Election Riging

[yorkieb]

I was talking to a friend on the phone last night from up north and I asked what was that tannoy noise in the background. he said " are its the head village guy, he just won the local elections", I said "are well done for him". my friend replied, "well not really well done, he paid everybody 60 Bht to vote for him, thats why he won."

I know corruptiopn is rife in LOS but I was quite surprised at how open and blaitent the riging of a local election had been.

[Mosha]

It's very common I'm afraid. The neighbouring Tabol had an election for Kamnan, two women were up for it. The person who won went to see all the friends of her opponent and gave them 500 Baht to vote for her

Edited April 24, 2008 by Mosha

[slapout]

Friend of mine said she was paid 200 baht to vote for a canidate in the municipality. That used to be price for big boys party, guess inflation has really hit Thailand on all fronts.

[MustaphaMond]

This is a non issue, paying for a vote in no way ensure that person will vote as paid for as it is private and anonymous in a polling booth.

If you want REAL vote rigging , then go to USA where Diebold and ESS, Republican owned ballot tabulating companies- have been fixing elections since the early 90's at least ,starting with Shrub's brother Jeb as Gov in Florida

These machines use secret software in direct violation of the US Constitution that specifically calls for transparency. Lotto machines have more oversight.

Diebold makes perfectly good ATMS, why are there so many problems with the tabulators?

County after county in Florida and maybe elsewhere where touch screen machines were used in 2004 showed inversely proportionate Dem/ Repub balloting, like the tallies were simply reversed..

All the GOP needs is a close enough election to facilitate the appearance of a legitimate win.

What's more disgusting, Bush was voted in legitimately, or was handed the presidency?

It's toss up to me..

And minority voters have been systemically purged from the system , again by GOP owned companies such as ChoicePoint that are paid huge amounts to scrub voter rolls. By the time someone finds out that they have been removed, erroneously - it is too late to do anything.

Al Gore fought to the Supreme Court, it installed Shrub. In 2004 John Kerry rolled over like a good dog...

And Americans have sat on their fat, lazy bums throughout- Heads in sand while the responsibility to struggle for our democracy was shrugged off and the " Help America Vote" Act ( AKA Help the GOP Scum take over) was passed in 2002 ensuring the use of these insidious machines.

Average Fat-assed American: " Whaaaa I can't do anything.. Whaaaa. Where's my Whopper, I NEED StarBucks."

I watched and studied every single minute of that 2000 election , then I protested and wrote and yelled and did everything I could and when saw it happen AGAIN in the 2004 election, I got out and I will not go back until electronic ballot counting is transparent as per the US Constitution calls for and verifiable.

Because the machines are STILL in place , look forward to Insane McCain for next President. Is gang will make BushCo look like the Sierra Club.

Just have a look- BlackBoxVoting.Org GregPallast.com

Edited April 25, 2008 by MustaphaMond

[Farma]

I heard a good one the other day as well. In our province there are election signs everywhere for a lady politician who’s obviously undergone more than enough plastic surgery in the past.

It will be interesting to see how she gets on in this election. Last election she made the mistake of publicly announcing all voters in her electorate were easy bought. I was told that none of her party was elected.

Years ago I remember life in a small village where the villagers waited for the midnight knock on the door. They would receive marked cash that could be redeemed for a higher amount if the politician was elected.

[Travel2003]

Every "old timer" in my wife's town in Issan received a few hundred each, prior to last election.

When I asked my wife why they did it, she said it didnt matter who they woted for, since they all are corrupt anyway.

So why not at least make some money out of it.

[Mosha]

This is a non issue, paying for a vote in no way ensure that person will vote as paid for as it is private and anonymous in a polling booth.

If you want REAL vote rigging , then go to USA where Diebold and ESS, Republican owned ballot tabulating companies- have been fixing elections since the early 90's at least ,starting with Shrub's brother Jeb as Gov in Florida

These machines use secret software in direct violation of the US Constitution that specifically calls for transparency. Lotto machines have more oversight.

Diebold makes perfectly good ATMS, why are there so many problems with the tabulators?

County after county in Florida and maybe elsewhere where touch screen machines were used in 2004 showed inversely proportionate Dem/ Repub balloting, like the tallies were simply reversed..

All the GOP needs is a close enough election to facilitate the appearance of a legitimate win.

What's more disgusting, Bush was voted in legitimately, or was handed the presidency?

It's toss up to me..

And minority voters have been systemically purged from the system , again by GOP owned companies such as ChoicePoint that are paid huge amounts to scrub voter rolls. By the time someone finds out that they have been removed, erroneously - it is too late to do anything.

Al Gore fought to the Supreme Court, it installed Shrub. In 2004 John Kerry rolled over like a good dog...

And Americans have sat on their fat, lazy bums throughout- Heads in sand while the responsibility to struggle for our democracy was shrugged off and the " Help America Vote" Act ( AKA Help the GOP Scum take over) was passed in 2002 ensuring the use of these insidious machines.

Average Fat-assed American: " Whaaaa I can't do anything.. Whaaaa. Where's my Whopper, I NEED StarBucks."

I watched and studied every single minute of that 2000 election , then I protested and wrote and yelled and did everything I could and when saw it happen AGAIN in the 2004 election, I got out and I will not go back until electronic ballot counting is transparent as per the US Constitution calls for and verifiable.

Because the machines are STILL in place , look forward to Insane McCain for next President. Is gang will make BushCo look like the Sierra Club.

Just have a look- BlackBoxVoting.Org GregPallast.com

I'm not so sure it is so secret. Last year they were voting for a Puy Yai. One guy went down to the loser's party, and he had accepted money to vote for him. He was kicked out because it was known he voted for the other guy. We had no such problem even though my wife voted for the winner.