Election Reform, Fraud, & Related MONDAY 01/09/2006--PATRIOTS DAY EDITION

January 6, 2005. Patroits Day. CELEBRATE IT YEARLY!!!


The Congressoinal Black Caucus


The Very Honorable Barbara Boxer, CA

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News MONDAY 01/09/2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391



All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

Please

"Recommend"

for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

Talk about kicking total ass. FULL_METAL_HAT rocked the house with this January 6, 2006 (celebrating January 6, 2005)--PATRIOTS DAY. Frame it, send it to your friends, read it again.
Thank the good Lord for The CBC, Barbara Boxer, Jackson, David Lytel, all the great Ohio people who came, and everyone else who produced a real rally and march, soulful and sincere. This is OUR DAY, every year. Nobody can take away the day our government actually functioned, albiet briefly. WE WILL PREVAIL.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2354129
FULL_METAL_HAT (489 posts)
Fri Jan-06-06 11:50 PM
Original message


Well my fellow DUers, it was a year ago today that I think was one of the high water marks for DU in its entire history.

Do you recall what it was?

You probably don't. And you're a DUer!

Even sadder is that most of our fellow 300 million citizens have even less of a clue...

You see, last year on January 6th, a little something happened in Congress for the very first time. Never before, since the rules were set up back in 1877 for the electoral college system, had the votes from a state been questioned. Not only that, in terms of "he-said-she-said" news, the statements in that special joint session of Congress were more numerous and more intense than ever before or ever since -- and yet the news barely brought it up -- thanks for nothing media!

It was the pivotal point in the absconding of the 2004 election (yes I said absconding, look it up, it means 'to leave quickly and secretly and hide oneself, often to avoid arrest or prosecution').

Truth be told, our system was set up with actual checks and balances, and despite the erosion over the years, their echoes still exist in the actual rules defined by the constitution:
Not anticipating the development of a two-party system, the Framers believed that electors would cast votes for a large range of candidates from various states and that nearly every election would go to the House of Representatives for a final decision.
The bottom line up front is the rules we play by, the Constitution, with the clarity of a ringing bell, laid out that the Congress is the ultimate arbiter of the administrative branch, in fact Congress is even above the Judicial branch. All power flows down through Congress, and specifically, the House of Representatives was designed to hire and fire the administration.

It doesn't take a political scientist to tell you that those original intentions have been thrown upside down and done a few back flips. In 2006, a scant 230 years since we started calling ourselves United, we find ourselves with a virtual one-party system.

After all the fervor and fever of the 2004 election impossibilities, everyone here on DU knows deep in their heart that no matter what, there IS a chance 2006 and 2008 will go down with our collective thumbs up there, shaking our collective heads saying "but I thought we had that covered..." (Didn't Kerry have 20 THOUSAND lawyers at the ready??!)

This anniversary remembrance is here to help us celebrate the voice that poured out through us, through DU, through the country ultimately. A voice revolted by knowledge of deep corruptions and even deeper cover ups. A voice ultimately muffled by a media overtaken by its own infestation. A year later we have more than enough proof of the complicity of the press, and the very act of not reporting the events of January 6th can now quite readily be seen as the proof that there was guilt to be hidden, that there were crimes being covered up. The only event that has the actual power of choosing the president and the administration was relegated lines like "Two members of congress raised a question..." when every journalist knew there were four of the most HEATED hours of debate EVER in Congress. Shame on them all.

