Jackson calls for constitutional amendment to standardize elections nation

Jesse Jackson In Tri-state; Calls For Investigation Of Ohio Election

Veteran civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was in Bond Hill Monday morning urging Tri-state supporters to join him in challenging this month's vote in Ohio.

His group, the Rainbow PUSH coalition, is calling for a constitutional amendment to standardize elections nationwide, in addition to asking for an independent investigation into Ohio voting

"Warren County, where they had a homeland security alert... Can you imagine a homeland security alert in Warren? Where there are no buildings higher than 3 stories." said Jackson to a laughing crowd.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/11/29/recount.html

Also read ..
Decision adds one more ballot

Trumbull elections officials will have to add votes from one more provisional ballot to the official results that were certified Monday.

The board voted 3-1 to count Sophia Sarkos' ballot, and officials said they would amend the procedure that bumped her from the registration list and forced her to cast a provisional ballot.

The elections board was asked Monday to reject her provisional ballot. The first vote was a 2 to 2 tie, with Republicans Craig Bonar and Nettie Ashelman voting to reject the ballot and Democrats Sharon Platt and Nick Melfi voting to allow it. Bonar and Ashelman thought the board's practice should stand.

Myke Clarett, a field representative for the secretary of state, initially agreed with Boar and Ashelman. However, after a call to an attorney in the Columbus office, Clarett said the vote should count. Because Sarkos was never notified, her registration should not have been canceled.

Citing the legal opinion, Bonar reluctantly switched his vote, allowing Sarkos ballot to count. Ashelman did not, saying it was wrong to let Sarkos vote count.

http://www.tribunechronicle.com/news/story/1130202004_new04ballot30.asp

...Canada and bring back the system used by the Canadians to assure that a fair vote is cast and fully counted.

About a year or two ago. You can google for the full text. Jesse Jackson, Jr., has also introduced a bill proposing the abolition of the electoral college.

But in the meantime we can work on improving things at the local and state level. Electing Dem supervisors of elections and secretaries of state is essential.

It would technically be partly redundant with the 14th Amendment- which, of course, happens to be the Amendment the Rehnquist Five most hate and pretend to misunderstand.

small rally, prob due to being indoors.

He will be in columbus Sat coming up five days...with Palast

His Rainbow Push Coalition Website

www.rainbowpush.org/FMPro?-db=rpodata.fp5&-format=rainbowpush%2fdata%2fdetailcommentary.htm&-lay=main&-sortfield=date&-sortorder=descend&category=commentary&-recid=33131&-find=
is the link for the story below authored by JJ:

Kiev? What about Cleveland? 11/30/2004 © Tribune Media Services

In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting what they charge is a fixed election. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses this nation’s concern about apparent voting irregularities. The media gives the dispute around the clock coverage. But in the United States, massive and systemic voter irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.
Ohio is this election year’s Florida. The vote in Ohio decided the presidential race, but is marred by intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and discrepancies. U.S. citizens have as much reason as those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in. Consider:

In Ohio, a court just ruled there can’t be a recount yet, because the vote is not yet counted. Three weeks after the election and Ohio still hasn’t counted the votes and certified the election. 93,000 overvotes and undervotes are not counted. 155,000 provisional ballots are only now being counted. Absentee ballots cast on the two days prior to the election haven’t been counted. Ohio determines the election but the state has not yet counted the vote.

That outrage is made intolerable by the fact that the Secretary of State in charge of this operation, Ken Blackwell, holds – like the disreputable Katherine Harris of Florida’s fiasco in 2000 – a dual role: Secretary of State with control over voting procedures, and Co-Chair of Bush’s Ohio campaign. This foul and ugly conflict of interest is unacceptable – and made grotesque by the voting irregularities in the state. Blackwell should recuse himself so that a thorough investigation, count and recount of Ohio’s vote can be made.

Blackwell reversed the rules on provisional ballots that were in place in the Spring 2004 primaries. These allowed voters to cast provisional ballots anywhere in their county, even if they were in the wrong precinct, reflecting the chief rationale for provisional ballots -- to insure that those who went to the wrong place by mistake could have their votes cast and counted.

But Blackwell, the partisan election official, ruled belatedly and bizarrely that voters could cast provisional ballots only at the proper precinct. The results – why does this not surprise? – is to disqualify disproportionately the ballots cast in heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County.

Blackwell, the partisan election official, also permitted the use of electronic machines that provided no paper record. The maker of many of these machines, the head of Diebold Company, promised to deliver Ohio for Bush. In one precinct in Franklin County, an electric voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra votes out of a total of 638 votes cast. Votes are counted in a secret electronic program created by a private corporation, headed by a Bush partisan, under supervision of a state election official who co-chairs the Bush campaign. There is no paper record, no way to audit the votes, no way to do a recount.

Blackwell also presided over a voting system that resulted in quick short lines in the dominantly Republican suburbs, and four-hour (and longer) waiting lines in the inner cities. Wealthy precincts received ample numbers of voting machines and numerous voting places. Democratic precincts received inadequate numbers of machines, too few and often hard to locate polling places, causing day-long waits for voting among the very working people who can afford the time the least.

Then there is the count itself that smells like a rotten fish. In Ohio, as in Florida and Pennsylvania, there was a stark disconnect between the exit polls and the tabulated results, with the former favoring Kerry and the latter George Bush. The chance of this occurring in these three states, according to Professor Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania is about 250 million to one.

It gets worse. In one of dozens of examples, Ellen Connally, an African American Supreme Court candidate running an under-funded race at the bottom of the ticket, received over 100,000 more votes than Kerry in 4 counties. She ran better than Kerry in the areas of the state where she wasn’t known and didn’t campaign, than she did where she was known and did campaign.

There should be a federal investigation of the vote count in Ohio, with the partisan Secretary of State removing himself from the scene. The vote should be counted – and then a recount should be had in those places where it is possible, supervised by nonpartisan officials.

In Cleveland, Ohio, as in Kiev, Ukraine, citizens have the right to know that the election is run fairly and every vote counted honestly. Citizens have the right to non-partisan election officials who try to facilitate voting, not impede it. Citizens have the right to voting machines that keep a paper record and allow for an independent audit and recount.

This country needs no more Floridas and Ohios. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We call for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote for all U.S. citizens and to empower Congress to establish federal standards and non-partisan administration of elections. Florida's Harris and Ohio's Blackwell are insults to the people they represent, and stains upon the president whose election they sought to insure. Democracy should not be for export only.