the computers' subfiles and the workers were unaware that they were there, Miller said. The count on the third machine was simply missed, she said." The recount of 535 votes produced a net gain of 1 vote for Feeley, and Beauprez was declared the winner.

CNN.com reports: "Saying he didn't want to 'hurt Alabama,' Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman gave up his bid for a second term Monday and conceded the nation's last undecided governor's race to Republican Rep. Bob Riley...On election night, Siegelman initially led in unofficial returns and called on Riley to concede. But Riley jumped in front when officials in Baldwin County, a GOP stronghold, reduced Siegelman's total by nearly 7,000 votes, saying a computer glitch in their election system had overstated his returns. Siegelman's supporters filed petitions in every Alabama county seeking a recount. The move was all but shut down by Republican Attorney General Bill Pryor, who said recount rules do not override a state law that keeps ballots sealed except in limited circumstances. The state Supreme Court had been considering the legality of a recount when Siegelman made his decision."

Link Crusader writes, "On Nov. 5 Did We Just Witness Another Illegal COUP D'ETAT in America ? Did the Democrats ACTUALLY WIN several key races on November 5, but rigged vote-counting made it APPEAR otherwise? 'Conveniently' with no VNS exit polls there was no data to compare with the 'official results'. With a huge budget and two years to plan this they chose to back out at the last minute, even though this meant paying huge refunds to 19 newspapers, and to TV networks." Check out the extensive collection of links.

Some mainstream and left-wing columnists and writers have largely blamed the Democratic Party leadership for last Tuesday's election disaster. They did exactly what Republican leaders wanted them to do; they cut down the Democratic Party and took the heat off the Republicans, writes Jackson Thoreau. "Yes, a big problem for Tuesday's election disaster was the lack of bold Democratic ideas. But a bigger problem was how much more money Republicans had....to run dirty, lying TV ads about their opponents," Thoreau says. Other bigger problems were how much dirtier Republican campaigns were, how Republicans keep Americans in fear, and how much more influence they have with the mainstream media. "I understand criticism of Democratic leadership and think much of it is valid," Thoreau adds. "But I have a problem with the way many on the left criticize Democrats and give the impression - even though it might be a false one - of leaving the Republicans who created most of the problems alone."

VoteWatch.us is an open forum for discussing election fraud issues. There are threads on many of the issues we identify in our "Stolen Election 2002" compendium (http://www.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Stolen%20Election%202002)

MySanAntonio.com writes, "Moises Renovato III, wearing a mask to protect himself, treated his right to vote today as serious business. 'It is kind of scary, but I have to vote,' he said while standing behind a 12-foot green metal container used to dump hazardous materials from asbestos removal. Renovato was among dozens of people who were told to wear a protective mask as a safety precaution while casting ballots at Douglas Elementary School.... At Braun Oaks Swim Club, the wrong ballots were delivered, causing a lot of confusion after the polling judges wrote in the wrong last name for a candidate. A polling-site judge confused the last name of a Democratic candidate, writing Joaquin Prado instead of Joaquin Castro. Elizabeth Conner, a volunteer for Nelson Balido, said many voters walked out of the polling site showing their discontent when they saw the wrong name, which was written by hand."

MySanAntonio.com reports, "Comal County elections officials noticed an extreme oddity after the final votes were tallied in Tuesday's general election. County Judge Danny Scheel received 18,181 votes in his victory over Lois Duggan. Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth also got 18,181 votes in Comal County in his win over Democrat Joseph Sullivan and Libertarian Rex Black. To make matters even stranger, Comal County also gave Republican Carter Casteel exactly 18,181 votes in her victory over Democrat Virgil Yanta in the race for District 73 state representative. 'Isn't that the weirdest thing?' County Clerk Joy Streater asked. 'We noticed it right away, but it is just a big coincidence. I checked the precincts and the numbers are all different in every precinct for each of them. They just coincidentally all add up to 18,181.'" The list of voting issues in Texas goes on an on, and they all favor the GOP.

BUZZFLASH: Doesn't electronic, touch screen voting actually improve the chances for large scale election fraud? Votes can more easily be lost with a little 'software glitch' or Democratic votes could become Republican votes and who would know the difference? PALAST: Hell, yes. The 'touch' screens are made by ES&S, chosen by Katherine Harris, congressional candidate. The lobbyist for that company is Sandy Mortham, founder of Women for Jeb - and Harris' predecessor as Secretary of State. It was Mortham that began the hunt for black voters in 1998. These Mortha-matic machines - surprise, surprise -failed to work in Black precincts. And there was no paper ballot back-up. It's not planned 'conspiracy' - it's what I call 'passive vote fraud.' You KNOW a screw up will occur that will wipe out your opponents votes ... and you simply don't do anything to prevent it... Passive fraud is no more legal than active fraud. But then, who's going to act on this? John Ashcroft?

AP writes, "A Scurry County election error reversed the outcomes in two commissioner races. A defective computer chip in the county's optical scanner misread ballots Tuesday night and incorrectly tallied a landslide victory for Republicans. Democrats actually won by wide margins. The problem was discovered when poll workers became suspicious of the margins of the vote, Scurry County Clerk Joan Bunch said." Does anyone really believe that it is a coincidence that so many votes for Democrats were given to the GOP candidate? Ron Kirk also in Texas had this problem. NJ Dems had problems when 90 of 94 voting machines couldn't vote for the Dem. candidate. Broward County forgot to count 103,000+ votes. Missouri Democratic counties "ran out of ballots". This is just a small list. Where is the Federal Investigation of another stolen election?

