Election Issues

In the days and few weeks immediately following the election last year, the media pronounced gloom and doom for the Democratic Party and its constituents, such as gay rights advocates. Journalists and media outlets of the left and the right, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and Newsweek, among most others, announced that the Democrats were down and out, and that the evangelical Christians and the Republicans were the rising power. They divided the country into red states and blue states, and offered up glossy maps to show that most states were red and therefore Republican strongholds.

The lawsuit challenging Ohio's 2004 presidential race has been withdrawn from the Ohio Supreme Court, having served as a lightning rod to draw national attention to the widespread and possibly illegal irregularities in the vote that gave George W. Bush a term as president starting in January.

While the election challenge lawyers say they may raise the suit's constitutional and civil rights issues in other legal venues, the case, Moss. V. Bush, became a vehicle for an aggressive investigation of irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote that culminated in a congressional challenge of the 2004 Electoral College.

Together, grassroots/Internet activists have just moved three major American mountains.

On January 6, we forced an angry Republican-dominated Congress into an unprecedented confrontation with the Truth about Ohio's stolen election, about dubious vote counts nationwide, and ultimately about an electoral process worthy of zero public trust.

America's progressive grassroots further showed it could prompt the "democratic wing" of the Democratic Party to finally stand up for its constituents' right to vote, even in the face of the usual withering slander from Karl Rove's dirty tricksters.

And those of us who work the Internet showed we could spark a mass movement by exposing a national travesty despite relentless abuse from the mainstream media, which did absolutely nothing to uncover the systematic corruption of our electoral process.

In truth, the mountains shook even before the election.

This is a report for all those people who over the month of December went, at one time or another, to nine rallies/vigils held at the White Plains FBI office to urge the agency to investigate vote rigging in Ohio, Florida and other states and for those who have been following the struggle to get vote justice in these states.

On Thursday, Jan. 6, the day the Congress took up the certification of GWBush's election, and Barbara Boxer displayed singular courage by objecting to the certification, Gayle Dunkelberger, Barbara Ehrentreu and I joined several hundred other demonstrators in Washington to be a force for objection and specifically to carry the White Plains FBI protest to FBI headquarters in Washington.

We arrived at FBI headquarters at the appointed time, 9 a.m., and were almost immediately joined by a woman from Pittsburgh who had learned about the rally on the internet. She helped us hold a 16' banner that read: "FBI: Investigate the Election". After about 15 minutes we were joined by about eight people from North Carolina and then two women from Brooklyn.

The following table lists conservative estimates of the shifts in the vote margins between Bush and Kerry due to error, neglect, or fraud. These estimates are based upon precinct by precinct analysis of unofficial and/or official election results in fifteen Ohio counties accounting for 62% of the registered voters in the state. These studies were conducted under time constraints and with such evidence as Ohio officials were willing to provide. Even in the counties that I have analyzed, I have examined only certain aspects of a well-orchestrated and multi-faceted plan to undermine democracy in Ohio. I reserve the right to modify my conclusions through further analysis and as more evidence becomes available.

Download document now.

A handful of progressive Democrats in the House and a lone Senator, Barbara Boxer of California, forced the Republican-dominated Congress to hear two hours of protest Thursday about how the 2004 presidential vote was replete with efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters and suppress turnout in a torrent of tactics reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.

“We have spent our lives fighting for things we believe in – always fighting to make our nation better,” Boxer told the joint session. “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.”

By invoking a law used twice since 1877, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-OH, and Sen. Boxer, stopped Congress’ ratification of the 2004 Electoral College vote by challenging the Ohio results. That forced Vice President Dick Cheney, the presiding officer, to order each chamber to debate the merits of the Ohio vote for two hours. A week earlier, Cheney refused to accept a notice of deposition in a lawsuit challenging the results of 2004 Ohio presidential vote.

Resulting Democrats' speeches stressed voters rights, equality, reform. Republicans' speeches attempted obfuscation, avoided consideration of serious electoral reform.

C-SPAN broadcast of hearings available online: http://www.c-span.org.

For information about the merits of the contest, please see the Election 2004 Department, and particularly:

The "Crime of November 2":  The human side of how Bush stole Ohio, and why Congress must investigate rather than ratify the Electoral College (Part Two of Two)

Seven key reasons why the vote must be challenged at the electoral college

Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two)

Dear United States Senator or Member of Congress:

Today, you are being asked to certify the reported votes of the Electoral College even though the status of the Ohio electors is still the subject of the meritorious election contest.  You are being asked to do so on the basis of one or more of the following three fallacies:

1) The faith-based neocon fallacy that vote counts do not have to be independently verified.

This new "con" holds that facts may be overcome by assertions of faith by those in power. Thus, the Bush campaign co-chair for Ohio and Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell need not count 106,000 as yet uncounted Ohio ballots, because he has faith they would not make a difference in the reported 119,000 vote difference even thought these uncounted votes all are in areas of Ohio that demonstrated strong support for John Kerry, and because, as Secretary of State he has the power not to count them.

A corollary of this fallacy is that Ken Blackwell need not answer questions under oath. The answers to such questions might upset peoples' faith in the new "con."

RELEASED JANUARY 5: New Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff: Download it now.

Also, download Appendix A - Video the Vote A Film by Linda Byrket, Text of Fundraising Letter from Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, and Eyewitness Accounts of Ohio Voter Disenfranchisement (from The Free Press testimony).