[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Something's Fishing in Ohio - More on Stolen Election

Wed Dec 1 22:52:01 PST 2004

>
>
>Something's Fishing in Ohio - More on Stolen Election
>
>US Criticizes Ukraine, But Sanctions Ohio Voting
>
>"If  U.S. officials who are complaining about election
>fraud in Ukraine applied the same standards in Ohio,
>then our own presidential election certainly was
>stolen."
>
>* Democracy inaction - James K. Galbraith (salon.com)
>* Something's Fishy in Ohio - Jesse Jackson (Chicago
>Sun Times)
>* Report to the Nation on America's Election Process
>(Common Cause)
>* Good Resource: A Stolen Election? - Documenting what
>could be the highest crime in the history of our
>country
>* More on the "Stolen Elections"? by David Corn (The Nation)
>
>=========
>
>Democracy inaction
>
>If  U.S. officials who are complaining about election
>fraud in Ukraine applied the same standards in Ohio,
>then our own presidential election certainly was
>stolen.
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - -
>By James K. Galbraith
>
>salon.com - Nov. 30, 2004
>
>http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/11/30/ukraine_election/print.html
>
>The election was stolen. That's not in doubt. Secretary
>of State Colin Powell admitted it. The National
>Democratic Institute and the International Republican
>Institute both admitted it. Sen. Richard Lugar of
>Indiana -- a Republican -- was emphatic; there had been
>"a concerted and forceful program of Election Day fraud
>and abuse"; he "had heard" of employers telling their
>workers how to vote; yet he had also seen the fire of
>the resisting young, "not prepared to be intimidated."
>
>In Washington, former National Security Advisor
>Zbigniew Brzezinski demanded that the results be set
>aside and a new vote taken, under the eye -- no less --
>of the United Nations. In the New York Times, Steven
>Lee Myers decried "the use of government resources on
>behalf of loyal candidates and the state's control over
>the media" -- practices, he said, that were akin to
>those in "Putin's Russia."
>
>Personally, I don't know whether the Ukrainian election
>was really stolen.
>
>I don't trust Lugar, Powell or the National Democratic
>Institute. It's obvious that U.S. foreign policy
>interests, rather than love of democracy for its own
>sake, are behind this outcry. Russia backed the other
>candidate in Ukraine. For Brzezinski, doing damage to
>Russia is a hobby.
>
>But if the Ukraine standard were applied in Ohio -- as
>it should be -- then the late lamented U.S. election
>certainly was stolen. In Ohio, the secretary of state
>in charge of the elections process was co-chairman of
>the Bush campaign in the state. He obstructed the vote
>count systematically -- for instance, by demanding that
>provisional ballots without birth dates on their
>envelopes be thrown out, even though there is no
>requirement for that in state law. He also required
>that provisional ballots be cast in a voter's home
>precinct, ensuring that there would be no escape from
>long lines. Republicans fielded thousands of election
>challengers to Democratic precincts, mainly to try to
>intimidate black voters and to slow down the voting
>process. A recount, demanded and paid for by the Green
>and Libertarian parties, has been stalled in court, so
>that it won't possibly upset the certification of
>Ohio's electoral votes.
>
>In Franklin County, Ohio, there was rampant abuse, with
>voting machines added in Republican precincts and taken
>away in Democratic ones, as documented by the Columbus
>Dispatch. The result was a crippling pileup at the
>polls; many thousands did not vote because they simply
>could not afford to wait. I witnessed this with my own
>eyes. And Sen. Lugar could have, too, for much less
>than the price of airfare to Kiev.
>
>According to an article by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey
>Wasserman: "The man running the show in Franklin County
>was Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder,
>former head of the county's Republican Party ...
>Damschroder's official records also show that while
>desperate poll workers called his office throughout the
>day, at least 125 machines were held back at the
>opening of the polls and an additional 68 were never
>deployed. Thus while thousands of inner city voters
>stood in the rain, were told their cars would be towed,
>and were then forced to vote in five minutes or less,
>Damschroder sat on machines that could have
>significantly sped the process."
>
>These are the established facts. Eyewitness reports of
>other forms of abuse include malfunctioning voting
>machines in Youngstown, a mysterious lockdown of the
>vote count in Warren County and lesser incidents that
>run into the thousands. And then there are allegations
>of irregularities in the count -- how solid these are,
>one does not know. Taken together, are these enough to
>change the outcome? No one can say. But the same is
>true in Kiev. And there, allegations by the defeated
>opposition are taken in good faith, and are quite
>enough to satisfy international observers and the
>government of the United States.
