Petition congress to CONTEST THE VOTE

[Guest guest]

Please read to the end and go to

www.contestthevote.org and sign the petition. Folks,

this morning there was a heavy snowstorm in Ohio and

the roads were slippery and treacherous going into

downtown Columbus. But, Representative Conyers

proceeded on schedule with his hearing at 10:30 AM in

the City Hall Council chamber. Despite the weather

the room was packed and overflowing on the ground

floor. Television cameras and reporters were

everywhere. Unless they throw away the footage it

seems that we're finally going to get the kind of

coverage this deserves.

 

In addition to Conyers, Representative Maxine Waters,

California, and about four or five other members of

the House were present. Jesse Jackson was there and

testified. His testimony took on the tone of the

Civil Rights movement of the sixties, comparing the

disenfranchisement of African American, low-income and

student voters to Jim Crow. It was very powerful.

 

Speaker after speaker documented what appeared to be

an intentional pattern of disenfranchisement

throughout the

state in heavily Democratic districts. Cliff

Arnebeck, of Common Cause, announced that a lawsuit

had been filed yesterday in the Ohio Supreme Court to

invalidate the Ohio Presidential election vote based

on the allegations of widespread illegal activities

that caused voter disenfranchisement. When asked by

Conyers of the estimated extent

of the disenfranchisement Arnebeck's reply was that

it may have been as much as 20% of those who intended

to vote. This included working people who could not

afford to take an entire day off from work to stand in

line for 3-10 hours, people who feared losing their

jobs, students who couldn't afford to miss classes and

people who simply did not have the patience to wait

because too few voting machines were supplied in their

precincts. It also included people who were

misdirected to the wrong precincts and waited on line

for hours only to be told they couldn't vote

because they were in the wrong precinct. It also

includes people who were informed by phone that they

faced arrest if they showed up at the polls and had

unpaid parking tickets or other outstanding

misdemeanors. It includes

people who were intimidated by heavy police presence

at certain polling places and those who were

intimidated by Republican challengers. With

approximately five million voters in Ohio, 20% means

that as many as one million voters were

disenfranchised in Ohio, overwhelmingly likely Kerry

voters. Bush's so-called margin of victory was almost

119,000. And this represents only the part of the

story involving those who lost their chance to vote.

 

Then there were the compelling stories about the

illegal lockdown of precincts and election records

after the election and the story about the machine

tampering that was caught red-handed and on videotape.

 

And then there was the testimony of Clint Curtis.

Clint Curtis is the computer programmer who has signed

an affidavit (under penalty of perjury) that he was

hired by a Republican official in Florida to develop

software for computerized voting machines that could

fix an election without detection. His testimony

seemed to electrify Conyers and almost everyone in the

room.

 

Then there were the statisticians who testified about

the impossibility of all the anomilies breaking in

only one direction. The exit polls that were correct

in many states but way off in all the battleground

states-all in Bush's favor.

 

One after another the speakers reaffirmed the pattern.

Separate incidents. Independent, unrelated

testimony. Same results. All the miscalculations,

machine errors, disenfranchisements added up to more

votes for Bush.

 

The process of witnessing the hearing was at once

both sickening and heartening. Seeing people testify

about their

disenfranchisement is much different than reading

about it. These are real people suffering real

consequences. The horror of this happening in our

country brings home the realization that there is a

malicious entity in power that intends to stay in

power by all means. Conyers and the other

representatives who were present were thanked over and

over again by many of the speakers as it was

recognized that they were conducting this hearing at

great personal and political risk to themselves. This

was a congregation of brave souls who were challenging

a malignancy in the system. Everyone in the room was

aware of this context and there was a solemnity to the

proceedings that acknowledged this fact. And yet

there were moments of joviality as if to say, " We are

all in this together. "

 

Yet, this is just the prelude of what is to come in

Ohio and America in the next few weeks. Today the

recount began in eight counties and already there are

reports by observers that election officials are

refusing to cooperate, as required by law, in at least

some counties. Reports are coming in that requests by

observers to view individual ballots and voting

records are being denied and other violations are

occurring. The rules are clear, but they are being

violated. The Republican machine may believe they are

going to win by running out the clock. If they can

delay the process through a planned obstacle course of

challenges and appeals, the recount will continue into

January and past inauguration day. But, I don't think

this tact will work this time. There is a solid core

of determined congressional representatives, legal

experts, witnesses and victims. Evidence is mounting.

Public awareness is growing. Media attention is

increasing. This is not going away.

 

It's the highest priority right now to find at least

one US Senator who will join the members of the House

in objecting to the acceptance of the Electoral

College vote by the joint session of Congress that

will convene on January 6. It only takes one Senator

and one House member to object and interrupt the

process in order to force the joint session to disband

and hold a debate in each House on the legitimacy of

the election. The hook is that the Ohio delegation

should not be given authority to vote while there is

still a recount in progress in the state to determine

who the legitimate electors are. Since, in this case,

Ohio's electoral votes are enough to determine the

winner of the Presidential election, the final results

must wait until the completion of the recount. Some

Senators to contact are Kerry (obviously), Kennedy,

Boxer, Feinstein, Leahy, Chafee, Snowe, Collins,

Jeffords, Shumer, Clinton, Bayh, Byrd, Carper, Dodd,

Obama, Feingold, Harkin, Inouye, Levin, Lincoln,

Mikulski, Murray, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Wyden.

 

To be continued...

 

Contest the vote! Go to http://www.contestthevote.org/

Sign the petition - they are calling for Barbara

Boxer to contest the Electors vote. Electoral Count

Act of 1887, One Senator and One House Representative

required to contest an election prior to inauguration.

They want to get 3,000 signatures by Wednesday night.

 

Please sign now, and pass this on.

 

 

 

 

http://www.gatrill.com/christmas.html

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" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato