HungryBlues

Update from PFAW Election Protection Hotline

(Caught this one in my work on No Stolen Democracy, but it really belongs over here. --BG)

Update from PFAW Election Protection Hotline

Dear Volunteers,

Thanks to volunteers and activists like you, the Election Protection Coalition is pressing ahead and making progress. We have two major post-election objectives:

Ensure that the votes cast in 2004 are properly counted; and,
Prepare an election reform agenda to push at the federal, state and local levels. As we get ready for 2005, here's a brief update on where we stand.

Preliminary Review of Election Problems and Reform Agenda Unveiled
We are shattering the myth that the 2004 election ran smoothly, a myth that has become the conventional wisdom for many pundits and politicians. To tell the real story, People For the American Way Foundation and other Election Protection partners released on December 8 a preliminary review of the election problems documented by our efforts. Based on an analysis of the nearly 40,000 written complaints and more than 200,000 phone calls taken by Election Protection volunteers, the report identifies the top five problems voters encountered in 2004 and outlines preliminary recommendations to fix them. Take a moment to read the report and help spread the word to friends: http://www.pfaw.org/go/EP/shattering_myths (.pdf).

GAO Will Investigate 2004 Voting Process
Last month, thousands of Election Protection activists wrote Congress to demand a nationwide investigation of voting problems in this year's elections. Backed by those and other letters from constituents, members of Congress called for the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to conduct a thorough investigation. The GAO has agreed to do so and will study a range of systemic election issues, including the accuracy of the vote count and the methods used to count the vote. We'll keep you posted as this investigation takes further shape. Election Protection activists will most certainly be needed again on this matter.

PFAW Foundation Files Suit to Protect Ohio Provisional Ballots
People For the American Way Foundation filed a lawsuit on November 24 seeking to overturn arbitrary rules that led election officials in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) not to count one third, or more than 8,000, of the provisional ballots cast on November 2. The percentage of provisional ballots rejected this year is almost twice the percentage thrown out in 2000. Representing several individual voters whose ballots were among those not counted, PFAW Foundation's legal team is asking that election officials check the provisional ballots against voter registration cards, not electronic voting lists that are known to contain errors. The lawsuit also requests remedies for voters affected by poll workers who did not notify them of their correct polling place. You can stay current on this case, which is currently pending at the county appellate district court, and our other election-related legal efforts on our Casewatch page: http://www.pfaw.org/go/EP/casewatch.

Public Hearings Collect Voter Problems, Experiences and Ideas
Election Protection coalition members and allied organizations are conducting a series of public hearings to gather additional information on election inequities, irregularities, and voter suppression efforts, and to help build public support for a reform agenda in the states. Well-attended hearings have already been held in Ohio and Texas, bringing to light voting obstacles from the pervasive confusion among poll workers concerning provisional ballots to reports of authorities towing the vehicles of voters standing in long lines. Additional hearings, scheduled throughout January, will be held in at least six states (Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico and Colorado). Election Protection activists will be invited to attend hearings and help keep voting problems and the people affected by them before the media.

As you can see from just this short recap, the Election Protection team has been hard at work since November 2, and our efforts will only increase in 2005. Your participation, action and insight will lead our march toward a fair and reliable election system for every American.

Thank you for your incredible support. We hope you enjoy the holiday season.
Sincerely,
Ralph G. Neas
President
People For the American Way Foundation

(via Ohio Election Fraud.)

