Protests Already Planned for Nov. 3rd
The protesters have organized a dozen or so election experts, who will conduct a conference call at midnight after the polls close, to determine whether they believe there has been enough corruption or suppression of votes to influence the outcome of the election. If the experts decide the election is illegitimate, protests will go forward the following day.
What form the protests might take has not been determined. But as many as 38 are already planned, including actions in San Francisco, Baltimore and Philadelphia. In New York, protesters are planning to meet at 5 p.m. in Time Square the day after the polls close if they believe the election has not been clean.
United for Peace and Justice is the largest group involved in the potential actions, planning for different scenarios depending on what happens Tuesday. They helped bring together nearly half a million people to march in New York against the GOP’s convention in late August – an extremely large turnout for a nation normally reticent to take to the streets.
“Something like this is very hard to plan, a lot depends on what happens,” said Leslie Cagan, the head of United for Peace and Justice. “We are leaving most of the details of the protests to local groups to decide. Instead of everyone scrambling at the last minute, we wanted to have a mechanism in place to get people mobilized in case something happens.”
Steve Cobble, a political strategist involved in the formation of the group, said, “These are not actions we'd like to take. I think the best situation is for Kerry to be a clear victor at the end of November 2nd.” The coalition, which calls itself “No More Stolen Elections!”, is officially non-partisan, but it is clear which party they believe might “steal” the election.
“The Democrats are not organized enough to steal an election, unfortunately the Republicans are - they did it four years ago,” Cobble said. “Last time, the Republicans were able to fool the media and the public with a bourgeois riot in Florida. We want to help get a real grassroots response in motion if something happens.” Cobble is referring to the staged protests organized by Republican Party operatives at Florida recount sites four years ago.
Thousands of voter registrations have already been denied on technicalities in Ohio, and thousands of absentee ballots have been “lost” in Florida – both states labeled by pollsters as too close to call. The chance of an end result that not only the coalition's election experts, but the American public, perceive as illegitimate seems as likely as not. “It's not a question of whether or not corruption has taken place, it is a question of whether or not there will be enough to taint the outcome of the election,” said Bill Wing, a national organizer with United for Peace and Justice.
The organizers of the “No Stolen Elections!” campaign claim more than 16,000 people have signed their pledge to participate in some form of nonviolent civil disobedience if the election is “stolen." Signers include filmmaker Michael Moore, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and feminist icon Gloria Steinem. The number of people who have signed the online petition is but a fraction of the thousands of protesters organizers expect to participate if the legitimacy of the election comes into question.