Writes William Rivers Pitt: "George W. Bush now holds sole ownership of the power to make war across the globe...George W. Bush now holds sole ownership of the power to remake the Judiciary, from the Supreme Court on down. In this area, the Democrats had performed well. They had held off truly frightening nominees like Pickering, staunching Bush's desire to flood the courts with conservative activists. Now, virtually every nominee put forth will win a seat on the bench. With the impending retirement of a number of Supreme Court Justices, the implications of this free and open nomination process are profound. Consider well that this administration saw fit to nominate a religious extremist like John Ashcroft to the post of Attorney General. There will be more like him to come, and they will wear the black robe, and their word will be law. A conservative version of the Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department will be created, sharpening the teeth of the PATRIOT Act."

Washington Post.com reports: "They said the Democrats were a solid bet to hang on to the Senate. They said many of the races were tight as a tick. They said these were primarily local contests in which a president couldn't have much impact. So what do journalists have to say for themselves now? Were they, once again, slavishly wedded to a conventional wisdom that turned out to be wrong? How did so many of them miss Tuesday's Republican tide? 'It caught everybody by surprise,' says Ron Brownstein, political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. 'Why limit it to the press? If you talked to Republican professionals on Thursday and Friday, they were not expecting a two-seat Senate gain'...Who really knows whether the president's frenetic campaigning made the difference? Besides, a switch of roughly 29,000 votes in Minnesota, 11,500 in Missouri and 9,500 in New Hampshire would have produced a Democratic Senate and gobs of stories about how the White House blew it."

Garrison Keillor writes: "Norm Coleman won Minnesota because he was well-financed and well-packaged. Norm is a slick retail campaigner, the grabbiest and touchingest and feelingest politician in Minnesota history, a hugger and baby-kisser, and he's a genuine boomer candidate who reinvents himself at will. The guy is a Brooklyn boy who became a left-wing student radical at Hofstra University with hair down to his shoulders, organized antiwar marches, said vile things about Richard Nixon, etc. Then he came west, went to law school, changed his look, went to work in the attorney general's office in Minnesota. Was elected mayor of St. Paul as a moderate Democrat, then swung comfortably over to the Republican side. There was no dazzling light on the road to Damascus, no soul-searching: Norm switched parties as you'd change sport coats."

David Bauder writes: "Disappointed news organizations began an inquiry Wednesday regarding the technical failures that bedeviled Voter News Service after its rebuilt operations failed to deliver crucial information for the midterm U.S. elections. Two television news operations said they were reconsidering their participation in the elections consortium. 'Obviously, we're taking a very hard look at what happened yesterday and are reassessing our future participation in the consortium,' said Jeffrey Schneider, spokesman for ABC News. CNN said it too was evaluating its future course. VNS is an elections consortium of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press....Tuesday's election marked the first public test of a system revamped following the 2000 election, when TV networks twice used VNS data to make wrong calls in the decisive Florida vote for the presidency." Those exit polls can be pesky for election thiefs!

Writes CLG's Mike Rectenwald: "Given the obvious fact that the Republican agenda is anathema to the interests of any majority, in the US or the world at large, one might conclude, with some Europeans, that Americans are either suicidal, mentally retarded, or both. But this is not the case; Europeans cannot imagine the extent to which the American media has, especially since the repeal of the Fairness in Broadcasting Act (circa 1986), been overrun by corporate interests allied to the Republican agenda. Nor do Europeans, with a strong leftist tradition, understand the failure of the US political system to develop any substantial opposition party to forcefully and clearly articulate a political vision other than the one foisted by said corporate media. The articulation of an alternative is left to the castigated voices of the Internet, like those of the CLG. If the people are 'dumbed down,' it is only because they suffer from paucity of real political education and analysis."

CNN.com reports: "A computer glitch in South Florida's Broward County caused 103,222 ballots not to be counted on election night, but the missing votes did not affect the outcome of any races, county officials said Thursday. The Broward County Election Department said the software error was discovered between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Wednesday, revising voter turnout from 35 percent to 45 percent once the votes were counted. Broward County, north of Miami, includes Fort Lauderdale and was the center of controversy over votes cast using a punch card voting system in the 2000 presidential election. The Florida Secretary of State's office praised Broward officials saying they did an 'excellent job' in finding the discrepancy in the overall vote total and correcting it....David Host, a spokesman for the Florida secretary of state, had called the elections 'an unqualified success.'"

It is no wonder why the GOP won so many races. Unlike Saddam Hussein, who just had his name as the only candidate, the GOP actually allowed other names to be on the ballot...except, votes were not counted in Broward (over 104,000 votes just happened to be missed), votes in Texas for Ron Kirk showed up for the GHP candidate, Democratic areas in Missouri ran out of ballots and were not allowed to stay open late, and now in Cherry Hill, NJ, in 90 or 94 polling places, you could not vote for the Democratic mayor as the button would not go down, and Democratic voters were turned away. Everyone should ask themselves if the GOP really won this election, or if they just stole this election!

The L.A. Times and other prominent newspapers rushed too quickly to pat Florida on the back for its supposedly smooth election. Florida newspapers are rife with reports of glitches and incomplete returns. But of course, the national media would prefer to cover up any complaints that might question Dubya's brother's legitimacy!

CNN.com reports: "Bush has spent much of the past two years raising millions of dollars for GOP candidates. The White House put forth an unprecedented effort for a midterm campaign: Bush raised more than $200 million for the cycle, including more than $140 million this year. (Bush) visited 40 states in all, 30 of them at least twice...Dick Cheney raised more than $40 million and traveled nearly constantly in the final months of the campaign, making roughly 30 trips since August. In the final month alone, 12 of the 14 members of the Bush Cabinet made stops in a combined 33 states....The political travel was coordinated by the White House office of political affairs, which several officials said kept a detailed list of activity by Bush team members, accounting for campaign stops and fund raising. Officials refused to release the list, a reflection of White House sensitivity to Democratic criticism of the administration's level of political activity."

