House Judiciary Dems Taking Action on Election Irregularities
by pointsoflight
Thu Dec 2nd, 2004 at 22:11:38 PST
The dems on the House Judiciary Committee have entered the fray in a major way. The first item of note is that they sent a letter to Blackwell, challenging him on a number of issues in Ohio. The second one is not official yet, but there are reports that the Committee will hold public hearings in Washington beginning next Wednesday. I give links and summarize both items below the fold.
Letter to Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohblackwellltr12204.pdf
Unfortunately I can't cut and paste any excerpts, because it's in image rather than text form. It's well worth the read...they're really calling Blackwell to task, and in some cases are directly targeting him for his decisions. Here's a summary of some of the issues they want him to respond to:
Warren County lockdown
Perry County counting discrepencies
Perry County registration peculiarities
Unusual results in Butler County
Unusual results in Cuyahoga County
Spoiled Ballots
Franklin County overvote
Miami County vote discrepency
Mahoning County machine problems
Machine shortages
Invalidated provisional ballots
Directive to reject voter registration forms
Public hearings on election irregularities:
Note that this hasn't been officially announced, so take it for what it's worth: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001016.htm
U.S. House Judiciary Dems to Announce Hearings on Voter Irregularities!
A source inside the House Judiciary Committee has informed The BRAD BLOG that Democratic members of the committee will be announcing public hearings in Washington to begin next Wednesday on Voting Irregularities in Election 2004.
Scheduling is currently under way and the hearings are "99% certain" according to the source, who hopes the official announcement will be made tomorrow.
The hearings will be held by the Democratic members only at this time since all Republican members of the committee have refused to take part in the investigation so far.
The House Democrats hope to hear testimony from a number of witnesses concerning the thousands of reported cases of mistabulated votes, voter suppression and other concerns about electronic voting on Nov. 2nd.
Witnesses being scheduled to testify include Attny. Cliff Arnebeck, who is leading a group of attorneys filing litigation in Ohio to have the election results set aside, Bill Fitrakis, reporter and editor of the Columbus Free Press whose continuing detailed reports cataloging voter suppression and other related matters on the ground in Ohio have set the standard for what real investigative journalism looks like, and possibly Jesse Jackson who has been outspoken of late on all of these matters.
Source:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohblackwellltr12204.pdf
or go to http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ and look on the right side under 'Latest'
Excerpts from responses to this diary:
If the repubs started looking into Michigan or Pensylvania, or even Ohio, they could also drag up a number of stories and reports. They don't do it because they know it is a waste of time and they are more than willing to allow us to make fools of ourselves. The repubs I work with don't even talk about this issue. But man, they are laughing their asses off at half of the stuff that they are reading. It's political genious to allow your adversary to make a lot of noise about nothing, get nowhere, and then patronize them in front of others to make them look like little children and diminish any possibility of them being ever taken seriously again. This is all just nuts. This party is going to crash, and we will be the cause of that crash. What is happening to those who buy into this tin foil hat stuff, is that they are showing just how politically naive they are and how little understanding of the vagaries of the political life. Nothing will be turned around from this. The people of the United States already believe this election to be over. Even if we, magically, are able to prove something most citizens will not believe it and will think that the proof itself was somehow manufactured. Look, the MSM has spent some time writing about how crazy all of this stuff is, the Newsweek articles about Kerry on the campaign trail make him look superficial and spoiled, and now a small group of people are going to attempt the impossible and gain .... what? The accelerated decline and marginalization of their own party, when the polically astute know that the party message needs to be re-tooled and other strategic actions taken to make this party into a majority party again. However, with friends like you, they will never be able to achieve that. The repubs know this, and they are loving watching you play all of this stuff out.
by kerry4pres on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 09:31:54 PST
You can think what you want, but for me and I think for many others, it's not about overturning an election. I see this as our best chance for reform of the way we run elections, and if it turns out that any races, local or national, get overturned in the process, that's an added bonus.
by pointsoflight on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 10:00:00 PST
In 2000 the Dems succumbed like little lambs in Florida. Then shortly after 9/11 a story comes out about how Gore actually won Florida had the election been fair. Katherine Harris committed fraud (in my opinion, the best smoking gun is the felon list including some 32,000 improper names), and instead of getting punished she got elected to Congress. Don't you think people react to incentives? I guarantee you voter fraud increased, not decreased, from 2000.
Democracy depends on informed activism.
by Juan Pablo on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 11:12:07 PST
Other than the force of potential embarrassment, which relies on the editorial decisions of journalists settling into the reality of a one-party state? Suppose it gets buried? What does that indicate to us?
by macdust on Thu Dec 2nd, 2004 at 23:27:15 PST
.....the number of media organizations focusing their cameras and reporters on that hearing next week. Be prepared for terra'lerts and all kinds of holiday gifts from the wh.......
Peace.
"Did Bush Know?"
by understandinglife on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 05:44:30 PST
Groundswells take a while. But I think there is still enough freedom in this country for that swell to rise and topple the mighty. What's that quote from M L KING? something like 'the arc of ? bends slowly, but it bends toward justice.' "We must become the change we want to see." -Gandhi PublicChristian.com
by larryrant on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 05:53:28 PST
Yes, indeed, it was Rev King, Jr., who said:
'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'
Here's a link to something that may interest you: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4191747
Peace.
"Did Bush Know?"
by understandinglife on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 07:43:09 PST
Here is a summary of the findings of the international poll obserevers in Ukraine. It's startling how neatly the findings in Ukraine mirror the issues raised in this letter:
*Abuse of power (like Blackwell subjectively invalidating provisional ballots and rejecting voter registration forms)
*Dubious data (Perry County registration peculiarities, the Franklin County overvote)
*Extra votes and "mystery" votes (Perry, Butler, Cuyahoga and Miami counties)
*Open to tampering (the Warren County lockdown)
by thebes on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 07:12:16 PST
that someone in our government is doing something FOR the people! I've said it over and over.... whatever we do here now our in the future is completely and utterly useless... just liberal mental masturbation.... unless we have strong faith in our elections. Few of us have faith in this election. Bush won but did Kerry lose? I'd say, what does it matter? but look at the last four years and ask yourself if the fairly elected President Gore had sat in office, would we be in Iraq now or would we be four years into the most aggressive financial terrorist lockdown possible and would we be well on our way to a railroad and energy independent country?
by citizengeo on Fri Dec 3rd, 2004 at 07:55:11 PST
Tell the media you support the recount!
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