Ariel Tung | Oct. 7, 2008
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| Courtesy photo |
| Author Mark Crispin Miller talked about election fraud and media coverage at a talk last Thursday. |
Miller, professor of media ecology in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University, studies media concentration, modern propaganda, and the politics and practices of elections. He is the author of Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy 2000-2008.
According to Miller, there is a possibility that the upcoming campaign be “stolen” by the Republicans just like the last two elections, especially if the public remains ignorant about how vote suppression and election fraud has derailed fair voting practices. Miller said that the media have played a role in the process of election fraud by keeping the story out of public’s eye.
“Most people don’t know that Obama won the hand counted vote in New Hampshire in the recent primary by six points, and Hillary Clinton won the machine counted vote by some five points,” Miller said. “The Republicans wanted to run against Clinton, so at that point they gamed that primary on her behalf. But the press has not reported that.”
Miller declared that freedom is at stake in this country. He said that Americans could no longer assume that their votes will be accurately accessed, as the electronic voting system is fundamentally flawed.
Miller explained how vote suppression and election fraud bring about “no fair game” in the election process. Vote suppression involves making it hard for opposition candidacies to vote, thus shrinking the size of opposition votes before election day.
Caging lists, an example of voter suppression, are a strategy to eliminate potential voters from the other party’s voting roll. If a mail sent to addresses of registered voters is returned as undeliverable, the political party uses that fact to argue that the registration is fraudulent. Election fraud, according to Miller, involves increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidate, or both.
Miller concluded by stating the importance of having a transparent, fair and monitored vote counting process. He said that the outcome of election should be verifiable and should be hand counted, not machine counted.
