I find it hard to consider the Texas election went smoothly for the Republicans. They continue to slime their way to "victory" through fraud and strident propaganda, as they did after election since the 1980s. The only way to stop it is to face it, and then shout so long and loud until the people finally perceive that their suspicions are perfectly just - and ultimately say BASTA!

Ever since Bush family carpetbagged their way to Texas and the rise of the Texas GOP things have never been the same. The problem here in Texas, Democrats and the media continues to claim endlessly, that there is no problem, or that the problem is not partisan malfeasance but "human error."

Here is a list of problems that has been reported in the media that occurred during the elections.

Date	Problem Type	County	Description
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Falls, Hill, Bosque	Falls, Hill and Bosque counties reported glitches either with counting votes or long waits for residents wishing to cast ballots. Falls County ran out of ballot paper. Bosque County early votes apparently were counted twice in all races. About 1,300 duplicate votes being recorded in numbers that were sent to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Hill County had problems with the vote-counting machine, the operator could not get votes from paper ballots to combine with votes submitted electronically. Story
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Tarrant	Votes were not properly recorded on an electronic machine. Others were not even aware they could have voted on an electronic voting machine. Story
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Tom Green	San Angelo - People had to wait nearly 11 hours for final election results. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	Hidalgo	Top election official discovered the mistake when early voting results giving long-shot Constitution Party candidate an extra 2,000 over the Democratic incumbent. The problem was the software that compiles the totals. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	San Patricio	Officials were still dealing with computer glitches and had to hand count the vote which delayed the results for the State Representative District 32 race. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	Grayson	The new electronic voting system had trouble processing votes. Story
11/8/06	(Other)	Fort Bend	Machines were delivered to the wrong precincts, delaying voters and casting some uncertainty on ballots already cast. Story
11/7/06	Machine malfunction	Harris	Houston Three of the seven E-Slate voting machines at Lockhart Elementary school weren't working properly since the polls opened at 7 a.m. Two were inactive, one was "misnumbering itself." Technicians arrived 2-1/2 hours later. Story
11/4/06	Machine malfunction	Williamson	ES&S iVotronic failed pre-election testing when straight party selections did not record a vote for Precinct 3 Commissioner. The same problem occurred at the beginning of early voting, but it was corrected and no votes were affected, Stacy said. Story
11/3/06	Machine malfunction	El Paso	Vote-switching by Diebold touch screens. Review screens show the wrong choices - switching Democratic vote to Republican in at least one case. County attorney is investigating. Some voters had to correct the review screen three times, before it registered correctly. Story Story2
11/2/06	Machine malfunction	Collin	Near Dallas. Vote-switching to Republicans. Diebold touch screens switch votes from Libertarian to Republican, and from Democrat to Republican. Story
11/1/06	E-Poll malfunction	Denton	A county server that identifies and qualifies voters malfunctioned. A lack of paper ballot backups prevented at least one woman from voting. Story
10/28/06	Machine malfunction	Jefferson	Vote-switching from Democrat to Republican on the ES&S iVotronic screen. "Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket. Story
10/26/06	Machine malfunction	Travis	Austin - Hart InterCivic eSlate chops off the last part of candidate names on the review screen. This is the same problem that occurred on the machines in Virginia. Officials have complained to the manufacturer for two years, yet they insist the votes are counted correctly. Story

The flaws of each voting system used through out Texas and the country have exposed repeatedly by folks like Mark Crispin Miller, Bev Harris, Brad Friedman, Clint Curtis, Lynn Landes, Earl Katz and Bruce O'Dell. If that is not good enough, they also have been exposed through many academic studies like, NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, Princeton's Center for IT Policy, and a group of computer scientists at Johns Hopkins, Rice and Stanford universities. Even the US Government Accountability Office has put their two cents in. What more will it take to have people look into this matter? Are you waiting for it to be broadcast on your local news, you can forget it. Research conducted by the Media and Democracy Coalition (MDC) in twelve states - California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, and Maine - found that in "every one of those states, most citizens already live in highly concentrated media markets with few choices for news and views."

More media mergers in these highly concentrated markets will reduce already insufficient local news coverage and eliminate diverse voices and viewpoints and, in every case, exceed US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Merger Guidelines. Yet these mergers would be approved by the FCC under its proposed new rules with "no questions asked."

In Texas, in certain areas are "vulnerable to domination by politicians or their deep pocket supporters."

The refusal to talk about election fraud by top Democrats in Texas can only be explained that they cannot, will not, wrap their minds around the implications of what is happening now, and what will keep on happening until we, as a people, face the issue. By refusing to speak about the growing danger of such fraud, it makes it hard for people to conceive that fraud can ever occur. There are no defenders but us for our besieged democracy. And it is up to us, not as party members, or as liberals, moderates and conservatives, but as Texans to do that vital work by spreading the word what is happening. Isn’t our democracy still worth fighting for?