Mexico's Election: Won't THIS Be Fun

by **Pissed Off Cabbie** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:56 am

Greg Palast is all over this election, and says the neocon's favorite second-story men ChoicePoint will deliver the goods. Their handy "War On Terror" database includes the voter registry, and that pretty well does the trick. Mr. Fox will be in the hen house for quite a while longer. I miss democracy. Think I'll take a sentimental trip to the Smithsonian sometime and visit it.

by **greencrow0** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 2:00 am

Choicepoint has also been given the contract to tabulate the Canadian Census...which we're all getting harrassed to fill in and submit by adverts on the radio every day. Did you know that Diebold Elections Co. has an office in a building in Vancouver, B.C. Airport Square on 72nd street in Vancouver? ChoicePoint and Diebold. Two names to remember, come election day. GC

by **Gouda** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:01 pm

Solid exchange and debate on the current electoral stalemate in Mexico here in this thread between Al Giordano and Jules Siegel with endnotes (for now..) by Bill Conroy: <a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/7/2/215147/6198">narcosphere.narconews.com...15147/6198</a> Al reports this: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Here are some facts: * Mexico's Congress passed a law allowing 4.1 million eligible Mexican voters living in the United States to vote. The IFE then put the following obstacles in their way: They had to sign up six months prior to the vote. They had to show their home town electoral ID card. The Fox administration refused to allow these voters to receive a new electoral ID card by mail, through the Embassies and Consulates, by proxy or by any other means except for re-crossing the border and going back to their home towns to get it. Adding injury to insult, the IFE forced each voter to spend nine U.S. dollars to send the ballot by express mail (each ballot had to be sent separately): a poll tax, is what we used to call this during the Civil Rights movement. This ensured that poor Mexicans on the other side could not afford to vote, and that only those willing to spend nine bucks could do so. Hmmm. Wonder whose campaign that tax was aimed to benefit. Of the 4.1 million eligible Mexicans on the Other Side, only a little over 28,000 were able to get their ballots in. To me, this is evidence of malice on the part of IFE. * The phenomenon of migrant workers is not just international. As Jules knows, there are tens of thousands of temporary construction workers from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Campeche, Veracruz and elsewhere in Quintana Roo, building the Riviera Maya. This story is repeated all over the country. For them, the IFE promised "special polling places" where with an IFE credential from any town, they could supposedly vote from the road, but only for president (not for local officials). But IFE limited the number of ballots for each of these polling places to only 750. Most of the special polling places ran out by noon, and everyone else was turned away. Which economic class of voter did that deprive of its right to vote? Along the border, busloads of migrant workers did return home hoping to vote, but when they ot their they were turned back. At midday angry voters petitioned IFE to send more ballots. IFE refused. There were 822 such special polling places. Hundreds of thousands of eligible voters were denied their right to vote. Another strike against IFE's supposed "good faith". This maneuver helped Calderon. Again, it is a matter of class prejudice and discrimination. * A week before the Elections, IFE "shaved" 900,000 voters from its list of 70 million. In general, this was supposedly to eliminate duplications. But there was no transparency. No public accounting was given as to who was removed nor why in the specific. * Days before the elections, CNN journalist Carmen Aristegui, using the username "Hildebrando117," was able to access a secret section of the PAN party internet system. There, she found special access by PAN to not only that list, but cross referencing it with other "confidential" government lists of who receives public assistance, and what kind, from the federal government. Totally illegal. The username was interesting, too. Hildebrando is the name of the computer software company owned by Calderon's brother in law, Diego Hildebrando Zavala, whose company is partners with - lo and behold - companies that provide software for IFE's PREP system among other IFE computer networks. Maybe, Jules, that passes your smell test. It doesn't pass mine. These are just a few previews from the upcoming PREF report. We will learn in these days, for example, if Lopez Obrador's accusation today that "3 million" votes were disappeared from IFE's PREP system, is accurate. This is a political figure that doesn't have a history of making factual claims he can't prove. We'll see what he has in the coming days. But in sum, regarding this difference of less than 400,000 votes, the following are missing... * 827,000 nullified votes ("hanging chad" tactics). * 4,082,000 eligible Mexican voters in the US. * 900,000 names shaved at the 11th hour from the list * Those above 750 voters at each of 822 special polling places. * A yet to be determined number of misstated returns in the PREP system. Maybe some people consider this a fair election process. I see it as one intended to exclude the workers and the poor. As to whether a critical mass of said workers and poor come to view this the same way will determine whether Jules or I are correct in our differing analyses about whether this is "crisis." ...<hr></blockquote>

