Thursday 1/20/05 Election/Fraud/Recount/Protest Thread

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Dear David,

Earlier today, I voted in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee against the nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State. This vote is an expression of my determination that we hold the Bush administration accountable.

Dr. Rice is a principal architect, implementer, and defender of a series of Administration policies that have not made our country as secure as we should be and have alienated much-needed allies in our common cause of winning the war against terrorism. Regrettably, I did not see in Dr. Rice's testimony before our committee any acknowledgment of the need to change course or of a new vision for America's role in the world.

On Iraq, on North Korea, on Iran, to name just a few of the most critical challenges, it seems to be more of the same. I hope I am proven wrong. I hope the course will change. And I hope that the Administration will recognize the strength of a foreign policy that has bipartisan support.

I am prepared to work with Dr. Rice and others in the Administration to try to reach agreement on policies that will truly strengthen our security and restore America's credibility on the world stage. And I am confident colleagues on both sides of the aisle are prepared to do so as well.

But, we've got to remain firm in our insistence that those who create policies that don't work have the courage to admit their mistakes and the wisdom to change course. Our johnkerry.com community has been expressing that determination in huge numbers.

Over 700,000 people have called on President Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

If you haven't signed the Rumsfeld petition, please do so immediately.

http://www.johnkerry.com/ReplaceRumsfeld

And, please forward the petition right now to friends and colleagues, urging them to join in this effort.

I know you share my strong convictions on the importance of holding the President and his Cabinet accountable. I pledge to you that I will not yield in this effort. Let's keep working together. America's future is at stake.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We write to you at the very outset of the 109th Congress, to request that our committee hold hearings and investigate the vital issue of protecting our citizens right to vote. The right to vote is the very foundation of our Democracy and is at the core of our Committee’s jurisdiction, and we can think of no more important or urgent issue before us than protecting our democratic rights. While the election is settled, however, our job as legislators on the Judiciary Committee to make sure that the constitutional right to vote is protected is just beginning.

In congressional forums many of us participated in Washington D.C. and Columbus, Ohio, we learned of significant voter irregularities in Ohio. These irregularities are included in a 100 page report Mr. Conyers issued, and include the following:

• The misallocation of voting machines led to lines of ten hours or more that disenfranchised scores if not hundreds of thousands of predominantly minority and Democratic voters. In Franklin County, 27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush, while six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered large margins for Kerry.

• The Ohio Republican Party’s decision to engage in preelection “caging” tactics, selectively targeting 35,000 predominantly minority voters for intimidation had a negative impact on voter turnout. The Third Circuit found these activities to be illegal and in direct violation of consent decrees barring the targeting minority voters for poll challenges.

The Ohio Republican Party’s decision to utilize thousands of partisan challengers concentrated in minority and Democratic areas disenfranchised numerous legal voters, who were not only intimidated, but became discouraged by the long lines in the adverse weather. Shockingly, these disruptions were publicly predicted by Republican officials: Mark Weaver, a lawyer for the Ohio Republican Party, admitted the challenges “can’t help but create chaos, longer lines and frustration.”

Numerous instances of intimidation and misinformation occurred across the state of Ohio that would appear to violate the Voting Rights Act. For example, the NAACP stated that it received over 200 calls regarding incidents of suspected voter intimidation or unusual election related activities, particularly actions taken by challengers who intimidated poll workers and voters. Other specific incidents involved a caller who reported that someone was going door-to-door telling people they were not registered to vote. A voter in Franklin County received information in the mail identified as being from the state that said he would have to vote by provisional ballot because he had moved; in fact, the voter had not moved and had lived at the address for 10-15 years. One polling place worker was reportedly only asking African American voters for their address.

In Franklin County, a worker at the Holiday Inn observed a team of 25 people who called themselves the “Texas Strike Force” using payphones to make intimidating calls to likely voters, targeting people recently in the prison system. The “Texas Strike Force” members hotel accommodations were apparently paid for by the Ohio Republican Party, whose headquarters is across the street. The hotel worker heard one caller threaten a likely voter with being reported to the FBI and returning to jail if he voted. Another hotel worker called the police, who came but did nothing. There were also reports of phone calls incorrectly informing voters that their polling place had changed.