5th Circuit candidate & white supremacists

I'm not blogging over here right now, but this, just in from the Arkansas Delta Peace & Justice Center, needs immediate publication. --BG

Kay Cobb has been interviewed by the White House as a candidate for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. She would be a permanent replacement of Charles Pickering who has been serving in a temporary capacity for the past year. She has spoken at least twice to Council of Conservative Citizens groups.
            ***         ***         ***
The Council of Conservative Citizens is a reincarnation of the White Citizens Councils that sprang up in the South in the 1950s and 1960s to oppose school desegregation. Like the League of the South, a neo-confederate group to which it has many links, the 15,000-member Council has tried without success to mask its white supremacist ideology to better promote a right-wing political agenda.The link to the Council of Conservative Citizens is www.cofcc.org.
            ***         ***         ***
Kay Cobb
Presiding justice, Mississippi Supreme Court

Term ends: 2008

CCC links: As a candidate for the post she'd been appointed to a year earlier, introduced speaker Virginia Abernethy, a member of the CCC editorial advisory board, at a Sept. 23, 2000, Marshall County, Mississippi CCC event also attended by the CCC's top national leaders, CEO Gordon Baum and President Tom Dover; spoke to the Webster County, Mississippi CCC in Mathiston on Sept. 25, 2000.

Comment: Cobb said she spoke at the invitation of friends of her family to what she saw as a group of "ultra-conservative, mostly older, white, rural citizens."

No Stolen Democracy

Light blogging at HungryBlues for the next two weeks, until January 6. I will be posting frequently, instead, at No Stolen Democracy. The new blog is a clearing house for information on getting Senators not to certify the electoral vote. I made a start today, but it's by no means comprehensive. Especially incomplete are the links to organizations. If you have info you want to submit, send it to me at democracyblog [at] gmail [dot] com. Please restrict your submissions to actions, news and events relating specifically to the drive to get Senators not to certify the vote.

Call to Action: HELP US STOP CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTION ON JANUARY 6

Dear Friends and Concerned Citizens:

We can still have an impact on the course of this election.

We are a group of citizens concerned about the 2004 Presidential election. There were 57,000 complaints of voting violations delivered to the House Judiciary Democrats (http://tinyurl.com/4ykbt). When hundreds of thousands of voters are affected by machine problems and acts of voter suppression, it calls our American Democracy into question.

On January 6th, Congress meets to certify the Presidential election. If even one House member and one Senator object to the electoral votes of any state, this objection will be recorded: the vote will not be automatically approved. This has happened only once before -- in 1877. Its occurrence once again would draw historic attention to our shattered democracy and lead to an outcome that none of us can know.

In 2000 no Senator would join the Representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus to challenge the electoral vote. Therefore in 2004, we are asking you to contact as many as you can of the key Senators, listed below, as well as your own Senators, if you think you can reach them on this issue. Tell them not to certify the election on January 6, 2005.

Sign our petition to the Senators:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/senatorsnocertify

Contact these Senators at 1-800-839-5276 or 1-877-762-8762 connecting all offices.

Barbara Boxer CA-D
Robert Byrd WV-D
Mark Dayton MN-D
Thomas Harkin IA-D
Jim Jeffords VT-I
Edward Kennedy MA-D
Patrick Leahy VT-D
Carl Levin MI-D
Joseph Lieberman CT-D
Barbara Mikulski MD-D
Barack Obama IL-D
Olympia Snow ME-R
Charles Schumer NY-D

If you live in the same state as any of the Senators on our list, email us at caef@caef.us to share information about activist efforts in your area or to get involved in organizing. If you want to start something yourself, we have experienced organizers who can give you guidance. We want to know any information you gather on the potential of a specific Senator to object to certification of the vote.

See our site for a more detailed summary of violations, citations and other information about the 2004 election and what you can do.

Please get involved. Pass this on to others.

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ELECTION FRAUD 2004

There were 57,000 complaints of voting violations delivered to the House Judiciary Committee. Machine problems and acts of voter suppression affected hundreds of thousands of voters.

Machine problems include electronic touch screen machines in Florida that began counting votes backwards and others that reported the wrong candidate as people voted. Touch screen machines are inherently dangerous because most leave no paper trail, because they are relatively easy to tamper with -- and above all because they hide the voting process from the voter and prevent traditional citizen oversight.

Hanging chads were once again a problem, this time in Ohio. Just as in Florida in 2000, the greatest ballot spoilage -- ballots cast but not countable -- occurred in predominately African American precincts.