To refresh your memory let me illustrate a short timeline:
(for more detailed ones, shift-click these from WikiPedia ) Timeline of the 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities
U.S. presidential election, 2004 timeline

---> November 2 2004 -- First there was an election day in which all signs pointed towards No More Years for the Republican Administration -- All signs -- and then everything came down, and I mean EVERYTHING, the governance of 300 million people, came down to results of just one state, where 5,627,545 votes came down to a difference of only 118,599 ... a total of 118,599 out of 121,068,715 total citizens decided the election -- it was like 1000 people were brought together to decide the election, and only ONE person actually got to vote! One person... one king... no surprise huh?
---> The rest of November saw the flowing of a thick mucous called the "Political Capital" of a "Mandate". While most of the country marched on oblivious, DU was a hotbed of outrage and investigation. Perhaps even for the first time in history thousands and thousands of people were able to learn and share their learning about the workings and malfunctions of government in real time as it happened.
---> December's blogosphere went where no MSM but KO would go, casting our gaze on a unending stream of irregularities and the efforts to prove the count was fair it self. Most Americans surely don't even know there was multiple statewide recount efforts, nor would they know the blatant fetters put upon them by even more blatantly corrupt state officials. Some days got down right comical.
---> <invisible event on January 6> haha
---> It wasn't even three months after the election that the cracks started to become sublime: remember that just 20 days after today's anniversary was the press conference where "Mandate" suddenly became "Man Date"!! The blogs were buzzing and it seemed like Level 1 one here would never end!

Now it's a year later. If not for people standing up that day, across the internet and across the Congress, surely the fear and bullying would see us today living in a world where Delay and Abramoff would be dining with the president.

If you can, remember how you felt that day, how it was to see the door close on the hopes of real democratic action in government. The day of the Boxer Rebellion. The day the constitution enshrined to protect the election. It's worth remembering.

It'd be great to see some pictures and hear stories people can remember about their online and RL experiences that day, so please reply and dredge up that crazy day where CSPAN let us hear those croaking words, "For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Ohio rise?" DU and the rest of the blogosphere brought to the surface every emotion imaginable that day. Hope, Joy, Disbelief, Despair. What did you go through? Anger? Anger was one a lot of people felt, and still feel.

1770 saw the British massacre Boston, which lead five years later to a little political action you might still remember from history class.

"Make no mistake" was in fact not a funny catch phrase, it was a direct command from the chief to every one of his hired hands to make sure they could commit their acts devious or criminal and not be caught.

They KNEW January 6 would have been the only day their mistakes might have mattered, but their hard work and diligent efforts ended up stealing the show. Literally. Thanks again go to the media, shame on them. The proof is in the pudding, and in a in a way that no one can deny, pudding is what the media should be called that day.

The future depends on the past to not forget. Add your vote and your voice so the future can remember that there are moments in history that can change the course of events, and next time DONT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!
January 6, 2001 failed.
January 6, 2005 failed.
What about 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2025, or 2029? May our small part of vigilance help if needed on some January 6 in the near or distant future.

The price of "America's Liberty" should be "America's Eternal Vigilance"
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty—power is ever stealing from the many to the few…. The hand entrusted with power becomes … the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity(want more liberty quotes to inspire you? freedomkeys.com/vigil.htm)


And finally let me say there's no way I would remember any of this myself if it were not for one person, here on DU, who's incredible efforts forced me to see all of the truth in a way I couldn't deny -- no matter how much I'd prefer to have given up on politics altogether swearing it all off as foolish as tilting a windmills. The numbers didn't lie. They were true every different way they came up. Proof after statistical proof piled on, cutting the wiggle room of denial further and further and further. Until, like some ancient disbeliever doing the math that proved the Sun actually DIDNT revolve around the Earth, forcing the loss of their religion, it forced me to lose the very last grip of my religion -- the sad naiveté of not noticing a political coup.

Truth Is All -- You have my everlasting thanks and my eternal hope that the efforts of everyone end up bringing our country, our place in the world!, back into line with the now-so-lofty aspirations it was supposedly founded upon.

Heck, maybe even one day we'll see the wheels revolve to where our ancestors would be pleased.
The spell had been broken. Bush would not ascend to his second term in office without at least some measure of irregularity questioning the legitimacy of the process. The emperor's new clothes would receive some public exposure, if only for a brief moment. But, that moment may become a reference point in history that will mark the beginning of the second American Revolution. Report on Washington DC, January 6, 2005


Today is a real Patriot's Day.