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:02 pm

More on the Aristegui bombshell in <a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1945.html">this narconews report</a> by Giordano from June 30: One day before, as Dr. Rosalba waited another Monday at the prison entrance, the Mexican State of Vicente Fox seemed on the verge of getting away with a gigantic electoral fraud next Sunday to impose a victory by his candidate Felipe Calderón. The umpires at IFE had already denied accusations that software contracts the IFE has with companies related to Calderón’s brother-in-law, Diego Hildebrando Zavala Gómez del Campo, and his company Hildebrando, had corrupted either the vote-counting computers or the national list of voters. But that Monday morning, Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui, who hosts the nightly talk show Aristegui on CNN Español, dropped a political bombshell on her popular morning program on XEW radio in Mexico City. There, live on the air, she used the Internet to enter a restricted area on a Calderón campaign website, with the username of Hidebrando117 and a password she received from an unnamed source. There, Aristegui found proof of the electoral cyber-fraud of the century: the entire national IFE voter list cross-referenced with supposedly confidential government information about which voters receive government assistance or contracts from all the federal agencies. Live and on the air she found information about herself, her family members, about the IFE president, and about the PRI presidential candidate. Moments later, the Calderón campaign shut down that section of its Internet site, but the cat was out of the bag. Much of the Mexican national media ignored the story. But Aristegui repeated it Monday night on the international TV news network CNN and La Jornada – a pro-PRD newspaper, the fourth largest in Mexico – led with the story on Tuesday (on Wednesday, a La Jornada editorial criticized the information blockade by other media, saying “in spite of its relevance, the corresponding information was minimized and even ignored by most electronic and commercial media”). Nonetheless, the IFE electoral overseers – which had, a day prior to this stage of the scandal put the election to bed with a statement that it found no illegal involvement in its computers or election system by Calderón or his brother-in-law’s companies – had to rush into an emergency meeting on Tuesday, admit that the electoral system had been corrupted, and file a criminal complaint against the contamination. Thus, it doesn’t really matter that other Commercial Media has ignored or minimized the scandal: the legal grounds now exist to annul an election result that would declare Calderón the winner on Sunday (this may, in fact, have been Fox’s “Plan B” all along; a scenario we will explore below). Now that the contamination of the voter list and “confidential” government data about voters has been documented and exposed, there is no possibility that the Mexican public will accept the sudden declaration on Sunday by IFE if it claims Calderón is the winner. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rigorousintuition>Rigorous Intuition</A> at: 7/4/06 11:03 am

by **isachar** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:10 pm

Been following this closely. Some of the electoral sheninagans likely also trace back to Rove via a Texas political consultant/operative hired by IFE. US reporting (CNN in particular) has talking heads using highly incendiary language to characterize AMLO (Obrador) as a flaming radical socialist, etc. (which he's not, here in the US, he'd be a combination of Dean and Kucinich). It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Lack of sufficient ballots at key voting site in Mexico is one of the tactics Rove/Blackwell used in Ohio to deny Kerry his victory, along with puring of the electoral roles in 2000 as in Florida. Disenfranchisement of the 4 million or so Mexicans living in the U.S. was all it really took to swing the election to Calderon as the vast majority of these people come from the Southern and central Mexican states where AMLO won overwhelmingly. This whole thing could help to invigorate the Zapatista-sponsored 'La Otra' campaign, which is their first effort to nationalize their indigenous/human rights movement, moving beyond Chiapas. The teacher's strike in Oaxaca could become the launching platform for a national reaction against the PAN/PRI corruption and state militarism that is present in Mexico. The teachers and their supporters show no sign of stopping their action against the corrupt governship of the state of Oaxaca. Meanwhile, last I heard, Zapatista sub-commandante Marcos is in the DF trying to win justice for the Atenco victims.

