« Wyandot County: Open Thread | Main | Should private corporations have remote dialup access to voting machines? »
What the Recount Was Not Allowed to Count
December 23, 2004 in 1 - The Ohio Election | Permalink
Comments
I want to thank the Green Party and Libertarian Party for their diligence in seeking the truth about Ohio Election Day 2004. I am in awe of your persistence and cannot find the words to thank you enough.
Sincerely,
Ruth Gabey, Maine Green Independent Party
Posted by: Ruth Gabey | Dec 26, 2004 8:59:57 PM
Thank you John Conyers. Cobb and Badnarik, Arnebeck, Kerry, Cheryl Eaton, Jesse Jackson and thousands of others for not shutting up and letting this election get swept under the bUSH regimes rug yet again in '04. There are so many questions that need to be answered before the American public can let this go. We must be like rabid pit bull's on steroids, on a mission to uncover all of these answers, and then, take what ever legal actions as necessary to ensure that this kind of fraud never happens again.
Posted by: Bill Carlson | Dec 29, 2004 1:11:31 PM
You are keeping that Wellstone fire lit for many of us!
Because of you, we are resisting and rejecting despair. Because of you, many are choosing to continue to fight the fight for JUSTICE.
(PS Time for John Kerry to turn Green.)
Posted by: stephanie owen | Dec 30, 2004 1:20:44 PM
Will Kenneth Blackwell be held accountable for his blantant suppression of the vote in Ohio.
I certainly thank those who did everything they could including my attorney son who went to Ohio to help in Franklin County, John Conyers and Bev Harris.
But I don't feel hopeful about the 2006 or the 2008 elections. I haven't given up. I just want some of the people who worked so hard to suppress votes to be held accountable; those who broke the law, both Federal and State; those who violated both the spirit and the plain meaning of the Help America Vote Act; the Commision who granted waivers to 44 states so no paper ballots or other paper receipts had to be in place for the 2004 elections; the Republicans who embraced their party at the expense of their country; the republicans who turned a blind eye to the excesses of their party to the detriment of their fellow Rebuplicans; the religious fanatics who willingly trashed the Constitution in favor of their intrepretation of the Bible. I want to see them all held accountable. And I want the accountability to start in whatever way possible before 2006.
Ralph Nader was better at consumer protection than he ever was as a candidate. I wanted to work for him when I graduated from law school. I couldn't afford to because I had three small children to support. I thought he was the greatest lawyer for the people we had in America. I hated what he did in 2004.
Now is his chance to shine. Mr. Nader: You fought General Motors. Now is the time for you to take on the makers of the machines that hide the software programs counting the vote; patched it for the re-count, and, the controlled or programed the tabulators that count the vote in this country. When I see you take on those enemies of democracy,I will know you are back in the job you do so well:Consumer protection. I will breathe a sigh of relief and help you any way I can.
Posted by: Judy Cohn | Dec 30, 2004 3:58:20 PM
Well, if voter supression occured find 119,00 of them then we will look into their claims. Otherwise it would be good if all would shut up. Proof or not. Jesse is a fool.
Posted by: skip warm | Dec 30, 2004 6:15:32 PM
Dear Skip,
Please do not call people names instead of addressing their claims. You only lower yourself in the eyes of the readership, and do not advance your argument.
Please watch the video called "You Must See This Video" on the home page of this website, and then tell me how you are going to help these people (whose children are disproportionately serving on the front lines of Iraq)to have their votes fairly counted?
You are quick to dismiss these claims, but how will you improve the process next time?
Posted by: Cornelius | Dec 30, 2004 7:11:22 PM
Why can't you people get over the fact that you lost? Instead of whining you should be looking for a candidate in 2008 who is actually smart enough to win, something that you and the Democrats have been unable to do.
Posted by: Mac | Dec 31, 2004 10:48:02 AM
As Rev Jackson says, we are not whining about a lost election, we are crying out for a fair election.
Have a good New Year, and here's to at least one Senator who stands up for justice on Jan 6.
Posted by: Cornelius | Dec 31, 2004 6:07:13 PM
We will soon see a repeat of an election gone
wrong (or a cheating election) when the Iraqes
use same namebrand voting computers (Diebold)
100 of which I heard Bush purchased for same.
