The Free Press has obtained internal memos from the senior staff of the Ohio Secretary of State's office confirming the installation of untested and uncertified election tabulation software. Yesterday, the Free Press reported that "experimental" software patches were installed on ES&S voting machines in 39 Ohio counties. (see Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote?).

Election Counsel Brandi Laser Seske circulated a memo dated November 1st renewing the already shaky justification for installing software made by Election Systems and Solutions on vote tabulation equipment used in 39 Ohio counties. The letter to Ohio Secretary of State personnel Matt Masterson, Danielle Sellars, Myra Hawkins, Betsy Schuster, and Ohio's Director of Elections Matthew Damschroder, clarified the dubious justification for not complying with the legal requirements for the examination of all election related equipment.

With election day less than a week away, the spectre of another stolen election is upon us. The airwaves and internet are at last filling with discussion of this possibility.

When the first stories were broken by a handful of us after the fiascos of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, there was a stunning silence, followed by a wide range of attacks. Today the warnings about the possibility of another election theft are taken with increasing gravity.

The question is deep and profound, with a huge body of research and writing surrounding it.

But among the many concerns, two are key: massive disenfranchisement, and manipulation of the electronic vote count.

DISENFRANCHISEMENT:

There is no doubt the Republican party has done much to prevent likely Democrats from voting. This "Jim/Juan Crow" strategy has included legislation aimed at requiring photo ID as a means of restricting the vote. This involves financial and other burdens that would prevent as many as ten million citizens from voting according to the Brennan Center at New York University, the vast bulk of them likely Democrats.

Here are some things anyone can do on Election Day:
Document any of these things and let the Free Press know during the day or immediately after the polls close:
1) Do all machines work at the beginning of the day? Were there any problems getting them to work?
2) Did any technicians come in to do any "service" on the machines during the day?
3) Are people being turned away from voting for any reason? Are many people made to vote provisionally for any reason? How many? What are the reasons?
4) Are there any people hanging around wearing suits, not identifying themselves, or challengers intimidating people, challenging their right to vote, or otherwise interfering with voters? Please take photos of them and their automobile license plates.
5) Lists of who voted are posted at 11am and 4pm at polling sites. Do those numbers match the print-out at the end of the night?
6) VERY IMPORTANT: At close of polls, the pollworkers are required to print out and post the results on the outside of the door for the public to view. Document through a photo and/or write down the final polling site results: how many people voted, who they voted for.

This video is a follow-up to John Ennis' documentary "Free For All" about the 2004 stolen election in Ohio:

Interview by Joan Brunwasser
My guest today is Harvey Wasserman, co-author of "Will the GOP Steal America's 2012 Election?" Welcome back to OpEdNews, Harvey. We spoke about your new book at the beginning of September. But election-related stories seem to be breaking all the time. Can you bring us up to speed? Are we worse off than we were in 2000, 2004 or 2008?

Well, it's the best of times, it's the worst of times.

On the one hand, much of the media and even the Democratic Party has picked up on the nation-wide Jim Crow campaign being waged by the Republicans to disenfranchise as many suspected Democrats as possible. According to the Brennan Center at NYU, this could mean ten million or more Americans will lose their vote.

Back when we first started writing about such things, we were attacked by the Democrats and even much of the left media. Now it's being taken seriously. Even the New York Times has covered some of it. And many of the laws enabling this mass disenfranchisement have been overturned by the courts.