Eric Alterman writes, "I watched the election returns, as I always do, with the sound off last night and went to bed real early. But I'm guessing that not too many pundits on those endless gabfests focused on the fact that, as reported by AP, the Republican National Committee and its congressional campaign arms had outraised their Democratic counterparts by $184 million through mid-October. This does not include, of course, the billions Bush gave them through the federal government. This is the kind of thing that makes all the difference in close races and that's just what happened last night."

Terry McAullife declared, "The tactics being used around the country to intimidate voters and suppress voter turnout are nothing less than despicable. We have seen 'anonymous' fliers displayed in predominantly African American communities in Baltimore, MD, with an incorrect Election Day date, warning voters to ... take care of any outstanding warrants before they go vote. Maryland Republicans [said] their campaign plans include deploying off-duty police officers as poll watchers on Election Day. In Hidalgo County, TX a Republican poll monitor for Republican Senate candidate John Cornyn had to be escorted out of the polling place by law enforcement for harassing senior Hispanic voters and using derogatory language... Mr [Bush], do not let our election process fall prey to dirty political shenanigans once again. Tell your Republican party operatives to cease their voter intimidation practices and let Americans exercise their right to vote free of harassment and intimidation...'"

"I voted for McBride, but the machine counted it as Bush. It did this three times. The polling worker finally said, 'We have to reprogram this machine. Another person was having the same trouble while I was there.'" So claimed a caller to a Southern Florida talk show. "I pushed the screen for McBride and it marked Bush. They called over a technician, he reset it," claimed a second caller. "I'll tell you right now, this election is fixed!" roared Rogers. "It's not even 10:30 in the morning."

NY Times reports, "The Central Intelligence Agency, using a missile fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft, killed a senior leader of Al Qaeda and five low-level associates traveling by car in Yemen on Sunday. The missile strike killed Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, a man they described as the senior Qaeda operative in Yemen and perhaps one of the top dozen or so Qaeda figures in the world. A C.I.A. spokesman refused to comment today. Nor would White House officials confirm the Predator strike in Yemen or say whether Bush had personally authorized it." That's because Karl Rove personally authorized it - to get Republicans out to vote. Defeat ALL Republicans!

NY Times reports, "Some officials are skeptical [of touch screen voting machines]. They worry that in most cases, voters have no way of knowing if their intent is actually registered. Other officials worry about security because the software is proprietary information kept by the vendor, so election officials are at the mercy of the vendors for their results. This situation also means a county has to keep using that same vendor for the lifetime of the machine. Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Davis [CA] that studies new technologies, is one skeptic. 'It's not enough to ask voters, 'Do you like it?' ' she said. 'You have to ask them, 'Do you trust it?' And 'Will you trust it if there's a recount? Will you trust it if there's no paper trail?'" Not when the owners of the manufacturers - and the supervisors of elections - are partisan Republicans!

Journalist Joshua Micah Marshall exposes a "flyer distributed in African-American precincts this morning in Baltimore, Maryland, which tells voters they must pay off all parking tickets, traffic tickets, back rent and outstanding warrants before voting. You gotta see it to believe it. Also, note incorrect date of election day. Republicans? Voter suppression? Oh, C'mon..." Defeat ALL Republicans!

Tom Blackburn writes, "It's very difficult to say it's a fair election," said Jesse Ventura, "when they've already said that anyone that voted absentee with the name 'Paul Wellstone' won't be counted, and anyone who voted absentee with the name 'Norm Coleman' will be counted....A party can make its own luck. If you felt strangely soiled after a weekend of watching ads that seem to portray each candidate as a serial killer, relax. You were soiled. The ad wasn't supposed to make you vote for the serial killer's opponent. It's supposed to make you disgusted enough to stay away from the polls." In South Dakota, John Ashcroft has sent the FBI over to the Indian Reservations to intimidate Indian voters from voting. Don't forget about the phone calls in Florida that lied about the absentee deadlines. After all of this lying and cheating, why would anyone vote for the GOP?

Latoya Craig writes, "I recently had the experience of Voter Fraud in Caldwell County NC... People/family members that I know were actually paid for their vote and if they brought someone else to vote and they voted Republican they also were paid. I actually took people to the polls to vote and thought I was doing a good thing until I found out that they were changing their party (which I later found out has to be done 90 days prior to an election). I just cannot believe that people will actually sell their right to vote, but what's more amazing is that the officials conducting this little (whatever) target the project's crack heads - they get one crack head to gather other welfare and other project dwellers and take them to vote and they get paid after the person votes they get a total of $25. I hope that by reporting this to the Local District attorney, and the SBI someone will be able to do something before Tuesday." Note: we forwarded this to the NC and county Democratic chairs.

Palm Beach Post writes, "Early voting the day before Election Day was already heavy this morning. Lines at the northeast County Courthouse on PGA Boulevard were 70 people deep and the wait was an hour and a half. Lines at South County administrative complex in Delray Beach were also long. About 100 people were waiting to cast their absentee ballots midmorning and wait was about two hours." A note to all of the people that will be waiting on line to vote tomorrow: if you are in line when the polls close, you are entitled by law to cast your vote, even if they have to stay open hours past the closing hour deadline. Count EVERY Vote!

