Why I Voted for Gore,
blind Democrats, stopping the coup d'etat, and other matters

By Russ Howard
Saturday, November 11, 2000

I froze momentarily, but without betraying my shock. Why was a Republican voting for Gore? But what could I do? Gritting my teeth like a good Republican...

Sadly, few citizens realize or even care how easy it is to vote illegally in America. In California, for example, vote scammers can easily register, request absentee ballots without giving a reason, and then vote, all by mail, under multiple fictitious names.

Think about it. None of the vote scammer's multiple personalities ever has to appear before anyone to prove he's a citizen, that he hasn't already voted, or even that he's a real, live person. The situation is similar in other states.

Logically, a cautious scammer might vary handwriting, use his left hand, etc., and keep a copy so he can reproduce the handwriting. If he's really careful, he wears a pair of latex gloves. But there doesn't seem to be much reason to bother since the Democrats make sure that no cases of such fraud are EVER prosecuted. The few times Republicans have tried to investigate it, Democrats made such a stink about "racism" and "intimidation" that the Republicans backed off -- timid conventionalists and conservative avoiders of controversy that they are.

I understand there are other, more efficient ways to commit fraud on a broader scale. Many of these involve the scammer getting himself wormed into the ballot processing system. We're currently on an honor system, and it isn't working. To illustrate, imagine your state announced the following:

"The legislature has enacted a law that from now on people leaving their homes must raise a red flag and leave all doors unlocked. Surely no one would EVER exploit this situation, but there are some rabid right wing bigots who might accuse our disadvantaged minorities of thefts. So the law not only prohibits our police from investigating theft reports, it orders the investigation and prosecution of anyone who makes them. And we will ridicule and sue them as well."

Think there might be any thefts?

More and more, the Democratic Party seems to be the party of dirty tricks and vote fraud, the party that believes the ends justify the means. Now of course Democrats are not the only ones who ever commit voter fraud, which is just as evil no matter who does it. But the Democrat Party is beyond all doubt the party that has been historically associated with vote fraud, and it fights for policies that make it rampant and easy to commit. There's a reason why the term "Political Machine" is rather uniquely associated with a Democratic Party/Union phenomenon.

If the Democratic Party is not the party of voter fraud, why push laws that make it easy for illegal aliens to vote and make it impossible to catch or prosecute vote scammers? Why fight any attempts to stop illegal immigration? Why fight for amnesty, accelerated citizenship, and voting rights for illegals? Why play the race card whenever anyone wants to do something about voter fraud, effectively accusing anyone concerned about it of racism?

In my lifetime, major voter fraud associated with the Democratic Party goes back to the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon race, through Janet Reno's Florida, and on to the present. A Wednesday 10/9/00 NewsMax.com article by Christopher Ruddy reviews the book Votescam, by Jim & Kenneth Collier, exposing South Florida's "rampant" vote fraud under Janet Reno, then state attorney and Miami's chief law enforcement officer. Paraphrasing:

The Collier brothers uncovered preprinted ballots in a warehouse rented by a Miami candidate. On advice of their editor, they seized the evidence and took the illegal ballots to State Attorney Janet Reno. Incredibly, Reno had the journalists arrested rather than investigate the candidate.

And to paraphrase an election day Wall Street Journal article, 

WISN Milwaukee caught Gore volunteers distributing cigarettes to homeless voters after they'd been given rides to cast absentee ballots. AP reports Jon Corzine hiring homeless people and former addicts to help his Senate bid in a $2 million effort to "get out the vote." Last year, 60 Minutes discovered pets registered to vote by absentee ballot.

These shenanigans are warning signs about one of President Clinton's first accomplishments -- the National Voter Registration Act, or "motor voter," which requires all states to let people register by mail and when they get a driver's license, and limits pruning of people who have died, moved or been convicted of crimes.

Motor voter fueled an explosion of phantom voters. From 1994-98, 26 million names were added to voter rolls, a nearly 20% rise. A bipartisan polling team says that perhaps only 5% of those who register when they get licenses routinely vote, an invitation to fraud. "Having many people on the rolls who don't vote makes it easier to manipulate the growing number of absentee ballots," claims the Voting Integrity Project. An Indianapolis Star investigation found that up to 20% of registered voters in Indiana "are bogus since the people behind those names have moved, died or gone to prison."

In California, the Democratic legislature has four times blocked attempts to require photo ID at the polls because it would be "discriminatory."

It's no secret among politicos that the Democrats are the masters of vote fraud, and of intimidating Republicans into looking the other way. Time after time, Republicans have allowed Democrats to play by their own special rules. For example, when Jeb Bush, for obvious conflict-of-interest, recused himself from Florida's Election Commission for the recount, Attorney General Bob Butterworth stayed on even though he's Gore's Florida campaign manager. Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri conceded defeat "for the good of the country" despite evident vote fraud in St. Louis and a U.S. Constitution that invalidates the candidacy of his dead opponent. In 1960, Richard Nixon refused to contest the election in the face of voter fraud, again "for the good of the country." Kennedy/Johnson proceeded to ramp up Vietnam in an insane fashion, and the rest is history. How many people died there as a result of Nixon's typical misplaced Republican sense of decency? Meanwhile, the Democrats mail "voter ID cards" to illegal aliens. There's a reason politicos have a saying:

America has a 2-Party System: The Evil Party & the Stupid Party.

Every time a public official is elected by voter fraud, without the votes to do it fair & square, it's a non-violent coup d'etat against the people of America, an illegitimate transfer of power to those who could not take it by legal means. It is no badge of honor or nobility or character whatsoever for politicians to timidly step aside and let their opponents steal elections by non-violent coup d'etat. It strikes at the core legitimacy of our Republic and turns our right to vote into a joke. And yet few seem to care.

Throughout our history, from the Revolution, to the War of 1812, to WWII, Americans have fought and died for freedom, including the right to run our own country through legitimate elections rather than let the British or the Nazis or anyone else run it for us. To this day, if a foreign power were to try to steal our right to run our Republic by the rules of our Constitution, millions would gladly defend it at risk of life & limb.

But when vote scammers steal elections, they also steal our right to run our country. Little by little, election by election, office by office, they steal the same power the Nazis would've loved to steal. The only difference is, vote scammers already live here and are not quite as evil. People who steal votes are the enemies of our rights, of our Constitution, of this country. They're trying to take over and run our country against our will.

It's time we stop pretending that vote fraud is a harmless prank. Vote fraud is treason. A takeover. A coup d'etat. Those elected by it are not our legitimate representatives. They're not Presidents or Senators or Congressmen or Assemblymen or Mayors. Their legitimate titles are ones like Usurper and Thief, and they should be deposed.

Vote fraud renders the act of voting meaningless and dishonors the sacrifice of countless Americans who fought and died for our freedoms. Anyone who votes illegally should go to prison for a long, long time -- joined by any complicit parties, from top to bottom, inside and out.

If you value your right to vote and don't want to see it subverted, if you understand why so many Americans have been willing to fight and die for that right, if you want to honor their sacrifice by keeping that right from being cheapened any more than it already has, then WAKE UP, GET MAD, call your elected representatives, write your newspapers, and insist that votes not only be recounted, but contested -- including investigations to invalidate ballots cast in the name of fictitious people, dead people, illegal aliens, and citizens who didn't actually vote. I've little doubt if we were to get enough folks clued in on this, the Democratic Party would do whatever it had to do -- shy away, back off, or sue -- to prevent such investigations from occurring.

Insist that "motor voter" be repealed; that registration be in person; that voter eligibility be checked, that proof of citizenship be required to register; that ballots be paper and be stored in clear plastic boxes until counted by hand in each precinct and not by government employees; that any citizen has the right to observe; that absentee ballots be curtailed except for special cases like military personnel and the truly disabled; and that laws provide for long mandatory prison terms for anyone convicted of vote fraud.