Joseph Cannon is a great friend of the election fraud movement. He's published a number of key articles and discussed them in detail. A serious blogger and about to go big itme with his Wilkes scandal, one he dug up and ran with. This should be required reading for all citizens..

CANNONFIRE

http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/01/conspiracy-theories.html

Conspiracy theories

You may experience an eerie sensation while watching Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

In a key scene, we hear actual recorded telephone conversations in which Enronians gleefully discuss the rigging of the California energy crisis. These incriminating recordings allow us to ear-witness the sort of dialogue that conspiracy theorists can usually only posit. There it is: Everything we feared, a postulated evil transfigured into diamond-hard fact.

The first audiences to witness the Zapruder film ("back...and to the left...back...and to the left") must have felt the same goosebumps as they saw physical evidence of conspiracy, deniable only by those who possessed formidable powers of rationalization.
<snip>

We've grown up a lot since 2001. Back then, even the more open-minded leftists would have dismissed many claims which we now know to be true: Massive, warrantless spying on Americans...a war based on faked intelligence cobbled together by old P2 hands...widespread bribery and influence peddling...a legion of pseudo-journalists doing the bidding of their rightist masters...

...and, of course, electronic vote-rigging.

BuzzFlash is my favorite news group. And now they're showing me why. This is a clear statement on stolen elections, one BuzzFlash can't link to because the CM isn't covering the story. This will do, as will all the other great internet resources. We will prevail.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/01/con06011.html
January 7, 2006


CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES

Rigged Elections Not Taken Seriously Enough

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Arlene Montemarano

If election systems vendors are not required both by law and by state election commissioners to place their software source code in escrow, then voters will have no way of knowing whether the software contains malicious, election-rigging code or not.

Imagine this: A Trojan Horse unleashes thousands of illegitimate votes and disappears without a trace, election commissioners bypass laws, uninvestigated computer glitches and easily picked locks in voting systems, no federal oversight holding e-voting vendors accountable—yes folks, elections can be stolen. Since the 2000 Presidential election, problems stemming from the use of electronic voting machines have called into question the foundation of American democracy—the US voting system. At the forefront of concerns are security issues surrounding the use of Direct Recording Electronics , better known as touch screen computer voting machines, and their lack of a paper trail in the form of an auditable paper ballot.

Widely reported irregularities from voting districts around the US have alarmed many and opened claims of stolen elections. Some even doubt the legitimacy of the outcome of recent US elections. A team of top computer scientists has been working diligently to resolve the many underlying design problems in the e-voting system that leave it open to cheating. Stalled by the federal government, and with doubts about e-voting continuing to spread, these scientists have instead turned to state governments and the National Science Foundation for help.

"Maryland, where I live, uses Diebold DREs, which are an ideal opportunity for cheating," said Dr. Avi Rubin, Technical Director, Information Security Institute, Johns Hopkins University. "In fact, you couldn't come up with a better opportunity for cheating. There's no ability to audit or recount, and the entire process takes place inside the computer, which is not transparent."

Thank you Orleans and and BillBored for the tips on this. VA has a many high tech companies and several hundred thousand high tech professionals, particularly in Northern Virginia. Wait until the other shoe drops on this nominee—his support for “guest tech workers” and outsourcing tech jobs. He’s not going to last long.

TPM CAFÉ: “Politics, Ideas and Lots of Caffeine”

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2006/1/6/23532/17147:

The vendor community doesn't like it. "We oppose the idea of a voter-verified paper trail," says Harris Miller, president of the trade group Information Technology Association of America. Introducing paper into the mix, he says, defeats the improved efficiency and reliability e-voting promises. "There was never a golden age when paper ballots were accurately counted," Miller says. Adding paper to e-voting will only make the process of administering elections more costly and time-consuming without improving accuracy, opponents assert.

Huh? WTF? I know there may have been problems in the past with voting systems, but shouldn't we be striving to do better?

