If you're wondering why the fight over the presidential vote in Ohio
continues, you might want to read this extensive expose from Vanity
Fair concerning Florida in 2000 and the state's preparations for this
year's election.  Many of the same tactics were transferred to Ohio
this year (why tamper with success, right?).   I also include a link to
an interview with Representative John Conyers, who I think has shown
real courage in pursuing this matter.

In case you haven't had a chance to e-mail your support for a full
investigation, the people's e-mail network has put together a quick
response form at:     http://69.9.171.129/contest.html
They phrase the question specifically in terms of asking Congress to
contest the presidential election until these matters are resolved.
With one click, they will send your message to your senators,
congressional representative, and the House Judiciary Committee.

Finally, an update on where things stand in Ohio.

Happy holidays,
dem



Vanity Fair on Florida:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121804I.shtml

Interview with John Conyers:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122204W.shtml


Ohio electoral fight becomes 'biggest deal since Selma' as GOP
stonewalls
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 22, 2004


COLUMBUS -- As Republican officials stonewall subpoenas and subvert the
recount process, Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud
fiasco "the
biggest deal since Selma" and has called for a national rally at "the
scene of the
crime" in Columbus January 3.
Another major national demonstration will follow in Washington on
January 6, as
Congress evaluates the Electoral College. Should at least one US
Representative
and one Senator challenge the electors' votes, a Constitutional crisis
could ensue.
Meanwhile, volunteer attorneys have poured into Columbus from around
the US to
help investigate the bitterly contested presidential vote that has
allegedly given
George W. Bush Ohio's electoral votes and thus a second term. A lawsuit
filed at
the Ohio Supreme Court charges that a fair vote count would give the
state and the
presidency to John Kerry rather than Bush.
On December 21, notice of depositions were sent to President George
Bush, Vice
President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell to appear and give testimony regarding the legal challenge of
Ohio's
elections results in the case Moss v Bush et al.
But Republican Blackwell's attorney at the Secretary of State's office
told the
attorneys issuing the notice of deposition and subpoena that Blackwell
will not
testify under oath. The Republican-controlled Attorney General's office
has labeled
any attempt to put Blackwell under oath, "harassment." Blackwell
supervised the
November 2 vote in Ohio at the same time he served as co-chair of the
state's
Bush-Cheney campaign.
However, some counties like Clarmont have agreed to cooperate with the
attorneys
in the election challenge. On December 22, a team of attorneys
descended upon
the Clarmont County Board of Elections between 8:30-10:30am to pour over
election day records.
In a December 21 conference call with activists from the around the US,
Jackson
said he has urged Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to
stand with
US Representatives who intend to challenge the Electoral College's
expected
approval of George W. Bush for a second term. A challenge by US
Representatives
in 2000 failed because no Senators would join their motion.
Jackson says this year will be different, urging election protection
activists to stay
focused over the holiday season. "We can't let [the Republicans] get
away with this,
he told the conference call. "Do not underestimate the outrage of the
people. We
are a legitimate force for democracy, here and around the world."
"We will count every vote," he said, and make sure "every vote counts."
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and other members of the Congressional Black
Caucus
have strongly questioned Bush's purported victory, pointing out that
more than half
the votes cast in Ohio and the nation were recorded on electronic
voting machines
owned by Republicans, with no audit trail.
Conyers recently conducted hearings at Columbus City Hall to take
testimony from
Ohioans who were deprived their right to vote. Another public hearing
in Mahoning
Valley, at the Warren Heights and Trumball Library, documented
"thousands of
complaints of voting irregularities" that helped throw the vote count
to Bush.
Election observers have testified under oath that more than a dozen
voting
machines in Mahoning County regularly switched Kerry votes to Bush
votes while
voters watched in amazement. Some 580 more absentee voters were
certified than
were identified by election board officials. As in Franklin and other
counties, there
were also strategic machine shortages in largely Democratic precincts.
The
November vote, said one observer, was "the crime of the century."
As dozens of volunteer attorneys pour into the state to help with the
recount,
Blackwell's stonewall has prompted widespread suspicion about what the
Republicans are hiding.
On Monday the expanded legal team issued subpoenas to top election
officials in
10 counties where vote-count fraud is suspected.
The rapid filing of subpoenas, the first step in interviewing people
under oath,
provoked the shrill rejection from Blackwell. Though Blackwell is a
state
constitutional officer, his business office is in a private building,
where protesters --
including former California Congressman Dan Hamburg---have been arrested
without apparent provocation.
"They huffed and they puffed, trying to bully people around," said
attorney Peter
Pectarsky, a key member of the election challenge legal team. "Now
we're fighting
over discovery. We served 10 depositions. The attorney general blew a
gasket.
They filed a motion to stop it... We will file our response."
This past Friday, attorneys refiled their election challenge suit, a
day after state
Supreme Court dismissed it on a technicality. The challengers are
trying to get a
meaningful recount before the January 6 Congressional vote, while
Blackwell's
GOP has done all it can to stall.