by **Gouda** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:43 am

Yes, Aristegui's exposure should be a strong card for justice (oh, someday that we can say "will" instead of "should") *** So, AMLO is saying there are 3 million missing votes, and Sup Marcos/EZLN has received information that some 1.5 million votes have been manipulated...(not to mention the millions of disenfranchised.) From what I know of the Zapatistas and Narconews journalists, they do not go on the record like that unless they have solid information. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Marcos Speaks: Fox and the IFE Modified the PREP Results to Prepare an Electoral Fraud “We’re not in the electoral vibe but for ethical and moral reasons, as Zapatistas, if we see something is wrong, well, we have to say it” By Subcomandante Marcos Translated from Radio Insurgente by Narco News July 4, 2006 The following text is translated from the final part of a radio program on Monday, July 3, 2006, in which Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials) participated. The text is from a broadcast conversation between Marcos (Delegate Zero of the Other Campaign) and show host Lucas of Radio 620 AM in Mexico City. It can be heard in full at the following link: <a href="http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/la-otra-campana/371/">enlacezapatista.ezln.org....mpana/371/</a> SCI Marcos: “We want to share a report that the Sixth Commission received. According to the report there has been a fraud in the elections for president of the Republic. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), in complicity with, or better said, with the sponsorship of the president of the Republic, held back between one million and one-and-a-half million votes so that they could be added to benefit the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón. “According to this report, on (Sunday) afternoon between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Vicente Fox called (Luis Carlos) Ugalde, the IFE president, to ask him to change the entry of results of the PREP, the Preliminary Election Results Program, in such a way so that the first results entered came from the polling places that benefited Felipe Calderón and, that later they would create other votes for him. According to this report, the candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), would have had between one million and a million-and-a-half votes more than the National Action Party. But thanks to this play the results are being changed to exactly what they want them to be. It remains to be seen what the PRD and its candidate will say about this. “If you have any doubt, if you saw it on television yesterday, look at the message by IFE, by the president of IFE, by Mr. Ugalde. Immediately after that, in fractions of a second, came the message by Vicente Fox, already answering the first message. It’s clear that he knew beforehand what the IFE would say before the president of the Institute said it. And so according to the report we received they made an agreement to conduct this fraud and be able to impose Felipe Calderón. That is the report. “We are not in the electoral vibe. But due to ethical and moral reasons, as Zapatistas, if we see something that is wrong, well, we have to say it, and what we are seeing is what they are doing, a fraud there up above. You are listening to Radio Insurgente, the voice of the voiceless.” Lucas: “Well, some newspapers and magazines have announced that, not in the same way as in 1988, but in a more sophisticated manner… The president of the council, of IFE, Ugalde, said last night that there were no possibilities of saying who won… They were preparing, or are preparing, so that Fox would tell them.” SCI Marcos: “Well, yes, this is what we are seeing. We make this announcement to whom it may concern… They are setting a trap with the PREP and the Federal Electoral Institute. He wants Felipe Calderón, additionally, to protect the backs of the presidential couple Vicente Fox and Marta Sahagún for all the corruption hey have done. You are listening to Radio Insurgente, the voice of the voiceless of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.” <hr></blockquote> <a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1961.html">www.narconews.com/Issue42...e1961.html</a> More from Bill Conroy: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Crisis? This crisis (none / 0) (#21) by Bill Conroy on Tue Jul 4th, 2006 at 02:36:43 PM EST (User Info) The following is the lead in to the banner story in this morning's San Antonio Express-News -- from the paper's Mexico Bureau: MEXICO CITY -- Uncertainty hung thick over the nation Monday as Mexicans pondered the impending showdown between two men who each claim to be the president elect. "Nation divided," read the front-page headline for one newspaper. "Overtime," said another. Soldiers guarded the ballots and mass protests, work stoppages or other civil disobediance seemed ever more likely. A hand-scrawled banner draped from a highway overpass near the Federal Electoral Institute mocked the results. Party militants spoke of organizing and taking to the streets. A sidebar to the above story begins as follows: Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the Federal Electoral Insitutute of manipulating the preliminary vote tally. This is reporting in a mainstream U.S. newspaper, far from the so-called "radical rabble-rousing fringe." Clearly, what is being described above is a crisis. Al's headline "Mexican Election Authorities With No Result to Declare Bring on a Crisis" from his July 3 post appears to be precisely on the mark, ahead of the mark, in fact, given today's report in the Express-News. Again, the public's perception -- whether it turns out to be based in fact -- is the political reality. From Al's July 3 story: The whole world will be watching. The system - which for all its harping about how wonderful and clean Mexico's elections would be - couldn't come up with a result tonight. Long-simmering pain, rage and distrust over the unfair game run on the populace by that system is about to boil over. Read from the perspective of time passed, that passage seems now to be prophetic. But for those who practice authentic journalism, it is simply a sign that someone has done their homework on the ground and has his finger on the pulse of the moment. What it tells me as a reader is that the match seems close to being struck, and Al's report is ahead of the pack (certainly the Express-News) in informing us of that reality. This is no time to shoot the messenger. -- Bill Conroy<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/7/2/215147/6198#15">narcosphere.narconews.com...47/6198#15</a> *** From Ugalde, the Mexican election agency's (IFE) chairman, in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/world/americas/05mexico.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=c0f2daab4b8c594e&hp&ex=1152158400&partner=homepage">NYT:</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr> In explaining the uncounted votes, Mr. Ugalde, the chairman of the election agency, said an estimated 600,000 ballots might not have reached his offices to be included in the preliminary count. As many as 13,000 tally sheets, covering 2.6 million votes, were set aside for the final count because the poll reports were illegible or had other inconsistencies, he added. Another official at the commission said an estimated that 800,000 nullified votes were likely to be scrutinized carefully in the final count. <hr></blockquote>