Some voters were turned away illegally. Others were given provisional ballots that were later discarded. Inexcusable waits of up to ten hours caused an unknown but easily guessed number of voters to give up without voting. Many were sent to the wrong polling place. Many experienced intimidation. Tens of thousands were purged from voting lists. Absentee ballots did not arrive or went uncounted. African American, low-income and younger voters were disproportionately disenfranchised.

Significant discrepancies between the exit polls and the official results occurred -- but only in swing states. Exit polling, which has been reliable for decades, was suddenly inaccurate. Jonathan Simon points out that the disparity between the exit polls and the official tallies almost always favored George Bush -- statistically improbable.

These are the kinds of problems that led the Ukrainian people to take to the streets and the international community to stand up and cry foul. The Voting Rights Act makes voter suppression illegal. The 14th amendment of our Constitution says that if voters are disenfranchised, the vote of the Electoral College should be adjusted proportionately.

Currently the votes are being recounted in Ohio and The Supreme Court of Ohio has before it a lawsuit claiming election tampering on the part of the Bush campaign.

We must be able to trust that our electoral processes are fair and just. This is a non-partisan issue. Join us in opposing the certification of this election.

We're targeting Senators because on January 6th, Congress will meet to certify the election. If even one House member and one Senator object to the electoral votes of any state, that objection will be recorded and the vote will not be automatically certified.

After the 2000 election Representatives from the Congressional Black Caucus were willing not to certify, but they couldn't find one Senator to support them. Don't let that happen again.

Our list of Senators consists of those we think are most likely to respond to our request. Contact them, as well as those of your own state. Tell them not to certify this election and that this election cannot stand unquestioned. If you have any first hand stories, the Senators need to know.

Coalition Against Election Fraud
web: http://www.caef.us
email: caef@caef.us

Incredible Things Are Happening In Ohio (II)

This post was supposed to go up days ago and is actually a little old as news. Sadly there's plenty of reason still to post this, since the story ought to be as big as Watergate, and almost no one is paying attention. I'm talking about the sworn testimony from Hocking County, Ohio Board of Elections Deputy Director, Sherole Eaton. Ms. Eaton said that on Friday, Dec. 10, an employee of Triad, the company that services all of Ohio's punch card machines, tampered with the tabulator computer, which records the results from the individual machines around the county.

The story is serious enough that The New York Times broke its code of silence on the Ohio investigation and actually published an article on the subject. Only a nine paragraph article, but against the backdrop of it's news ban, this is a thunderous acknowledgment that something serious is going on.

Here's what has happened: Sherole Eaton came forward with a signed affidavit, alleging machine tampering by a Triad employee. The Triad employee also asked Ms. Eaton to be complicit in falsifying the results of the manual recount that they were to perform. From her affidavit:

On Friday, December 10 2004, Michael from TriAd called in the AM to inform us that he would be in our office in the PM on the same day. I asked him why he was visiting us. He said, "to check out your tabulator, computer, and that the attorneys will be asking some tricky questions and he wanted to go over some of the questions they maybe ask." He also added that there would be no charge for this service.

He arrived at about 12:30PM. I hung his coat up and it was very heavy. I made a comment about it being so heavy. He, Lisa Schwartze and I chatted for a few minutes. He proceeded to go to the room where our computer and tabulation machine is kept. I followed him into the room. I had my back to him when he turned the computer on. He stated that the computer was not coming up. I did see some commands at the lower left hand of the screen but no menu. He said that the battery in the computer was dead and that the stored information was gone. He said that he could put a patch on it and fix it. My main concern was - what if this happened when we were ready to do the recount. He proceeded to take the computer apart and call his offices to get information to input into our computer. Our computer is fourteen years old and as far as I know had always worked in the past. I asked him if the older computer, that is in the same room. could be used for the recount. I don't remember exactly what he said but I did relay to him that the computer was old and a spare. At some point he asked if he could take the spare computer apart and I said "yes". He took both computers apart. I don't remember seeing any tools and he asked Sue Wallace, Clerk, for a screwdriver. She got it for him. At this point I was frustrated about the computer not performing and feared that it wouldn't work for the recount. I called Gerald Robinette, board chairman, to inform him regarding the computer problem and asked him if we could have Tri Ad come to our offices to run the program and tabulator for the recount. Gerald talked on the phone with Michael and Michael assured Gerald that he could fix our computer. He worked on the computer until about 3:00 PM and then asked me which precinct and the number of the precinct we were going to count. I told him, Good Hope 1 # 17. He went back into the tabulation room. Shortly after that he (illegible) stated that the computer was ready for the recount and told us not to turn the computer off so it would charge up.

