To anyone who missed the House debate on the Ohio electors challenge...

I understand that in this world of Entertainment Tonights and Ashlee Simpsonses, watching two hours of politicians yelling at each other can strain the average citizen's medulla oblongata. That's why I've taken the liberty of boiling the House Debate down into a single statement from each party, consisting entirely of actual quotes from the transcript, with only minor editing for space and grammar purposes.

During the debate, each of the 24 speakers had five minutes to speak. That's about how long it should take you to read both the Democratic argument and the Republican rebuttal, below. So get crackin'!


THE DEMOCRATIC ARGUMENT, DISTILLED

I object to the counting of the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the ground that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given. It is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, then I should surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress.

This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning the victory of the President. I raise this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities.

The beauty of the 2004 election was that more people were fully prepared to exercise their right to vote. However, on election day, hundreds and even thousands of individuals went to the voting polls and were denied the opportunity. I include for printing in the Congressional Record the staff report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff entitled, Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio.

Honorable colleagues, the numerous irregularities that occurred in Ohio point to an unresolved national crisis: the lack of a unified standard for all voters and all ballots cast in a Federal election. Reports of voter intimidation, inadequate and malfunctioning voting machines, incompetent election judges, and lines at polling places in urban areas that lasted for many hours were widespread. These irregularities were compounded by the irresponsible conduct of the allegedly unbiased top election official who openly became a partisan advocate for his party's Presidential nominee. The Ohio Secretary of State has refused to assist us in the search for the truth.

I am not suggesting that these irregularities changed the outcome of the election. But I am insisting that we act to ensure that the sacred right of every voter, to have his or her vote counted is protected by adopting a uniform Federal standard. It is our responsibility as Members of Congress to review the serious irregularities that occurred in Ohio to ensure that this significant disenfranchisement of voters never happens again.

Out of today's debate, I hope this Congress will respond to our challenge: a challenge to hold true bipartisan hearings to get to the bottom of what went wrong in Ohio and around the Nation on election day. A challenge to show the same concern about voter disenfranchisement in this country that we show in Afghanistan, and the Ukraine, and Iraq. A challenge to enact real election reform.

Today is about demanding that the Federal Government move forward to guarantee that every voter in America feels secure and confident that all of the votes cast are counted accurately and that all of our voters are treated with respect and dignity. That is what democracy is about and that is what we are fighting for. In the last two election cycles, our country has fallen woefully short.

This debate is fundamental to our democracy. The representatives of the American people in this House are standing up for three fundamental American beliefs: that the right to vote is sacred; that a Representative has a duty to represent his or her constituents; and that the rule of law is the hallmark of our Nation.

Before, during and after the election, there were problems in Ohio and elsewhere. During the election we know that there were not enough voting machines in poorer and minority areas. This is a fact. This led to appallingly long waiting times of up to 10 hours in certain places. You can deny it all you want, but it is a matter of public record that this is a fact, and this is wrong.

There were credible reports of voter suppression through intimidation and misinformation. The patchwork use of provisional ballots led to unequal treatment under the law. Constantly shifting vote tallies in Ohio and malfunctioning electronic machines have led to additional loss of confidence by the public. We cannot be here again 4 years from now discussing the failings of the 2008 election. I am saddened that no Republicans in this body are joining us today in acknowledging problems and in working with us to fix those problems. Defending the right to vote should be a concern for Republicans and Democrats alike.

No one can change the outcome of this election; but believe me, hundreds of thousands of Ohioans do have questions about the way that this election was handled. This deserves a full investigation. It ought to be our first order of business. I would ask my Republican colleagues to join us in this effort. Let us not denigrate factual concerns about the Ohio election by dismissing them as simply partisan.

We all know this is not deja vu. The Supreme Court did not appoint President Bush this time, as it did in 2000. But again, in 2004, the Democratic process was thwarted. Some say get over it. I will never get over the suppression of any American's constitutional right to vote. The right to vote has been stolen from qualified voters. Stolen through corruption, through political cynicism, through incompetence, through technical malfunction. If the apparent margin of victory in Ohio were 30,000 or 40,000 instead of 118,000, we would now be embroiled in a dispute that would make Florida in 2000 look like a picnic.

