Hey guys. I'm trying to find:
1) Barbara Boxer making a statement on (i think) Jan 6, 2005, when the votes were being certified.
2) any footage of the December 8, 2004 hearings put on by John Conyers.
Thanks in advance if you have either of these.
The Election's Last Gasp
A NY Times Editorial.
Congressional Democrats staged an unusual protest yesterday when Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio objected to certifying the results of the 2004 election. Supporters of the defeated (and absent) John Kerry then spent two hours making speeches, most of which began with the declaration that George W. Bush had definitely won.It could not have been a totally satisfactory afternoon for the president's angry supporters or for the conspiracy theorists who still believe that Bush operatives managed to steal Ohio's electoral votes. The final count showed that Mr. Bush had won the state by more than 100,000 votes, and the Democrats who rose to complain about the process prefaced their remarks by saying things like "the irregularities in Ohio would not have overturned the results."
But the Democrats were right to call attention to the defects in the system. Our elections need to do more than produce a legitimate winner. They need to do it through a process that seems fair to all reasonable citizens. On that count, the United States has a way to go.
Electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail that can be rechecked in contested elections create worries that a contest could be stolen by computer hacking or by tampering with the machine software. Those concerns seem to have been unfounded in the last election, but it did not require paranoia to think that such things might happen.
It is not illegal to require voters to stand in lines so long that they wind up being forced to give up or to skip work, but it is unfair - particularly when such delays happen mainly in poor and minority neighborhoods. It is not illegal to leave election operations in the hands of a partisan elected official, but such a situation will make the system seem biased to voters from the other side of the political divide. That is what happened in Ohio, where the secretary of state was also a co-chairman of the Bush campaign in that state.
Democrats were obviously most vocal about the sloppy and highhanded way the election was run in many places, but the Republicans should also object. Mr. Bush won the most votes, but he has been deprived of universal confidence in the way they were counted.
Hi gang.
I'm in the process of figuring out what actually got accomplished yesterday. I'll let you know whatever I can figure out as soon as I've done enough homework to be sure I'm correct. But here's a couple of things that happened, for starters:
1. History was made in that a challenge hasn't happened since 1877. So that's something.
2. Looks like the house and senate each spent two hours debating the issues surrounding the Ohio election and recount, and that there is supposed to be some kind of congressional investigation. So that's something.
3. The House Judiciary Democratic Staff has published a report saying some pretty strong things about Blackwell's involvement, including, but not limited to:
With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
I think this is the lead that needs following up on. (Via the congressional investigation and the other pending lawsuits.)
Like I said earlier -- I will publish my results in a similiar fashion to the last report for easy reference, once the facts manifest themselves.
Just wanted to touch base. That and many Daily Show clips on the way.
thanks!
Senate, House Reject Challenge To Ohio Electoral Votes
Challenge Mounted By U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer
President George W. Bush has been declared the winner of the electoral vote, with 286 votes. Democrat John Kerry got 251 votes, and his running mate, John Edwards, received one.The declaration came after the House and the Senate have overwhelmingly rejected a Democratic challenge to awarding Ohio's 20 electoral votes to President George W. Bush.
The Senate vote was 74-1, with only Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., voting to support it. The vote in the House was 267-31.
Boxer and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, lodged a formal protest to the Ohio results, prompting several hours of debate. If a senator hadn't signed on, the protest wouldn't have been heard.
They and others cited a lack of voting machines, unusually long lines and other problems that plagued some Ohio districts, many in minority neighborhoods...
By law, any such challenge that's signed by members of both houses compels each chamber to meet for up to two hours to consider the complaint.
As a result of the move, House and Senate members went into separate meetings for a debate focusing on alleged voting irregularities in Ohio on Election Day.
The challenge, which was expected, disrupted the mostly ceremonial reading of the electoral vote count of each state...
The delay didn't jeopardize Bush's win. The outcome of the race is not in doubt, since Republicans have majorities in both the House and Senate. After the debate, lawmakers reconvened and finished hearing the reading of the electoral votes.
Democratic leaders -- including Sen. John Kerry -- distanced themselves from the challenge. Some said they feared it would make them look like sore losers.
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4053934/detail.html
Senate, House Reject Challenge To Ohio Electoral Votes
Challenge Mounted By U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer
POSTED: 7:41 am EST January 6, 2005
UPDATED: 6:14 pm EST January 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has been declared the winner of the electoral vote, with 286 votes. Democrat John Kerry got 251 votes, and his running mate, John Edwards, received one.
The declaration came after the House and the Senate have overwhelmingly rejected a Democratic challenge to awarding Ohio's 20 electoral votes to President George W. Bush.
The Senate vote was 74-1, with only Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., voting to support it. The vote in the House was 267-31.
Boxer and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, lodged a formal protest to the Ohio results, prompting several hours of debate. If a senator hadn't signed on, the protest wouldn't have been heard.
They and others cited a lack of voting machines, unusually long lines and other problems that plagued some Ohio districts, many in minority neighborhoods.
Rep. Rik Keller, R-Fla., told Democrats simply to "Get over it."
But Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, insisted the issue was about "protecting voting rights," not who won or lost.
By law, any such challenge that's signed by members of both houses compels each chamber to meet for up to two hours to consider the complaint.
As a result of the move, House and Senate members went into separate meetings for a debate focusing on alleged voting irregularities in Ohio on Election Day.
The challenge, which was expected, disrupted the mostly ceremonial reading of the electoral vote count of each state.
Each state has held its electoral college vote, and Thursday is the day Congress is supposed to certify the results. Bush won the election by 286 to 252 electoral votes, with 270 required for victory.
Congressional leaders, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, had been reading the vote count of each state, alphabetically, until they got to Ohio. It was only the second time since 1877 the count has been disrupted.
The delay didn't jeopardize Bush's win. The outcome of the race is not in doubt, since Republicans have majorities in both the House and Senate. After the debate, lawmakers reconvened and finished hearing the reading of the electoral votes.
Democratic leaders -- including Sen. John Kerry -- distanced themselves from the challenge. Some said they feared it would make them look like sore losers.
Earlier, the White House dismissed the move. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the Democrats are "engaging in consipiracy theories and rehashing issues that were settled long ago."
Bush won an Ohio recount by more than 118,000 votes.
Bush carries Electoral College after delay
Democrats challenge Ohio vote, push back official certification
On the CNN website.
President Bush officially won a second term in the White House after electoral votes from all 50 states were counted Thursday during a joint session of Congress.The normally perfunctory ceremony of counting and certifying Electoral College votes was delayed for about four hours as Democrats unsuccessfully challenged Ohio's votes for Bush...
The challenge was defeated 267-31 by the House and 74-1 by the Senate, clearing the way for the joint session to count the votes from the remaining states...
The objecting Democrats, all of whom are House members except Boxer, said they wanted to draw attention to the need for aggressive election reform in the wake of what they said were widespread voter problems.
In a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, members of the group said they would take the action because a new report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee found "numerous, serious election irregularities," particularly in Ohio, that led to "a significant disenfranchisement of voters."
"How can we possibly tell millions of Americans who registered to vote, who came to the polls in record numbers, particularly our young people ... to simply get over it and move on?" Tubbs Jones said at a press conference with Boxer...
It was only the second such challenge since the current rules for counting electoral votes were established in 1877. The last was in 1969 and concerned a so-called "faithless elector," according to congressional researchers.
Four years ago, after the disputed election results in Florida, members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to block Florida's electoral votes from being counted.
In a scene recalled in Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11," lawmaker after lawmaker was gaveled down by Vice President Al Gore because no senator would support the objections, as the rules require.
House Democrats involved in this year's protest worked for weeks to enlist the support of a senator in their party, and Boxer agreed to join the effort Wednesday.
"This is my opening shot to be able to focus the light of truth on these terrible problems in the electoral system," Boxer told the joint press conference with Tubbs Jones.
"While we have men and women dying to bring democracy abroad, we've got to make it the best it can be here at home, and that's why I'm doing this."...
Kerry released a letter Wednesday saying he would not take part in the protest.
"Our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election," Kerry said.
Bush carried Ohio by more than 118,000 votes -- the Buckeye State win providing the margin of victory in the Electoral College race. The president received 286 to Kerry's 252 electoral votes.
"There are very troubling questions that have not yet been answered by Ohio election officials," the senator said.
"In the coming months I will present a national proposal to ensure transparency and accountability in our voting process."
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/06/electoral.vote/index.html
Bush carries Electoral College after delay
Democrats challenge Ohio vote, push back official certification
Thursday, January 6, 2005 Posted: 6:55 PM EST (2355 GMT)
Sen. Barbara Boxer, right, joined Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones in objecting to the vote count.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush officially won a second term in the White House after electoral votes from all 50 states were counted Thursday during a joint session of Congress.
The normally perfunctory ceremony of counting and certifying Electoral College votes was delayed for about four hours as Democrats unsuccessfully challenged Ohio's votes for Bush.
