Zogby

Wow. Zogby, one of the most reliable and respected pollsters, reprints a fascinating analysis of the presidential race as of August 20 by Alan Waldman of Orlando Weekly, that includes the following:

Should Kerry supporters feel encouraged by the data above? Yes and no. The trend in most states is toward Kerry, but two pitfalls lie ahead.



First there's the "October surprise." After Bush's theft of the 2000 election and his clear swoon in the electoral vote tabulations, he is widely believed to have a dirty trick up his sleeve. Pakistan may have trapped Osama bin Laden in an Afghan cave and be planning to help Bush produce him – three years late – just before Nov. 2. A few months ago, there were press rumors that trucks hired by the United States were shipping weapons of mass destruction into Iraq, for timely discovery. And the way has been prepared to postpone the election if we suffer another major terror attack.



Second – and even scarier – 98 million U.S. ballots will go into computers which could be used to falsify the results, leaving no paper record available for recounts. It is widely believed that Republican operatives hacked electronic voting machines in Georgia and Minnesota in 2002, giving their party control of the Senate. A week before the Georgia vote, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll showed popular Democratic Sen. Max Cleland ahead by five points, but he mysteriously lost to his GOP foe, Saxby Chambliss, by seven points. Georgia was the first state to use electronic voting devices almost exclusively.



In Minnesota, Sen. Paul Wellstone was a shoo-in for re-election when he died in a plane crash. Democratic former Vice President Walter Mondale, who led significantly days before the election, replaced him. Shockingly, Republican Norm Coleman was the recipient of an unexpected 11-point vote shift on Election Day – but no one checked the vulnerable chips that tabulated the votes.

So here's Zogby, reprinting an article that not only discusses George W. Bush's THEFT of the 2000 election, but alludes strongly to rigged voting already having happened in 2002, in the Mondale/Coleman and Cleland/Chambliss Senate races. (I'd add the Dole/Bowles Senate race in North Carolina and the Purdue/Barnes Georgia gubernatorial race to that, but why be nitpicky?)