What is at stake is our democracy. This is not about conspiracies, or phantoms. It is about the failure to count valid votes. It is about disenfranchising thousands of voters by forcing them to wait on line 10 hours to cast their votes. It is about the co-chair of the President's reelect committee serving as the chief election officer for the state, and doing everything possible to prevent voters from voting. It is about voting machines that invalidate valid votes. If these outrages were criminal violations of our laws, those responsible must be brought to justice. If they were not violations of the law, they ought to be. We can do better. We must do better.

Money, privilege, or geographic location should not make someone's vote count more than anyone else's. We must continue to work toward a more perfect system. The Republicans control Congress, and their unwillingness to invest what it takes to correct our national electoral system is a disgrace. This is not a Republican/Democrat issue. This is a red, white and blue issue.

Never have the issues been so clear. Our country is at war to bring democracy to a far off country. As we try to spread democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan, it is prudent and appropriate and timely to examine our own democracy. We cannot be true to ourselves as a democratic society unless we get it right. I think it is fitting and appropriate that we pause, that we have this discussion.

More and more of our citizens have grown uneasy. This is the second Presidential election in a row in which serious, well-documented concerns have been raised about disenfranchisement and voting rights violations. This time, it must be different. It is time that we investigate these serious violations because they are violations to our democracy. I am here today to beg Congress to take a giant step forward to bolster America's world crusade for democracy. This is a sacred debate that is in no way frivolous.

The Democratic Judiciary Committee Staff Report clearly establishes that the State of Ohio has not met its obligation to conduct a fair election. I traveled to Ohio and I listened to citizen after citizen describe the Ohio election debacle. Secretary Blackwell, in violation of his statutory duty to investigate election irregularities, refused to investigate or remedy any of the hundreds of cases of voter intimidations reported to him.

We are now over 4 years beyond the nightmare of Florida in the 2000 election. It is stunning that in the 21st century we continue to use horse-and-buggy procedures to conduct our elections. It is amazing but true that in many jurisdictions we use more sophisticated technology to run the daily lottery than we devote to our election system. We must not allow these egregious violations to be trivialized. There is no constitutionally acceptable level of inequality in access to voting. There is little disagreement that irregularities did occur. The question is what are we going to do about it?

Surveys leading up to the 2004 Presidential election indicated as many as 42 percent of Americans anticipated problems with our voting system, and they were right. Thomas Paine once said the right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery. Ohio's close and contentious vote speaks for the country about virtually all the problems of the last election. Let us fix our system this year, including with fail-safes for voting to save our democracy.

Only open debate on this issue will solve these problems. Only accurate information will quell rumors and conspiracy theories. Some Members rise in apparent indignation when irregularities are discussed in our elections. They do not want to talk about the voting problems in Ohio. Yet these problems are real, and they deserve the attention of the American people.

I know that this objection is somewhat awkward because it does not have the apparent support of the candidate involved, but I believe it is our duty and responsibility to assure that election results meet the spirit and the letter of our Constitution. If we are to form a more perfect union, we must dedicate ourselves to forming a more perfect voting process. This is America. We are the incubator for democratic evolution. Ohio had special problems this time, but they are problems we can fix, and when we fix them in Ohio, we will have made the progress in 2005 that we failed to make over the last 4 years.

This debate is not frivolous. This is not about sour grapes. This is not about conspiracy theories. This is about the central act of democracy. I would like to enumerate numerous other discrepancies that were contained in a Judiciary Committee report entitled Preserving Democracy, What Went Wrong in Ohio:


The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters.

Mr. Blackwell's decision to restrict provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters.

Mr. Blackwell's decision to reject voter registration applications based on paper weight may have resulted in thousands of new voters not being registered in time.

The Ohio Republican Party's preelection "caging" tactics targeting minority voters had a negative impact on voter turnout.

