[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Ohio electoral fight intensifies as GOP stonewalls (Bob Fitriakis, Free Press)

Fri Dec 31 12:31:06 PST 2004

>
>Ohio electoral fight becomes 'biggest deal since
>Selma' as GOP stonewalls
>by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey
>Wasserman
>
>The Free Press, December 22, 2004
>http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1015
>http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122304V.shtml
>
>
>COLUMBUS -- As Republican officials stonewall
>subpoenas and subvert the recount process, Rev.
>Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud
>fiasco "the biggest deal since Selma" and has
>called for a national rally at "the scene of the
>crime" in Columbus January 3.
>
>Another major national demonstration will follow
>in Washington on January 6, as Congress evaluates
>the Electoral College. Should at least one US
>Representative and one Senator challenge the
>electors' votes, a Constitutional crisis could
>ensue.
>
>Meanwhile, volunteer attorneys have poured into
>Columbus from around the US to help investigate
>the bitterly contested presidential vote that has
>allegedly given George W. Bush Ohio's electoral
>votes and thus a second term. A lawsuit filed at
>the Ohio Supreme Court charges that a fair vote
>count would give the state and the presidency to
>John Kerry rather than Bush.
>
>On December 21, notice of depositions were sent
>to President George Bush, Vice President Dick
>Cheney, Karl Rove and Ohio Secretary of State J.
>Kenneth Blackwell to appear and give testimony
>regarding the legal challenge of Ohio's elections
>results in the case Moss v Bush et al.
>
>But Republican Blackwell's attorney at the
>Secretary of Stateís office told the attorneys
>issuing the notice of deposition and subpoena
>that Blackwell will not testify under oath. The
>Republican-controlled Attorney General's office
>has labeled any attempt to put Blackwell under
>oath, "harassment." Blackwell supervised the
>November 2 vote in Ohio at the same time he
>served as co-chair of the state's Bush-Cheney
>campaign.
>
>However, some counties like Clermont have agreed
>to cooperate with the attorneys in the election
>challenge. On December 22, a team of attorneys
>descended upon the Clermont County Board of
>Elections between 8:30-10:30am to pour over
>election day records.
>
>In a December 21 conference call with activists
>from the around the US, Jackson said he has urged
>Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
>to stand with US Representatives who intend to
>challenge the Electoral College's expected
>approval of George W. Bush for a second term. A
>challenge by US Representatives in 2000 failed
>because no Senators would join their motion.
>
>Jackson says this year will be different, urging
>election protection activists to stay focused
>over the holiday season. "We can't let [the
>Republicans] get away with this, he told the
>conference call. "Do not underestimate the
>outrage of the people. We are a legitimate force
>for democracy, here and around the world."
>
>"We will count every vote," he said, and make
>sure "every vote counts."
>
>Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and other members of the
>Congressional Black Caucus have strongly
>questioned Bush's purported victory, pointing out
>that more than half the votes cast in Ohio and
>the nation were recorded on electronic voting
>machines owned by Republicans, with no audit
>trail.
>
>Conyers recently conducted hearings at Columbus
>City Hall to take testimony from Ohioans who were
>deprived their right to vote. Another public
>hearing in Mahoning Valley, at the
>Warren-Trumbull Library, documented "thousands of
>complaints of voting irregularities" that helped
>throw the vote count to Bush. Election observers
>have testified under oath that more than a dozen
>voting machines in Mahoning County regularly
>switched Kerry votes to Bush votes while voters
>watched in amazement. Some 580 more absentee
>voters were certified than were identified by
>election board officials. As in Franklin and
>other counties, there were also strategic machine
>shortages in largely Democratic precincts. The
>November vote, said one observer, was "the crime
>of the century."
>
>As dozens of volunteer attorneys pour into the
>state to help with the recount, Blackwell's
>stonewall has prompted widespread suspicion about
>what the Republicans are hiding.
>
>On Monday the expanded legal team issued
>subpoenas to top election officials in 10
>counties where vote-count fraud is suspected.
>
>The rapid filing of subpoenas, the first step in
>interviewing people under oath, provoked the
>shrill rejection from Blackwell. Though Blackwell
>is a state constitutional officer, his business
>office is in a private building, where protesters
>-- including former California Congressman Dan
>Hamburg---have been arrested without apparent
>provocation.
>
>ìThey huffed and they puffed, trying to bully
>people around,î said a key member of the election
>challenge legal team. ìNow weíre fighting over
>discovery. We served 10 depositions. The attorney
>general blew a gasket. They filed a motion to
>stop itÖ We will file our response.î
>
>This past Friday, attorneys refiled their
>election challenge suit, a day after state
>Supreme Court dismissed it on a technicality. The
>challengers are trying to get a meaningful
>recount before the January 6 Congressional vote,
>while Blackwell's GOP has done all it can to
>stall.
>
>The election challenge lawsuit claims that
>statewide vote patterns reveal vote count fraud
>on a scale that incorrectly awarded the stateís
>majority ñ and the presidency ñ to George Bush.
>They are using the litigation process to document
>that fraud.
>
>ìMaybe this (the explanation of the Ohio vote) is
>much closer to the surface than anybody thinks,î
>said Pete Peckarsky, a lead challenge attorney.