If I were a Democrat today, I'd be ashamed to admit it. But if you're a Democrat who wants to keep your Party from becoming widely known as the Party of Vote Fraud, then oppose any Democrat who justifies the current system or opposes efforts to reform it. Contact your party and the other Democratic representatives and let them know that if they ever want your support again they will get very serious about stopping vote fraud and illegal immigration.

If you're a Republican, tell your Republican representatives the same thing. Tell them that you want to preserve the electoral college. That conceding elections to vote fraud has nothing to do with nobility or honor or "the good of the country." That helping sweep coup d'etats under the rug is at best an act of misplaced and confused decency, and more likely one of stupidity, cowardice, and complicity that dishonors their oath to defend the Constitution. That you will no longer tolerate Republicans who don't stand up, speak out, and do something about voter fraud and illegal immigration. Read Christopher Ruddy's 11/11/00 article. Demand congressional investigations.

When the Bush camp issues weak, veiled threats like "we could demand recounts in these other close states" (if you don't back off), that makes it all about Bush. It's not about whether a Bush or an Ashcroft or a Nixon wants to win bad enough to make a scene and shake things up. It's about subversion of the Republic and the Constitution and the legitimacy of our government, and it's about every other election lost to fraud. It's not about Bush, and it's not up to Bush or any other candidate to step aside without a fight and give away the seat that the people gave to him and no one else.

Candidates and parties have a moral duty to insist on clean elections, to investigate and fight vote fraud, even if some voters would rather pretend there's no problem, even if the Usurpers depict them as sore losers, and even if it causes turmoil and inconvenience, and even if much of the public would prefer to remain ignorant. Conceding without contesting the fraud "for the good of the country" is as idiotic as arguing that we could've saved a lot of bother in WWII if we'd simply let the Nazis win rather than "sink to their level." No candidate has the moral or patriotic right to concede in the face of fraud without at least trying to expose it and defeat it.

To concede an election in the face of fraud is to help the usurpers rob the people of our right to fairly elect our government. Our message to "nice guy" Republicans should be: 

We elected you, and you have no right to give your seat to anyone else. Only we have that right. We don't want you to sip tea at the country club while the Democrats wage war against the Constitution. We don't want you to turn the other cheek and tie your hands behind your back while they use Marxist tactics and preemptively accuse you of the very evils they commit. We don't want you to spout foolish notions of gentility while they write their own rules. We don't want you to pretend there's no fraud while they do whatever it takes to steal the election. We want you to kick and scratch and scream and sue and do whatever it takes to honor your oath to defend our right to vote. We want you to expose them.

Heed this well: There's probably only one way this will end when only one side is even aware that there's a war going on in the first place, let alone fighting it.

Contesting California would probably not put Bush over the top here, but how many other close races would flip -- congressional, state Senate, Assembly, mayoral, etc.? How many U.S. Senate races would flip in other states if races were contested? This is the perfect time to bring this to the forefront. There will never be a better time. The Democrats opened this can of worms, and we should TAKE THE OFFENSIVE and make them eat every last one of them.

Whoever you are, get mad, talk to friends, neighbors, and relatives, protest (read this Tyranny Response Team article), write letters to the editor, and join Citizens for a Fair Vote Count (VoteFraud.org). And whether or not you've ever served in the military, I urge you to view voter fraud in the same light as an attempt by a foreign enemy to subvert the Constitution. The time has come to put a stop to it, to reverse America's subversion, in the words of L. Neil Smith, into "the world's largest banana republic."

If Al Gore is illegally seated, I urge you to continue to refer to George W. Bush as President Elect, and to Gore not as President, but as Usurper, thief, con man, traitor, strongman, tyrant, dictator, or some other, more accurate description.

Russ Howard is a former NRA Director, and is currently a Chief Advisor for KeepAndBearArms.com. He also directed Californians Against Corruption's recall of California State Senate President David Roberti, coauthor of the Roos-Roberti "Assault Weapon" Ban.

Other articles by Mr. Howard are available at http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Howard.