Bush received 286 electoral votes, 16 more than the 270 he needed to win re-election. Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, received 251 votes. One Democratic elector cast a vote not for Kerry but for former Sen. John Edwards, his vice presidential running mate.
In the vice presidential race, Vice President Dick Cheney received 286 electoral votes and Edwards received 252.
Alleging widespread "irregularities" on Election Day, a group of Democrats in Congress objected earlier Thursday to the counting of Ohio's 20 electoral votes.
The challenge was defeated 267-31 by the House and 74-1 by the Senate, clearing the way for the joint session to count the votes from the remaining states.
The move was not designed to overturn Bush's re-election, said Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who filed the objection.
The objecting Democrats, all of whom are House members except Boxer, said they wanted to draw attention to the need for aggressive election reform in the wake of what they said were widespread voter problems.
In a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, members of the group said they would take the action because a new report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee found "numerous, serious election irregularities," particularly in Ohio, that led to "a significant disenfranchisement of voters."
"How can we possibly tell millions of Americans who registered to vote, who came to the polls in record numbers, particularly our young people ... to simply get over it and move on?" Tubbs Jones said at a press conference with Boxer.
Thursday's joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate to count electoral votes is specified in the U.S. Constitution. Cheney, in his role as president of the Senate, presided over the session.
The results from each state, read in alphabetical order, were ticked through quickly until Ohio was called, and a clerk read the objection filed by Boxer and Tubbs Jones.
Then, as required by congressional rules in the event that at least one member of each house objects to the vote, Cheney ordered the lawmakers back to their respective chambers for two hours of debate on the merits of the challenge and to vote on it.
It was only the second such challenge since the current rules for counting electoral votes were established in 1877. The last was in 1969 and concerned a so-called "faithless elector," according to congressional researchers.
Four years ago, after the disputed election results in Florida, members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to block Florida's electoral votes from being counted.
In a scene recalled in Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 9/11," lawmaker after lawmaker was gaveled down by Vice President Al Gore because no senator would support the objections, as the rules require.
House Democrats involved in this year's protest worked for weeks to enlist the support of a senator in their party, and Boxer agreed to join the effort Wednesday.
"This is my opening shot to be able to focus the light of truth on these terrible problems in the electoral system," Boxer told the joint press conference with Tubbs Jones.
"While we have men and women dying to bring democracy abroad, we've got to make it the best it can be here at home, and that's why I'm doing this."
Republicans dismissed the effort as a stunt, noting that specific allegations of voting problems in Ohio have been investigated by journalists and, the Republicans said, found to be untrue.
"But apparently, some Democrats only want to gripe about counts, recounts, and recounts of recounts," said Rep. Deborah Pryce, an Ohio Republican.
"So eager are they to abandon their job as public servants, they have cast themselves in the role of Michael Moore, concocting wild conspiracy theories to distract the American public."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan dismissed the challenge as "partisan politics."
"The election is behind us," he said. "The American people now expect their leaders in Washington to focus on the big priorities facing this country."
Kerry released a letter Wednesday saying he would not take part in the protest.
"Our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election," Kerry said.
Bush carried Ohio by more than 118,000 votes -- the Buckeye State win providing the margin of victory in the Electoral College race. The president received 286 to Kerry's 252 electoral votes.
"There are very troubling questions that have not yet been answered by Ohio election officials," the senator said.
"In the coming months I will present a national proposal to ensure transparency and accountability in our voting process."
Kerry was not on hand Thursday. He is in Iraq to thank U.S. troops for their service.
CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
This is not from today - Jan 6, 2005, this is from December 8, 2004.
(The Jan 6 stuff goes up this weekend -- I'm just catching up.)
I haven't even had a chance to look at these yet, but I wanted to make sure you knew they were up. It's several hours of hearings split up into 20 MB chunks.
Enjoy!
December 8, 2004 Hearings At DC On Ohio Voting Irregularities
Executive Summary: House Judiciary Dems’ final report on Ohio election problems (PDF Original)
By The House Judiciary Democratic Staff.
We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards.This report, therefore, makes three recommendations: (1) consistent with the requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting of electoral votes by Congress and Federal law implementing these requirements, there are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the State of Ohio; (2) Congress should engage in further hearings into the widespread irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are serious enough to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the House and Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3) Congress needs to enact election reform to restore our people’s trust in our democracy. These changes should include putting in place more specific federal protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas of audit capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of provisional ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state election laws.
With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
Here is the full text of the entire document in case the link goes bad:
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=529
1/5/2005
Executive Summary: House Judiciary Dems’ final report on Ohio election problems
Filed under:
* General
— site admin @ 12:43 pm Email This
Text: Executive Summary of Conyers’ Ohio election report
The following is the text of the Executive Summary written by the House Judiciary Democratic staff about election problems in Ohio’s November presidential election, and is the crux upon which Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) is seeking to contest Ohio electoral votes and open a discussion of the election on the Senate floor Jan. 6. The report was published Wednesday, and the text released to RAW STORY by the Judiciary staff.
The full document in PDF format can be found here.
Executive Summary
Representative John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the Democratic staff to conduct an investigation into irregularities reported in the Ohio presidential election and to prepare a Status Report concerning the same prior to the Joint Meeting of Congress scheduled for January 6, 2005, to receive and consider the votes of the electoral college for president. The following Report includes a brief chronology of the events; summarizes the relevant background law; provides detailed findings (including factual findings and legal analysis); and describes various recommendations for acting on this Report going forward.
We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards.
This report, therefore, makes three recommendations: (1) consistent with the requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting of electoral votes by Congress and Federal law implementing these requirements, there are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the State of Ohio; (2) Congress should engage in further hearings into the widespread irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are serious enough to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the House and Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3) Congress needs to enact election reform to restore our people’s trust in our democracy. These changes should include putting in place more specific federal protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas of audit capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of provisional ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state election laws.
With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
First, in the run up to election day, the following actions by Mr. Blackwell, the Republican Party and election officials disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens, predominantly minority and Democratic voters:
• The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters. This was illustrated by the fact that the Washington Post reported that in Franklin County, “27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush. At the other end of the spectrum, six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered large margins for Kerry.” Among other things, the conscious failure to provide sufficient voting machinery violates the Ohio Revised Code which requires the Boards of Elections to “provide adequate facilities at each polling place for conducting the election.”
• Mr. Blackwell’s decision to restrict provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters, again predominantly minority and Democratic voters. Mr. Blackwell’s decision departed from past Ohio law on provisional ballots, and there is no evidence that a broader construction would have led to any significant disruption at the polling places, and did not do so in other states.
• Mr. Blackwell’s widely reviled decision to reject voter registration applications based on paper weight may have resulted in thousands of new voters not being registered in time for the 2004 election.
• The Ohio Republican Party’s decision to engage in preelection “caging” tactics, selectively targeting 35,000 predominantly minority voters for intimidation had a negative impact on voter turnout. The Third Circuit found these activities to be illegal and in direct violation of consent decrees barring the Republican Party from targeting minority voters for poll challenges.
• The Ohio Republican Party’s decision to utilize thousands of partisan challengers concentrated in minority and Democratic areas likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of legal voters, who were not only intimidated, but became discouraged by the long lines. Shockingly, these disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged by Republican officials: Mark Weaver, a lawyer for the Ohio Republican Party, admitted the challenges “can’t help but create chaos, longer lines and frustration.”
• Mr. Blackwell’s decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on a timely basis from being able to receive provisional ballots likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters, particularly seniors. A federal court found Mr. Blackwell’s order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.
Second, on election day, there were numerous unexplained anomalies and irregularities involving hundreds of thousands of votes that have yet to be accounted for:
• There were widespread instances of intimidation and misinformation in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Equal Protection, Due Process and the Ohio right to vote. Mr. Blackwell’s apparent failure to institute a single investigation into these many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty under Ohio law to investigate election irregularities.
• We learned of improper purging and other registration errors by election officials that likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters statewide. The Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition projects that in Cuyahoga County alone over 10,000 Ohio citizens lost their right to vote as a result of official registration errors.
• There were 93,000 spoiled ballots where no vote was cast for president, the vast majority of which have yet to be inspected. The problem was particularly acute in two precincts in Montgomery County which had an undervote rate of over 25% each – accounting for nearly 6,000 voters who stood in line to vote, but purportedly declined to vote for president.
• There were numerous, significant unexplained irregularities in other counties throughout the state: (i) in Mahoning county at least 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush column; (ii) Warren County locked out public observers from vote counting citing an FBI warning about a potential terrorist threat, yet the FBI states that it issued no such warning; (iii) the voting records of Perry county show significantly more votes than voters in some precincts, significantly less ballots than voters in other precincts, and voters casting more than one ballot; (iv) in Butler county a down ballot and underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court candidate implausibly received more votes than the best funded Democratic Presidential candidate in history; (v) in Cuyahoga county, poll worker error may have led to little known third-party candidates receiving twenty times more votes than such candidates had ever received in otherwise reliably Democratic leaning areas; (vi) in Miami county, voter turnout was an improbable and highly suspect 98.55 percent, and after 100 percent of the precincts were reported, an additional 19,000 extra votes were recorded for President Bush.