Tell me they won't be "fixed". Hope there's alot
of security although they would also put them-
selves in harms way to do so. What a sad commentary on this country and what it's become. Thou Shall Not Cheat!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Mickster | Jan 2, 2005 4:08:35 PM
Cornelius, Dec. 30; Don't you mean we should look for a candidate who is immoral enough to cheat to win?
Posted by: Lynne | Jan 2, 2005 6:42:32 PM
Sorry, that last post should be to: MAC, Dec 31!
Posted by: Lynne | Jan 2, 2005 6:44:45 PM
GAWD get over it already, YOU LOST....and you were lucky to even get a recount. By law the margin of victory has to be like one percent or lower, not exactly sure. President Bush won by how much? 119,000+....Get real not even you cheating A** dems, greens and libby's can make up that much, like you did in Washington State after the third recount. I think Presinet Bush should request a recount on Penn, Mich and some other states he barely lost.....Keep it up and thats whats going to happen. I lived in Ohio for most of my of my life and we have NEVER had a problem til you A**Holes showed up with that lying cheating jesse jackas** So grow up and get over it you SORRY ASS LOSERS...
Posted by: 3IDVET | Jan 3, 2005 4:13:12 PM
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please do not use profanity or ad hominem attacks, as they detract from your argument and lower the standards here for everyone.
You can not say definitively who won here because there was so much fraud. Frankly, a fair recount or maybe even a re-vote (like the GOP is calling for in Washington) would be the best solution.
Look at that video on the home page and tell me we should move on when so many of our fellow Americans were denied the right to vote. You Republicans and other haters of democracy are the ones who have a problem, not the patriots who are demanding that every vote be counted.
Long live one-person-one-vote democracy!
Posted by: Cornelius | Jan 3, 2005 5:35:31 PM
There is a difference between choosing not to vote and being denied the right to vote. In the video I saw election problems, but even though people had to go to work, I saw no one denied the right to vote then or the option to come back later. I would like to see definite examples of fraud, before I make up my mind. All I see are a handful of people complaining, not 100,000. I think it is time to educate people in voting procedures and not just call foul when a person has to wait in line or did not register properly. Some people also chose not to vote for president. I had to stand in line, but for me I was just glad so many people were exercizing their right to vote. It was a good thing for so many people to vote. We know who won the election, we just need to make changes so that people are educated in the rules of voting.
Posted by: lac | Jan 3, 2005 6:29:43 PM
Dear Sir or Madam,
Waiting 3, 5, 8 hours IS being denied the right to vote if you have to go to a job, take care of a child, or go to school. It IS denial if you are sick or old and no one is obeying the Americans With Disabilities Act and accommodating you so you can vote without threatening your health and safety.
By the way, the video DID show an older Black woman with diabetes who went to her car to lie down after waiting in line 2 hours, and then was denied the right to get in the door when they closed it 15 minutes before the polls were listed as closing.
Another point - This was just one area of Ohio. Multiply that times the many areas of the state where Blacks, students, and others in predominantly Democratic-leaning areas were given less machines and more problems should give us all pause. Provisional ballots WITHOUT the required affidavits to accompany them (which should result in a poll worker being sanctioned or even criminally indicted for knowingly denying the right to vote to the voter) were handed out in Black areas, not white ones.
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video, but please think carefully about what you saw, and ask yourself whether white suburban communities had to endure situations such as these. If everyone had equal problems, it would be bad enough. That some people suffered disproportionately, and that the benefits of almost all variations from expected exit polls and machine counts broke for Mr Bush raises a red flag for me (no pun intended).
I will be out there protesting, but I would hope that you at least will pledge yourself to making sure that fair and transparent voting processes are in place for all voters by 2006.
Posted by: Cornelius | Jan 3, 2005 8:32:25 PM
I understand your pain and your grief, but it is still up to the voters to educate themselves in the rules of voting, i.e. absentee ballots if getting to the polling places is difficult. I have to work too, but I made arrangement to vote. I believe that every legally registered voter should have the right to vote and we all need to work toward that goal no matter what color we are, what age we are or where we live. I just believe that the responsibility for being able to vote is mostly on the voter being informed of their rights and responsibilities.
Posted by: lac | Jan 4, 2005 11:15:37 AM
Thanks for your reply. In a perfect world you are correct.
But as the video shows, there was discrimination going on here. And possibly illegalities. We need a (fair) re-count, criminal investigations, firings/demotions of incompetent election officials, and new laws to safeguard all of our votes.