Before Lisa ran the tests, Michael said to turn the computer off. Lisa said, " I thought you said we weren't supposed to turn it off." He said turn it off and right back on and it should come up. It did come up and Lisa ran the tests. Michael gave us instructions on how to explain the rotarien, what the tests mean, etc. No advice on how to handle the attorneys but to have our Prosecuting Attorney at the recount to answer any of their legal questions. He said not to turn the computer off until after the recount.

He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county. He left about 5:00 PM.

(From the truthout.org report, Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed, by William Rivers Pitt.)

The day after Ms. Eaton submitted her affidavit, Representative John Conyers requested an investigation by the FBI [pdf]. In his letter to the FBI, Conyers added, "I have information that similar actions of this nature may be occurring in other counties in Ohio." Despite the magnitude of Eaton's allegations and Conyers' statement, the Bureau has no plans to investigate.

Back to the South for a Moment: Mississippi Political News Watch

As serendipity would have it, the editor of Mississippi Political News Watch (MPNW) stumbled upon the Information on the Council of Conservative Citizens and Mississippi Politicians I posted here last Sunday. MPNW has its own list of Mississippi politicians who associate with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). MPNW also has a good article on the CCC.

If you're interested in cultural and political news about the South, with a strong focus on Mississippi, Mississippi Political News Watch is worth visiting. The site appears to update daily. The site doesn't have syndication for RSS readers, so you have to click over there whenever you want to catch the latest news.

Electors across US break traditional pro forma ritual to use electoral college to protest election violations

Truth in Elections*
49 Francesca Ave.,
Somerville, MA 02144
617-625-3166
econhmnrts (at) aol.com
*In conjunction with United Progressives for Democracy
and Massachusetts Coalition Against Election Fraud

For immediate release Contact: Grace C Ross 617-642-0312

Across the US electors in at least five states, for the first time in history, turned the heavily scripted and ritualized electoral college proceedings into a forum for political action. Frustrated by the relative inattention to wide spread real voting violations now numbering in the tens of thousands, Electors called for congressional investigation and legislative action.

Vermont electors, on the record and in front of TV cameras and a number of statewide media outlets, expressed their concerns for our democracy with “57,000 complaints already received by the Congressional Judiciary Committee, we call on Congress and especially our Vermont Congressional delegation to investigate.” They enumerated credible violations affecting hundreds of thousands of voters across the US, Elector Jeffrey Taylor reports.

Opening the traditional statement of thanks for being introduced at the beginning of the Massachusetts Electoral College 2004 session, Elector Cathleen Ashton of Wayland, took the opportunity to demand “Every vote be counted and every vote count.”

As described in local news reports, for the first time in history, Electors in Maine also went on the record using the voting process to “call for national voting reforms.” Their statement pointed to the kind of electoral reforms Maine has that lead to more genuine elections, such as same day registration, allowing ex-felons to vote, and clean election reforms "but our four electoral votes are held meaningless if our sister states cannot hold elections that are fair, accurate and verifiable," Elector Lu Bauer said after the brief ceremony at the State House.

Most extraordinarily, one elector in California cast his ballot provisional upon “all votes being counted – provisional, absentee, under- and overvotes, computerized without paper ballots, even getting valid votes from those turned away illegally, intimidated, discouraged by incredibly long waits, etc.” This incredible act as a creative attempt to get this message read on the floor of Congress when they open the ballots on January 6 to consider whether to certify the vote.