Third, in the post-election period we learned of numerous irregularities in tallying provisional ballots and conducting and completing the recount that disenfanchised thousands of voters and call the entire recount procedure into question (as of this date the recount is still not complete) :
• Mr. Blackwell’s failure to articulate clear and consistent standards for the counting of provisional ballots resulted in the loss of thousands of predominantly minority votes. In Cuyahoga County alone, the lack of guidance and the ultimate narrow and arbitrary review standards significantly contributed to the fact that 8,099 out of 24,472 provisional ballots were ruled invalid, the highest proportion in the state.
• Mr. Blackwell’s failure to issue specific standards for the recount contributed to a lack of uniformity in violation of both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clauses. We found innumerable irregularities in the recount in violation of Ohio law, including (i) counties which did not randomly select the precinct samples; (ii) counties which did not conduct a full hand court after the 3% hand and machine counts did not match; (iii) counties which allowed for irregular marking of ballots and failed
to secure and store ballots and machinery; and (iv) counties which prevented witnesses for candidates from observing the various aspects of the recount.
• The voting computer company Triad has essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to provide “cheat sheets” to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand recount mandated by state law.
I'm just reading this stuff today myself guys, but I've got a lot of information to post, and the Pete recorded 8 hours of CSPAN today that I'll be receiving Fed Ex on Saturday. I'll figure out the highlights and try to have them ready for you over the weekend sometime.
For now, read William Rivers Pitt's excellent notes from his new blog. I've cut and pasted the whole thing below. (click on "more")
Here's a quote from Pitt's blog:
Today was a good day
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 06:05
I can't recall a day in the last several years when the efforts of citizens yielded fruit in the Senate. Didn't work with the Patriot Act vote. Didn't work with the Homeland Security Act vote. Sure as hell didn't work with the Iraq war vote.It worked today. Voices were heard, and something we haven't seen since 1877 took place today. This is what Congress exists for, and for once, they responded.
Here are some highlights from Boxer's statement:
We have fought for social justice. We have fought for economic justice. We have fought for environmental justice. We have fought for criminal justice.Now we must add a new fight – the fight for electoral justice.
Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth of their community, their vote has as much weight as the vote of any Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any cabinet member, or any CEO of any Fortune 500 Corporation.
I am sure that every one of my colleagues – Democrat, Republican, and Independent – agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal.
So now it seems to me that under the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to vote, we must ask:
Why did voters in Ohio wait hours in the rain to vote? Why were voters at Kenyan College, for example, made to wait in line until nearly 4 a.m. to vote because there were only two machines for 1300 voters?
Why did poor and predominantly African-American communities have disproportionately long waits?
Why in Franklin County did election officials only use 2,798 machines when they said they needed 5,000? Why did they hold back 68 machines in warehouses? Why were 42 of those machines in predominantly African-American districts?
Why did, in Columbus area alone, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 voters leave polling places, out of frustration, without having voted? How many more never bothered to vote after they heard about this?
Why is it when 638 people voted at a precinct in Franklin County, a voting machine awarded 4,258 extra votes to George Bush. Thankfully, they fixed it – but how many other votes did the computers get wrong?
Why did Franklin County officials reduce the number of electronic voting machines in downtown precincts, while adding them in the suburbs? This also led to long lines.
In Cleveland, why were there thousands of provisional ballots disqualified after poll workers gave faulty instructions to voters?
Because of this, and voting irregularities in so many other places, I am joining with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now.
Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world.
As we try to do that, and as we are shedding the blood of our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so much credibility when our own electoral system needs so much improvement.
Yet, in the past four years, this Congress has not done everything it should to give confidence to all of our people their votes matter.
After passing the Help America Vote Act, nothing more was done.
A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I introduced legislation that would have required that electronic voting systems provide a paper record to verify a vote.
That paper trail would be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case of a recount.There is no reason why the Senate should not have taken up and passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should have been held. But it never happened.
Before I close, I want to thank my colleague from the House, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
Her letter to me asking for my intervention was substantive and compelling.
As I wrote to her, I was particularly moved by her point that it is virtually impossible to get official House consideration of the whole issue of election reform, including these irregularities.
The Congresswoman has tremendous respect in her state of Ohio, which is at the center of this fight.
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a judge for 10 years. She was a prosecutor for 8 years. She was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.
I am proud to stand with her in filing this objection.
No perma link yet, so here's the full text of Williams Rivers Pitt's blog for today:
Today was a good day
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 06:05
I can't recall a day in the last several years when the efforts of citizens yielded fruit in the Senate. Didn't work with the Patriot Act vote. Didn't work with the Homeland Security Act vote. Sure as hell didn't work with the Iraq war vote.
It worked today. Voices were heard, and something we haven't seen since 1877 took place today. This is what Congress exists for, and for once, they responded.
The rest is up to the same people who got this ball rolling. Today was a beginning, an introduction into the national dialogue of the fact that lots and lots and lots and lots of Americans get jobbed out of their right to vote every election.
We can fix that. We should fix that. Today, the task was well begun.
List of House members who voted 'Yea'
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 06:02
Revised down to 31:
Brown, Corrine
Carson
Clay
Clyburn
Conyers
Davis (IL)
Evans
Farr
Filner
Grijalva
Hastings (FL)
Hinchey
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kucinich
Lee
Lewis (GA)
Markey
McKinney
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Payne
Schakowsky
Thompson (MS)
Waters
Watson
Woolsey
I interviewed Rep. Conyers just before the hearings
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 05:00
PITT: How are you feeling about what is happening today?
CONYERS: We have come a mighty long way. It seems to me, as we began this adventure, to make the ballot as important as it is, and that it be counted, and that it be available to every single qualified American voter, that I had always suspected that it would be hard for the United States Senate to do, again, what they did in 2000. To close down any possibility of any debate, of any investigation, of any recount, and it turns out that my hunch was correct.
The fact of the matter is that we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing this. This isn't like there is a down-side to this. It is all up, because as everybody knows, all the phones are jammed, emails are coming in, faxes. People are coming in from all over. This is a test of American democracy, just as in 1878. They passed the law to deal with the presidential election of 1877. We have to, in 2005, pass some more election reform laws to deal with what happened in 2004.
Read the rest here.......
Now it's 32
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 04:31
Feh.
33 votes in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 04:04
to support the objection.
I interviewed Rep. Conyers just before the hearing. I will have the transcript up as soon as I can.
Here comes the House vote
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 03:51
Republicans have trouble pushing buttons, it seems. Two times a vote to uphold the challenge came from the GOP side, and then got switched back after they realized they pushed the wrong button.
There is a GOP vote to uphold the challenge now, and it appears to be sticking.
Nope. Gone now. Learn to push buttons, folks.
Oh, here we go
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 03:45
Mr. I-don't-need-ethics-rules-in-my-face DeLay is up pretending to have any kind of moral standing on anything.
Lying his face off. Bush engineered electronic vote fraud, DeLay says is one theory.
I feel another terrorism quip coming. Yup, there it is.
No voter disenfranchisement in 2000 and 2004, saith DeLay. Everyone knows this.
This guy is a wonder of nature.
The House goes on
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 03:37
I have a feeling that the House vote will be a bit more satisfying to the Democratic base than the Senate vote.
Lock step
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 03:11
It took an incredible amount of effort to get several Democrats to get up and say basically the same thing in support of each other. It was a war to get that done.
The GOP sticks to their message with ease, almost automatically, preternatuarally.
That's a trick the Democrats need to learn.
The vote in the Senate is 74-1. The motion is not approved.
The debate continues in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 03:05
Jackson-Lee blows the doors off, and the GOP Reps. march out accusing Democrats of aiding terrorists...and then complain about bitterness and partisanship.
Boxer votes 'Aye'
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:52
GOP Rep. Drier in the House says the people questioning the Ohio vote are aiding terrorists.
Typical.
Lott is trying to shut it down
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:42
"Hopes it does not have a lasting impact."
"Merits no further response."
The roll is being called. Here come the votes. Boxer votes 'aye' and the gallery erupts in applause.
Voinovich (R-OH) is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:37
defending the vote in his state. Bunch of Ohioans in the gallery started bellowing and had to be removed.
Voinovich, like DeWine, is using editorials to prove there were no problems in Ohio. Dizzyingly hilarious.
Text of Boxer's statement today
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:33
Statement On Her Objection To The Certification Of Ohio’s Electoral Votes
January 6, 2005
For most of us in the Senate and the House, we have spent our lives fighting for things we believe in – always fighting to make our nation better.
We have fought for social justice. We have fought for economic justice. We have fought for environmental justice. We have fought for criminal justice.
Now we must add a new fight – the fight for electoral justice.
Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth of their community, their vote has as much weight as the vote of any Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any cabinet member, or any CEO of any Fortune 500 Corporation.