The Ohio Republican Party's decision to utilize thousands of partisan challengers in minority and Democratic areas, disenfranchising tens of thousands of legal voters. These disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged by Republican officials.

Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them from being able to receive provisional ballots likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters.

A federal court found Mr. Blackwell's order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.

Mr. Blackwell's apparent failure to institute a single investigation into many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty to investigate election irregularities.

Improper purging and other registration errors by election officials likely disenfranchised tens of thousands.

10,000 Ohio citizens lost their right to vote as a result of official registration errors.

There were 93,000 spoiled ballots where no vote was cast for president, the vast majority of which have yet to be inspected.

Montgomery County had an undervote rate of over 25 percent. Nearly 6,000 voters supposedly stood in line to vote, but declined to vote for president.

In Mahoning county at least 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush column.

Warren County locked out public observers from vote counting citing an FBI warning about a potential terrorist threat, yet the FBI states that it issued no such warning.

The voting records of Perry county show significantly more votes than voters in some precincts, significantly less ballots than voters in other precincts, and voters casting more than one ballot.

In Miami county, voter turnout was an improbable and highly suspect 98.55 percent, and after 100 percent of the precincts were reported, an additional 19,000 extra votes were recorded for President Bush.

The voting computer company Triad has admitted that it provided cheat sheets to those counting the ballots during the recount.

Phone calls and fliers targeted African American voters sending them to vote on the wrong day at the wrong locations. Long-time voters disappeared from voting rolls. Voting machines defaulted to Bush votes regardless of which candidate the person voted for. People were forced to vote provisionally if they were in the right county but the wrong precinct. Sometimes the right precinct was literally only one table away.

During the recount, Secretary Blackwell fell short. The law requires that precincts be selected randomly for spot checks, but many counties hand-picked precincts. Ohio law requires that a discrepancy between the machine count and the hand count lead to a full recount by hand of the entire county. These hand recounts were not conducted as required. He failed to maintain a chain of custody for election materials. Observers were denied an opportunity to observe the recount process. The breadth and depth of what occurred in Ohio surrounding this past Presidential election is astounding and calls into question the validity of our electoral process.

I want to thank all the Members of the House who have stayed here with us, who have participated in the debate, who have shared their views, as different as many of them are. This is the way we work. This debate will not change the outcome of the November election. But we do know that out of today's debate, the Congress will respond to the challenge that has been raised. A challenge has been raised to hold true bipartisan hearings to get to the bottom of not just what went wrong in Ohio but around the Nation on Election Day. Join us.

I hope that 4 years from now we have an election that all our citizens can be proud of.


THE REPUBLICAN REBUTTAL, DISTILLED

John Kerry conceded the Presidency to George W. Bush with grace and dignity. Apparently such admirable qualities do not apply to extreme elements of his own party. For if they did, surely this House would not be standing here today bogged down in this frivolous debate. A handful of Members will claim that they are here to contest an election of this Nation. They will claim that there was fraud and that the result was invalid. Americans, do not be deceived. Their intentions in this whole process are merely to sow doubts and undermine public confidence in the electoral system itself. It is another exercise in their strategy to obstruct, to divide, and to destroy. It is a front for their lack of ideas. With no credible agenda for America, they have opted to try and change the past rather than work for a better future.

Democrats want to gripe about counts, recounts, and recounts of recounts. Like Michael Moore, they concoct wild conspiracy theories to distract the American public. Every major newspaper in Ohio has called this effort a sham. I think this is, in all the years I have been in politics, one of the most base, outrageous acts to take place.

There is a wise saying we have used in Florida: "Get over it." Is it not ironic that the very people who refuse to move on are the people from Moveon.org and their hero Michael Moore? My colleagues across the aisle have two sides to choose from, the John Kerry side or the Michael Moore side. Why are we here wasting time on silly Hollywood inspired conspiracy theories? Is it worth wasting 2 hours of Congress' time? The only bigger waste of 2 hours would be to go see Fahrenheit 911. Do the people in the Michael Moore wing of the Democrat Party really think that the American people are so stupid that they could be tricked into objecting to these electoral results?

