[Mb-civic] More on Stolen Election(s)

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Something's Fishy 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.h
tm
l

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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