I am sure that every one of my colleagues – Democrat, Republican, and Independent – agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal.
So now it seems to me that under the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to vote, we must ask:
Why did voters in Ohio wait hours in the rain to vote? Why were voters at Kenyan College, for example, made to wait in line until nearly 4 a.m. to vote because there were only two machines for 1300 voters?
Why did poor and predominantly African-American communities have disproportionately long waits?
Why in Franklin County did election officials only use 2,798 machines when they said they needed 5,000? Why did they hold back 68 machines in warehouses? Why were 42 of those machines in predominantly African-American districts?
Why did, in Columbus area alone, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 voters leave polling places, out of frustration, without having voted? How many more never bothered to vote after they heard about this?
Why is it when 638 people voted at a precinct in Franklin County, a voting machine awarded 4,258 extra votes to George Bush. Thankfully, they fixed it – but how many other votes did the computers get wrong?
Why did Franklin County officials reduce the number of electronic voting machines in downtown precincts, while adding them in the suburbs? This also led to long lines.
In Cleveland, why were there thousands of provisional ballots disqualified after poll workers gave faulty instructions to voters?
Because of this, and voting irregularities in so many other places, I am joining with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now.
Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world.
As we try to do that, and as we are shedding the blood of our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so much credibility when our own electoral system needs so much improvement.
Yet, in the past four years, this Congress has not done everything it should to give confidence to all of our people their votes matter.
After passing the Help America Vote Act, nothing more was done.
A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I introduced legislation that would have required that electronic voting systems provide a paper record to verify a vote.
That paper trail would be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case of a recount.
There is no reason why the Senate should not have taken up and passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should have been held. But it never happened.
Before I close, I want to thank my colleague from the House, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
Her letter to me asking for my intervention was substantive and compelling.
As I wrote to her, I was particularly moved by her point that it is virtually impossible to get official House consideration of the whole issue of election reform, including these irregularities.
The Congresswoman has tremendous respect in her state of Ohio, which is at the center of this fight.
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a judge for 10 years. She was a prosecutor for 8 years. She was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.
I am proud to stand with her in filing this objection.
Barack Obama is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:26
and giving his first-ever speech to the Senate in support of Boxer and Tubbs-Jones.
Hot damn.
Tells a touching story of a supporter who was concerned about her right to vote. Obama does not doubt that Bush won. We are not challenging the outcome of the election.
Demands reform in the election system.
Harkin is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:22
and stands in support.
"The debate is short today, and I hope it will continue."
Not questioning the 2004 outcome. On message.
"I thank Senator Boxer, and Rep. Tubbs-Jones."
Zaps DeWine, says this isn't about removing Bush, but about how we can make elections better in America.
(How can that be a bad thing to stand on as a politician?)
(It isn't)
(For those who might have been worried about this)
Reid is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:16
I knew someone would bring up the troops, but I expected the GOP to do it in order to cry "Unpatriotic!" Yet here is Reid, saying we owe it to our soldiers to check these allegations out, and to reform the system.
Here comes Hillary
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:12
"I commend the Senator from California."
It permits us to air these issues, which protects the integrity of our most precious right. There are many questions about the integrity of this election, and not just in Ohio.
We stood with and admired the people of the Ukraine a few weeks ago when they fought for their rights. Our moral authority is in danger.
Some blivet in the House is telling stories about soldiers. I knew it.
Lautenberg is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:06
"We have to take a very hard look at this."
Talks about advertising democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, but we have these flaws here.
Not challenging the result, but "we would be derelict in our duty if we failed to investigate."
Pelosi is up in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:03
"The right to vote is sacred."
The House will accept Bush and Cheney's victory, this isn't about rjecting that, so let's be respectful. There are problems with the electoral system. It is about election reform.
(Crazy, when you think about it. Pelosi and the others accept the results but discuss a busted system. In other words, the election system in America is broken...but it also worked.)
Wydwen (D-OR) demands a paper trail
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 02:01
for all votes cast on electronic machines.
Oregon, where voting works.
Kennedy is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:57
We do not question the outcome, but we gave deep concerns.
They are lining up behind Boxer here.
Hillary just walked in, and we haven't heard from Obama yet.
"The voting process did not live up to the standards we require," said Kennedy. "We must admit the election was flawed...I commend the many thousands of citizens who asked us to register our protest. We hope this issue is firmly planted on our agenda. No democracy worth the name can allow such a flawed process to stand."
You are watching Senators
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:55
speaking the words of the activists. You are watching Senators deliver the goods activists delivered to them.
Impressive.
Stabenow (D) stands in support
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:53
of Boxer, and repeats the stories related in the Conyers report.
Durbin (D-IL)
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:49
The outcome is not being challenged. The nature of this debate auger towards an analysis of the electoral system.
We have the opportunity to have a bipartisan discussion on the disparate election practices across the states.
"I do not challenge the legitimacy of the 2004 election outcome...but we can and should do better."
Durbin touting the Jackson proposal for a constitutional amendment cementing the right to vote. Puts the Conyers report into the Senate record. Gives examples of irregularities in Illinois.
Durbin was on message.
Bernie Sanders in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:45
is en fuego.
This isn't about replacing Bush. "Today is about every American feeling confident in the vote. That is what democracy is about."
Senator Dayton (D-MN)
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:43
rises to object to Boxer's challenge. Calls it "seriously misguided."
This fellow is going to get some nasty emails today.
Reid is telling Senators to get down to the well
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:42
so they can speak. The time is now.
Conyers stands in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:41
"We are here not as partisans for one party or the other, but to protect our democracy."
Senator DeWine is up
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:37
He can't believe they are debating whether Bush won Ohio, thus completely missing the point.
You knew this was coming. I'll bet you a dollar he brings up the troops in Iraq somehow. This is betraying them. Bet he says it.
My favorite bit is how he dismisses all the proof offered of fraud contained in the Conyers report, and proves there was no fraud...by reading editorials. Hm.
Worth a couple of hours
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:36
"I think it is worth a couple of hours to discuss these issues."
She gave a good speech.
Boxer speaking in the Senate
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:34
We now fight for electoral justice. Everyone's vote must matter and be counted. Their votre must have as much weight as any Senator, House member, President, CEO.
"In the voting booth, everyone is equal."
"We must ask certain questions."
Why did voters have to wait in line for hours to vote because there were only two machines?
Why did voters in poor and African-American districts not have enough machines?
Why were machines held back from use in these communities?
Why did thousands leave polling places out of frustration, or because they ran out of time?
Boxer's voice is raw.
The gavel comes down again in the House
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:31
The Senate has not yet gotten together.
Tubbs-Jones stands forth.
"I thank God I have a Senator joining me...joining thousands of Ohio voters denied the right to vote."
Objecting to the electors is the only immediate avenue for raising these issues.
"We, a House member and a Senator...
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:23
...object."
Signed, Boxer and Tubbs-Jones.
The Houses withdraw for debate. The Senate retires.
Hot damn.
Here we go...
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:22
Tubbs-Jones objects to the electoral votes for Ohio.
"I do have a Senator."
Boom.
It will come when they get to Ohio
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:14
I am given to understand that the objection will come when they get to Ohio.
They are on Kentucky.
Idaho is "regular in form"
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:13
Thank goodness.
Observing the marvel that is Trent Lott's hair is more than worth the price of admission.
The gavel comes down
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:07
The joint session has come to order.
Cheney is reading the boilerplate ceremonial language. The man never, ever, ever looks happy.
They will run through every state. Will the bump come when they get to Ohio, or after all the states are read? To be seen. Alabama, Alaska and Arizona just read by Lott.
A mob of pre-teens just carried in the votes
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:02
Egads.
Cheney has arrived, and there is a general milling about. Hastert is yukking it up with Cheney at the podium.
The hearing is about to begin
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 01:01
Stay tuned...
Harry Reid is on board
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 12:15
Announced by Rev. Jackson at the rally about 10 minutes ago.
The Boxer Rebellion
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 11:06
A wee bit of history to start with.
The last time Congress was forced to interrupt the joint session to certify the Electors was in 1969, when a "faithless" Nixon elector broke ranks and threw his vote to George Wallace. After about twelve seconds of discussion, the vote was allowed to go for Wallace. Before that, we have to go all the way back to 1877, during the disputed election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Hayes eventually won.
In short, what is happening here in Washington today has almost never been seen in the history of the republic.
This is the latest as I have it: Senator Boxer made the decision to stand and support the challenge to the Ohio electors. She transmitted a letter to Rep. Tubbs-Jones this morning which stated, "I have concluded that objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate way to bring these issues to light by allowing you to have a two-hour debate to let the American people know the facts surrounding Ohio's election."
Right now, several other Senators are preparing statements of Support for the Boxer/Tubbs-Jones challenge, and a number of House members will also rise in support. There is every expectation that Senators Clinton, Obama and Dodd will be among those offering statements of support.