“Never has such a vote been cast by an elector and without a parliamentarian to rule it in or out at the electoral college level, we await whether Congress will acknowledge this type of provisional vote and address the issues this elector sought to raise or whether they too will ignore provisional votes,” said Grace Ross, an organizer of the national effort to support electors to take action and a member of Truth in Elections.

Even in North Carolina where lack of “swing state” status left local voting violations relatively invisible, Democratic Electors and local activists spoke out about local problems while Republican Electors voted inside. Elector Mary Roe spoke of problems she herself witness as an election observer in her own county as well as saying that “everyone deserves to have their votes counted” while deploring the 4,500 votes NC election officials acknowledged disappeared in a computerized voting machine crash.

Massachusetts Electors who introduced the motion said they will use this to lobby Congressional members to take action now such as objecting to the vote. The motion passed by acclimation called on Congress to: “Act to commit Congress to investigate all voting complaints that might have any validity that they receive; Act to commit Congress to remedy any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts; File in Congress and commit their resources to passage of systemic remedies.”

In speaking at their Mass. press conference afterwards, one Elector, Tom Barbera spoke of personally having his life threatened during get-out-the-vote efforts. Another spoke of being targeted for intimidation such as being immediately accosted as an African American entering a Florida polling place by whites telling her “your kind is not wanted here”, “we don’t want your kind voting here”, “leave”; such threatening behavior meant as get-out-the-vote volunteers they frequently had to follow intimidated voters of color out of polling places and convince them to reenter and agree to accompany them through the voting process..

Tom Barbera, in presenting the Massachusetts’ Electoral College motion, acknowledging that many whose voting rights violations were most widely violated were African American, referenced the Civil Rights struggle in saying ”we believe that as electors, we have a unique opportunity and obligation to ensure that justice does not again become so delayed as to be denied (as happened in 2000)”

Lighter Blogging, Perhaps

Things have slowed down here at HungryBlues the last few days. I've been working with the Boston-based Coalition Against Election Fraud on getting at least one US Senator to stand with the members of the House who will object to the Electoral College Vote Certification on January 6. This political work and my job hunting have been taking up most of my time. I might catch up on blogging a little today. We'll see how things go. . .

Massachusetts Electors Pass Motion In Protest Of US Electoral Irregularities

This year when the Massachusetts met to cast their votes, it was not business as usual. The electors from Kerry's home state decided they could not merely cast their votes; rather they felt compelled to use their positions as electors. Here is the motion they passed, while they were still sworn in:

Motion passed by Massachusetts electors December 13, 2004, made by Tom Barbera -

I move that we, the duly sworn electors of Massachusetts, call on Congress and especially the honorable members of our MA congressional delegation as follows:
We believe that as electors we have a unique opportunity and obligation to insure that justice does not again become so delayed as to be denied. We call on the Congress of the United States and most especially our own honorable representatives, the members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to -

1. Act to commit Congress to investigate all voting complaints that might have any validity that they receive.
2. Act to commit Congress to remedy any voting rights violations or electoral fraud verified by its own agents or through the courts.
3. File in Congress and commit their resources to passage of systematic remedies.

Tom Barbera’s statement, as he cast his vote for President and Vice President -

We believe in one nation under God and we recognize as in the words of the great leader Martin Luther King Jr. that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And we recognize our obligation as citizens of one nation to stand up for the equal rights for all members of our national community. We do believe that all people are created equal and we hold precious the sacred right to vote which our forefathers enshrined in the very Constitution that we have just sworn as electors to uphold and as citizens of Massachusetts where we count every vote.

The Electors unanimously voted yes. Barbera got a very long and standing ovation.

For more info:
Coaltion Against Election Fraud (Massachusetts-based organization that lobbied the electors to take a stand for American democracy)
Casting a vote for activism (Daily News Tribune)
Electors rue marred election: Claim voter fraud, intimidation (MetroWest Daily News)

Incredible Things Are Happening In Ohio (I)

I'd boil down all the recent developments to two things:

1. The level of attention to and outrage about gross violations of African Americans' civil rights seems to be mounting to a renewal of the public will to address racial discrimination in at least some of its forms.