>ìIt doesnít add up. If everything were above
>board, why are they hiding everything? They could
>bury people in the detailsÖ Okay, look at these
>records. Look at those.î
>
>The election challenge suit was filed Dec. 17.
>Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney campaign, and Ohioís
>Republican electors have 10 days to respond.
>Then, according to court procedural rules, each
>side has 20 days to do discovery ñ or additional
>evidence gathering, with those bringing the suit
>going first. With January 6 being the date
>Congress accepts the Electoral College vote, and
>January 20 being the inauguration, the GOP seems
>determined to make the recount drag on as long as
>possible.
>
>Tuesday, December 22 is the starting point for
>Peckarsky's negotiations with election officials
>from 10 counties as to when they can be deposed.
>They will be asked a wide range of questions to
>uncover answers explaining the presence of what
>are, at the least, voting irregularities.
>
>In the Miami County town of Concord, certified
>returns show that all but 10 registered voters
>cast ballots on Election Day. But the election
>challenge team has already identified more than
>10 registered Concord citizens who did not vote,
>an incongruity that points to election fraud.
>
>In Mahoning County, citizens using electronic
>machines saw their vote for Kerry register as a
>vote for Bush. Additional hearings in Trumbull
>and other counties are adding to the litany of
>fraud and theft.
>
>In the meantime, among the attorneys who have
>come at their own expense to join Ohio's
>presidential election challenge:
>
>
>Bonnie McFadden, formerly a deputy public
>defender, law professor from both the University
>of New Guinea and the University of Hawaii, and
>director of the Cambodia Defenders Project in
>Phnom Penh, Cambodia, currently resides in Maui.
>Bonnie believes that Conyersí Committee hearings
>have provided clear evidence of illegal election
>practices. ìDemocracy cannot survive without
>honest elections. The Ohio election fraud
>lawsuits are about saving our democratic form of
>government. There is nothing more important than
>that.î
>
>Karen Peterson, an attorney who worked for more
>than a decade in legal services specializing in
>public benefits, consumer and family law and was
>a professor at both Cornell and the University of
>Minnesota law schools, is volunteering in Ohio
>because she believes that it is critically
>important that election irregularities are
>exposed to the light of day. ìWe will lose our
>democracy unless we are willing to fight for it.
>If we allow voter suppression and dirty tricks to
>go uncovered and unpunished, we should not be
>surprised if these tactics become more virulent
>in future elections.î
>
>Lillian Ritt, formerly a research attorney
>working for the San Diego Superior Court and the
>4th DCA Division 1 for more than twenty years,
>and part of the team researching election law for
>Al Gore, is in Ohio because she believes voting
>is critical to our democracy. ìVoting has to be
>done openly and without any possibility of
>machine error and/or tampering. The problems in
>Ohio threaten this world, not just the United
>States. If they are not solved, then I consider
>this to be another stolen election by Bush
>without the courage of the Ukraine people.î
>
>Steve Chaffin, an attorney in Ohio for
>twenty-four years, has worked in many ways to
>provide for those who have needed legal
>assistance and not been able to afford it. He has
>worked with those who are facing rising costs of
>health care and other quality of life issues. His
>interests and work have been to help those who
>are disenfranchised. Steveís latest focus is on
>election and political issues. Volunteering for
>this legal battle is just one more way in which
>he is helping our country.
>
>Judy McCann, a civil rights attorney from Santa
>Rosa, California, left for Ohio with one dayís
>notice promising her children she would be home
>for Christmas, even if it meant she would be on a
>plane back to help in Ohio on December, 26th.
>Judy expressed her concern for the integrity of
>the voting process. She spent Election Day in
>Florida monitoring the vote, learning first hand
>that our votes may be cast but not accurately
>counted. Judy has been asked by the legal team to
>take depositions and to travel to counties to
>collect the evidence of voting irregularities.
>
>Melanie Braithwaite, an attorney in Columbus,
>Ohio, wants to volunteer for this election
>contest because of her concern for her children
>and grandchildren. ìTo me free expression and
>exchange of ideas, and the right to vote in free
>and fair elections are paramount moral and civic
>values to be protected at all costs. If it costs
>me some time and inconvenience to volunteer in
>this effort, then so be it. It is the price I pay
>to be an American citizen. I personally witnessed
>a moral outrage on election day. I am peculiarly
>in a position to take this one on, as I have
>personally nothing left to lose.î
>
>As the team of election protection attorneys
>grows alongside the grassroots demand for a fair
>vote count in Ohio and around the nation, the
>likelihood of an unprecedented Constitutional
>confrontation beginning January 6 continues to
>escalate.
>
>Stay Tuned!
>
>--
>
>Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey
>Wasserman are co-authors of the upcoming OHIO'S
>STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED,
>2004, to be published in January. Fitrakis is a
>co-counsel in the Moss case. Support for this
>project is welcome through www.freepress.org or
>by sending a check to The ìColumbus Institute for
>Contemporary Journalismî, 1240 Bryden Rd.,
>Columbus, Ohio 43205.
>
>*Article updated December 25 at 1:16pm EST.
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand