[Mb-civic] Kerry Accuses GOP of Suppressing Voting

[Michael Butler]

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  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.

  

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