Greg Palast: Stealing the Mexico election

2006-07-03

Richard Moore

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Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 07:22:33 -0400
From: Greg Palast <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Dispatch from Mexico City: Stealing it in Front of Your Eyes

Dispatch from Mexico City:

STEALING IT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES


Matt Pascarella in Mexico City
Greg Palast in London

Monday, 3 July


Gore v. Bush.  Kerry v. Bush.  Obrador v. Calderon.

As in Florida in 2000, as in Ohio in 2004, the exit polls show the voters voted 
for the progressive candidate, but the race is "officially" too close to call.

But they will call it -- after they steal it.  Reuters News agency reports that,
as of 8pm Eastern time, as voting concluded in Mexico, exit polls show Andres 
Manuel Lopez Obrador of the "left-wing" Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD)
leading in exit polls over Felipe Calderon of the ruling conservative National 
Action Party (PAN).

We've told you again and again:  Exit polls tell us how voters say they voted, 
but the voters can't tell pollsters if their vote will be counted.  In Mexico, 
counting the vote is an art, not a science -- and Calderon's ruling crew is very
artful indeed.  The PAN-controlled

official electoral commission, not surprisingly, has announced that the 
presidential tally is too close to call.

Calderon's election is openly supported by the Bush Administration.

On the ground in Mexico City, our news team reports accusations from inside the 
Obrador campaign that operatives of the PAN had access to voter files which are 
supposed to be the sole property of the nation's electoral commission.

We are not surprised.

This past Friday, we reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had 
obtained Mexico's voter files under a secret "counterterrorism" contract with 
database company ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Georgia.  (See 
<http://www.gregpalast.com/mailing/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ncmVncGFsYXN0LmNvbS9zdGVhbGluZy1tZXhpY28%3D&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=Mjc1&CampaignID=22&CampaignStatisticsID=15&Demo=0&Email=•••@••.•••>BUSH
TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY ³FLORIDIZE² MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION)

The FBI's contractor states that, following the arrest of ChoicePoint agents by 
the Mexican

government, the company returned or destroyed its files.  The firm claims not to
have known collecting this information violated Mexican law.  Such files can be 
useful in challenging a voter's right to cast a ballot or in preventing that 
vote from counting.

It is, of course, impossible to know if the FBI destroyed its own copy of the 
files of Mexico's voter rolls obtained by Choicepoint or if these were then used
to illegally assist the Calderon candidacy.

But we can see the results:  as in the US, first in Florida then in Ohio, the 
exit polls are at odds with "official" polls.

In November 2004, US Republican Senator Richard Lugar, in Kiev, cited the 
divergence of exit polls and official polls as solid evidence of "blatant fraud²
in the vote count in Ukraine. As a result, the Bush Administration refused to 
recognize the Ukraine government's official vote tally ... which proves once 
again that Republicans are incapable

of irony.

The foreign mainstream press has already announced, despite the polling 
discrepancies, that Mexico's elections were fair and clean -- which would be a 
first for that country where Obrador's party has seen its candidates defeated by
"blatant fraud" before.  The change

this time is that the fraud is simply less blatant.

********

Watch for our video reports from Mexico City at 
<http://www.gregpalast.com/mailing/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5HcmVnUGFsYXN0LmNvbQ%3D%3D&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=Mjc1&CampaignID=22&CampaignStatisticsID=15&Demo=0&Email=•••@••.•••>www.GregPalast.com
to be carried on 
<http://www.gregpalast.com/mailing/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kZW1vY3JhY3lub3cub3JnLw%3D%3D&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=Mjc1&CampaignID=22&CampaignStatisticsID=15&Demo=0&Email=•••@••.•••>Democracy
Now!, with Amy Goodman, this Wednesday, July 5. Rick Rowley, in Mexico City, 
contributed to this report.

Matt Pascarella is North American producer for GregPalast.com.  Greg Palast is 
the author of the New York Times bestseller, 
"<http://www.gregpalast.com/mailing/link.php?URL=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ncmVncGFsYXN0LmNvbS9tYWRob3VzZS9pbmRleC5waHAvb3JkZXItdGhlLWJvb2sv&Name=&EncryptedMemberID=Mjc1&CampaignID=22&CampaignStatisticsID=15&Demo=0&Email=•••@••.•••>ARMED
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