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The below document is the complete transcript of the December 13, 2004 congressional hearing on the presidential election in Columbus, Ohio. The hearings were chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Congressman John Conyers.

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I'll admit it; my checkbook is not very tidy.  Like many people, I don't scrupulously reconcile my bank statements and I don't record every trip to the ATM or check card purchase the way my dad taught me.  Usually everything works out fine but every once in a while I bounce a check and suffer the consequences of my sloppiness.   It seems our public officials are being just as reckless with our votes.  An examination of the New Mexico canvass report of the November 2 election suggests that the state might be running the risk of bouncing an election.

The following is a fax from Office of the Secretary of State of Ohio documenting the distribution of voting machines on election day 2004.

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USA Today founder Al Neuharth's New Year's Resolution that we should support the troops in Iraq by bringing them home has stirred up a hornet's nest, according to Editor & Publisher Magazine which, after describing Neuharth's Dec. 22 Christmas column, was inundated with hate mail.

The E&P staff wrote that Neuharth said if he were eligible to serve in Iraq, "I would do all I could to avoid it."  Neuharth also wrote in his weekly column for the paper that America's New Year's Resolution should be to bring the troops home "sooner rather than later."

Neuharth, who is 80, recalled his duty as an infantryman in France, Germany and the Phillipines during World War II as "highly moral." But he said that troops floundering around in the bloody Iraqi mess today were, like those in Vietnam, thrust into an "ill-advised adventure by an unwise commander-in-chief," and should be brought home post-haste.

The vitriolic response was immediate, and got the attention of editor Greg Mitchell, who said E&P's little four-paragraph article "drew more letters than virtually any story we have ever posted."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (in Florida) has awarded aid to areas largely unaffected by disasters.

Florida U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, plans to introduce legislation to modify how the government approves disaster claims in the U.S.

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, has twice written to Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, about the payouts. (Associated Press, Officials seek investigation into FEMA disaster payouts, Published December 24, 2004)

Florida’s Governor, Jeb Bush will visit the tsunomi devastation this week at the expense of Florida taxpayers, but there are hurricane victims in Florida still without places to live (CBS, News, December 30, 2004).

Republican recently sort of maybe re-elected Chief Justice Moyer in the Ohio Supreme Court apparently deems the Judicial Code of Ohio, specifically Cannon 3, not sufficiently convincing to recuse himself. That Canon specifically provides that if your economic interests are tied to the outcome of litigation you MUST recuse yourself. Moyer’s job and salary are base on his reelection results. Notwithstanding that his Election results are shadowed by the same alleged problems with the voting manipulations and irregularities plaguing the Presidential Election, and notwithstanding that there is a collateral action by the same plaintiff attorneys against Moyer himself related to the pled illegitimacy of his re-election, before any evidence on any substantive summary judgment motion or hearings issued, and before even his Court apparently effectively served the Defendants according to the spurious arguments of those main Defendants served but ducking subpoenas, Moyer deems the plaintiff's case-in advance- "inadequate."

Editor:

The AP distributed an article bylined J. Seewer entitled “Ohio ends recount; Kerry nets 300 votes“ on December 29, 2004 that is highly misleading and demands rebuttal. Those of us in Washington State, where recounting has become a major spectator sport, understand that the term demands careful qualification. The steps taken in Ohio bear only limited resemblance to a true “recount.” For one thing, leaving aside the many reports of voter suppression, many of the Ohio votes were cast with electronic voting equipment that does not produce any verifiable paper record of the vote. This eliminates the possibility of any recount of those votes from the start. It also makes those votes a prime target for mischief since no followup is possible.

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio presidential recount was officially terminated Tuesday, December 28.

But the end comes amidst bitter dispute over official certification of impossible voter turnout numbers, over the refusal of Ohio's Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice to recuse himself from crucial court challenges involving his own re-election campaign, over the Republican Secretary of State's refusal to show up for a noticed deposition, over apparent tampering with tabulation machines, over more than 100,000 provisional and machine-rejected ballots left uncounted, over major discrepancies in certified vote counts and turnout ratios, and over a wide range of unresolved disputes that continue to leave the true outcome of Ohio's presidential vote in serious doubt.

With the current reshuffling, realignment, and exodus of and from President Bush's Cabinet, I would like to take this opportunity to ask everyone  to call your congressman and senators and demand the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Sec. of Defense. As a retired military person I feel I have a duty and obligation to our current troops to weigh in on this subject.

  His refusal to accept responsibility for the poor planning (not working with and ignoring the recommendations of the State Dept. to coordinate a framework of government for post-war Iraq, not using sufficient force to overcome the enemy) poor prosecution of the war (ignoring sound military advice on troop levels, not properly securing supply lines, relying on Iranian double agent Ahmed Chalabi for flawed intelligence) and his complicity in criminal and immoral activity (the Abu Grahib prisoner scandal, not properly equipping the troops for the tasks at hand, court-martialing commanders and subordinates for providing adequate resources to the men and women under their command, shifting responsibility to underlings) is offensive and lacking any shred of integity.  

"That can't be what they really call them!" I exclaimed in amusement. But Lowell Finley, legal counsel for the Green/Libertarian recount effort in New Mexico, assured me that 'phantom vote' was indeed the common legal term for the puzzling phenomenon I had uncovered in looking at the state's canvass report. A phantom vote occurs when the number of votes recorded exceeds the number of ballots cast. Mathematically, phantom votes are merely the inverse of undervotes. Undervotes, which show up when there are less votes than ballots cast, can be accounted for more or less persuasively in one way or another but I have yet to come up with any acceptable explanation for phantoms. Much less, 2,087 of them statewide in New Mexico, just about one third of the margin of victory that determined the selection of that state's presidential electors.