Reps. Waters, Conyers and Kucinich will be among the House members who stand. Though Rep. Conyers was the main impetus behind this process, it was decided that Rep. Tubbs-Jones should be the one to make the official challenge, as she is a representative from Ohio, where the dispute is centered.
There is a rumor floating around that one of the Senators to rise in support will be a Republican. That is not in any way confirmed.
The process will begin to unfold at 1:00pm EST. Cheney, in his role as President of the Senate, will rise and ask if there are any objections. Tubbs-Jones will then announce her objection, and state that a Senator has signed her objection. The joint session will then adjourn, and there will be two hours (perhaps less) of debate on the issue. At the conclusion a straight up-and-down vote will take place on whether or not to support the objection. Almost certainly, the objections will be defeated along party lines.
This is an incredibly important day for this country, for two reasons.
First, this will initiate a national dialogue on how we run elections, and push forward the process of reform that is so desperately needed.
Second, this was a people's movement. None of this would have taken place without the grassroots effort. Look at the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the beach. That is how many phone calls, emails, faxes, letters and telegrams were sent by ordinary people to the Capitol building in support of what Boxer has done. Jesse Jackson, David Cobb, Progressive Democrats of America and others were involved in getting this done, along with Rep. Conyers.
But it was the folks who got this done. If nothing else, this proves that concentrated activism and advocacy works. It works. It worked. Make sure it keeps working.
Tune in at 1pm EST. I will be blogging the hearing as it happens.
Today is history.
---
Our Voting System Needs A New Constitutional Foundation
Floor Statement
By Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
Thursday, January 6, 2005
"The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." (Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104 (2000)
"In the eyes of the [Supreme] Court, democracy is rooted not in the right of the American people to vote and govern but in a set of state-based institutional arrangements for selecting leaders." ( Overruling Democracy - The Supreme Court v. The American People, By Jamin B. Raskin, p. 7)
"Amazingly, the government of the United States conducts and provides no official count of the vote for president." (Overruling democracy - The Supreme Court vs. The American People, by Jamin B. Raskin, p. 66)
"Thanks to the long and peculiar way in which suffrage evolved in the United States, the U.S. Constitution contains no affirmative right to vote for American citizens. That is likely the most important single gap in our Constitution, and it ought to be remedied as soon as possible." (Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling, Jr., Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His books include The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States.)
Don't be confused or misled. Today's objection is not about an ELECTION RESULT, it's about an ELECTION SYSTEM that's broken and needs fixing.
Today you're hearing the facts about voter irregularities in Ohio. In 2000 you saw a similar mess in Florida. There were serious voting problems in other states - for example, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida again.
As we try to spread democracy to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, it might be wise, first, to look in the mirror; to take a serious look at our own house; and to analyze our own democracy.
What's wrong with our democracy? What's wrong with our voting system? State-after-state, year-after-year, why do we keep on having these problems?
The fundamental reason is this: most Americans and many in this body will find it shocking and hard to believe, but we have these problems because AMERICANS DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN THEIR CONSTITUTION!
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore said in very plain language, "the INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."
You say, "Congressman, I'm a registered voter and every time there's an election I'm entitled to vote - and I vote. What do you mean I don't have a `right to vote'?"
I mean as an American you don't have a citizenship right to vote. Voting in the United States is a "state right" not "citizenship right."
We keep on having these problems because our voting system is built on the constitutional foundation of "states' rights" - 50 states, 3,067 counties and 13,000 different election jurisdictions, ALL SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL.
If you're an ex-felon in Illinois you can register and vote. If you're an ex-felon in eleven states, mostly in the South, you're barred from voting for life. There are nearly 5 million ex-felons who have paid their debt to society but are prohibited from ever voting again - including 1.5 million African American males. But in Maine and Vermont you can vote even if you're in jail. Like I said, we have a "states rights" separate and unequal voting system.
You ask, "What's the difference between a citizenship right and a state right?"
The First Amendment contains individual citizenship rights that go with you from state to state (that is, they are the same wherever you are in the U.S.); and they are protected and enforced by the federal government. You have equal protection under the law by the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government. Therefore, as a result of the First Amendment, every American citizen has an individual right to free speech, freedom of assembly, and religious freedom (or to choose no religion at all), regardless of which state you're in - individual rights that are protected by the federal government. You don't have such a right when it comes to voting!
A state right is NOT an American citizenship right, but a right defined and protected by each state - and limited to that state. Therefore, when it comes to voting, each state, county and election jurisdiction is different.
One-hundred-and-eight of the 119 nations in the world that elect their public officials in some democratic manner have the right to vote in their Constitution - including the Afghan Constitution and the interim document in Iraq. The United States is one of the 11 that don't!
The Bible says if you build a house on sand, when it rains, the winds blow and the storms come it will not stand. Our voting system is built on the sand of "states' rights."
That's why every four years when the entire nation is focused on a presidential election, and the rain of politics, the winds of partisanship, and the storms of campaigning come, our democratic house cannot stand the unitary test of voting fairness - and it has come close to collapsing in 2000 and 2004.
The American people are gradually losing confidence in the credibility, fairness, effectiveness and efficiency of our voting system.
We cannot export our current voting system or our form of democracy to other nations because our "separate and unequal" voting system, and our concept of an Electoral College, do not reflect the best of a representative democracy.
We need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock, the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that applies to all states and all citizens.
We need to provide the American people with a citizenship right to vote and provide Congress with the authority to craft a unitary voting system that is inclusive of all Americans and guarantees that all votes will be counted in a complete, fair and efficient manner.
It's the only foundation upon which we can build a more perfect Union.
Every two, four or six years every member of Congress wants the people in their district or state to stand up and vote for them. Today it's time for every member of Congress to stand up and vote for the right of the people to vote, and to have their vote fairly and fully counted.
Meanwhile, in Bizarro World
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 10:23
Heard in the Gonzales hearing just now:
SENATOR: Mr. Gonzales, do you approve of torture?
GONZALES: No, I do not.
SENATOR: Do you condemn torture?
GONZALES: Yes, I do.
Case closed, I guess. I hope someone asks him if he still thinks Bush is not subject to the rule of law.
Boxer is in
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 09:58
I just got confirmation from several sources: Senator Barbara Boxer will stand with House members to challenge the Ohio Electors. There will be a debate on what happened in Ohio, in all likelihood followed by a vote to accept those Ohio Electors.
But the messed-up way we run elections in this country is about to become part of a national dialogue, and you know what? It was the people who got this done. The calls, the emails, the faxes, the letters, the protests compelled this action. This is a big day in the history of citizen action.
More Senators may be coming later. Stay tuned.
Further confirmation has come in from the Associated Press.
To the Hill
Thursday 06 January 2005 @ 08:25
I am heading up to Capitol Hill in a few minutes, where I will camp out and wait for the show. The Gonzales hearings are this morning and very much worth tuning in to; we will see if there is bipartisan support for torture in Congress.
Be sure to reserve some TV time for around 1pm. If you are in DC and looking for something to do, head down to Lafayette Park at Pennsylvania and H around 10am.
It is going to be an interesting day.
And the tearing of the hair
Wednesday 05 January 2005 @ 07:58
OK. Looks like even Keith Olbermann is running headlong towards reporting as fact the same unconfirmed situation. In his most recent blog entry, he says, "Challengers are go" in his title.
Read down a bit, and he actually says that challengers are "All but certain" and "not yet formalized." That's a bit different than your headline, Keith.
Scroll down to my entry just below this one, and note the time. Olbermann has posted the same stuff MSNBC sorta-kinda reported on earlier today. In other words, nothing is confirmed yet, again.
Regarding Senator Boxer
Wednesday 05 January 2005 @ 03:54
I made it to DC in time for a bunch of hell to break loose. Apparently, MSNBC advertised a report that Senator Boxer would definitely stand up with Conyers tomorrow. Then, when the actual report came along, the story was that "people are saying" Boxer would stand up, maybe definitely sorta kinda who knows for sure.
General Electric reporting. Grr.
Boxer replied with nothing definite, that she was still considering all the options. Everything is in the wind at this point, nobody knows anything for sure, and a lot of what is being reported in the mainstream media is hooey.
So basically, keep an eye here. Not to sound like a gomer, but if you don't see it here, it isn't true yet. When I know, you'll know.
According to RAW STORY, this is straight from Conyers' Office:
December 30, 2004Dear Senator,
As you know, on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress, commencing at 1:00 P.M. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law. I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election...
Here is the whole text of the letter (as obtained from):
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=521
December 30, 2004
Dear Senator,
As you know, on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress, commencing at 1:00 P.M. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law. I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election.