Once again Matt Drudge made up a story, reports it as news, and is WRONG. This time it was to smear Mark Pryor, the Democratic candidate for the Arkansas Senate race. Early Monday, Pryor's campaign released a notarized affidavit that bore the signature "Hortencia Osorio." She had signed beneath two paragraphs in Spanish, and an English version was provided by the Pryor campaign. It said that when she worked for Pryor she was a legal resident of the United States and provided documentation to the Pryor family that proved her legal status. Sorry Matt, you were WRONG and Mark Pryor is going to make a wonderful Democratic Senator. By the way, how is the former wife of Senator Hutchinson?

The head of the Orange County Florida Democratic Party "said they have evidence of voter fraud as workers process absentee ballots. At a warehouse near the Orange County supervisor of elections office, completed absentee ballots are processed in preparation for Election Day. The head of the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee, Doug Head, believes some of the absentee ballots returned are fraudulent -- the voters' signatures are thought to be forgeries. In a sample of seven randomly chosen ballots, Head said four were possible forgeries. The ballots were pulled for review by a canvassing board. 'Some Hispanic voters may have had ballots cast for themselves that they don't even know about, and that would be a tragedy'... Head said he's already discovering strange statistical information: A batch of more than 400 absentee ballot requests received at the same time all from Hispanic Republicans, who are new residents with no voting history."

BuzzFlash writes, "The following message is an actual 'Jim Crow' alert that NewsMax sent out on behalf of the 'Committee to Stop Bill McBride.' It reeks of racism and efforts to intimidate black voters, as if there were something wrong with black Americans voting. The Committee to Stop Bill McBride could not exist without the tacit support of Jeb Bush. The following e-mail typifies the Brown Shirt, thuggish tactics of the racist South before the era of civil rights. This is what the Republican party is all about, at its heart, returning America to the pre-Civil War days when blacks, needless to say, didn't have a right to vote... This is an organized party of thugs. When we finally get a Democratic administration in power again, the GOP and its surrogate 'Jim Crow' organizations should be prosecuted under the RICO act for trying to keep Americans from exercising their right to vote."

John Kaminski writes, "What really determines elections is who counts the votes, and who counts the votes is somebody you probably didn't know, and if you did know them, you surely wouldn't trust them to count the votes. No government agency counts the votes. And the people who count the votes, who tell you who your next president is, have no government oversight, no audit, no official you have elected watching over them. The people who really count the votes are the media, more specifically a politically influenced cabal of minions bought and paid for by corporate tycoons who own the nation's major media outlets. These are the same people who don't think peace demonstrations are worthy of coverage, and who in the year 2000 got together and reviewed the data from Florida and then really wouldn't tell us what they found out. They'd only say ... 'Bush won,' just like the Supreme Court."

To get out the vote, the Republican Party in Maryland resorted to the usual questionable tactic of mailing out its own absentee ballot applications. This is the same tactic Republicans used in Florida, and it had the same fatal flaw: Maryland law requires applicants to provide their date of birth, but the Republican version of the application form didn't request it. So the state attorney general quite rightly ruled that the applications are illegal, and the applicants therefore will not get ballots. The Party of Personal Responsibility is blaming the Democrats for the illegal applications being declared illegal. The Maryland GOP should have at least used some of the gazillions of dollars Bush has hoovered up for the party to hire a proofreader.

We all know of many problems in the Florida Voting System, but here is a new one. According to the Palm Beach Post, "Broward has 5,265 touchscreen voting machines for its more than 978,000 registered voters. With every voter in the county expected to take 15 minutes using the machines, voters will likely be accepted for hours past the 7 p.m. scheduled closing time." Now look at this mathematically. 15 minutes per voter per machine equates to 4 voters per hour per machine. 5265 voting machines x 4 votes per hour = 21,060 votes per hour. The polling place is open for 12 hours, which totals 252,720 votes, using the state election's voting time estimates. This allows for only 26% of the 978,000 registered voters! This is pure voter disenfranchisement, but Republicans refuse to permit paper ballots so voters aren't forced to wait for hours. Get ready for Stolen Election 2002!

John B. Judis writes, "For the most part, Republicans this election cycle aren't trying to woo black voters by offering their own solutions to issues such as poverty or civil rights. Rather, they're trying to convince them not to vote at all by sowing cynicism about white Democrats, even implying they are racist. This 'depress the vote' strategy becomes even clearer when viewed in conjunction with the GOP's ongoing efforts to subtly intimidate black voters with dubious charges of election fraud...Conservative Republicans may be paying more attention to black voters than in the past--and they may be smiling as they speak--but when this mask of warm-hearted concern is drawn aside, the GOP's strategy is still aimed less at creating diverse black political participation than at trying to persuade black Americans to participate as little as possible."

Greg Palast writes, "In Dec. 2000, we reported that Florida's use of a faulty and politically questionable list of felons and dead people 'scrubbed' from voter rolls - half of them African-Americans - may have cost Al Gore the 537-vote margin of victory claimed by George W. Bush in Florida. [Now] Jeb is fighting to fend off a challenge from Bill McBride for the governor's race. The Nov. 5 face-off could again come down to thousands, if not hundreds, of votes... DBT Online... reports that if it followed strict criteria to eliminate those errors, [only] 3,000 names would remain - and a whopping 91,000 people would have their voting rights restored. Eventually the list will be fixed, state officials have promised, in accordance with a settlement with the NAACP in its civil rights suit against Florida following the 2000 election. But not until the beginning of next year - and after Jeb Bush's reelection bid is long over." Call talk shows and denounce Jeb's plans to steal ANOTHER election!