DUer Orleans thread (on Greatest, Recommend please)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2355806

Damn, look at this, a VA political blog has already nailed him.

http://waldo.jaquith.org/


Miller opposed to voter-verified paper trail.
January 7th, 2006

Via Daily Kos, I’ve read a rather alarming bit in a July 2004 article about e-voting, in which not-officially-declared Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Harris Miller is quoted:
Miller opposed to voter-verified paper trail.
January 7th, 2006

Via Daily Kos, I’ve read a rather alarming bit in a July 2004 article about e-voting, in which not-officially-declared Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Harris Miller is quoted:

One Virginia blogger put it this way:

” Choose ANYBODY…. pick up a bum off the street and they would be better than Harris Miller.”

It continues. Look at this on RaisingKaine.Com, the blog for the Kaine campaign. This is out, it will get broader play, he's through. The activists control the primary and this year we're FURIOUS and ENERGIZED. The two comments here are just devastating. The guy will end up with Diebold corporate in Texas. State blogs are going to be more important to us in the run up to 2006.


http://www.raisingkaine.com/1448

# Michael Emmons Says:
December 22nd, 2005 at 2:47 pm

Here are Emmy nominated news reports from WKMG CBS Orlando.

http://www.outsourcecongress.org/video/0_WKMG_20030216.wmv

In the following video Harris Miller is interviewed (at about 3:34 into the video) http://www.outsourcecongress.org/video/0_WKMG_20030217.wmv

He’s interviewed here too; at 3:45
http://www.outsourcecongress.org/video/WKMG_Tuesday_20030218_2.wmv

He says “those people that when the music stops in the musical chairs game; they end up without a seat they have to lash out at foreign workers ” yet we’re told to either quit or stay on and train our foreign replacements(his replacements.)

More videos regarding H-1b and L-1 replacement visas can be found here http://www.outsourcecongress.org/video/
http://www.Zazona.com
http://www.HireAmericaCitizens.org
http://www.TORAW.org
http://www.h1b.info
http://www.NoMoreH1b.com

# Vicky Davis Says:
December 22nd, 2005 at 3:53 pm

Harris Miller betrayed the American people with his activities in India. He lobbied the U.S. congress for tax breaks and increased H-1B’s for imported tech workers - at the same time he was working with India to establish the marketing and infrastructure there.

Silicon Valley is now in India thanks in large part to the efforts of Harris Miller.
==============================
Oops. Memo—

To: Harris Miller
From: The People

We are not stupid!

With Democrats Like Harris Miller, Who Needs Diebold? (Or Republicans for that Matter!)
A Diebold Lobbyist Runs for the U.S. Senate...as a Democrat!

by Brad

1/8/2006

In case you haven't heard of them, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is an "astroturf" group set up by a consortium of Electronic Voting Machine companies. Harris Miller...

In case you haven't heard of them, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is an "astroturf" group set up by a consortium of Electronic Voting Machine companies. Harris Miller was its President. Now Miller is reportedly about to announce his run as a Democratic(!) challenger for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia currently occupied by Republican George Allen.

Greg Priddy, over at TPM Café, appropriately calls him on the carpet as precisely the type of Democrat the Democrats don't need in office...Big time...

snip

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002254.htm

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

News From Underground

Friday, January 06, 2006

Abramoff money = election fraud

From Anonymous:

I was thrilled to see someone write about the Ney-HAVA connection. We need a journalist to pick up this story. Here is my synopsis of the events:

The real story behind Abramoff is that it is not simply about "influencepeddling." It is in fact influence peddling to affect election outcomes.

In the equation of Abramoff Money Laundering the following holds true:

Input = Abramoff money
Output = Election fraud

Follow the story below from the first small potatoes case to the final mother-of-all-election-fraud cases in US history:

snip

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2006/01/abramoff-money-election-fraud.html


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2355902

AuntiBush posted this elsewhere (go vote it up). Thanks to the folks in PA, true patriots!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=408348&mesg_id=408348
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06007/634104.stm

Lawsuit leveled at electronic voting
Group wants voting machines on ballot

Saturday, January 07, 2006
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

State Sen. Jim Feel has joined a group of voting rights activists in a lawsuit aimed at forcing Westmoreland County to seek more public input before it purchases a new generation of touch-screen voting machines for the upcoming May primary election.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday, could have statewide implications. It argues that, under the Pennsylvania Constitution, all 67 counties must let voters pick their preferred model of electronic machines through ballot questions.

