[Mb-civic] Recount in Ohio A Sure Thing

[Lyle K'ang]

This is a good thing for the green party, nader, ohio and america.


Lyle K'ang
Enterprise Insights: 
Tools for a Brighter Tomorrow...
http://www.SiloManagement.com

-- Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com> wrote:

Also see below:     
Ohio Voters Tell of Election Day Troubles at Hearing    €

     Recount in Ohio a Sure Thing
    t r u t h o u t | Press Release

     Monday 15 November 2004
 Green Party Campaign Raises $150,000 in 4 Days, Shifts Gears to Phase II


    WASHINGTON -- November 15 -- There will be a recount of the presidential
vote in Ohio.

     On Thursday, David Cobb, the Green Party¹s 2004 presidential candidate,
announced his intention to seek a recount of the vote in Ohio. Since the
required fee for a statewide recount is $113,600, the only question was
whether that money could be raised in time to meet the filing deadline. That
question has been answered.

     ³Thanks to the thousands of people who have contributed to this effort,
we can say with certainty that there will be a recount in Ohio,² said Blair
Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche campaign.

     ³The grassroots support for the recount has been astounding. The
donations have come in fast and furiously, with the vast majority in the
$10-$50 range, allowing us to meet our goal for the first phase of the
recount effort in only four days,² said Bobier.

     Bobier said the campaign is still raising money for the next phase of
the recount effort which will be recruiting, training and mobilizing
volunteers to monitor the actual recount.

     The Ohio presidential election was marred by numerous press and
independent reports of mis-marked and discarded ballots, problems with
electronic voting machines and the targeted disenfranchisement of African
American voters. A number of citizens¹ groups and voting rights
organizations are holding the second of two hearings today in Columbus,
Ohio, to take testimony from voters, poll watchers and election experts
about problems with the Ohio vote. The hearing, from 6-9 p.m., will be held
at the Courthouse, meeting room A, 373 S. High St., in Columbus. The
Cobb-LaMarche campaign will be represented at the hearing by campaign
manager Lynne Serpe.

     A demand for a recount in Ohio can only be filed by a presidential
candidate who was either a certified write-in candidate or on the ballot in
that state. Both Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian candidate
Michael Badnarik will be demanding a recount. No other candidate has stated
an intention to seek a recount and no other citizen or organization would
have legal standing to do so in Ohio. The Cobb-LaMarche campaign is still
exploring the possibility of seeking recounts in other states but no
decision has been made yet.

    Go to Original 

    Ohio Voters Tell of Election Day Troubles at Hearing
    By Reginald Fields
    The Cleveland Plain Dealer

     Sunday 14 November 2004

     Tales of waiting more than five hours to vote, voter intimidation,
under-trained polling-station workers and too few or broken voting machines
largely in urban or heavily minority areas were retold Saturday at a public
hearing organized by voter-rights groups.

     For three hours, burdened voters, one after another, offered sworn
testimony about Election Day voter suppression and irregularities that they
believe are threatening democracy.

     The hearing, sponsored by the Election Protection Coalition, was to
collect testimony of voting troubles that might be used to seek legislative
changes to Ohio's election process.

     The organizers chose Ohio because it was a swing state in the
presidential election as well as the site of numerous claims of election
fraud and voter disenfranchisement.

     "I think a lot of us had a sense that something had deeply went wrong
on Nov. 2 and it had to do with the election process and procedures in place
that were unacceptable," said Amy Kaplan, one of the hearing's coordinators.

     Kaplan said the hearing gave everyday citizens a chance to have their
concerns placed into public record.

     Both a written and video report on the hearing will be provided to
anyone who wants a copy, especially state lawmakers who are considering
mandating Election Day changes, Kaplan said.

     Many of the voters who testified were clearly Democrats who wonder if
their losing presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, was able to draw all
the votes that were intended for him.

     "I call on Sen. Kerry to un-concede until there is a full count of the
votes," said Werner Lange of Trumbull County, who claimed that polling
places in his Northeast Ohio neighborhood had half the number of voting
machines that were needed.

     "This caused a bottleneck at polling stations, and many people left
without voting," he said.

     Others said they were testifying not on political grounds but out of
concern for a suspicious election system that should be above reproach.

     Harvey Wasserman of Bexley said he tried to vote absentee with the same
home address he has used for 18 years but was told he couldn't because his
absentee application had the wrong address.

     "But the notice telling me I had the wrong address arrived at the right
address," he said. "I wonder, how many of these absentee ballots were
rejected for no good reason?

     "My concern is not out of the outcome of the election," Wasserman said,
"but that this could go on and an election could be stolen. And we simply
can't have that in a democracy."

  

  -------

   Jump to TO Features for Tuesday November 16, 2004   


 © Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org


_______________________________________________
Mb-civic mailing list
Mb-civic at islandlists.com
http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-civic