Simpson, an Alabama lawyer, had broken with the Republican Party in 2007 to testify that a Rove-inspired plot had framed Siegelman. March is an IT consultant, Libertarian, and member of a local election commission in Arizona. They lead Election Protection Action, a reform group.
In the late summer of 2012, the two documented leads that Simpson says she developed while working with Rove and his allies as an opposition researcher against Democrats. Rove denies ever talking with her, or any misconduct.
The Simpson-March chart alleges an eco-system whereby partisan Republicans train and finance prospective candidates, and also help election machine companies in ways ignored by mainstream media.
The chart supported several news reports last fall by the Free Press of Columbus, Ohio. Co-founder Robert Fitrakis, attorney Clifford Arnebeck, and their colleagues for years have alleged fraud in electronic-ballot-counting in ways decisive to important elections.
A Fox News affiliate in Cincinnati illustrated the problem in "Reality Check: Can Ohio Voting Machines Be Hacked?" The WXIX-TV video report also focused on a Romney family investment in voting machines.
Just before the Nov. 6 presidential election, Fitrakis filed suit against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted in federal and state court after hearing from a whistleblower that Husted's office had authorized secret software on the state's voting machines.
A Bush-appointed federal judge denied an injunction. Husted boasted that the ruling absolved the state from suspicion.
Husted failed to comment on the state court ruling. It denied
an injunction but warned state officials the suit might continue if
irregularities occurred.
Arnebeck and other election fraud investigators believe
Rove's Election Night meltdown on Fox News occurred because he was expecting
vote-flipping in Ohio and elsewhere, and wanted to prevent a premature concession.
The officials and their vendors deny any irregular or sinister conduct. My book, Presidential Puppetry, explores this topic upon publication next month.
Working the Room
The rest of this column suggests reasons why
news coverage of election machine fraud is so sparse.
Officials and the media tend to have collegial relationships these days. One visual illustration is the backup dance routine by NBC's David Gregory with Rove in the "MC Rove" skit, excerpted here and then lampooned by Jon Stewart. The occasion was a black-tie, broadcasters' gala in the spring of 2007. This was as the U.S. attorney purge scandal unfolded across the nation involving Rove and such political targets as Siegelman.
The politico-media relationships are ongoing. The traditional media are
heavily reliant on quotations from officials and former officials, and the
revenue from campaign ads. Also, most media organizations these days are small
parts of larger companies that depend financially on favorable government
action.
The five-member Federal Communications Commission regulating the nation's news media has always had since 2001, curiously enough, at least one member, and usually two members, drawn from the small Bush-Cheney Florida vote recount team created post-election to ensure the GOP victory.
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