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Nov 3- The Central Ohio Peace Network and the Toledo League of Pissed Off Voters organized an anti-war protest for today at 5:00 PM to send out the message that whoever the next president is, we need to end our occupation of Iraq. After hearing about Kerry's concession earlier in the day, the focus of the event at the Federal Building turned heavily towards expressing dissatisfaction with questionable election procedures.

One sign read, "Hundreds of thousands of voters suppressed- democracy failed." Written on another was, "Blackwell sucks," accompanied by a picture of ballots being sucked into a well.

A man who identified himself as David claimed that votes were lost because of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's decision to only count provisional ballots that were cast at the correct precinct, and also because Republican workers "cleansed the voting lists," taking off people who had not voted in recent elections.

The day before the election, I visited Albuquerque and Las Vegas. Up close, I saw hundreds of people involved in vigorous get-out-the-vote efforts. Most were young; they seemed very idealistic. These Americans had an opportunity to make a difference, and -- brought together by labor unions and such groups as the MoveOn PAC -- they took it.

Watching the election returns scarcely 24 hours later, I kept an eye on the results from New Mexico and Nevada. The vote tallies were close in both states because of such activism; otherwise, the Bush-Cheney ticket would have won easily.

On Wednesday, as the pundits kept chattering on television, I thought about how far removed the TV studios and newsrooms tend to be from the active idealism of the grassroots. All over this country, literally millions of people cherish the belief that what they choose to do can make a difference. A big difference.

 I found it remarkable that on election night and the morning after, that pretty much each and every network that I watched, CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS... each engaged in handwringing and wondered aloud "How could our exit polls have been so wrong?"  And they each came up with the same answer which I've heard over and over again:  the early exit polls showing Kerry with a 3 point lead were somehow released to the internet and we all read the internet and the liberals sat back on their laurels and did not vote; and the conservatives began panicking and worked harder.   

Does anyone really believe that?  Really?  It sounds like a line that senior editors made up as plausible so they could duck and run from the truth:  either that exit polling is a total sham; or that the exit polls were absolutely correct, and its corollary truth, that enough  electronic voting machines in Ohio and Florida were hacked into or just plain pre-programmed to count the blips in a not so kosher way.   

Nov. 3, 2004 | COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The real scandal of this election became clear to me at 6.30 p.m. on Election Day as I drove a young African- American voter, a charming business student, seven months pregnant, to her polling place at Finland Elementary School in south Columbus. We arrived in a squalling rain to find voters lined up outside for about a hundred yards. Later the line moved indoors. We were told that the wait had averaged two hours for the entire day. By the time the doors closed at 7:30 p.m., it was considerably longer.

Why such a line? Yes, turnout was a factor. But the real problem was a grotesque shortage of voting machines. Finland Elementary serves three precincts: Ward 37, A, B and C. The election officer at the door told me that the smallest of these precincts has some 400 registered voters, the middle-sized one has more than 800 and the largest "thousands." Because of the length and complexity of the ballot, voters were being limited to five minutes to finish their ballot, and most were using all that time.

Dear FreePress,

I am writing you to convey a feeling of hopelessness and deep sadness for our country since the election. I am a member of a family of three, a contributor to society, a taxpayer, a moral citizen. I am a gay woman. I feel the tide changing in our country toward prejudice and exclusion. Now my own daughter is under fire for defending her family in her college freshman classes and for speaking her mind against anti-gay policies.

My faith in our Nation's leaders has steadfastly diminished and I fear for religious moral righteous justification to pursue an agenda that promotes only prejudice and hate. If our own President cannot promote acceptance and condemn hate and prejudice, how can we maintain peace and freedom in our own diverse nation? Is Mr. Bush worthy of the highest office in our country when all citizens are not equal under his watch?

Please help fight for a hate-free America and equal treatment for all Americans.

I worked for 3 days, including Election Day, on the statewide voter protection hotline run by the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus, Ohio.

I am writing this because the media is inexplicably whitewashing what happened in Ohio, and Kerry's concession was likewise inexplicable.

Hundreds of thousands of people were disenfranchised in Ohio. People waited on line for as long as 10 hours. It appears to have only happened in Democratic-leaning precincts, principally (a) precincts where many African Americans lived, and (b) precincts near colleges.

Why is it the press in foreign lands like Australia or New Zealand are more into our election than we are? Why is it you can only see or hear this discussion overseas and not on CNN, the networks or anywhere else in this country? Not even CBS and Dan Rather has said diddly about the painfully obvious, faked popular Republican vote that magically appeared this election! Four million freakin votes out of nowhere when every exit poll was dominated by Kerry supporters? Are we that meek to allow this to continue? Thomas Jefferson told us that we had the right to take up arms against tyrants both foreign and domestic and it should happen every 20 years. We are due...

www.infernalpress.com/Columns/election.html

Before the election I went on a date with a young lady and the topic of politics reared its ugly head. The woman, who I will call Nikki, said she was voting for George W Bush. This was one week from Election Day and emotions in America were riding high. I was not only backing Kerry but was also very enamored with him as my generation’s answer to George McGovern. Many times this past election I compared this election to McGovern versus Nixon. Unfortunately, I was given the displeasure of suffering the same crushing blow as McGovern supporters had to endure. When I heard her profess her devotion for President Bush I knew there would not be another date. I am no James Carville and cannot fathom seriously dating someone from across the aisle especially during these divisive political times. I can share a friendship with a right winger but not a romance. After almost gagging on my Filet Mignon while she spoke of her admiration for President Bush the dreaded question I was waiting for finally came; who are you voting for? I lied and told her that I was voting for President Bush.

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurane of those whom they oppress."~~Frederick Douglass, former slave and one of the most prominent African-American lecturers and authors in American history.

So that's it, then. Like John Kerry says, it's time to get over it. Move on. Get on with our lives and our jobs -- let the healing begin.

Sounds good, John. But I don't intend to budge until all the votes are counted, because when I started this journey I committed for the long haul. Jumping ship to avoid putting the country through the "agony" of investigating and challenging another sordid election coup de`etat would never occur to me -- especially if I had 17,000 lawyers fired up and ready to do battle. If, as you said, this was the single most important election in our lifetime -- our one last shot at salvaging democracy -- it looks like you could have, as a minimum, hung around until the results were in.