"This goes to the issue of having fair and accurate elections," said Mr. Ferlo, D-Highland Park, whose district covers a portion of Westmoreland County. "I really think there are serious concerns about this technology."

January 8, 2006

ACTION ALERT! RED ALERT IN OHIO!

Ohio House Bill 3 To Be Voted on This Week

by Marji Mendelsohn and Janice Weiss, co-founders WeUnite.org

Below is info re an Ohio House Bill to be voted on most probably this week . . .it's unbelievable.

The more publicized parts of Ohio HB3 will henceforth require voter ID and we all know what that means. But what has not received publicity - and for this I fault the Ohio state reps - is HUGE:

1. The cost of ordering a recount will quintuple - going from $10 to $50 PER PRECINCT - making it virtually unaffordable

2. Electronic machines will be exempted from recounts by random sampling, even in close, disputed elections. In the 2005 election, 41 additional Ohio counties (of 88) were switched to Diebold touchscreen machine

3. HB3 will make it virtually impossible for any challenge to be mounted involving any votes cast or counted on electronic machines or tabulators -- meaning virtually every vote cast in Ohio.

Marji Mendelsohn and Janice Weiss, co-founders, WeUnite.org

From the Daily Digest of Democracy for Cincinnati:
It is highly likely the so-called "election reform" bill, HB 3, will be addressed by a state House and Senate conference this week AND voted in both houses. There may not be any opportunity for public testimony. It would be a good week to contact you state legislators. Congressweb appears to be an
easy way to do that. http://congressweb.com

snip

In testimony at the hearings, it was only supported by the secretary of state.

snip

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_marji_me_060108_action_alert_21__red_a.htm

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x408373

From Research in Review Magazine, Florida State University, Fall/Winter 2005:

Battlefield Florida

A Chat with Lance deHaven-Smith

Al Gore really did beat George W. Bush in 2000. Six years on, this is still a problem?

by Julian Pecquet

snip

RinR: One of the most interesting points you make in the book is that the focus on undervotes (ballots containing no vote for president)—the hanging, dimpled and otherwise pregnant chads—was misplaced. Instead, you explain that a study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which looked at all the ballots that were initially rejected on election night 2000, revealed a surprise: most of these uncounted votes were in fact discarded because they were over-votes, instances of two votes for president on one ballot. What do you think the NORC study tells us about the election?

LdHS: It’s an embarrassing outcome for George Bush because it showed that Gore had gotten more votes. Everybody had thought that the chads were where all the bad ballots were, but it turned out that the ones that were the most decisive were write-in ballots where people would check Gore and write Gore in, and the machine kicked those out. There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes; many or most of them would have been write-in over-votes, where people had punched and written in a candidate’s name. And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots it, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.

snip

RinR: So, what’s the overarching theme of The Battle for Florida?

LdHS: It really tells a simple story in some ways. It essentially says that the people responsible for administering the election had a conflict of interest and that they, in a variety of ways, prevented the recount from being conducted.

I go into explaining…why would it operate like this? One factor that drove it this way is essentially that the Republicans are on the losing side of a huge demographic trend in this state: an increasing minority population. And they know this—it’s not a secret. One reason there was administrative sabotage of the recount was because a number of steps had already been taken to try to lock in the Republican control of Florida in the face of these demographics that are running in the other direction. The other thing the book looks at, in addition to the long history leading up to this event, is also what came out afterwards, what was done, were problems corrected, what investigations were conducted? And the story there is, gee, there was really very little investigation, amazingly little, given the importance of the election and the controversy. Frankly, I would never have written this book had there been any careful investigation done afterwards. That was what shook me after the election, I was expecting people would go into it, find out what had happened and straighten out the problems so it wouldn’t happen again.

snip

http://www.research.fsu.edu/researchr/winter2005/features/battlefield.html


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x408380

and autorank are all awesomely excellent!