>
>So where is the press? Why aren't there more stories on
>Ohio? Why is there no national pressure for a prompt
>statewide recount? Why no continuing outcry? Why no
>demand -- as our friends are making with strong
>American support in Ukraine -- that the election
>results in Ohio be set aside and a new vote held? Why
>has our election, with all its thuggery, been forgotten
>just three weeks after it occurred?
>
>One reason, of course, is that the U.S. government
>gives direction in these matters, here at home as well
>as around the world. And our press, like that in
>"Putin's Russia," follows suit. Our political leaders,
>if one could call them that, stay silent and move on.
>They are terrified of being mocked and bullied by the
>press.
>
>Another reason is that in Ohio, pissed-off voters are
>well behaved. They are working the hearings process,
>the recount process and the unhearing, unseeing courts.
>In Kiev, by contrast, hundreds of thousands of
>demonstrators are on the streets, staying there
>overnight in the bitter cold, bringing the government
>to a halt and the world to attention.
>
>We'll get our democracy back, one of these days, when
>the Democratic Party has a mass base and is prepared to
>use it in the same way.
>
>[About the writer - James K. Galbraith is Salon's
>economics correspondent. He teaches at the Lyndon B.
>Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of
>Texas at Austin.]
>
>==========
>
>Something's Fishy in Ohio
>by Jesse Jackson
>
>Chicago Sun Times - November 30, 2004
>
>http://www.suntimes.com/output/jesse/cst-edt-jesse30.html
>
>In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting
>what they charge is a fixed election. U.S. Secretary of
>State Colin Powell expresses this nation's concern
>about apparent voting irregularities. The media give
>the dispute around-the-clock coverage. But in the
>United States, massive and systemic voter
>irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.
>
>Ohio is this election year's Florida. The vote in Ohio
>decided the presidential race, but it was marred by
>intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and
>discrepancies. U.S. citizens have as much reason as
>those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in.
>Consider:
>
>In Ohio, a court just ruled there can't be a recount
>yet, because the vote is not yet counted. It's three
>weeks after the election, and Ohio still hasn't counted
>the votes and certified the election. Some 93,000
>overvotes and undervotes are not counted; 155,000
>provisional ballots are only now being counted.
>Absentee ballots cast in the two days prior to the
>election haven't been counted.
>
>Ohio determines the election, but the state has not yet
>counted the vote. That outrage is made intolerable by
>the fact that the secretary of state in charge of this
>operation, Ken Blackwell, holds -- like Katherine
>Harris of Florida's fiasco in 2000 -- a dual role:
>secretary of state with control over voting procedures
>and co-chair of George Bush's Ohio campaign. Blackwell
>should recuse himself so that a thorough investigation,
>count and recount of Ohio's vote can be made.
>
>Blackwell reversed rules on provisional ballots in
>place in the spring primaries. These allowed voters to
>cast provisional ballots anywhere in their county, even
>if they were in the wrong precinct, reflecting the
>chief rationale for provisional ballots: to ensure that
>those who went to the wrong place by mistake could have
>their votes counted. The result of this decision -- why
>does this not surprise? -- was to disqualify
>disproportionately ballots cast in heavily Democratic
>Cuyahoga County.
>
>Blackwell also permitted the use of electronic machines
>that provided no paper record. The maker of many of
>these machines, the head of Diebold Co., promised to
>deliver Ohio for Bush. In one precinct in Franklin
>County, an electric voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra
>votes out of a total of 638 votes cast.
>
>Blackwell also presided over a voting system that
>resulted in quick, short lines in the dominantly
>Republican suburbs, and four-hour and longer waiting
>lines in the inner cities. Wealthy precincts received
>ample numbers of voting machines and numerous voting
>places. Democratic precincts received inadequate
>numbers of machines in too few polling places that were
>often hard to locate; this caused daylong waits for the
>very working people who could least afford the time.
>
>In Ohio, as in Florida and Pennsylvania, there was a
>stark disconnect between the exit polls and the
>tabulated results, with the former favoring John Kerry
>and the latter George Bush. The chance of this
>occurring in these three states, according to Professor
>Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania, is
>about 250 million to 1.
