Speaker claims last 2 elections were rigged

Were Al Gore and John Kerry robbed of the presidency?

Nationally-known media expert, author and New York University professor Mark Crispin Miller will present “Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy” today at 11 a.m. in the Business building, room 213.

“That the 2000 race was stolen is beyond dispute, as Gore won the final vote count,” Miller said in an e-mail interview. “This is not widely known because the press buried the news – or underplayed it – but it’s true.”

Miller, a leading critic of the Bush administration, has written several books on the topic.

Today Miller will discuss his newest book, “Fooled Again,” which argues the 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged as well, and he identifies who he thinks was responsible.

“The fraud has been committed mainly through the use of electronic voting machines, which can be hacked quite easily and quickly – and whose manufacturers all have very close relations with the GOP, ” Miller said.

“It would be no better if they had the same relations with the Democrats. They count the votes in secret, and are no more honest than the last person who programmed them.

“This is not a partisan issue, or a liberal issue. It’s an American issue, and the most important of them all. If we don’t have the right to vote our representatives in and out of office, we are not a free people, and can make no progress on any front.”

However, Miller is quick to dismiss his reputation as being vehemently anti-Bush.

“I’m not ‘anti-Bush,’” he said. “I am a firm believer in the institutions of American democracy: a free press, checks and balances, republican self-government, habeas corpus, the right to free assembly, religious freedom and the right not to be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures.”

Miller is not shy about giving his true opinion and pointing out who he feels is to blame for the state of the nation.

“It’s not just this administration that has trashed all those ideals, but the media people: Democrats and moderate Republicans who have let Bush and Cheney get away with it.”

Cal Poly history professor George Cotkin, who helped organize the free event, believes Cal Poly students would benefit immensely by hearing what Miller has to say.

“I think that any opportunity to hear a significant thinker offer arguments that touch on the most important elements of our democracy is invaluable,” Cotkin said.

“He is an engaging lecturer who has appeared on a number of television shows. This is a rare opportunity for Cal Poly students and faculty to engage with controversial ideas and come to their own conclusions. That is, after all, what a university is about.”