• The Cleveland Plain Dealer found that several Lake County residents received an official-looking letter on Board of Elections letterhead informing them that their polling place had changed or that they were not properly registered to vote. A fake voter bulletin from Franklin County Board of Elections was posted at polling locations, and fliers were distributed in the inner city, telling Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats to vote on Wednesday due to unexpected heavy voter registration.

• In Cleveland, the Washington Post reported that unknown volunteers began showing up at voters’ doors illegally offering to collect and deliver complete absentee ballots to the election office. The Election Protection Coalition testified that in Franklin County, voters received fliers informing them that they could cast a ballot on November 3. Also, in Franklin County there were reports that about a dozen voters were contacted by someone claiming to be from the county board of elections, telling them their voting location was changed, and “door-hangers” telling African-American voters to go to the wrong precinct were distributed.

In our view, this course of events is not consistent with the right to vote as we understand it. The fact that many of these instances appear to be focused particularly on minority voters is all the more disheartening, and triggers even more clearly our jurisdiction involving civil rights.

We look forward to full and open hearings concerning these instances of disenfranchisement in Ohio and around the Nation. We very much would like to work with you and your staff to insure that allegations of improprieties by both Democrats and Republicans are looked into and considered.

Electoral problems prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting on Nov. 2. In Columbus, bipartisan estimates say that 5,000 to 15,000 frustrated voters turned away without casting ballots.

...

In Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo, and on college campuses, election officials allocated far too few voting machines to busy precincts, with the result that voters stood on line as long as 10 hours -- many leaving without voting. Some longtime voters discovered their registrations had been purged.

...

After the election, local political activists seeking a recount analyzed how Franklin County officials distributed voting machines. They found that 27 of the 30 wards with the most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush. At the other end of the spectrum, six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered large margins for Kerry. Voters in most Democratic wards experienced five-hour waits, and turnout was lower than expected.

...

In Knox County, some Kenyon College students waited 10 hours to vote.

I don't like this. I don't think Kerry does himself any good saying this. I think he sounds like a sore loser. I think he's painting a picture that is not true, that Democrats had a harder time voting than Republicans. I do not believe that. I haven't seen any evidence of it.

FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS! It’s the Exit Polls Stupid!


Fellow activists!

We are being made dumb, dizzy and mindless by the MSM in general, and in particular by its refusal even to discuss - let alone release - the NEP/Mitofsky exit polling data, showing discrepancies that are greater than in the Ukraine, and showing in Steven Freeman's analysis that Bush's "win" in Ohio and elsewhere was and is a statistical impossibility.

In other words, it didn't happen.

We have to raise hell about this, and never stop.

Why? ***We are facing what appears to be a sinister, Stalin-esque conspiracy by all the networks and major newspapers to "shield" Americans from the potentially disturbing information that a neo-fascist tyranny has been imposed upon us by the treasonous and criminal theft of the 2004 election.***

Despite all their efforts to censor this information, the Exit Poll data has been available online, a pro-freedom-of-the-press whistleblowing coup that, to my mind, is as historically important as the publication of the Pentagon Papers or even more important.

Send your friends and neighbors to:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

and here for the complete data

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/pdfs/Mitofsky4zonedata /

as well as to Freeman's analyses:

http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/epdiscrep.htm


I suggest that we find as many ways as we can to take this explosive, smoking gun proof of election fraud and force EVERYONE to confront what it says, and what it means. To me, this is our greatest weapon, and square one of our battle to throw the bums out, making sure that the recent a travesty of democracy we’ve been subject to in 2004 never occurs again in the Land of the (formerly) Free.

peace - but never give up the struggle -

Che

Dear David,

We wanted to let you know that Common Cause President Chellie Pingree is scheduled to appear on CNBC's Dennis Miller Show tonight (Thursday, Jan. 21). Make sure to check your local listing for the time and channel of the show in your area.

Chellie will be making her third appearance on the program. She will be part of the "varsity panel," a trio of guests who talk about the news of the day. Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., a senior policy analyst for MSNBC and writer and producer of NBC's West Wing, are scheduled to be Chellie's fellow panelists.

Given that today is Inauguration Day, the conversation is likely to turn to President Bush's lavish inauguration celebration, which is being paid for and attended almost exclusively by representatives of deep-pocketed corporations and special interests with business before Congress and the White House.

"This isn't a celebration for the average voter," Chellie says. "It's three days of partying for the elite paid for by corporations who write six-figure checks to buy access and influence to the administration and others in power."