Jackson Thoreau details the long litany of GOP voting fraud schemes to steal the 2002 election, including some aided by Libertarians. Michigan: Rpugs plant Trojan Horse Democrats as candidates in nine senate seats (exposed); Texas: Voting machines rigged to shift mark for Dem into Repug column; Arkansas: GOP campaign workers harass black voters trying to register; South Dakota: GOP "spotters" sent to reservations to intimidate Native American voters; Minnesota: White House calls Jesse Ventura to ask him to throw out Wellstone absentee votes and keep only GOP; Florida: (where to start!?) latest - fliers being mailed to voters in Dem. Districts saying election day is Nov. 6. And across the nation, elections may be stolen by Bush's amazing abuse of Air Force One as a GOP "campaign trail" shuttle - using OUR money. Call talk shows and tell EVERY DEMOCRAT to vote to stop the Republicans from stealing ANOTHER election!

WBC880News.com writes, "Some questions have prompted the state Republican Party to stop telephone calls to Republicans featuring a recorded message about absentee ballots from...George W. Bush. The message urges listeners to use an absentee ballot application that they received in the mail. Listeners might have misinterpreted the message and tried to use an absentee ballot when they were not qualified to do so, Jeffrey Garfield said." We demand an investigation!

Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, is telling anyone who will listen that voter turnout will be even lower this year than in 1998, when only 35.3% of the voting-age population cast ballots. The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate is a "nonpartisan" organization, of course. But it probably won't surprise you learn that Curtis Gans is most frequently quoted by right-wing publications like Rev. Moon's Washington Times. And his "nonpartisan" organization has received large grants from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which Media Transparency describes as "the country's largest and most influential right-wing foundation". Expect to see more reports like this one through election day. They are intended to make people feel discouraged and lose interest in democracy. Don't let them fool you.

Democratic Party chair Terry McAuliffe said, "We have an innovative new voting rights protection feature that I want to demonstrate today. It's a toll-free assistance line, a pilot program, which will be up and running on Election Day. So if you've gone to the polls and they say you're not on the registration list or they claim you need to show multiple forms of ID...you can call and get help. The number is 1-866-VOTE-411. You'll be prompted to enter your 5-digit zip code... you can leave a recorded message about the problem you're having...and then you'll be transferred either to a Democratic Party 'Promote and Protect' call center or your local County Board of Elections. No political party or media outlet or non-profit has the ability to monitor every polling place where there might be problems. But using this new state-of-the-art technology, we can capture voting rights problems in real time, as they are occurring, and address the situation immediately."

USA Today writes, "Radio talk-show hosts are setting up shop on the White House lawn today to interview Cabinet secretaries and top administration officials. Democrats say Bush is using his office to give the [Grand Hypocrisy Party] an unfair edge 6 days before elections. 'It reeks of an inappropriate mix of politics and official business' says Jennifer Palmieri, a spokeswoman for the DNC. 'Radio day'-- held in a heated tent to fight DC's unseasonable mid-40s chill -- is the latest example of Bush's willingness to use all the tools of the presidency to boost [GHP] candidates' chances. He's wielding his popularity and ability to grab headlines to make the case for the importance of the [GHP] agenda." Radio guests will include Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, Paul O'Neill and Don Evans. Hey Ashcroft, we thought you were against prostitution - this is as bad as it gets!

"Voter empowerment begins with voter education. In 20 states, People For the American Way Foundation, along with our state and national allies, have analyzed election laws, consulted with election officials, and produced a 'Voters' Bill of Rights' that tells voters in plain language precisely what their rights are at the polls. We encourage you to download, copy, and distribute these to as many voters as you can leading up to and on Election Day. Our Voters' Bills of Rights for all 20 states are in English and Spanish. In 2000, it is estimated that over 6 million votes were lost due to problems with voter registration, problems at the polls, and problems with ballots. We hope that by educating voters about their rights, we can keep this national disaster from occurring again. Do your part by downloading the Voters' Bill of Rights for your state and distributing it to as many voters as possible! Call our voter hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE if you have any questions or problems voting!"

Air Force One, $34,400 per hour. Cargo planes for the presidential convoy, $5,000 to $7,000 per hour. Marine One helicopter, $5,597 per hour. Special setup at campaign appearances, $20,000 to $50,000. White House staff expenses, $29,000 to $56,000. That's how much the taxpayers have to shell out for Bush to be constantly on the road trying to achieve a one-party government. That doesn't count the cost of security, including enforcing the infamous First Amendment Zones. And it doesn't count how much the communities "lucky" enough to receive a Bush visit have to pay for local law enforcement and other services.

Bob Poe, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, received a telephone call Friday afternoon from someone urging him to cast his absentee ballot on Nov. 10 - five days after Election Day. The caller said he was from Bill McBride's gubernatorial campaign. Jeb Bush campaign denies all knowledge of the calls. Interfering with an election is a federal crime - we DEMAND prosecution!

USA Today's Jim Drinkard writes, "The Republican Party has compiled a national database of 3,273 names of people who it says apparently voted more than once in the 2000 elections. It is turning the list over to local authorities for investigation and possible prosecution... CT, the first state to check the GOP's multiple-voting data, found it 'highly flawed.' Officials said that at least 51 of 54 names listed as voting both in CT and elsewhere were erroneous. Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, a Democrat, called the list 'a deliberate attempt to distract election officials across the country from their responsibility to encourage voter participation.' In NC, officials found that the first name on the double-voting list was that of state Rep. Martha Alexander, a Democrat who chairs the General Assembly's panel on election laws." Call GOP Chair Marc Racicot at 202.863.8500 and tell him to stop LYING about double voting!

