Cobb Testifies Before Congressional Forum in Ohio

Columbus, OH —  Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb received an enthusiastic response from members of Congress and the audience at today's congressional forum which was convened in the Columbus City Council Chambers.

Cobb said that his campaign is seeking a recount because of the widespread and documented reports of voter suppression and intimidation in Ohio and the unexplained malfunctioning of electronic voting machines. Cobb also revealed a shocking allegation of new evidence of intentional tampering with voting machines. Representative John Conyers, the chair of the forum, reacted immediately and the matter is now under investigation. You can read more about Cobb's testimony, this new development and proposals to improve our election system below.

The forum was packed with information, details of a dysfunctional electoral system and positive ideas for change.

The forum was convened by members of the House Judiciary Committee who have sent a letter to the Governor of Ohio demanding that he "delay or treat as provisional" the vote of Ohio's presidential electors who met today under a cloud of suspicion.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson praised the Greens and Libertarians as "freedom fighters who have kept the flame burning.... Without their dogged determination, we would not have a platform today."

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TESTIMONY BEFORE CONGRESSIONAL FORUM IN OHIO

December 13, 2004

Mr. Chair, Members of the Committee:

For the Record, my name is David Cobb and I am the 2004 Green Party presidential candidate.

As a presidential candidate in Ohio this year, it is my statutory right under Ohio law to seek a recount of the presidential vote in this state.

I am seeking a recount because of widespread and documented reports of voter suppression and intimidation, voting fraud and malfunctioning voting machines.

On November 19, over 3 weeks ago, I formally demanded a recount by notifying each and every one of Ohio's 88 county election directors, and the Secretary of State, and by posting the required $10 per precinct filing fee. I requested a hand recount of all ballots cast in all precincts in the state. The total bond, or filing fee, was $113,600. It was paid in full. At that time, Mr. Chairman, it is worth it to note that half of Ohio's counties had already completed their initial canvass of the vote at that time. The recount could have started then.

Today, December 13, the day that the presidential electors are meeting to cast their votes here in Columbus, the recount that I requested over 3 weeks ago is finally beginning; but only in eight Ohio counties. The other 80 counties will presumably begin recounting throughout the week.

Why has this process been delayed so long when the election has been over for almost 6 weeks?

How is it that the state of Washington has already completed one statewide recount and begun a second before Ohio has even started?

The answer lies in partisan politics and the fact that the Ohio Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, is not only the supervisor of the Ohio election process but also served as the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in this state.

We have asked the federal judiciary to intervene. Although two federal district judges have affirmed my right to a recount, they have declined to expedite the process. It is clear to me that the people of this nation need and deserve a constitutionally guaranteed right to vote in order for citizens, and even candidates, to be able to impact this process.

We have faced tremendous obstacles in our efforts to seek our statutory right to a recount. We were sued by Delaware County, Ohio, in their effort to block the recount in that county. On this issue, we prevailed in federal court although a Delaware County judge did in fact initially issue a temporary restraining order against my legal counsel, my colleague Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, and me.

We have been unable to even have Mr. Blackwell clarify critical issues concerning the mechanics of the recount process. In good faith, my legal counsel sent this letter to Mr. Blackwell on December 7 seeking clarification of a number of issues. We have not received a response from Mr. Blackwell. In the interest of time, I won't read all the questions we have posed to Mr. Blackwell but I would like to have this letter entered into the record.

My campaign has also filed for recounts in New Mexico and Nevada where, like Ohio, there were numerous problems with electronic voting machines. Faced with a hefty price tag and uncooperative election officials in Nevada, we withdrew our request. In New Mexico, as in Ohio, we are facing unwarranted, illegal delay.

I raise the status of these other states just to point out that there is no single standard for conducting elections or recounts in our country.

Today, the presidential electors will cast their votes. Yet here in Ohio, over 100,000 so-called "spoiled" and provisional ballots remain uncounted.

We often hear people say that "voting doesn't matter" or that "my vote doesn't count." Sadly, as the presidential electors gather under a cloud of suspicion, these people are being proved correct.

Recounts are an essential check and balance on the voting system. In order to be meaningful, they must be timely and must be completed before the electors meet and before the federally designated "safe harbor" day which precedes the meeting of the electors.

If recounts are not conducted in a timely and meaningful way, then there is no accountability in the voting process. And if there is no accountability, then that is an invitation for fraud and corruption. Without uniform standards for recounts, the process is left open for abuse by partisan public officials. This is unacceptable and intolerable. We must have our elections supervised by independent and non-partisan election commissions.

We must end black box voting and demand auditable, verifiable paper trails from electronic voting machines.

We must enshrine in our Constitution the right to vote and establish national, uniform voting standards.

We must have publicly funded elections.

We must have Instant Runoff Voting and proportional representation.

The right to vote, and the right to have everyone's vote count, is perhaps the most sacred of all rights.

Mr. Chairman, though our time is limited, I must bring to the committee's attention the most recent and perhaps most troubling incident that was related to my campaign on Sunday, December 12, about a shocking event that occurred last Friday, December 10.

A representative from Triad Systems came into a county board of elections office un-announced. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the up-coming recount. He then headed into the back room where the Triad supplied Tabulator (a card reader and older PC with custom software) is kept. He told them there was a problem and the system had a bad battery and had "lost all of its data". He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it and another "spare" tower type PC also in the room. He may have had spare parts in his coat as one of the BOE people moved it and remarked as to how very heavy it was. He finally re-assembled everything and said it was working but to not turn it off.

He then asked which precinct would be counted for the 3% recount test, and the one which had been selected as it had the right number of votes, was relayed to him. He then went back and did something else to the tabulator computer.

The Triad Systems representative suggested that since the hand count had to match the machine count exactly, and since it would be hard to memorize the several numbers which would be needed to get the count to come out exactly right, that they should post this series of numbers on the wall where they would not be noticed by observers. He suggested making them look like employee information or something similar. The people doing the hand count could then just report these numbers no matter what the actual count of the ballots revealed. This would then "match" the tabulator report for this precinct exactly. The numbers were apparently the final certified counts for the selected precinct.

Triad is contracted to do much of the elections work in this county and elsewhere in Ohio. This included programming the candidates into the tabulator, and coming up with the rotation of candidates in the various precincts (that is, the order of which candidate is first changes between precincts). They also have a technician in the office on election night to actually run the tabulator itself.

Triad also supplies the network computers on which all of the voter registration information and processing is kept for the county.

It was unusual for the computers to be taken apart. At least one member of the Board of Elections was told the tabulator was in pieces when he called to check on the office.

The source of this report believes that the Triad representative was "making the rounds" of visiting other counties also before the recount. This person also stated they would not pass on the suggestion of the "posted" hidden totals, and would refuse to go along with it if it were suggested by the others in the office at the time.

The source of this information believes they could lose their job if they come forward.