Coincidentally, our National Governing Board Member Adam Werbach also appeared on the Dennis Miller Show two nights ago, talking about the fate of liberalism.

If you are watching the show, tell us what you think. We want to hear your impressions, and you can share your feedback and comments on our blog in real time, while watching the program.

Thank you again for all you do for Common Cause.

Sincerely,

Mary Boyle
Press Secretary, Common Cause

Report suggests changes in exit poll methodology
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 Posted: 12:17 PM EST

Exit polls overstated John Kerry's share of the vote on November 2, both nationally and in many states, because more Kerry supporters participated in the survey than Bush voters, according to an internal review of the exit-polling process released Wednesday.

January 20, 2005
The Hon. Jim Petro
Attorney General
State of Ohio
State Office Tower
30 E. Broad St, 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215


Dear Attorney General Petro:

I write to express my concern regarding your recent request to sanction those attorneys who brought a legal challenge to last year's presidential election in Ohio. In particular, I am concerned that by seeking official censure and fines, you are engaged in a selective and partisan misuse of your legal authority. As eager as many disgruntled voters are to have a court of law finally assess the merits of the challenge actions, I have serious doubts about the validity of the sanctions case your office is pursuing.

As an initial matter, one would be hard pressed to see how the legal challenges brought under the Ohio election challenge statute were "frivolous." First off, it is widely known that the Ohio presidential election was literally riddled with irregularities and improprieties, many of which are set forth in the 102 page report issued by the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff. http://www.house.gov As a matter of fact, the problems were so great that Congress was forced to debate the first challenge to an entire state's slate of electors since the federal Electoral Count law was enacted in 1877. In short, there is more than an abundant record raising serious, substantive questions about the Ohio presidential election.

It is also noteworthy that the Ohio Secretary of State intentionally delayed certifying the vote, thereby insuring that the recount could not be completed by the date the electoral college met on December 13. The Ohio Secretary State also refused to respond to numerous questions regarding the irregularities submitted to him by several members of the House Judiciary Committee, has refused to respond to a single concern set forth in the Judiciary Report, and also sought a protective order to avoid any discovery related to the legal challenges. In short, Ohio election officials have compounded public doubt concerning the election by refusing to provide any sort of accountability and acting in almost every respect as if they have "something to hide."

Given this context, and to help assure the public that you are not selectively pursuing sanctions in these cases for partisan reasons, I would respectfully request that you provide the House Judiciary Committee and the public with an itemization of all sanctions cases brought and considered by your office since January, 2003. In addition, I would ask that you provide to us and make public an itemization of cases you have considered and pursued under Ohio's campaign and election laws since January 2003. Finally, I would like to receive a an estimate of the costs you would expect to expend of Ohio taxpayer funds to pursue the sanction case you are seeking against Mr. Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck, and Peter Peckowsky.

If you believe the election challenge case should not have been brought, I would suggest the more appropriate course of actions may be revisiting the law with the Ohio legislature, rather than pursuing far-fetched sanction cases which on their face would appear to be overtly partisan in nature.

I would appreciate it if you would respond to me though my Judiciary Committee staff, Perry Apelbaum and Ted Kalo, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 (tel. 202-225-6504, fax 202-225-4423) by no later than January 27. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Judiciary Committee


cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary

Supreme Court, State of Ohio

Ohio Bar Association

January 20, 2005
Warren Mitofsky
Mitofsky International
1776 Broadway - Suite 1708
New York, NY 10019

Larry Rosin
President
Edison Media Research
6 W. Cliff St.
Somerville, NJ 08876


Dear Mr. Mitofsky and Mr. Rosin:

I have reviewed the internal report you issued yesterday concerning your exit polling in the 2004 election, and, unfortunately, it has not caused my concerns and questions regarding the significant discrepancies between your polling data and the final electoral results to diminish.

In particular, I would note that there are a number of concerns with the explanations you posited in your internal report that do not credibly account for the unprecedented five point differential between your exit polls and the reported results. As I am sure you know, Professor Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania has determined that such a differential was of a less than 1 in a 1000 likelihood - virtually impossible as a statistical matter.