NY Times reports, "State law prohibits corporations from contributing more than $5,000 a year... [But] a review of state campaign finance records turned up dozens of cases in which major donors to Mr. Pataki used multiple corporate entities to give amounts far greater than the limits imposed by state law on corporations or individuals. Other donors legally surpassed such limits by giving tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Pataki in Virginia, where the governor has set up two political action committees, one of which has no cap under that state's laws. Donations from just the top 20 of these creative givers total $2.4 million during the current election cycle, according to an examination of campaign finance records by The New York Times. The total does not include an additional $1.3 million that these same 20 donors have given to state and city Republican parties that are also spending money to support the governor's campaign." Defeat ALL Republicans!

CNN.com reports: "Less than two weeks before the election,...Dick Cheney is scrambling for 11th-hour campaign contributions that could help Republicans protect their fragile hold on the House. Cheney has been the White House road warrior this year, hauling in more than $22 million for Republicans in 74 campaign appearances. He outpaced Bush, who logged 66 events before closing out his fund raising last week and shifting to a pure get-out-the-vote mode. Almost all of Cheney's appearances, in 38 states plus the District of Columbia, have been on behalf of candidates for the House, where the GOP holds a thin advantage. A shift of seven seats would throw the chamber to Democrats. This year's aggressive travel itinerary came at a time when the White House began planning for war against Iraq -- a process in which Cheney is instrumental. Between them, Bush and Cheney have raised more than $163 million."

Star Tribune writes, "Americans for Job Security, a Virginia-based interest group that opposes the reelection of Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, has made an unprecedented $1 million ad buy that will fill the airwaves in the last two weeks before the election, according to Wellstone campaign officials. Campaign manager Jeff Blodgett said the buy is so large that it may equal what Wellstone and Republican rival Norm Coleman and the two state parties each are expected to spend on media in the closing weeks. Blodgett said his biggest concern is that no one knows who funds the mysterious group, which has found a legal loophole that apparently allows it to keep its donors secret. 'In a state with a reputation for clean, transparent campaigns, this is an outrage, that a group can come in and spend this kind of money and no one knows who their donors are,' Blodgett said. 'We demand to know. We ask Norm Coleman to join us in this.'" Call Coleman at 651-645-0766!

Jonathan Weisman writes: "Seeking to fill a void in the low-interest congressional campaigns, pro-Republican businesses are muscling into the Nov. 5 elections in novel ways, stuffing voter guides into pay envelopes, e-mailing workers with candidate report cards, and mounting get-out-the-vote drives that take a page from organized labor....More than in any other election year, companies are testing new ways to get friendly voters to the polls. They include direct, workplace appeals to employees and get-out-the-vote drives that until recently would have been considered taboo....straying over the line of propriety, if not legality. 'There are some new and particularly blatant techniques out there,' said Matt Keller, legislative director for Common Cause....an ExxonMobil 'Citizen Action Team' Web site, available through the company's Web site, includes more pointed candidate scorecards,...a politician's vote for the company's position gets a green check; a vote against gets a bold red X."

Reports the Dallas Morning News: "Dallas County Democrats asked a state district court judge to shut down early voting Tuesday because some touch-screen ballot machines hadn't accurately recorded votes... The Democrats said they received several dozen complaints Monday and Tuesday from people who said that they selected a Democratic candidate but that their vote appeared beside the name of a Republican on the screen... 'We don't know if we lost 10 votes, 100 votes, 1,000 or 10,000,' said Susan Hays, chairwoman of the Dallas County Democratic Party... The touch-screen machines - made by Election Systems & Software - have been used in more than 90 Dallas County elections in the past four years and have an outstanding record overall, [county elections administrator Bruce] Sherbet said. But the Dallas News also notes that last year, 'about 5,000 of nearly 18,000 ballots cast during the early voting period [an astonishing 28%!] were not properly assigned to candidates.'"

"Bush has made Republican success on Nov. 5 a government-wide project," reports the Washington Post. "More than 300 administration appointees, some of whom were told by White House officials that they needed to show their Republican credentials, have taken vacation time and are being flown by the party to House and Senate campaigns in states where control of Congress will be decided to organize volunteers, work the phones, and go door to door....Bobby L. Harnage Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees...said he has been hearing increasing complaints about what his members consider politicization of their work." (Darn those pesky union members! No wonder Bush demands "flexibility" for "his" Homeland Security Department.) And, despite the "imminent threat" of Iraq, Bush is out-stumping them all, says WP, noting that Bush starts "12 days of barnstorming in battleground states and districts" on Thursday. Say, George, who's minding the W-ars?

People for the American Way, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and a wide range of national and state organizations have formed an alliance to defend our right to vote. The Election Protection program includes voter education, get-out-the-vote activities, and monitoring of polling places on Election Day. You can make a difference!

The Republican Party's idea of "election reform" is apparently preventing anybody from voting who might vote for anybody but a Republican. At the early voting location in Jefferson County, Arkansas, Republican poll watchers demanded IDs from prospective voters (which is illegal), tried to watch the voters cast their votes (which is definitely illegal), and otherwise interfered so much with the democratic process that the chairman of the Election Commission called police twice to escort the offending poll watcher out of the building. We can expect such tactics all over the country on Election Day. Call your local Democratic Party office and volunteer to be a pro-democracy poll monitor.

VT Dems writes, "GOP candidates Jim Douglas (Gov), Brian Dubie (Lt. Gov) and their Republican henchman are getting ready to steal your vote. How? By arguing that the person with the most votes does not necessarily win. In Vermont, if no candidate for governor, lt. governor or treasurer gets more than 50% of the vote, the legislature chooses the winner. The last time this process was used to overturn the will of the voters and select a person who did not receive the most votes for governor was 1853. If the Republicans succeed, they will give new meaning to the term 'take back Vermont.' Don't let the Republican make your choice on Election Day meaningless. Your vote is your voice. Write a letter to the editor. Demand that your local candidates for the legislature respect the will of the voters and will support the person that gets the most votes. Tell Jim Douglas and Brian Dubie that you won't let them steal your vote!" Listen to the fabulous radio ad that compares VT with FL.

