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Watchdog Group Says Prop. 8 Vote 'Probably Corrupted'

By Patrick Range McDonald

A new study by the Election Defense Alliance, a national, non-profit election watchdog group, reports that the November, 2008, vote to take away the existing right of gays and lesbians to legally marry in California through Proposition 8 was "probably corrupted."

EDA co-founders Sally Castleman and Jonathan Simon write that the watchdog group conducted exit polling at 19 precincts on Election Day, 2008, in Los Angeles County, the major swing county in California that supposedly voted in favor of the gay marriage ban.

EDA then found a huge disparity between the exit polling numbers and the official vote count, with more L.A. County residents actually voting against Proposition 8.

"It is beyond the scope of this study to know if any corruption was due to honest error or intentional fraud," Castleman and Simon write. "Further investigation is warranted."

EDA released its findings on its Web site.

"Deviations between exit polls and official results far outside margins of error cannot be explained away by demographics or polling factors," EDA writes. "The facts established in these reports cannot responsibly be dismissed or evaded."

Wow, wish I could say that I was shocked by this study, but I'm not. Not surprised at all.

It seems to be that the people who love to claim that they are more righteous than everyone else are usually the same people who end up acting so wrong.

I still don't understand how the Mormon Church got away with what they did during that election. Asking it's members to donate time, money, to call people in California on the phone encouraging them to vote for the ban. What killed me was the amount of people in Utah involved in volunteering to help the church. The vote had nothing to do with Utah, yet people all over the Beehive State were freaking out and acting as if their children would turn gay if the proposition didn't pass.

I remember getting emails from my Mormon family members giving false information about gay marriage, asking me to donate money to help fight against the "evil" of gay marriage.

"Evil?" I asked. "How is it evil?"

"It just is. It just is."

People went on and on about "protecting" marriage! Protecting it from WHAT???

You certainly are not protecting marriage from the millions of divorces that take place in the United States of America. I mean, if you want to protect something, why do you make it so easy to divorce?

It's such a blatant slap in the face to the basic civil rights of a group of people that I can't see how Mormons don't see it!!

I guess the Church, as well as other religions, only change when they are forced to. When they are called out and given an ultimatum. We have seen this will polygamy, with blacks receiving the priesthood... you name it.

How does gay marriage hurt straight marriage?

How???

Please believing Mormons who read this blog... please answer that question for me!

Is it because you think that allowing gay marriage will somehow make your children gay? Are you so worried that your own children will be attracted to the same sex that you think hiding the idea that many gay and lesbian families are living happily in the world today will push them into a gay or lesbian relationship?

People don't "turn" gay. You are or you aren't.

Think about it for a second.

All of the gay people I know grew up in traditional homes with a mother and a father. Most of them were Mormon, too. They didn't wake up one morning and decide to be gay, they didn't go out of their way to make their lives harder, it's just who they are. Just like some people have blue eyes, some have dark skin, and some lack the ability to use common sense and reason.

Would you love your children any less if they were gay? Would you? Would you tell them that they had to leave the house if they came out to you? Would you treat them differently? Would you turn the unconditional love you once had for your child into hate? Do you realize how many people out there kill themselves because they feel there is something wrong with them because they are attracted to the same sex?

Why should straight couples have rights that gay couples don't?

Should Catholics have rights that Mormons don't?

Should Atheists have rights that Christians don't?

Why should people think they have the right to decide what others can or cannot do?

I mean, if anything gay marriage will help the economy! There is no reason whatsoever that this ban on gay marriage should have passed, and yet it did?


I wont get married until everyone has the right. If the Mormon Church or any other church wants to not perform gay marriages, I don't care. But you shouldn't take that away from everyone because *you* have a problem with it.

This is crazy, it's 2010 and we are still talking about basic civil rights in the United States of America?

If you want a "traditional" marriage. Have one. I won't stop you, and I wouldn't want to. However, when you tell me or anyone else what kind of marriage we should have, you are crossing the line.