3 U.S.C. §15 provides when the results from each of the states are announced, that “the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any.” Any objection must be presented in writing and “signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received."1. The objection must “state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof."2 When an objection has been properly made in writing and endorsed by a member of each body the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each body meets separately to consider the objection. “No votes . . . from any other State shall be acted upon until the [pending] objection . . . [is] finally disposed of."3 3 U.S.C. §17 limits debate on the objections in each body to two hours, during which time no member may speak more than once and not for more than five minutes. Both the Senate and the House must separately agree to the objection; otherwise, the challenged vote or votes are counted.4
Historically, there appears to be three general grounds for objecting to the counting of electoral votes. The language of 3 U.S.C. §15 suggests that objection may be made on the grounds that (1) a vote was not “regularly given” by the challenged elector(s); and/or (2) the elector(s) was not “lawfully certified” under state law; or (3) two slates of electors have been presented to Congress from the same State.
Since the Electoral Count Act of 1887, no objection meeting the requirements of the Act have been made against an entire slate of state electors.5 In the 2000 election several Members of the House of Representatives attempted to challenge the electoral votes from the State of Florida. However, no Senator joined in the objection, and therefore, the objection was not “received.” In addition, there was no determination whether the objection constituted an appropriate basis under the 1887
Act. However, if a State - in this case Ohio - has not followed its own procedures and met its obligation to conduct a free and fair election, a valid objection -if endorsed by at least one Senator and a Member of the House of Representatives- should be debated by each body separately until “disposed of".
Please contact me at 225-5126 to appraise me of your thoughts on this important matter. If your staff has questions, that may be forwarded to Perry Apelbaum or Ted Kalo of my Judiciary Committee staff at 225-6504. Thank you.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Representative John Conyers has announced that he'll be filing an official Objection to the Ohio Electoral votes on January 6, 2005. We need to mobilize and get our Senators to support him. (article underneath senator information below)
Here's the same list of historically-progressive Senators I cite in my report on the Ohio Situation from yesterday:
Conyers to Object to Ohio Electors, Requests Senate Allies By William Rivers Pitt for Truthout.
Note that Russ Feingold is the one senator that voted against the Patriot Act, so he's got the guts to do this kind of thing, and I put him at the top of the list.When the Senate offices reopen after January 2, 2005, you can call their offices directly:
Senator Russ Feingold, (202) 224-5323, russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Tom Harkin, (202) 224-3254, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Senator Jim Jeffords, (202) 224-5141, Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Senator Edward Kennedy, 202/224-4543, senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553, senator@boxer.senate.gov
Senator Dick Durbin, (202) 224-2152, dick@durbin.senate.gov
Representative John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will object to the counting of the Ohio Electors from the 2004 Presidential election when Congress convenes to ratify those votes on January 6th. In a letter dispatched to every Senator, which will be officially published by his office shortly, Conyers declares that he will be joined in this by several other members of the House. Rep. Conyers is taking this dramatic step because he believes the allegations and evidence of election tampering and fraud render the current slate of Ohio Electors illegitimate."As you know," writes Rep. Conyers in his letter, "on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."
The letter goes on to ask the Senators who receive this letter to join Conyers in objecting to the Ohio Electors. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort," writes Conyers, "to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election."
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/123104W.shtml
Conyers to Object to Ohio Electors, Requests Senate Allies
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report
Thursday 30 December 2004
Representative John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will object to the counting of the Ohio Electors from the 2004 Presidential election when Congress convenes to ratify those votes on January 6th. In a letter dispatched to every Senator, which will be officially published by his office shortly, Conyers declares that he will be joined in this by several other members of the House. Rep. Conyers is taking this dramatic step because he believes the allegations and evidence of election tampering and fraud render the current slate of Ohio Electors illegitimate.
"As you know," writes Rep. Conyers in his letter, "on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."
The letter goes on to ask the Senators who receive this letter to join Conyers in objecting to the Ohio Electors. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort," writes Conyers, "to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election."
There are expected to be high level meetings with high ranking Democratic officials next week to coordinate a concerted lobbying effort to convince Senators to challenge the vote. The Green Party and David Cobb, as has been true all along, will be centrally involved in this process, as will Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The remainder of the Conyers letter reads:
3 U.S.C. §15 provides when the results from each of the states are announced, that "the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any." Any objection must be presented in writing and "signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received." The objection must "state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof." When an objection has been properly made in writing and endorsed by a member of each body the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each body meets separately to consider the objection. "No votes...from any other State shall be acted upon until the (pending) objection...(is) finally disposed of." 3 U.S.C. §17 limits debate on the objections in each body to two hours, during which time no member may speak more than once and not for more than five minutes. Both the Senate and the House must separately agree to the objection; otherwise, the challenged vote or votes are counted.
Historically, there appears to be three general grounds for objecting to the counting of electoral votes. The language of 3 U.S.C. §15 suggests that objection may be made on the grounds that (1) a vote was not "regularly given" by the challenged elector(s); and/or (2) the elector(s) was not "lawfully certified" under state law; or (3) two slates of electors have been presented to Congress from the same State.
Since the Electoral Count Act of 1887, no objection meeting the requirements of the Act have been made against an entire slate of state electors. In the 2000 election several Members of the House of Representatives attempted to challenge the electoral votes from the State of Florida. However, no Senator joined in the objection, and therefore, the objection was not "received." In addition, there was no determination whether the objection constituted an appropriate basis under the 1887 Act. However, if a State - in this case Ohio - has not followed its own procedures and met its obligation to conduct a free and fair election, a valid objection -if endorsed by at least one Senator and a Member of the House of Representatives- should be debated by each body separately until "disposed of".
A key legal aspect of this is the second clause referenced in the letter. Rep. Conyers and the other House members involved do not believe the electors have been lawfully certified. They believe that there has been too much illegal activity on the part of Blackwell, other election officials, and Republican operatives on the ground and therefore, as stated in the letter, the electors were not "lawfully certified" under state law. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff will release the report referenced in the letter, which is now still in draft form, and which led Mr. Conyers to this decision.
The Senators who shall receive the greatest focus from Conyers in this matter are Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Conrad, Corzine, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Inyoue, Jeffords, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Mikulski, Nelson (FL), Jack Reed, Harry Reid, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Stabenow, Wyden and Obama.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
Well it took a few days, but here's my Roundup Of The Recent Events Surrounding Election 2004's Ohio Recount and Voting Machine Fraud Situation:
It Ain't Over Till It's Over
Including a bunch of
Resources organized by subject and a
What You Can Do section.
I've made all of the evidence -- Congressional letters, videos, affidavits, etc. available in multiple formats (HTML, PDF, Text, etc.), and stored them locally.
I hope you will find it useful. Please spread the word!
Here's the Index:
* Video and Affidavits Confirm Tampering of Recount Machines
* Rep. John Conyers Gets Involved
* Specific Laws That Were Allegedly Violated
* Kerry Surfaces
* Electors Of Several States Pass Resolutions and Call For Congressional Investigation
* Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's Role In Obstructing The Ohio Recount
* What You Can Do
* Resources
Here is the full text of my article in case the link goes bad:
http://video.lisarein.com/election2004/ohioreport/recount.html
It Ain't Over Till It's Over
A Roundup Of The Recent Events Surrounding Election 2004's Ohio Recount and Voting Machine Fraud Situation
By Lisa Rein
December 29, 2004
Here's What You Can Do now to help influence the situation.
Index
* Video and Affidavits Confirm Tampering of Recount Machines
* Rep. John Conyers Gets Involved
* Specific Laws That Were Allegedly Violated
* Kerry Surfaces
* Electors Of Several States Pass Resolutions and Call For Congressional Investigation
* Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's Role In Obstructing The Ohio Recount
* What You Can Do
* Resources
Download this report and all its documents (video and mp3 excluded) as a zip file.
Video and Affidavits Confirm Tampering of Recount Machines
Although things are just heating up over the last week, the events in question took place over two weeks ago, on December 10, 2004. According to a signed affidavit by Sherole Eaton, Hocking County Deputy Director of Elections, Triad employee Michael Barbian, dropped by, free of charge, to "check out your tabulator, computer, and that the attorneys will be asking some tricky questions and he wanted to go over some of the questions they maybe ask."
In her affidavit, Eaton also claims that Barbian worked unsupervised on one or more recount machines for over two hours. She also states that: "He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county."
According to a December 20th Wired article written by Kim Zetter, when Wired contacted her for comment, Eaton tried to downplay her statements, saying that they were blown out of proportion, and that she only filed the affidavit in order to prove that no wrongdoing had occurred. However, the affidavit itself seems to do just the opposite, by explaining the details surrounding the Triad techician's unsupervised handling of at least one, and perhaps more than one recount machine, and the existence of a "cheat sheet" in order to assist recount officials with deriving the "right answer" for vote tallies so they wouldn't have to actually conduct a recount by hand.
In a video interview with Triad staffer Michael Barbian, he confirms that the recount machines were taken completely apart and put back together and reprogrammed with new software without any of the supervision required by Ohio State Law. He also says that he has done the same thing in several other counties.
Rep. John Conyers Gets Involved
Representative John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH), have been the only three of our elected representatives to take the last two months of voting fraud allegations seriously. They conducted a Judiciary Democratic 2004 Election Forum in Washington DC on December 13, 2004, and continued with more hearings in Ohio for many days afterwards.