2. All of our worst fantasies about possible tampering with electronic voting machines are becoming more certain every day.

Below, I'm focusing on item 1. Item 2 is in my next post.

            ***         ***         ***

It may have taken some white people getting to see the gross displays of racism in this election to effect the sea change I'm hoping has really come, but this is what it took before. That was one of the important tactics of the Civil Rights Movement—bringing the realities of racism onto television screens across America and making average citizens see the truth about injustice in their land-of-the-free. White activists who turned out to protect the vote on election day got a bitter taste of what it was that they were protecting against. Listen, for example, to Susan Truitt, founder of the Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) in Ohio, testifying at the Conyers hearing in Washington lat week.

Why were they there too long? They didn't have enough voting machines. They were intentionally suppressed in their vote. I personally saw a man come to the polls with an IV in his arm because he had been in the hospital, an elderly African-American gentleman. His family took him out of the hospital, took him to the Driving Park Precinct on the east side of Columbus so that the man could vote, because he was refused an absentee ballot in the hospital. I saw that with my own eyes.

I talked to people who spoke of their wait, of how they had to go pick up children, of how they had to return to their jobs. I received a call when I was at the call center for Election Protection: a man had been fired because he waited in line to vote.

This is despicable. This is not America. This is not the America that we are promised. This is not the America that we dream of, and this needs to be stopped now.

(UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUDICIARY COMMITTEE DEMOCRATIC FORUM: PRESERVING DEMOCRACY -- WHAT WENT WRONG IN OHIO? [pdf 192 KB], Wednesday, December 8, 2004, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 63-64)

Here is an excerpt from the call to arms from National Voter Fund Executive Director, Gregory T. Moore, when he testified at the second installment in the Conyers hearings on Monday, this time in Columbus, Ohio:

The NAACP National Voter Fund joins in solidarity with CASE, the Free Press, National Voting Rights Institute, and many other groups as we seek a recount of all the votes cast on November 2, 2004 in the state of Ohio; something that never happened in Florida 4 years ago. . . .

Those people standing in line will go down in history in the same spirit as students and civil rights leaders sitting in at lunch counters and county courthouses demanding an end to segregation in public accommodations and the right to vote for all Americans regardless of race.

The courage and determination of those voters all over Columbus to stand in line should serve as the opening volley in a rallying cry that will, with your leadership in the Congress, lead to a series of long overdue uniform standards for voting, and provisional voting at the federal and state level. This upcoming legislative battle will be fought on two fronts in Washington and here in Columbus. It is the continuation of our decades long crusade to break down the barriers to full voting rights. . . .

Our democracy is in grave danger when “we the people” relinquish to machines the power to decide who governs our nation. We all know from our day-to-day lives that cars break down, computers break down, and even electrical systems can shut down as the people of Ohio witnessed last year. When we have machines that are recording a higher voter turnout than the total number of people who are actually registered in a jurisdiction (as was the case in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties), we the people have to step in and take corrective action. . . .

The NAACP and the NAACP National Voter Fund made a commitment to our voters that we would work to ensure that all votes are counted. We are not conceding that battle until all the votes are counted. . . .

My bible and Rev. Jesse Jackson has taught me that the race does not go to the swift and the strong, but for those who hold out til the end. Thanks to all of you here for continuing to hold on and for keeping the promise of our democracy alive.

(Whole thing. [pdf 56KB])

After the Conyers hearing in Washington last week, Cliff Arnebeck of Common Cause Ohio pronounced that

If you look at who was here . . . you had leaders from the generally white political reform movement, and leaders from the black civil rights movement. This is a powerful coalition. We are not talking about one group having dominance over the other, but a real partnership of the traditional political reform community with the traditional civil rights community, and Reverend Jackson is the one that proposed it, has initiated the organization of it.

Let's hope Arnebeck is right.