K&R

Essex cities seek delay on electronic voting
Newark, Irvington and Orange say voters not ready for new machines

Friday, January 06, 2006

BY JEFFERY C. MAYS AND JONATHAN CASIANO
Star-Ledger Staff

Some of Essex County's largest cities want a waiver to continue using mechanical voting machines in two upcoming elections this year because they believe voters have not been properly trained on how to use the new electronic voting machines required by state and federal law.

Newark, Irvington and Orange officials all say they want more time before they are required to use the electronic voting machines. School board elections are held on April 18, and all three towns have municipal elections on May 9.

The Newark and Irvington city councils have both passed resolutions urging the state to give them a waiver to allow them to use the manual machines. The Orange City Council is set to consider a resolution urging a waiver next month. Newark City Clerk Robert Marasco said he sent a letter to the attorney general.

"In the transition period a lot of people, including seniors, are not going to adjust to a new system," said Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith. "While they are at the polls, acclimate them to the new system. Let them vote the old way so their votes are counted properly."

snip

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1136527984144140.xml?starledger?nex&coll=1

"Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (Rep. Barbara "Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (Rep. Barbara Sykes)" <sheppard@olbc1967.org >




Subject: OLBC, SYKES OUTRAGED OVER VOTER ID




Date: Mon 01/09/06 05:17 PM



Monday, January 09, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Black Caucus Denounces Proposed Voter ID Requirements
Caucus Calls Proposal a Jim-Crow Era Tactic

Columbus – Members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) are outraged by proposed changes to Ohio’s election law in House Bill 3 sponsored by Representative Kevin DeWine (R-Fairborn) that would require all voters to present a current and valid government issued photo ID or another form of acceptable identification such as a utility bill to cast a vote.

“Allegations of widespread voter fraud as justification for this change are simply untrue,” said Representative Barbara Sykes (D-Akron) and OLBC President. “However, there is documented evidence and statistics that prove that this type of requirement is likely to disenfranchise and overburden voters, especially racial minorities and the poor.”

In October 2005, a U.S. appeals court upheld an injunction barring the state of Georgia from enforcing a law requiring citizens to present a government-issued photo ID in order to vote. The law was declared unconstitutional and called a smokescreen by opponents who accused Republicans of trying to dilute the minority vote. Opponents provided evidence and statistics that documented disparities in the number of government ID’s issued to white and minority voters. They also demonstrated the negative impact of eliminating the sworn affidavit of identify option as a viable alternative to presenting identification.

“Even in 2005 we are still fighting the same Jim-Crow Era tactics that try to rob citizens of equal access and opportunity in this country,” said Representative Sykes.

Jim Crow was the name given to the system of laws and customs that enforced racial segregation and discrimination throughout the United States, especially in the South, from the late 19th century through the 1960's.

OLBC members and other opponents believe that current safeguards in Ohio law have worked exceptionally well to prevent voter fraud. A post-election review of Ohio in 2004 found only 4 illegal votes out of 9-million cast.

“I have no doubt that that this change will suppress minority votes across Ohio. Surely, House Bill 3 counteracts the intent of the Voting Rights Act and the entire Civil Rights movement,” said Representative Sykes.

##

OLBC was founded in 1967 by state legislators to recognize and address the hopes, aspirations and needs of African Americans in Ohio. OLBC aims to promote, foster, and sponsor the education of African Americans and other minorities on the importance of involvement in government in order to secure a fair share of government services for their communities. Today, OLBC has eighteen members - four serve in the Ohio Senate and fourteen serve in the Ohio House of Representatives.



Paid for and authorized by the Ohio Democratic Party,
Chris Redfern, Chair, 271 East State St, Columbus, Ohio 43215

thanks autorank and wilms!