On December 22, after viewing the video, Conyers wrote a letter to Brett Rapp, President of Triad Systems, and Michael Barbian, asking them to explain their actions in Hocking County on December 10, 2004.
On December 23, Conyers learned that Triad Systems had remote access capabilities to the voting machines in numerous counties, prompting him to send a second letter to Rapp and Barbian inquiring about these capabilities and how exactly they were utilized by Triad during the recount.
Specific Laws That Were Allegedly Violated
According to a letter from Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to Kevin Brock, Special FBI Agent in Charge of the Democratic Staff's investigation into irregularities in the 2004 election, and attorney Larry E. Beal, Hocking County Prosecutor, three federal laws and five Ohio State laws could have been violated by Triad's behavior.
Additionally, according to the Votecobb.org website (a cached google copy), the events in Hocking County represent the compromise of the required randomness of the recount precincts:
(Section 3515 of the Ohio Revised Code) "The board must randomly select whole precincts whose total equals at least 3% of the total vote, and must conduct a manual count."
"If the tabulator count does not match the hand count, and after rechecking the manual count the results are still not equal, all ballots must be hand counted. If the results of the tabulator count and the hand counted ballots are equal, the remainder of the ballots may be processed through the tabulator (for optical scan and punch cards)."
Conyers brings this up in his first letter to Triad's President and Michael Barbian:
I am concerned that your company has operated - either intentionally or negligently - in a manner which will thwart the recount law in Ohio by preventing validly cast ballots in the presidential election from being counted.
You have done this by preparing "cheat sheets" providing county election officials with information such that they would more easily be able to ignore valid ballots that were thrown out by the machines during the initial count. The purpose of the Ohio recount law is to randomly check vote counts to see if they match machine counts. By attempting to ascertain the precinct to be recounted in advance, and than informing the election officials of the number of votes they need to count by hand to make sure it matches the machine count is an invitation to completely ignore the purpose of the recount law.
You as much as admitted that this was your purpose at the December 20 hearing:
Rapp: "Remember: the purpose was to train people on how to conduct their jobs... and to help them identify problems when they conducted their recount... If they could not hand recount the ballots correctly, they would know what they needed to look for in that hand count."
[break]
Observer: "Why do you feel it was necessary to point out to a team counting ballots the number of over-votes and under-votes when the purpose of the team is to in fact locate those votes and judge them?"
Barbian: "It's an easy mistake as you're hand counting... It's just human error. The machine counts it right. We're trying to give them as much information as possible to help them out.
[break]
Interviewer: "You were just trying to help them so that they wouldn't have to do a full recount of the county, to try to avoid that?"
Barbian: "Right."(1)
In a separate interview, Barbian admits that none of the six counties he serviced during the recount actually conducted a full recount:
Interviewer 1: Did any of your counties have to do the full recount?
Michael Barbian: Not that I am aware of.
As of the time of this writing, Triad had not responded to either of Conyers' letters.
Kerry Surfaces
Although the Kerry/Edwards campaign had sent official recount rules to each individual Board of Elections in the state of Ohio, it had remained relatively quiet throughout most of the process.
Then, last week, Kerry seemed to get personally involved in the recount effort. For the first time ever, Daniel Hoffheimer, Kerry's attorney in Ohio, made a statement to MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann suggesting that the Bush-Cheney result may not be valid:
"Senators Kerry and Edwards are very concerned that the law for conducting the recount should be uniformly followed. Only then can the integrity of the entire electoral process and the election of Bush-Cheney warrant the public trust."
On Monday, December 27, 2004, the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign filed two important motions to preserve and augment evidence of alleged election fraud in the November election. Note: not only in the recount, but in the election itself.
As truthout explains: "Specifically, Kerry will be filing a request for expedited discovery regarding Triad Systems voting machines, as well as a motion for preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any evidence in this matter."
The "Yost" lawsuit is the one brought about by David Cobb and the Green Party. There is another suit that has been filed against Bush, Cheney, Rove, Moyer, and Blackwell that is a separate matter.
Here's more from the truthout report on the "Yost" suit and Kerry's involvement:
The motions were filed in the matter titled Yost et al. v. Delaware County Board of Elections and J. Kenneth Blackwell (Civil Action No. C2-04-1139) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The document is titled "Motion Of Intervenor-Defendant Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. For A Preservation Order And For A Leave To Take Limited Expedited Discovery."
The purpose of the motions is twofold: A) To preserve all ballots and voting machines pertaining to the Yost matter for investigation and analysis; and B) To make available for sworn deposition testimony a technician for Triad Systems, the company that produced and maintained many of the voting machines used in the Ohio election. The technician has been accused of tampering with the recount process in Hocking County, Ohio, though other counties are believed to have also been involved. Any officers of Triad Systems who have information pertaining to said tampering are likewise subject to subpoena for sworn deposition testimony.
It would appear that the ever-increasing mountain of evidence was starting to gain Kerry's attention, and was perhaps starting to change his mind about getting more involved. But then, at the end of the day on Monday, December 27, Keith Olbermann posted a blog post and video story that took the wind out of the sails for those of us who were hopeful after the first statement. I think it pretty much speaks for itself that the Kerry/Edwards campaign isn't going to be doing anything drastic anytime soon:
"I would caution the media not to read more into what the Kerry-Edwards campaign has said," Mr. Hoffheimer advised us by e-mail, "than what you hear in the plain meaning of our comments. There are many conspiracy theorists opining these days. There are many allegations of fraud. But this presidential election is over. The Bush-Cheney ticket has won. The Kerry-Edwards campaign has found no conspiracy and no fraud in Ohio, though there have been many irregularities that cry out to be fixed for future elections. Senator Kerry and we in Ohio intend to fix them. When all of the problems in Ohio are added together, however bad they are, they do not add up to a victory for Kerry-Edwards. Senator Kerry's fully-informed and extremely careful assessment the day after the election and before he conceded remains accurate today, notwithstanding all the details we have since learned.
Electors Of Several States Pass Resolutions and Call For Congressional Investigation
Electors across the country have been watching the developments closely. Historically, we never hear much from these people, who quietly cast the votes to actually choose our President every four years. Last week, history was made, when numerous electors from across the country spoke out in favor of a full congressional investigation into the numerous alleged voting violations during the November 2 election and the recounts afterwards.
On December 20, 2004, a group of electors from five different states called for a congressional investigation of voting violations during the Nov. 2 election for president. Electors in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, California, and North Carolina all registered their concerns as they cast their votes.
On December 22, the entire lot of electors in Massachusetts passed a motion urging members of Congress to object to the vote. They also requested an investigation of "all voting complaints that might have any validity" and remedies for "any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts."
It is the electors' hope to get the message read on the floor of Congress prior to certification on Jan. 6, when the ballots are opened.
Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's Role In Obstructing The Ohio Recount
The Greens and Libertarians filed for a recount, and got one. Trouble is, much of the recount has not been allowed to actually take place, due to constant interference by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who has been sealing off the buildings and ballots required to conduct a full recount. Blackwell is earning the reputation of being "the Katherine Harris of Ohio," and with good reason.
Even though he promised in an interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann that he would not obstruct a recount in any way, in reality, he has done exactly that. Here's one article which details how one Ohio Recount team that had been assigned to Greene County was stopped in mid-count by a surprise order from Secretary of State Blackwell's office, where the Director Board of Elections stated that "all voter records for the state of Ohio were "locked-down," because "they are not considered public records."
Here's one of the specific laws Blackwell is violating (in an excerpt from Ohio's State Election Code):
Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that requires all election records to be made available for public inspection and copying. ORC Sec. 3599.161 makes it a crime for any employee of the Board of Elections to knowingly prevent or prohibit any person from inspecting the public records filed in the office of the Board of Elections. Finally, ORC Sec. 3599.42 clearly states: "A violation of any provision of Title XXXV (35) of the Revised Code constitutes a prima facie case of election fraud within the purview of such Title."
Blackwell also took six weeks to certify the election in Ohio, which made it impossible for the recount to proceed in a timely manner. As David Cobb's website put it: "Kenneth Blackwell, who served both as Ohio Secretary of State (the man in charge of Ohio's vote-counting process) and the partisan co-chair of the Bush-Cheney Re-election Campaign in Ohio, took six weeks to certify the Ohio vote count, the same time needed by Washington State to certify the vote, complete a state-wide recount, and start a second one."
Here's Blackwell during his interview from November 29, 2004 with Keith Olbermann promising to let the recount move forward unhindered:
Olbermann: As it plays into the recount though sir, are you saying that your office does not anticipate taking any steps to try to prevent a recount in Ohio?
Blackwell: No. We haven't! We've told the two officials..candidates that once we certify on December 6th, they have five days to certify. I mean, to ask for a recount. Once they ask for a recount, we will provide them with a recount. And that's what I've said from the very first indication that they were interested in a recount. Once it was established that they were statewide candidates with standing, our law says that they can ask for a recount. We will regard this as yet another audit of the voting process. The reason it takes us from November the second to December the sixth to certify is because we have a very tedious, very comprehensive process where we audit by precinct, across the state, every vote that was cast to make sure that every vote that was legally cast is counted.
