There are, according to these well known politicos some ways that voters can protect their rights, so I spent a buck and now I will share what others should know before they go to the polls.

According to the words of Kennedy Jr. and Palast who spent much time researching this issue since the Florida debacle, the Republican Governor and legislature of Florida began fining some voter-drive groups $5,000 for slight registration errors or for missing the deadline by a mere two hours. Twenty states now have specific restrictions that apply to voter drives. According to a top expert, Professor Lorraine Minnite, with all of these new ridiculous rules and the traps they hold, the Republicans are literally wiping out 5 million innocent voters, and that is precisely what they intend to do.

It is reported that voter suppression is not specifically aimed at race or party, rather at those people who earn less than $15,000 annually; and their registration numbers are at an all time low. "Beginning in 2006, for the first time in U.S. history, federal law allows, even requires, U.S. Secretaries of State to reject first-time registrants where officials decide they cannot match identity to government records." This resulted in thousands of voters being rejected. With one little code provided in the "Help America Vote Act" (a Bush original) Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson of California was able to successfully block 42 percent or 14,629 new registrants in Los Angeles County alone. These people are typically Latino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Muslim sir-named citizens and the poor.

It is reported that the GOP Secretary of State in Florida is rejecting 85,000 voters who are African-American just in time for the Nov. election. This is a frightful event: Secretary of State of Colorado who managed to make disappear one in five of that swing states voter's, Bush has appointed as Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, "to police the whole nation's vote in Nov."

Another way votes are being stolen according to Kennedy Jr., "Touch-screens are notorious. They were supposed to end the "Spoilage" problem, but we discovered that Hispanics voting on computer screens are six times as likely, to lose their vote than if they vote on paper ballots. Something is very rotten."

Furthermore, few people realize that in 2004, 1,389,231 ballots were never even counted because it was claimed they were somehow "spoiled." The U.S. Civil Rights Commission discovered that African-American voters are 900 percent more likely to lose their vote than are whites, and Hispanic's are 500 percent more likely than Anglo to lose their votes.

Another pitfall to beware is the provisional ballot created by the Help America Vote Act. Problem is, about a third of those, or one million were tossed into the garbage thanks to Rove's protege' Tim Griffin who decided not to give those voters the proper envelope in which to send in the provisional ballots, uh, that would include many of our soldiers. That trick is known as "caging," and is expected to play a large role in this year's election.

Postage amounts, official envelopes, and signatures accounts for about one in ten mail-in ballots getting tossed out! Please, hand-deliver if at all possible your absentee ballot. The odds are stacked against three specific blocks of voters this election: Hispanic, poor, and students. 144,896 legal voters were told that they could not vote in this year’s primary because of their inability to produce a government issue ID. This would include senior citizens who have given up their license because they are no longer able to drive a vehicle.

And these statistics do not even include the voter purging that goes on due to someone's name being the same as a prisoner. It is not commonly known that if you are an ex-prisoner and you are not beholden to a parole officer, you do have the right to vote.

What you CAN do...

1. Do Not Mail In Your Ballot,
2. Vote Very Early,
3. Double Check That You Are Registered,
4. Vote Unconditionally, Not Provisional,
5. Occupy Your State, Get Out The Vote In A Neighboring State,
6. Date A Voter - "Arrive With Five" to help protect your rights, and finally...
7. Make The Democracy Demand: No Vote Left Behind!