[WikiEN-l] election fraud article

Fri Nov 12 03:36:06 UTC 2004

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 04:52:43 -0700, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
> It is the duty of anyone who sees this on the main page to remove it. And
> just who is putting it back? This is a clear violation of [[Wikipedia:What
> Wikipedia is not]], not propaganda. But there is something to it. Here in
> the county where I live the county clerk, a Republican, was removed from
> supervising the election due to failure to mail out absentee ballots which
> would mostly have gone to Democrats. She was also keeping early ballots in a
> closet accessable to the public rather than in the safe. But what happened
> was more an example of the system working than not working.
> 
> Fred

I am not a registered democrat; living in a Kerry safe state, I voted
Libertarian.  That said, I sympathize *strongly* with Kerry.

I am one of those who returned the article in question to the main page.  

I am a regular /. reader, and try to avoid the groupthink there; I am
also an IT professional (as soon as I get a paid job, that is, but
yeah).  Some of the flaws in the Diebold machines I could have found
in high school.  In addition, their CEO has potential conflicts of
interest.  I am not saying that he did or did not, or anyone else did
or did not, help George W Bush steal the election.  The popular vote
margin was overwhelmingly wide, and some of the anomalies happened in
safe states such as Indiana, where neither candidate would have any
motive to, or at least be able to get away with, any kind of
tampering.

I feel that there's a need for *balanced* discussion of the *facts*
about this.  That said, I think NPOV is important.  Note that we do
not have an article titled [[Death of Yasser Arafat due to Posioning
by Mossad]] or [[Death of Yasser Arafat who got AIDS from Homosexual
Encounters]].  If we did, I'd be annoyed to say the least.  If an
article was written from that perspective, I'd be equally annoyed.  I
think the current election contraversies article is intrinsically PoV,
and I would welcome contributions from editors who, or links to
sources which, feel that tampering did not happen, or that the
anomolies in question do not exist in the first place.

I would also welcome comparable charts regarding elections which
nobody alleges to be "stolen," or in which irregularities did not
happen, for comparison purposes.

Personally I'm aware that my professional and political biases have me
emotionally involved with this, and being a several-dozen-time /.
moderator probably doesn't help,  I'm also aware that the geek press
has as much of a bias as Fox News does.

Just some thoughts, sorry for the length of this message.  

Pakaran