"A county in Florida has voted to hire election monitors - normally used to watching for corruption and irregularities in new democracies - to observe upcoming elections. Miami-Dade County has been stung by the recent voting difficulties in the primary race for the Democratic nomination for governor, and by the massive controversy around the 2000 presidential election. So the county government narrowly voted on Tuesday to hire experts from the Washington-based Centre for Democracy to watch over its elections on 5 November. County commissioners voted 6-5 to pay the Center for Democracy $92,000 to watch over the county's running of the elections in which voters will choose a state governor, as well as federal and state lawmakers. The Washington-based organisation has previously sent monitors to elections in El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Poland and Russia, among other countries." - BBC

"Sensitive campaign material was stolen from the headquarters of (Tennessee's) Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen during a break-in over the weekend, campaign officials said. Among the items missing from the Music Row office are a computer that includes confidential campaign strategy points and a laptop with donor lists and other financial information, said Dave Cooley, Bredesen's senior strategist. Bredesen said he thinks the burglar or burglars were after information and not the equipment. 'Those would have been the two computers I would have wanted to take,' Bredesen said, noting dozens of other computers were left untouched. 'Somebody knew what they were doing.' Desks that were left locked were found unlocked, computers were turned on, and things had been rifled, Lenker said. Police spokesman Don Aaron said there were no signs of forced entry. The office, located in a building at One Music Circle North, is secured with a card swipe system."

Karen Hughes, Bush's nursemaid and chief Valkyrie, has proven that when the going gets tough, the nasty get nastier. Jackson Thoreau reports that Hughes is now trying to shore up her sagging boy by strongarming several key Texas campaigns, including those of John Cornyn (Senate), Rick Perry (governor) and David Dewhurst (Lt. Gov). "Karl Rove is also heavily involved in advising these campaigns," says Thoreau. "Bush & Co. do not want to lose a top Texas position to the Democrats, which would be seen as a huge SLAAAAPPPPP!! to Bush's face. Bush himself has wasted more public taxpayers' dollars by flying several times recently on Air Force One to Texas to campaign for Cornyn, Perry, and Dewhurst, rather than actually work on issues like the economy and national security." He leaves that to Dick Cheney and the Carlyle Group.

Miami Herald reports: "Faced with a disastrous mix of inexperienced poll workers, delayed precinct openings and outraged voters at last month's primary, county officials called their own cavalry -- the Miami-Dade Police Department -- to restore order by the Nov. 5 general election.... Police Director Carlos Alvarez... is in charge of putting together the election -- from logistics and transportation to staffing and training. The biggest use of department staff will occur around Nov. 4, when hundreds of officers will escort trucks hauling the 7,200 iVotronic voting machines to 553 polling places. An officer will be stationed outside those buildings until the next morning, when a precinct clerk opens up....The plan is viewed with skepticism by some civil-liberties and national voter-rights organizations and local activists, who say the idea of uniformed police at polling places brings back memories of the 1950s and '60s, when blacks fought for the right to vote."

Louisiana politics are starting to sound a lot like Florida's. While Katherine Harris did everything she could to manipulate the election outcome, at least she wasn't running for office at the same time. But in Louisiana, election official Suzanne Haik Terrell (R) is not only running for office, but also calling the shots on elections and scooping up a cool half-million dollars for TV ads from the NRSC. Republican Governor Mike Foster (R) was even considering throwing his hat into the shark ring himself, as a way to try to skew the election even further because in LA, if you can reduce the percentage of votes going to each candidate so no one gets 50%, you can force a runoff. So, Foster would have been a 1) Senate candidate, 2) governor, and 3) top election official in the state of LA (see http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/newsstory/vote02.html). Why is it the GOP has to resort to tricks and deceptions, court cases, and election machinery manipulation to win?

Registered Democrats in Arizona have been receiving a recorded phone message: "This is Sarah Phillips. Two years ago I gave my baby up for adoption. A month ago, I found out my baby was adopted by a homosexual couple. I went back to DES [the Department of Economic Security] to demand my baby back, but I was told Attorney General Janet Napolitano [the Democratic candidate for governor] is pro gay adoptions. That I have no rights as a mother. That's not fair. I don't think Janet Napolitano should push her gay rights agenda on innocent people, especially children. That's why I'm calling you." According to DES, the story is completely false; they have no record of dealings with "Sarah Phillips", and the agency doesn't even handle voluntary adoptions. This is just another Big Lie by an anonymous group supporting Republican Matt Salmon. Tell Salmon to PERSONALLY denounce the smear campaign - 602.527.MATT or Info@SalmonforGovernor.com

Amy Gardner writes: "Four Wake County Democrats filed a complaint... with the Federal Election Commission over a Wal-Mart publication sent to 200,000 North Carolina homes with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole on the cover. The complaint, filed against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Dole's Senate campaign, alleges that the mailing is an illegal campaign contribution because it 'spread Elizabeth Dole's campaign image around the state.' 'The timing - less than two weeks before the primary election - was clearly a blatant attempt by the nation's largest corporation to influence North Carolina's election,' the complaint said'... Wal-Mart officials reiterated... that the magazine was not intended to boost Dole's campaign... The Sam's Club executive ultimately responsible for the magazine did not know Dole was a candidate." Yeah, right.