Blackwell is also named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of number of civil rights groups, but Attorney General Jim Petro, representing Blackwell, is claiming that the plaintiff voters of the suit "are not trying to actually contest the presidential election but are merely using this litigation to cast public doubt on the voting system of the State of Ohio without a shred of evidence supporting their theories."
The argument is that Blackwell (and, of course, the argument would carry over to the deposition of Bush, Cheney, Rove and Moyers -- the others named in the suit), is too important and busy as a high-ranking official to be deposed, and that the lawsuit is frivolous anyway. Here's an article from the NY Times explaining just how real the problems with the Ohio vote and recount are, and demonstrating how the claims against Blackwell are in no way frivolous.
Unfortunatlely, only time will tell on these court cases. And, of course, time is the one thing we don't have.
What You Can Do
I wish I had a better answer for what you, or any of us, can really do to rectify this situation. What we really need is another vote in Ohio, not another, properly conducted recount. In my opinion, recounts are not good enough. A recount only gives you a better chance of having your vote counted when you haven't been deprived of casting your vote in the first place. There were, at this point in the tally, hundreds of thousands of people who were not allowed to cast their vote. These are the votes that would have made the difference in the final numbers. As was the case in Florida in 2000, these people were systematically silenced before they even had a chance to speak.
That point made, there are three different ways that you can actually make your voice heard over this next week before the final electorate vote is cast on January 6, 2005:
1.
You can take 30 seconds and send an email to the House Judiciary Committee expressing your concerns on the matter and asking for a full investigation. Conyers is trying to get a million emails by January 3, 2005 in the hopes of turning a few heads there.
2.
If you are in Ohio or Washington D.C., you can show up at one of the protests scheduled to happen from January 3-6, 2005. Looks like there are protest scheduled around the country for the week of January 15-20 too, but that, of course, will be after the fact with regard to the January 6 electoral votes being cast.
3.
You can send emails now to these Senators who might actually endorse the challenge scheduled to be submitted by Rep. Maxine Waters and/or Rep. John Conyers on January 6, 2005.
Note that Russ Feingold is the one senator that voted against the Patriot Act, so he's got the guts to do this kind of thing, and I put him at the top of the list.
When the Senate offices reopen after January 2, 2005, you can call their offices directly:
Senator Russ Feingold, (202) 224-5323, russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Tom Harkin, (202) 224-3254, tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Senator Jim Jeffords, (202) 224-5141, Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Senator Edward Kennedy, 202/224-4543, senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553, senator@boxer.senate.gov
Senator Dick Durbin, (202) 224-2152, dick@durbin.senate.gov
Resources
Index of Resources:
* Triad Voting Machine Fraud Evidence Links
* Congressional Action Links
* Kerry's Re-Emergence Links
* Electoral College Speaks Out Links
* Blackwell Interfering With Recount Links
* January 3, 6, and 15-20 Protest Information
* Law Suits Against Bush, Cheney, Rove, Moyers and Blackwell Links
* Other Relevant Articles and Websites
Triad Voting Machine Fraud Evidence Links
*
Video and MP3 Files Of Interview With Michael Barbian
(Video - 3 MB, Video - 6 MB, MP3, HTML Transcription)
via truthout
*
Affidavit of Sherole Eaton, Hocking County Deputy Director of Elections
December 13, 2004
(HTML, PDF-original, Text)
via t r u t h o u t
*
American Democracy Hangs by a Thread in Ohio
By Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
The Columbus Free Press
December 15, 2004
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/986
via t r u t h o u t
*
Ohio Recount Stirs Trouble
December 20, 2004
By Kim Zetter for Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,66072,00.html?tw=rss.TOP
*
Ohio Voting Bombshell
December 24, 2004
By Ken Hoop for the American Free Press.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ohio_voting_bombshell.html
*
Map Of Triad's Ohio County Customers
jpeg of this pdf file
http://www.votingindustry.com/VR_Review/2nd%20Tier/PDFs/triadcustomers.pdf
http://video.lisarein.com/election2004/ohioreport/triadcustomers.pdf
*
Votingindustry.com Listing for Triad Systems
http://www.votingindustry.com/VR_Review/2nd%20Tier/triad_GSI.htm
*
Triad GSI Website
http://www.triadgsi.com/
Congressional Action Links
*
First Letter From Representative John Conyers To Triad GSI
December 22, 2004
(HTML, PDF)
*
Second Letter From Representative John Conyers To Triad GSI
December 23, 2004
(HTML, PDF)
*
Letter from Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to Kevin Brock, Special FBI Agent in Charge of the Democratic Staff's investigation into irregularities in the 2004 election, and attorney Larry E. Beal, Hocking County Prosecutor
December 15, 2004
(HTML, PDF-original)
*
Judiciary Democratic 2004 Election Forum
December 13, 2004
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/voteforum2.html
*
Representative John Conyers' Website
http://www.house.gov/conyers/
*
Representative Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' Website
http://www.house.gov/tubbsjones/
*
Representative Maxine Waters' Website
http://www.house.gov/waters/
*
House Committee on the Judiciary
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/index.html
Kerry's Re-Emergence Links
*
Keith Olbermann's Blog Post From December 27, 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6667405/#041227b
*
Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence
December 27, 2004
By William Rivers Pitt for Truthout.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122804V.shtml
*
MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olberman's Report On Ohio Recount
December 22, 2004
(Video, MP3, Text)
Keith Olbermann's Blog
*
MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olberman's Report On Kerry's Involvement
December 27, 2004
(Video, MP3)
Keith Olbermann's Blog
*
Kerry to Enter Ohio Recount Fray
December 23, 2004
By William Rivers Pitt for Truthout.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122404Y.shtml
*
Vote-cobb.org Website (Google Cache)
Retrieved on December 27, 2004
http://video.lisarein.com/election2004/ohioreport/cobbcached.txt
*
Coming Up For Air
Kerry Preparing Grounds To Unconcede - Election Challenge Likely On Jan 6th
December 25, 2004
http://www.breakfornews.com/articles/kerrypreparinggroundstounconcede.htm
*
The Official Kerry-Edwards Position on How to Handle the Ohio Recount, Sent to the Individual Boards of Election in the State
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/12/ale04101.html
Electoral College Speaks Out Links
*
Massachusetts electors pass unanimous resolution calling for an investigation
December 23, 2004
http://votefraudinfo.blogspot.com/2004/12/massachusetts-electors-pass-unanimous.html
*
Electors Call for National Voting Reforms
December 23, 2004
http://www.vermontguardian.com/national/0904/Electors.shtml
Blackwell Interfering With Recount Links
*
Video and Transcription of Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's Interview With Keith Olbermann
November 29, 2004
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/002325.php
*
Video and Transcription of Jesse Jackson's Interview With Keith Olbermann
November 30, 2004
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/002326.php
*
Blackwell Locks Out Recount Volunteers
December 10, 2004
By Ray Beckerman
http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/blackwell-locks-out-recount-volunteers.html
*
Ohio Official Refuses Interview Over Vote
December 28, 2004
By Andrew Welsh-huggins for the AP.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4696816,00.html
*
Ohio GOP election officials ducking subpoenas as Kerry enters stolen vote fray
December 28, 2004
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1046
January 3, 6, and 15-20 Protest Information
*
Information About January 3rd and 6th, 2005 protests in Ohio and Washington DC
December 27, 2004
*
Information on the January 15-20 protests
http://www.counter-inaugural.org/
Law Suits Against Bush, Cheney, Rove, Moyers and Blackwell Links
*
Lawsuit Before the Ohio Supreme Court
December 24, 2004
Summarized by Mary Anne Saucier
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1028
*
Ohio electoral fight becomes 'biggest deal since Selma' as GOP stonewalls
December 22, 2004
By Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman for the Free Press.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1015
Other Relevant Articles and Websites
*
Voting Problems in Ohio Spur Call for Overhaul
December 24, 2004
By James Dao, Ford Fessesfen and Tom Zeller Jr. for the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/national/24vote.html
Blogged Text of Article (In case original link is broken.)
*
Election 2004 - Aftermath Category
On Lisa Rein's Radar
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/election_2004_aftermath/index.php
*
Votecobb.org Daily Updates Website
http://www.votecobb.org/recount/daily_update/
List of Specific Laws That Were Allegedly Violated
Everything below is quoted from Representative John Conyers' Letter to Kevin Brock, Special FBI Agent in Charge of the Democratic Staff's investigation into irregularities in the 2004 election, and attorney Larry E. Beal, Hocking County Prosecutor.
* Alleged Violations Of Federal Law
* Alleged Violations of Ohio State Law
Alleged Violations Of Federal Law
1.
Tampering with ballots and/or election machinery would violate the constitutional rights of all citizens to vote and have their votes properly counted, as guaranteed by the Equal Protecti