To be frank, blaming such factors as distant restrictions on polling places, weather conditions, the age of exit poll workers, and the fact that multiple precincts were contained at the same polling place, as your report does, does not come close to explaining why the exit polls overstated support for the Kerry/Edwards ticket in 26 states and support for the Bush/Cheney ticket in only 4 states. Many of the factors you point to appear to merely be random characteristics of the election and your exit polling, rather than quantifiable and justifiable explanations. Nor can I believe that the massive discrepancies can credibly be written off to eagerness of Kerry voters to participate in the exit polls.

As a result, I would like to reiterate my request to receive the actual raw exit poll data that you obtained. I would also like to obtain copies of all internal deliberations, memos and other materials of your employees and consultants concerning or seeking to explain the discrepancies. To the extent you have concerns regarding releasing propriety information, I am willing to work with you to either receive this information on a confidential basis, or alternatively to bring in a neutral, outside expert to review these materials.

The stakes for our democracy are simply too high for us to allow this matter to pass without a serious and substantive review of the exit poll data. While the election is over, there is significant bipartisan sentiment in Congress and around the nation for voting reform. A complete and full release of the exit poll information will therefore not only help to resolve lingering doubts regarding irregularities in the 2004 election, it will also go a long way towards helping Congress understand how to best craft these reforms. I am hopeful that the media companies that contract for your services will also understand and support the importance of providing full, complete, and transparent information in this matter.

I would appreciate your responding to my office through my Judiciary Committee staff, Perry Apelbaum and Ted Kalo, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building (tel. 202-225-6504, fax 202-225-4423), by January 27th. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Judiciary Committee

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, House Judiciary Committee

Hello to all,

I am sorry to have been so quiet for the last week. I wanted to give you a report that may brighten this otherwise dark day for America!

We have been working to have all the election investigative and reform groups come together in a large United coalition similar to United for Peace and Justice. It is happening quite quickly, It will be called USE- United For Secure Elections, we do not have our own website yet, we are working off www.votersunite.org !

It seems that there is another large coalition of citizens activist groups forming called the IPPN. We are trying to merge these 2 groups and will be giving you further reports. If it all works out then the operating principles will be very close to the UFPJ, where every group has their autonomy but also acts in cooperation too!

One of the major goals of this United For Secure Elections is the continued investigations of the fraud, further legal actions and election reform. We are trying to hammer out a unified voting system for all federal elections. This is a difficult task, everyone has very strong opinions about this.

What many of us are leaning towards is Paper Ballots and Hand Counts at the precinct level as recommended by Lynn Landes and the National Ballot Integrity Project.

Since this is a Democracy, I would like your views on this subject and I will be hand tallying them myself so PLEASE keep the e-mails short and to the point!!!

Please review the draft doc above and www.ballotintegrity.org , www.Openvotingconsortium.org and any other sites you have found on voting systems and send me an e-mail with your top 3 thoughts about the subject. I have read almost everything I can find on the computer so you do not have to tell me about anything in detail. If there is a link you want me to go to then just include the URL. If you have an attachment that is not well publicized but well researched and well written then send it. Please, if your e-mails are too wordy I will have to just delete it! I am trying to be Democratic about this process so please do not disrespect my time or my e-mail box! Concisely tell me your top 3 thoughts!!!!!

There is 1 organization who is doing valuable work and you may not have heard of them, www.uscountvotes.org , they are documenting this election and investigating it precinct by precinct across the country. This National Data Base is going to be extremely helpful to us both legislatively and in legal cases. If you can donate some money or time; if you are a lawyer or a statistician, then please do so, it will really help, they have paypal at the site!!!

In Solidarity For Real Democracy Here in America
Dr. Lora Chamberlain
Progressive Democrats of Illinois
drlora@ameritech.net

At the parade's start, at Third Street and Constitution Avenue, hundreds of sign-wielding protesters chanted "shame, shame," and "four more wars," as Bush's motorcade passed, easily drowning out supporters. (Kansas City Star, reprinted from Knight Ridder Newspapers)

The National Park Service made space available for only about 150 protesters in the bleachers, although thousands with signs, banners and buttons lined the curb of Pennsylvania Avenue. They stretched for about five blocks. (Kansas City Star, reprinted from Dallas Morning News)

The antiwar march spilled down several streets near the inaugural parade route and demonstrators mixed in line with Bush supporters and others waiting to get through security checkpoints (Kansas City Star, reprinted from Dallas Morning News)