by **Dreams End** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:55 am

There are only two things new about this. 1...that a journalist hacked into the system on live TV and 2...that these machinations are being used for the PAN instead of the PRI. From sophisticated computer fraud to very unsophisticated but succesful low tech approaches like "el Raton Loco" (the crazy mouse) in which a voter, possibly having walked a long way to his polling place, is told he's not on THAT voter list but must go to another place, etc to shaving names off the list to hijacking ballots to intimidation by local "caciques" (plantation bosses) right outside the polling places this is an old story. But maybe THIS time....

by **Hugh Manatee Wins** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:22 pm

Hey kids, relax and go watch 'Nacho Libre.' No worries...

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:43 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Hey kids, relax and go watch 'Nacho Libre.' No worries...<hr></blockquote> I knew that was coming....

by **Hugh Manatee Wins** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:16 pm

Yo, Prof- You'll enjoy this, too- <a href="http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=5033.topic">p216.ezboard.com/frigorou...5033.topic</a> (My apologies for perceived thread hijacking. They really are related as manipulations of stereotypes to cover up social injustices.)

by **Gouda** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:31 pm

(Not so) new thing # 3...PAN vs. HMW Los Ratones Locos de Nacho Libre en EzBoard! OK, now back to our election monitoring in mexico, since the EU and other observer missions have declared this fine election above-board, clean, and fair as ever. New thing #4...world perception (though not unofficial awareness) is that mexican elections have been getting cleaner and more transparent since '88, with the pinnacle of reformed democracy reached with the Fox election of 2000.

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:04 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>New thing #4...world perception (though not unofficial awareness) is that mexican elections have been getting cleaner and more transparent since '88, with the pinnacle of reformed democracy reached with the Fox election of 2000.<hr></blockquote> And the Mexicans have always known what a crock that perception is. My hope is that Mexicans are a bit wiser than Americans circa 2000 and 2004.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:43 pm

Lopez Obrador Leads After Partial Mexico Vote Recount (Update4) July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador leads the Mexican presidential election after a recount of 62.6 percent of ballot results, the Federal Electoral Institute said. Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution had 37.1 percent of the vote while Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party had 34.5 percent, according to the institute, which is posting the numbers on an electronic board at its headquarters in Mexico City. The institute began the recount this morning to determine the winner of the country's closest ever election. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_j5S.0HjgtU&refer=home">www.bloomberg.com</a>

by **Et in Arcadia ego** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:42 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>In Mexico, 2.5 Million Missing Votes Reappear: López Obrador Reduces Calderón’s Official Margin to 0.6 percent<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://narconews.com/Issue42/article1962.html">narconews.com/Issue42/article1962.html</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Election authorities of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) closed ranks on Tuesday with the National Action Party (PAN) of President Vicente Fox and candidate Felipe Calderón to oppose the actual recounting the votes. This, on the heels of Tuesday’s “discovery” of 2.5 million votes hidden by IFE since Sunday’s election, added to a growing body of evidence – and corresponding public distrust in the institutions – that a gargantuan electoral fraud has been perpetrated.<hr></blockquote> So, err..when do the riots begin? ____________________ Oderint, dum metuant

by **anothershamus** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:50 pm

same time they do in the USA.

Mexico's Election: Won't THIS Be Fun

Mexico's Election: Won't THIS Be Fun

Re: Mexico's Election: Won't THIS Be Fun

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Re: U.S.-Style Post-Electoral Chaos Begins in Mexico

Obrador LEADS in recount

Re: Obrador LEADS in recount

Re: Obrador LEADS in recount

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