Many in the black community in Maryland are infuriated by the discovery that the African-American running mate of gubernatoral candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. may have been bribed by an attractive "consulting fee" to run on Ehrlich's ticket as a "figure head" black (Maryland has a very large African-American population). It is alleged that Maryland GOP induced Michael S. Steele to run in exchange for a $5,000 per month "consulting fee." The evidence is pretty darn damning - the GOP began paying Steele the fees right after his candidacy was confirmed. "It looks to me like they've hired themselves a candidate," said David Paulson, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party. As we have been saying of late - the GOP doesn't seem to be able to do ANYTHING honestly - or without waving cash - these days.

If Bush is genuinely opposed to corporate fraud, here is one corporate fraud that Bush can stop immediately by picking up the phone and calling Marc Racicot at the Republican National Committee. Republican telemarketers are preying on the elderly by promising their contributions will be used for one purpose - defeating Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA) - when in fact the money is going to Bush! And they bury the truth in fine print that the elderly cannot read! Call Bush (202-456-1414) and Racicot (202-863-8500) and demand an end to this corporate fraud.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports, "Seven questionable Democratic state Senate candidates, including Comstock resident Randall Smith, have been pulled from the primary elections ballot, state officials said Thursday. The candidates in question all requested to have their names withdrawn after an inquiry by the secretary of state, asking whether they had been approached to run by GOP officials, as Democrats allege... The secretary of state did not investigate the GOP notaries, and has no plans to do so, officials said. 'The question here surrounded whether the candidates should be certified to the ballot,' said spokeswoman Liz Boyd. 'This matter is closed, and we have no plans to pursue this in any other way.'" Case closed, just like that? No way! Attorney General Jennifer Granholm (D) must prosecute this fraud by taxpayer-funded state employees - including licensed notaries! Call 517-373-1110 or email miag@michigan.gov.

The Massachusetts Constitution requires a governor to be a resident of the state for each of the seven years preceding the election. But in 1999 and 2000, GOP gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney filed resident tax returns in UT, not MA. In addition, from 1999-2001, Romney received a $54,000 tax break on his $3.8 million Park City, Utah, home because it was classified as his "primary residence." It's an open-and-shut case, right? WRONG! The issue gets decided by a five-member Ballot Law Commission. On Thursday, GOP Gov. Jane Swift filled two vacancies on the five-member panel with Republicans. Wanna bet how they will vote on this question? Just like Florida, the MA Republicans are using the power of the governor to abuse the law for partisan political purposes. Impeach Jane Swift - and defeat ALL Republicans!

Michigan "State Sen. Kenneth Sikkema, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, said he takes 'full responsibility' for the actions of the four staffers, who signed the affidavits of identity for candidates in eight Senate seats to pose as primary opponents to more established Democratic candidates. 'I'm trying to track it down and sort out the who, what, where and why of all this,' said Sikkema... 'Without knowing all the facts, it does appear to be what could be called overzealous actions on the part of Republican staff people, which was inappropriate'... He said he did not know whether the staffers acted on their own or who might have asked them to recruit the candidates. They are employed by two state senators and the state Republican party... Sikkema said he doubted he would take action against the staffers, even though Democrats say they may have committed crimes." These are PUBLIC employees using OUR tax dollars to commit crimes - we DEMAND prosecution!!

The Record of Stockton CA reports, "Evelyn Miramontes said she had a feeling something wasn't quite right but signed her name anyway. Carmen Rojas doesn't know when or where it happened. And John McCauther, son of a former mayor of Atwater and godson of congressional candidate Dennis Cardoza, said he just wasn't paying attention. All three said they were yanked off the Democratic voter rolls and registered as Republicans against their will. Speaking at a news conference arranged by Democratic congressional candidate Dennis Cardoza, they all blamed paid signature gatherers who didn't make it clear they were changing their party affiliation when signing forms in public places... At issue are the methods of paid signature gatherers, who allegedly went to extreme measures to collect a bounty of as much as $8 per person who registered as a Republican as part of a GOP-backed registration drive. The allegations are under investigation by the Secretary of State's Office." More GOP crimes!

Car mechanic Randall "Smith's candidacy is one of eight cited by Michigan Democrats in an elections complaint alleging that Republicans urged unknown candidates to run last-minute campaigns against Democratic incumbents in the Aug. 6 primary. A possible motive, Democrats say: In the cases of a contested primary election, campaign-finance laws limit party funds for preferred candidates. At a press conference Wednesday, local leaders of the Democratic party denounced what they called a 'diabolical' Republican scheme to interfere with the upcoming Democratic primary elections. 'Filing a false affidavit is not politics as usual. It's a crime,' Kalamazoo County Democratic Chairman Curtis Bell said... Smith's affidavit was notarized by Michael J. Gallagher, a member of the staff of Senate Majority Leader Dan L. DeGrow, R-Port Huron. Other affidavits questioned were also witnessed by notaries with Republican ties." Throw them ALL in jail for criminal conspiracy!

Eric "Visger, 18, of Cedar Creek Township [Michigan], claims he was tricked into filing as a Democratic candidate for the 34th District State Senate seat by a group of Republicans he did not know. He said they contacted him by telephone, then met him in Muskegon County and convinced him to fill out forms to run for the office. Visger, who has volunteered for local Republican campaigns, said he was led to believe he would be running as a Republican. He said the people took his forms and filed them in Lansing on his behalf. He said he was stunned when he later opened a newspaper and found his name listed as a Democratic candidate." Visger's papers were forged by Republican staffers Michael Severino (a notary) and someone named "Pete" - both PUBLIC employees. It's time for some lawyers to file a RICO suit against the Republican organized crime family!