In 2000, they didn't like the way the votes were counted in Florida. Now, they don't like the way the votes are counted in Ohio. In the red States, we call it what it is: sour grapes. Why allow the conspiracy theorists to undermine the public confidence in the electoral system itself?

This is a sad day. It saddens me that we have to be here today debating this issue. It used to be a given that the winner claimed victory, the loser accepted defeat. Now, the divisions are stoked by individuals who simply do not like the results. The losing candidate has admitted defeat. There is no such thing as a perfect election. The question is did those mistakes affect the outcome of this election? The answer is no. No serious person could claim that they did.

Long lines were not caused by the allocation of machines, but by the high voter turnout. Those who believe this election was stolen will always believe it. No amount of facts or evidence will convince them otherwise. The bottom line is those bringing this challenge today simply cannot accept the fact that George Bush has been elected President of the United States. It is too painful for them.

In 1974, Captain Hiroo Onada formally surrendered to the U.S. military forces. What made his surrender unique is Captain Onada was a member of the Imperial Army, still fighting a war whose outcome had been decided 29 years earlier. Thirty years later, another contest whose results have been firmly decided is being waged. President Bush won more votes than any candidate in America's history. His opponent conceded that victory long ago. One of that State's newspapers reported that those advancing the wild-eyed conspiracy theories surrounding Ohio's electorate votes are speaking nonsense. It is time for those who refuse to accept the American people's decision to move on.

To disrupt the Electoral College is not the proper use of the people's time. The net effect is to place doubt and to institutionalize forever the notion of grumbling and a lack of acceptance of the verdict of the people. It is called sour grapes. How sad the electoral process has been sidelined today for a publicity stunt.

The American people must be watching this debate and literally shaking their heads. With all of the challenges facing our Nation we are spending our time debating the challenge to the validity of the Presidential election simply because the Democratic Party cannot accept the fact that their candidate lost. They cannot accept the fact that their agenda, that their vision for America has been rejected by the majority of Americans.

The Democrats are asking us to overturn the Presidential election. They say that Karl Rove was manipulating votes from a secret computer in the White House. How interesting that their challenge is silent about an incident in Ohio where fraudulent voter registration forms were being submitted and the worker who collected them was paid in crack cocaine, or the Democratic group ACORN which submitted vote registrations for dead people that used 25 different addresses for the same individual. Why object only to Ohio? Why not pick a State that voted for John Kerry?

We are asking people in Afghanistan and Iraq to risk their lives to vote, and today we hear complaints about the time it took to vote in free elections in the greatest democracy in the world. We are in the midst of a global war on terrorism. This exercise which we are going through today clearly emboldens those who want to undermine the prospect of democracy.

There is no evidence whatsoever that the claims that are being made are valid. President Bush won the election with historic margins. John Kerry has accepted this fact. No election is perfect. This objection is without any merit whatsoever. My colleagues prefer to dwell on the past rather than fight for the future; level accusations rather than legislate; would rather waste Congress's time and taxpayer dollars than work on providing health care, education and a strong military for America.

Even CBS news has recognized the fact that President Bush has won this election. What kind of message are we sending to the rest of the world? Where we are trying to bring democracy, the right to vote to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to the Palestinian people, what message do we send when we stand up and say if you lose an election you can go to court, hire an attorney? Were there long lines? Certainly. I stood in a long line in my area. There were long lines everywhere. We are beating a dead horse. The election is over.

Political grandstanding during this vital electoral college ballot count is shameful and reprehensible. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing today is destructive of our system. I pray for our future at a time when some in the minority party put politics over people.

We have been asked to take this objection seriously. We have to ask, why Ohio? Why the State that happened to put President Bush over the top? Why not Minnesota where there were Democrat groups working inside polling places at polling booths? Why not New Hampshire where Democrat operatives allegedly slashed wheels of vehicles intended to take Republicans to the polls? Why not Wisconsin where Democrat operatives physically intimidated Republican voters? Why not New Mexico where a 13-year old was registered to vote? In Franklin County, Ohio, a dead person was registered to vote. Why are they not concerned about that? Why not raise a question about Lake County where a man who had been dead for 20 years was registered to vote?

