[Mb-civic] Republicans suppressing voting AGAIN

[Barbara Siomos]

  Kerry Accuses GOP of Suppressing Voting 
  By Mary Dalrymple 
  The Associated Press
  Monday 04 October 2004

  CLEVELAND - Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in
states where the presidential race is too close to call, Democratic
nominee John Kerry said Sunday at one of the city's largest
predominantly black churches.

  "In battleground states across the country, we're hearing stories
of how people are trying to make it harder to file for additional time,
or how they're making it harder to even register," Kerry told an
enthusiastic congregation at East Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
 
  "We're not going to let that happen because the memories of 2000
are too strong. We're not going to allow 1 million African Americans to
be disenfranchised."
 
  At a stop in Ohio earlier Sunday, Kerry told a voter concerned
about ballots cast by military personnel overseas that Democrats are
aware of voting problems and are concerned.
 
  "We're seeing efforts by the Republicans, unfortunately, in
various parts of the country to suppress votes and intimidate people, to
do things that bring back memories that are pretty bitter in the
American mind from the year 2000." 

  With just a month left in the presidential campaign, Kerry said
the campaign would take steps nationally to ensure voters access to the
ballot box.
 
  The Bush-Cheney campaign said the charges of voter suppression
"have no basis in reality." 
  "Like so much of his campaign, John Kerry's false charges of voter
intimidation are baseless," said spokesman Steve Schmidt. He said
Democrats rejected a GOP offer to put a lawyer from each party in every
voting district across the nation on Election Day. 

  Kerry said he has his own team of lawyers "of all color and all
mix" examining possible voting problems to try to prevent a repeat of
the 2000 election disputes. He also has said he has thousands of lawyers
around the country prepared to monitor the polls on Nov. 2.
 
  The Massachusetts senator has been fighting hard to win a number
of closely divided states with enough Electoral College votes at stake
to swing the election, leading both campaigns to put legal teams in
place ready to challenge voting irregularities.
 
  To prevent Ohio from becoming this election's Florida, Democratic
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones gave the churchgoers some advice. 
  "When you go to the ballot box, if you make a mistake you can get
another ballot," she said. She also urged voters with punch card ballots
to hold them up for examination before turning them in.
 
  "No hanging chads will mess with this election," she said.