Posted by: Cornelius | Jan 4, 2005 1:16:37 PM
I again say that I understand that you are upset with the results of the election. I would like to know though, how we can have fair election officials that are voted into office? Do we go to another country and find people not at all involved in our political process? Where do we find these perfect people in America, people that everyone would consider fair? I do not think that some people would ever consider the recount fair if George Bush still won, only if Kerry won. If something is done that is illegal or discriminatory then the proper authorities should take care of the situation after an investigation (remember innocent until proven guilty) and those people should be prosecuted. I also believe that the people that tried to vote illegally or actually did vote illegally should be prosecuted to the fullest. I still stand by my stance that it is the people's responsibility to make sure that their vote counts.
Posted by: lac | Jan 4, 2005 2:23:25 PM
We are 100% in agreement about the process. I was not happy when Reagan was voted into office in 1980, but the process seemed to be fair so I went along with it. I was not thrilled with either Kerry or Bush, but I am not accepting this one because there apparently were instances where the process was unfair and/or discriminatory. I will accept either Bush or Kerry as the victor when I am convinced that he won a fair election where every vote counted.
You are right that we must judge election officials innocent until proven guilty, but where are the county, state, and federal prosecutors who should be investigating and convening grand juries to determine if some of these local and state election officials should be sent to jail? Why aren't any officials having negative job evaluations put into their personnel files? Why isn't anyone being fired for a poor job? The lack of accountability that has been modeled by the Bush White House over the last four years has infected our voting processes in Ohio.
Posted by: Cornelius | Jan 4, 2005 11:03:24 PM
Back to "What the Recount Was Not Allowed to Count", I heard that one county out of all 88 had a full hand recount. Which county was it? How did it affect the numbers? What kind of voting machines were used there? It tells as much to know what was counted as what was not counted.
Posted by: Bill_MI | Jan 5, 2005 10:08:31 AM
There were hundreds of incidents of documented vote suppression and fraud. Machines were programmed to default to Bush, voters in Democratic strongholds stood in line until 3AM to vote, voters were told to go to the wrong precinct, flyers were sent out telling Democrats to vote on November 3, voters were told they weren't on the registration list, many provisional ballots were not counted in strongly Democratic areas, voting machines in one county were programmed to give Bush a fixed percentage of the votes, and one precinct was locked down due to a phoney terrorist threat. The recount rules were violated in 86 of 88 counties. Bush was not legitimately elected as president. He stole his second election in 4 years. Bush and his band of thugs are criminals. Bush is the American equivalent of Adolph Hitler.
Posted by: Mike | Jan 6, 2005 5:08:43 AM
Sorry if this is not the right place for my question but:
Who and how would charges be laid against Blackwell and CO.? There seems to be ample evidence of wrong-doing under Ohio and Federal law. Where would the charges come from? Who can lay them?
Thanks for any info forthcoming.
Brent
Posted by: Brent | Jan 7, 2005 1:39:24 AM
Brent has an excellent question. This guy eggregiously ignored Ohio law and even rewrote it. How and when can he be charged?
Someone, please, respond to the question I posed in my post above. Did an entire county get hand counted?
Bill
Posted by: Bill_MI | Jan 7, 2005 8:00:15 AM
I know that Tuscarawas was scheduled for one. Call Colby (see Contact page) and find out result.
Also see if he knows of any actions pending against Blackwell.
Posted by: Cornelius | Jan 7, 2005 11:35:52 AM
What continues to blow me away is the lack of investigative reporting by "our" media. The matter of voting irregularities occurring in Ohio would most certainly seem to be objectively verifiable in most cases (maybe not the computer voting, except for evidence that the machines were tampered with). But instead the media just plays up Repub. claims of "conspiracy theory" or "sore losers" as if the facts can't really be had. It's just so frustrating that these knee-jerk emotional responses are pushed to the forefront. We should all demand that it be confirmed or denied based on scientific, objective evidence as judged by an impartial body. It's like justice doesn't exist anymore, just spin, or maybe propaganda is a better word for it.
Posted by: Rob | Jan 7, 2005 11:36:03 AM
Bonus ringtones are included with any new subscription service (excluding text service subscriptions) and currently available only to Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, SunCom, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless* customers.
composer ringtones fo free composer ringtones fo free http://getk2.com/forum/member.php?u=18666 - composer ringtones fo free
Posted by: Dioxlidly | Dec 23, 2007 7:15:22 AM
