Stand By - Be Vigilant!

To: Urgent Response Network
From: No Stolen Elections!

* * * STAND BY! BE VIGILANT! * * *

Dear All,

It is now 12 Midnight Eastern time on the night of
Nov.2. At this point in time the election results are
still very much in doubt. Although it is clear that
there has been widespread voter intimidation, fraud or
suppression, it is not yet clear whether these have
affected the outcome of the election. We will be
sending another assessment at about 9 A.M. eastern
time on Nov. 3.

Here is a bit more detail as to our assessment of what
we know so far.

The main issues of voter suppression seem to have
occurred prior to election day itself. Most notable
were the attempt to illegally purge the voter rolls by
the Republican Secretary of State in Florida and the
Ohio Republican Secretary of State's attempt to
disqualify all voters registrations not written on
80-pound paper. There has also been a tremendous
amount of false information spread about voting and
registration, especially in communities of color.

There is still great controversy around the
35,000-plus voter registration challenges launched by
the Republicans in both Wisconsin and Ohio, states
where the candidates are presently running neck in
neck, and the 60,000-plus missing absentee ballots in
Florida. The processes surrounding provisional ballots
still remain unclear.

The Republicans largely, but not totally, stepped back
from their threats to launch massive voter challenges
at the polls on election day. There was certainly an
impressive voter turnout. Still there were thousands
of reported incidents affecting the vote, including
very long lines and shortages of ballots and
translators. Additionally, there have been reports of
first-time and student voter purging due to dubious ID
requirements, and a whole collection of reports about
electronic glitches.

A looming issue is vote spoilage caused by computer
error. Some say this disqualifies more than a million
votes and that many of these might be African American
and Latino voters. This was documented in Florida in
Election 2000, but no good numbers are out on this as
of yet.

We want to reiterate our main conclusions at this
time: There was widespread voter intimidation,
possibly fraud, and suppression. But we do not yet
know whether these acts have affected the outcome of
the election. If you have actions planned we suggest
you go forward, discuss what has happened and denounce
the voter suppression. We will be meeting again at 8AM
on Nov. 3 to reassess the situation.

Whatever the outcome of the election we have much work
to do. Stay strong and united, and let's go forward
together. For a full list of actions planned, see
http://www.nov3.us and http://www.unitedforpeace.org.

NO STOLEN ELECTIONS!
http://www.Nov3.US

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