The House and Senate have a right to jointly contest an election. When Congress reconvenes in January, at least 14 members of the House of Representatives will challenge the validity of the 2004 election. They will request an immediate "investigation of the efficacy of the voting machines and new technologies used in 2004 election, how election officials responded to the difficulties they encountered, and what we can do in the future to improve our elections systems and administration."
Contest the Vote articleWill there be a senator with balls this time around?
To be sure, a switch in the Ohio vote won't turn the results of this election. And no, Sen. John Kerry won't be the next president. To the disappointment of those who supported him, President Bush's margin of victory was too vast for Ohio to be the post-election "swing state."
Voting irregularities and problems in Ohio, especially among its poor, working-class neighborhoods, are apparently so wide-ranging that a challenge needs to be made. An investigation into them ought to be serious and thorough. To this point, the man in charge of the Ohio vote -- the secretary of state -- has downplayed the issue and refused to authorize a recount. But be reminded he was also the chairman of the Bush re-election campaign in Ohio.
Brattleboro Reformer articleVoting irregularities and problems in Ohio, especially among its poor, working-class neighborhoods, are apparently so wide-ranging that a challenge needs to be made. An investigation into them ought to be serious and thorough. To this point, the man in charge of the Ohio vote -- the secretary of state -- has downplayed the issue and refused to authorize a recount. But be reminded he was also the chairman of the Bush re-election campaign in Ohio.
President Bush's re-election campaign yesterday asked the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court to throw out a challenge of the election in the state, saying the case resembles "a poorly drafted script for a late night conspiracy-theory movie."
The court filing was made as the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally of hundreds of people in Columbus to support the challenge and urge the U.S. Senate to debate Ohio's results on Thursday, when Congress is in joint session for the official tally of the electoral votes.
Thirty-seven Ohio voters who filed the challenge are asking Chief Justice Thomas Moyer to set aside election results. Some of the voters are suspicious of Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry, while others say hours-long waits in black neighborhoods caused voters to leave in frustration without casting a ballot.
"In 2000, if Al Gore had just held on and fought to the bitter end, he would have been president," said Mark Lomax, a black Columbus musician challenging the vote. "I kind of have the same feeling now; whether or not you like John Kerry, that's not the issue. It's just that your vote counts."
articleThe court filing was made as the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally of hundreds of people in Columbus to support the challenge and urge the U.S. Senate to debate Ohio's results on Thursday, when Congress is in joint session for the official tally of the electoral votes.
Thirty-seven Ohio voters who filed the challenge are asking Chief Justice Thomas Moyer to set aside election results. Some of the voters are suspicious of Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry, while others say hours-long waits in black neighborhoods caused voters to leave in frustration without casting a ballot.
"In 2000, if Al Gore had just held on and fought to the bitter end, he would have been president," said Mark Lomax, a black Columbus musician challenging the vote. "I kind of have the same feeling now; whether or not you like John Kerry, that's not the issue. It's just that your vote counts."
Uh....or should.
There is strong evidence of vote theft in Ohio. That will be news to anyone who gets their news from a television or from most print media. When forced to talk about ethics, media big shots often insist that they draw no conclusions. They endlessly reported Dick Cheney's claims that Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, but it would not have been their place to label that a "conspiracy theory." When it comes to election fraud in Ohio and other U.S. states, on the other hand, the media has jumped straight to reporting that it's all a "conspiracy theory" before ever reporting any of the facts. The Bush Administration has recently presented the media with a nutty theory that our Social Security system is broken, which the media in turn has presented to us as established fact. But to anyone who reads more than just the news that's fit to print, it's our election system that has broken down.
Some voices in the media, including the New York Times' editorial page, admit that the election system is badly broken. But they insist that it also functioned quite acceptably in November. It's broken in the abstract, as it were, but not in any concrete time or place.
As the ILCA reported on November 8th, the U.S. media has reversed its usual position on the value of exit polls. The media has always relied on exit polls to predict election outcomes and to question the accuracy of official vote counts, such as in the Venezuelan recall attempt or the Ukrainian presidential election. Exit polls in November predicted victories for Kerry in a number of swing states that swung, in the official results, dramatically for Bush. The U.S. media immediately declared the exit polls inaccurate. How they could be so far off has not been explained, and the networks' refusal to turn the raw data of the exit polls over to Congress doesn't help.
ICLA articleSome voices in the media, including the New York Times' editorial page, admit that the election system is badly broken. But they insist that it also functioned quite acceptably in November. It's broken in the abstract, as it were, but not in any concrete time or place.
As the ILCA reported on November 8th, the U.S. media has reversed its usual position on the value of exit polls. The media has always relied on exit polls to predict election outcomes and to question the accuracy of official vote counts, such as in the Venezuelan recall attempt or the Ukrainian presidential election. Exit polls in November predicted victories for Kerry in a number of swing states that swung, in the official results, dramatically for Bush. The U.S. media immediately declared the exit polls inaccurate. How they could be so far off has not been explained, and the networks' refusal to turn the raw data of the exit polls over to Congress doesn't help.
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Not a one of the "alternative" media outlets named above has published anything as inexcusably self-certain and wildly false as the "mainstream" media's reports that Iraq had vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and plans to use them on the United States. The corporate media was wrong to cheerlead for the War on Iraq by uncritically parroting Bush Administration lies. The New York Times admitted some of its mistakes in this regard. Most media outlets did not. The same media outlets are behaving as poorly on the election fraud issue, and someday one or more of them may even acknowledge as much, but should the rest of us wait for that before speaking and acting? Or do we have a duty to fill in where the corporate news has become too corporate and not enough news?
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Do most Americans know that one Ohio county barred observers from its counting of ballots on grounds of "homeland security"? That in various other precincts and counties, more votes were counted than voters signed in to vote? That in one county, thousands of first-time voters in 2004 with no signatures on file supposedly registered on the same day in the non-election year of 1977? That another county added thousands of votes for Bush and none for Kerry after 100 percent of precincts had already been added?
For that matter, how many Americans are aware that there is a recount underway in Ohio? That some counties are complying with the requirements of the recount while others are not? That Ohio's electors have cast their votes for Bush regardless of the fact that the votes are still being counted? That the U.S. Congress is expected to take up the matter of the 2004 election on January 6th, and that numerous House Members and probably some Senators will challenge the results?
"The corporate media would like us to concentrate on our holiday shopping," Fishgold said. "The labor media has a responsibility to make information known that is critical to the health of our democracy. The ILCA is using its website at ILCAonline.org to help, and the ILCA supports the January 3rd and 6th rallies."
ILCA articleFor that matter, how many Americans are aware that there is a recount underway in Ohio? That some counties are complying with the requirements of the recount while others are not? That Ohio's electors have cast their votes for Bush regardless of the fact that the votes are still being counted? That the U.S. Congress is expected to take up the matter of the 2004 election on January 6th, and that numerous House Members and probably some Senators will challenge the results?
"The corporate media would like us to concentrate on our holiday shopping," Fishgold said. "The labor media has a responsibility to make information known that is critical to the health of our democracy. The ILCA is using its website at ILCAonline.org to help, and the ILCA supports the January 3rd and 6th rallies."
Update 4:00 pm :
The House Democrats' chief hope of finding a supportive senator may be Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Her spokesman, David Sandretti, said Tuesday that she has been asked to sign the complaint "and she is considering it."
Yahoo News article
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