Suspicions of election 鈥渢ampering鈥 have darkened a number of primaries and presidential elections in recent history in the United States.
In the presidential contest between Republican George W Bush and the Democratic Party鈥檚 Al Gore in 2000, confusing layouts on ballots in Florida 鈥 where Bush鈥檚 younger brother Jeb was governor 鈥 resulted in invalidated votes, votes for alternative candidates that were meant for Gore, and ultimately handed Florida 鈥 and the presidency 鈥 to Bush.
According to a report in Common Dreams, in 2004, officials 鈥減urged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, short-changed Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency鈥.
In 2016, Democratic Party presidential nominee Committee (DNC) and its resources a year before the nominee was decided.
The DNC was supposed to remain neutral between nominees until one had been selected to run against Republican candidate Donald Trump. However, it effectively , such that even in states where her rival Bernie Sanders overwhelmingly won the popular vote, the .听
In all these cases, a level of plausible deniability was maintained, or at least the offenders worked within the bounds of bad rules seemingly designed for such underhanded tactics.
However, at the February 3 Iowa caucus it seems there was not even an attempt to conceal the subversion of democracy that took place: While delegates were posting snapshots of their constituency鈥檚 results on social media, the now infamous mobile app created by 鈥淪hadow Inc鈥 was posting different results for those same districts 鈥 all to the detriment of Sanders, whose votes were being digitally culled.
These are the facts so far:
- The app used was created only behind a veil of secrecy. The Democratic Party the company it hired to create it, Shadow Inc; it did not provide any information about whether the app had been independently tested, and refused offers from the state department to test it.
- The is Gerard Niemira, a veteran of Clinton鈥檚 2016 campaign and other former Clinton staffers are in key positions in the company. The CEO of Acronym, the parent company and chief investor in Shadow Inc is in Pete Buttigieg鈥檚 campaign. In other words, persons and organisations in a state of open hostility to Sanders鈥 campaign were responsible for the management and creation of the app.
- Buttigieg鈥檚 campaign a total of US$42,500 last year for unspecified 鈥渟oftware-related services鈥.
- The app crashed when results favoured Buttigieg, keeping favourable numbers for Buttigieg frozen in the media. Districts that overwhelmingly went to Sanders went undeclared for days. The Twitter handle #BerniewonIowa is filled with local representatives declaring their districts for Sanders, while Shadow Inc and the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) still weren鈥檛 releasing results.
- Evidence emerged of 鈥 in one case , a non-entity contender.
- Buttigeig declared himself winner in the middle of this utter fiasco, with 鈥溾. The establishment media went along with his announcement, with MSNBC, CNN and other networks winner.
It might have been an error, had it impacted all or more than one candidate, but all discrepancies, counting 鈥渆rrors鈥 and app malfunctions disadvantaged only one candidate 鈥 Sanders.
Events like this reveal the establishment media鈥檚 true colours. The same institutions who have been banging on about election meddling by Russians and how much of a threat Trump poses to democracy, now look partisan in what seems to be overwhelming evidence of election rigging, or attempted rigging.
Big outfits like MSNBC and CNN or 鈥 assuming they maintain an 鈥渋nnocent until proven guilty by a court of law鈥 stance 鈥 should be leading calls for a full investigation, considering the damning evidence revealed so far.
Democracy is under threat in the West, not from Russian bots, uneducated and poor rural conservatives聽or politically incorrect comedians, but from the power of international corporations, banks, multinational drug and food producers, the arms trade and the fossil fuel industry.
These interests are in bed with our major parties and mainstream media, and are the interests .
These same interests see a threat in Sanders: He has promised to close corporate tax-loopholes, impose a financial transactions tax, introduce medicare for all 鈥 which would decimate the multi-trillion dollar private healthcare industry, raise the minimum wage, reduce the arms budget and America鈥檚 military footprint around the world and introduce sweeping new renewable energy targets.
Realising this bold agenda will be no easy task if Sanders wins the presidency, but he will at the very least lay down some of the first stones.
The mainstream media will pull out all the stops to get an establishment figure like Buttigieg or Biden to represent the Democrats; and if they fail, the Trump-is-the-Devil pretence will be dropped, and Sanders will become the target of their smear campaign.
It is Sanders and the American people versus the corporatocracy and Wall Street.