News2004-11-03 If anyone has the illusion that Bush won this election, go to the Greg Palast link and read this article below, sent to me by a running friend. By the way, two days before the election, Palast wrote that Kerry was already down a million votes based on all the pre-election shenanigans. If the kind of intimidation that April Hubbard witnessed occurred in cities all across the country, then Kerry probably won the popular vote as well as the electoral count. http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=392&row=0 I am writing this e-mail to pass on to you what Bruce and I and others witnessed this election day while we were volunteering for the Election Protection Coalition. They are a nonpartisan organization that monitors polls, distributes the voters bill of rights and helps people who have problems voting. Bruce and I had two trainings and Bruce had additional training because he is a lawyer. We worked for three days in Philadelphia, but our experience at the polling place in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood was an eye opener to the lies and intimidation by the Republican Party. My stomach is still nervous and I haven't been sleeping well after seeing things that I thought could not happen in America. We worked with 2 other Election Protection poll monitors who spoke Spanish and were very helpful to the voters so we were a team of four. We did help a lot of voters even though the Republicans tried their best to stop people from voting. At seven a.m. when the polls were just opening we witnessed a white guy in a suit pull a poorly dressed and toothless African American male aside and hire him to be an inside the polls poll monitor (we had to be outside the building). He needed credentials for that job, which were given to him on the spot, but should have been issued by the state earlier. He told us a short time later that he was a Republican and was hired 2 weeks ago which was what he was told to say and was a bald-faced lie. His credentials were checked by a DNC poll watcher and proved to be another person's, a woman's, in fact. The Republican guy was with another fellow and they came up and crossed off the woman's name and added this fellow's name. They hired several other local people and many more were driving by as the word got out that the Republicans were paying $100. There is some question as to whether these people can be hired on the spot and paid over $20.00. The African American fellow went back into the polling place and started asking people if they were first time voters and what their names were, which is against the voter's bill of rights. Again, we got him out and by now the poor guy is getting upset. We tell him he can't do what he was doing and he said he is hearing different things from each side. Also the two Bush guys in suits kept going into the polling area and milling around, but they were not supposed to be there and kept at it. Finally a credentialed DNC woman was called and she kept a good watch on this behavior. At one point early on a white van with Florida license plates pulled up in front of the polling place and 4 tall white men in dress clothes jumped out simultaneously. They looked like the CIA or FBI, which was their intention. I talked to a young woman working for the DNC outside the polling area and said that these fellows look scary and she admitted they were scaring her. Can you imagine what they were doing to the minority voters? They hung around all day parking in different spots, with one tall fellow in sunglasses standing in front of the polling place with his hands on his hips in an aggressive stance. I was told to take their pictures and get their license plates. Thank heaven most of the people who came were able to vote, but we needed to be there for them. I was so angry I just wanted to yell at them to back off and let the people vote!!!! We basically had to protect people from a group of four Republicans and two lawyers, one from California and one from DC the entire time as they slunk their slimy selves around. We heard a story from the Election Protection lawyers who were patrolling the polls of another case of intended intimidation. Apparently three SUV's were parking together in front of polling places full of white men in suits. Our people followed them to see what they were doing and they all stopped, jumped out of their cars and surrounded our mostly young men and women attorneys. They accused our people of following them and taking their pictures and license plate numbers and our people said we were definintely doing that! We learned in our training that minorites have been told they cannot vote if they have an outstanding parking ticket, owe rent money, have been in jail and countless other lies. I hope even if any of you voted for Bush that you do not approve of this type of thing happening in this country. I guess Bush people don't include lying and intimidation in their quest for "values." Is trying to disenfranchise people moral?? We were at just one of several hundred precincts in the city of Philadelphia. While these "suits" rotated among several precincts (4 or 5) we can't imagine the magnitude of the forces involved and the effects across the country when they were not effectively halted, as we feel they were at our location. Bruce and I joined a national movement of runners called RunAgainstBush. We did join them in Boston for a rally and run during the Democratic National Convention. The front of our running t-shirts said RunAgainstBush and the back said "DNC Week 2004 -- I ran for my freedom from the tryanny of King George." We thought it was an amusing pun at the time, but now it doesn't seem so funny. Thank you for reading this and God bless the Whole World! April and Bruce Hubbard
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