The Blog @ Spolitics

Is Kennedy Lying or Just Stupid? My Debunkatron has Overloaded

by Heywood U. Reedmore -- June 1, 2006 at 7:00 pm | In No, Seriously | No Comments

RFK, Jr. claims the 2004 election was stolen. He has written an article filled with end notes. So I decided to check a couple of them out. Here’s one of Kennedy’s early claims:

Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots — or received them too late to vote(4) — after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5)

But the study didn’t say that at all. First off, it said:

Potentially as many as 43% of Overseas Voters Disenfranchised in the November 2004 Presidential Election.

“Potentially as many” — not quite the hard cold fact Kennedy makes it out to be.

“43%” — Kennedy’s definition of “nearly half” is an upward revision if I’ve ever seen one.

Also, the study offers two explanations: one is that they never received their ballots in time. The other is that they didn’t register in time. The number one reason for not registering? “I meant to, but waited too long and was too late.” Kennedy could just as logically argue that Bush suppressed the vote because certain people “meant to vote but waited until November 3rd and the polls were closed.”

And what about that sinister reference to the Pentagon “unaccountably” shutting down the Web site that help voters register? The very article he references includes this explanatory email from the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s Web manager to a concerned voter:

“We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov. Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S. government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted.”

So they didn’t “shut it down” they blocked certain providers. And the providers were blocked from all government sites, not just the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s Web site. The article also says this:

Those who cannot access the voting assistance program site can go to a new site, www.overseasvote2004.com, which promises to help absentee voters complete registration “in five minutes.” It features state-specific registration forms that voters can print out and fax and mail back to their states.

So they blocked foreign hackers who were trying to thwart our elective process from accessing one site, and sent users to another site. That’s Kennedy’s conspiracy? And just to stress the fact that the Web site wasn’t the norm anyway, the article reminds us: 

Alternately, voters can go to their U.S. embassies or contact their local representatives of Democrats Abroad or Republicans Abroad for a registration form.

It should also be pointed out that, according to the article, this was occuring in late September 2004. But the DOD ran a informational campaign the week of September 3rd telling overseas voters:

“You must do it [register] during this week to ensure that there’s enough transit time to get the request back to your local voting precinct and the materials back to the individuals.”

In other words, this whole thing was going on after the date by which people should have registered in order to make sure their vote counted.

So at this point, I’ve already made up my mind this diatribe is tripe and not worth the time to debunk. After all there’s a lot of bunk. But this gem is too sweet not to mention.

Kennedy had this to say:

The first indication that something was gravely amiss on November 2nd, 2004, was the inexplicable discrepancies between exit polls and actual vote counts. Polls in thirty states weren’t just off the mark — they deviated to an extent that cannot be accounted for by their margin of error. In all but four states, the discrepancy favored President Bush.(16)

Inexplicable, eh? Cannot be accounted for, eh? Here’s some of what the study says on the page Kennedy cited.

Our investigation of the differences between the exit poll estimates and the actual vote count point to one primary reason: in a number of precincts a higher than average Within Precinct Error most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters.

Seems like they explained it fairly easily. What’s even more interesting is what Kennedy would have found if he had read the whole page: “Exit polls do not support the allegations of fraud due to rigging of voting equipment.”

This is why you have to go to the source.

Update: Salon weighs in: ”Was the 2004 Election Stolen? No.”

DailyKos offers a rebuttal (I love it when liberals fight). It’s one of many  posts demonstrating their usual talent for vitriol and uncanny ability to swallow tripe if it agrees with their hysterical beliefs. They also offered this alternative theory.

Hot Air has more links.