John Kerry was very graceful in his concession to George Bush. That healing period over the last several months has been interrupted by an activity without merit. I think the proceeding today will cause great harm to this institution and great harm to our country. I ask my colleagues, let us get this behind us, quickly.

I know my friend from Michigan had a tough November with the Buckeyes beating the Wolverines and, of course, earlier in November with the loss of his Presidential candidate. But we should not try to overturn the presidential race any more than we should try to overturn the outcome of the Ohio State-Michigan game.

President Bush won with more votes than any other Presidential candidate in the history of our great country. In Ohio, the votes were counted and then recounted. No election is ever perfect. But there is absolutely no credible basis to question the outcome of the election. I read in the challenge lots of irresponsible conspiracy theories. I was there. It did not happen. Yes, the media was locked out in the Warren County board of elections. But a lawyer for the Kerry-Edwards campaign who was inside and saw nothing unusual.

This is not the time to obstruct the will of the American people. Every newspaper in the State of Ohio agrees. The Democrats who sit on Ohio's election boards are now turning their energies toward the future. Are they dupes in some Machiavellian Republican scheme? Or do they simply have a firmer grasp of reality than that displayed by a handful of unrelenting zealots still ranting in the January rain 8 weeks after the election? We need to move on.

This is an attempt to sow doubt on the legitimacy of this President. I have talked to many people, and most agree that this election was conducted professionally and fairly and freely. Few mainstream politicians doubt President Bush's victory. Let us get back to our business.

What we are witnessing here today is a shame. The purpose of this petition is not justice but noise. In the midst of soul searching after their historic losses in November, the Democrat leadership have turned to the X-Files Wing of the Democrat Party. Democrat leaders are still adhering to a failed strategy of spite, obstruction, and conspiracy theories. They accuse the President of personally overseeing the development of vote-stealing software. We are told that unknown Republican agents stole the Ohio election and that its electoral votes should be awarded to the winner of an exit poll instead. The only thing that I know that are less realistic than exit polls are Godzilla movies.

One is hard pressed to find a single positive substantive idea coming from the Left. Instead, Democrats have replaced statecraft with stagecraft, substance with style, and not a very fashionable style at that. The petitioners claim that they act on behalf of disenfranchised voters, but no such voter disenfranchisement occurred in this election and for that matter the election of 2000. Everybody knows it. The evidence proves it. We are not here to debate evidence, but to act our roles in some insincere morality play.

It is a crime against the dignity of American democracy. This is not a normal debate. This is a direct attack to undermine our democracy by using a procedure to undermine the constitutional election that was just held. Democrats must find a way to rise above this destructive theory of politics for its own sake. A dangerous precedent is being set here today. It needs to be curbed. The American people, and their ancestors who invented our miraculous system of government, deserve better than this.

Several members have mentioned the inconvenience that many voters experienced on voting day by having to stand in line. My dad is 87 years old. He is blind. He is proud to wait 3 hours to vote. Last year the Afghan people got up early one morning and set out to vote for the first time. They were threatened with being shot and killed or maimed by bombs. Many stood in line all day to vote. I believe we should look to the Afghan people for an example of how to fulfill our responsibility to vote.

Since the November election some on the other side of the aisle shout out words like fraud and sham. They demean what the people in the red states did on Election Day and call them insulting names. This seems to be the reaction of a shell-shocked party who has lost any vision and has moved to a vicious attack cycle.

58 million people voted for President Bush. The majority of this country voted for President Bush. No proven allegations of fraud. No reports of widespread wrongdoing. It was an honest election. I say let's move on to do what we were elected to do, make positive change in this country.

It's time we put partisan politics behind us.

I copied it for reference.

The hardest part was READING through all that stuff! I wanted to do both the House and Senate, but after doing the House, well...

-Hoot

OnEdit: Others should nominate this too.