>
>In one of dozens of examples, Ellen Connally, an
>African-American Supreme Court candidate running an
>underfunded race at the bottom of the ticket, received
>over 257,000 more votes than Kerry in 37 counties. She
>ran better than Kerry in the areas of the state where
>she wasn't known and didn't campaign than she did where
>she was known and did campaign.
>
>There should be a federal investigation of the vote
>count in Ohio, with the partisan secretary of state
>removing himself from the scene.
>
>In Cleveland, as in Kiev, Ukraine, citizens have the
>right to know that the election is run fairly and every
>vote counted honestly. Citizens have the right to
>nonpartisan election officials. Citizens have the right
>to voting machines that keep a paper record and allow
>for an independent audit and recount.
>
>This country needs no more Floridas and Ohios. This
>shouldn't be a partisan issue. We call for a
>constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote
>for all U.S. citizens and to empower Congress to
>establish federal standards and nonpartisan
>administration of elections. Harris and Blackwell are
>insults to the people they represent, and stains upon
>the president whose election they sought to ensure.
>Democracy should not be for export only.
>
>© 2004 Chicago Sun Times
>
>==========
>
>Report to the Nation on America's Election Process
>
>Common Cause, the Leadership Conference on Civil
>Rights, and The Century Foundation invite you to bring
>your questions and concerns regarding the November 2
>elections to an event entitled "Voting in 2004:  A
>Report to the Nation on America's Election Process."
>RSVP for this important event now by clicking on the
>following link:
>
>www.commoncause.org/RSVPVotingin2004
>
>The event is open to the public, the press, Members of
>Congress and their staff, and the academic community.
>Statements will be made by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT),
>Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) , Representative Steny
>Hoyer (D-MD), and Representative Bob Ney (R-OH).
>
>We will begin at 8:30 a.m. and continue to 4:30 p.m. in
>Washington, DC in the Dirksen Senate Office Building,
>Room G50.   We will hear testimony from experts who
>were on the ground on November 2.  Expert panels will
>explore issues and problems that occurred in the
>following areas:
>
>     * Absentee Ballots, Military and Overseas Voting
>     * Provisional Ballots
>     * Polling Place Operations and Poll Workers
>     * Voting Machines
>     * Voter Registration
>     * Voter Suppression and Intimidation
>
>All panels will be followed by question and answer
>sessions.
>
>Let us know right away if you plan to attend the event
>by filling out the RSVP form mention above:
>
>www.commoncause.org/RSVPVotingin2004
>
>Invited and participating individuals and organizations
>include:
>
>The Brennan Center for Justice, Rock the Vote, Demos,
>the George Washington School of Law, the National
>Association of Secretaries of State, election
>officials, Verified Voting, the Lawyers Committee for
>Civil Rights, the American Association of People with
>Disabilities, the Organization for Security and
>Cooperation in Europe, Electionline.org, the American
>Civil Liberties Union, American Families United, The
>Advancement Project, and experts from the Massachusetts
>Institute of Technology, the University of California,
>and Johns Hopkins University.
>
>We are doing everything we can to remove doubts about
>the integrity of our electoral process.  This public
>event is a  first of its kind and is a crucial step in
>our endeavor to seek meaningful reform for our flawed
>election systems.
>
>www.commoncause.org/supportElectionReform
>
>Thank you again for all you do for Common Cause.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Chellie Pingree
>President & CEO
>Common Cause
>
>==========
>
>Good Resource:
>
>A Stolen Election? - Documenting what could be the
>highest crime in the history of our country
>
>http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/
>
>==========
>
>More on the "Stolen Election"
>
>Nation Washington editor David Corn continues his look
>at the possibility of a stolen election. Corn cites
>potential examples of fraud and refutations and again
>concludes, "A strong case that the election was
>stolen--either in Ohio or Florida--still has yet to be
>made. Statistical arguments are not convincing without
>concrete evidence (or widespread support among
>statistical experts)... Yet the voting system is shaky
>enough to warrant serious concern. The General
>Accountability Office was right to agree to a request
>from Representative John Conyers and four other
>Democratic House members that it investigate election
>irregularities in the 2004 election....But the evidence
>to date is that the election results were not rigged
>but were produced by a flawed system."
>
>We hope you will consider and link to Corn's "Capital
>Games" here -
>http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=
>3&pid=2037 . Thanks for your time.
>
>Mike Webb
>The Nation
>
>==========
>
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Paul Etxeberri

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