The election challenge lawsuit claims that statewide vote patterns
reveal vote count
fraud on a scale that incorrectly awarded the state's majority - and
the presidency -
to George Bush. They are using the litigation process to document that
fraud.
"Maybe this (the explanation of the Ohio vote) is much closer to the
surface than
anybody thinks," said Pete Pectarsky, a lead challenge attorney. "It
doesn't add up.
If everything was above board, why are they hiding everything? They
could bury
people in the details... Okay, look at these records. Look at those."
The election challenge suit was filed Dec. 17. Blackwell, the
Bush-Cheney
campaign, and Ohio's Republican electors have 10 days to respond. Then,
according to court procedural rules, each side has 20 days to do
discovery - or
additional evidence gathering, with those bringing the suit going
first. With January
6 being the date Congress accepts the Electoral College vote, and
January 20
being the inauguration, the GOP seems determined to make the recount
drag on as
long as possible.
"We have stuff that points to big numbers," Pectarsky said, referring
to votes that
should have been counted for John Kerry. "What we need now is (someone
saying)
'We did it. Here's how. Don't take my word. Here's the evidence.'"
Tuesday, December 22 is the starting point for Pectarsky's negotiations
with
election officials from 10 counties as to when they can be deposed.
They will be
asked a wide range of questions to uncover answers explaining the
presence of
what are, at the least, voting irregularities.
In the Miami County town of Concord, certified returns show that all
but 10
registered voters cast ballots on Election Day. But the election
challenge team has
already identified more than 10 registered Concord citizens who did not
vote, an
incongruity that points to election fraud.
In Trumbull County, citizens using electronic machines saw their vote
for Kerry
register as a vote for Bush. Additional hearings in Trumbull and other
counties are
adding to the litany of fraud and theft.
In the meantime, among the attorneys who have come at their own expense
to join
Ohio's presidential election challenge:
*       Bonnie McFadden, formerly a deputy public defender, law professor
from both the
University of New Guinea and the University of Hawaii, and director of
the
Cambodia Defenders Project in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, currently resides
in Maui.
Bonnie believes that Conyers' Committee hearings have provided clear
evidence
of illegal election practices. "Democracy cannot survive without honest
elections.
The Ohio election fraud lawsuits are about saving our democratic form of
government. There is nothing more important than that."
*       Karen Peterson, an attorney who worked for more than a decade in
legal services
specializing in public benefits, consumer and family law and was a
professor at
both Cornell and the University of Minnesota law schools, is
volunteering in Ohio
because she believes that it is critically important that election
irregularities are
exposed to the light of day. "We will lose our democracy unless we are
willing to
fight for it. If we allow voter suppression and dirty tricks to go
uncovered and
unpunished, we should not be surprised if these tactics become more
virulent in
future elections."
*       Lillian Ritt, formerly a research attorney working for the San Diego
Superior Court
and the 4th DCA Division 1 for more than twenty years, and part of the
team
researching election law for Al Gore, is in Ohio because she believes
voting is
critical to our democracy. "Voting has to be done openly and without
any possibility
of machine error and/or tampering. The problems in Ohio threaten this
world, not
just the United States. If they are not solved, then I consider this to
be another
stolen election by Bush without the courage of the Ukraine people."
*       Steve Chaffin, an attorney in Ohio for twenty-four years, has worked
in many ways
to provide for those who have needed legal assistance and not been able
to afford
it. He has worked with those who are facing rising costs of health care
and other
quality of life issues. His interests and work have been to help those
who are
disenfranchised. Steve's latest focus is on election and political
issues.
Volunteering for this legal battle is just one more way in which he is
helping our
country.
*       Judy McCann, a civil rights attorney from Santa Rosa, California,
left for Ohio with
one day's notice promising her children she would be home for
Christmas, even if it
meant she would be on a plane back to help in Ohio on December, 26th.
Judy
expressed her concern for the integrity of the voting process. She
spent Election
Day in Florida monitoring the vote, learning first hand that our votes
may be cast but
not accurately counted. Judy has been asked by the legal team to take
depositions
and to travel to counties to collect the evidence of voting
irregularities.
*       Melanie Braithwaite, an attorney in Columbus, Ohio, wants to
volunteer for this
election contest because of her concern for her children and
grandchildren. "To me
free expression and exchange of ideas, and the right to vote in free
and fair
elections are paramount moral and civic values to be protected at all
costs. If it
costs me some time and inconvenience to volunteer in this effort, then
so be it. It is
the price I pay to be an American citizen. I personally witnessed a
moral outrage on
election day. I am peculiarly in a position to take this one on, as I
have personally
nothing left to lose."
As the team of election protection attorneys grows alongside the
grassroots
demand for a fair vote count in Ohio and around the nation, the
likelihood of an
unprecedented Constitutional confrontation beginning January 6
continues to
escalate.
Stay Tuned!
--
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of the
upcoming OHIO'S STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED,
2004, to be published in January. Fitrakis is a co-counsel in the Moss
case. Support
for this project is welcome through www.freepress.org or by sending a
check to The
"Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism", 1240 Bryden Rd.,
Columbus,
Ohio 43205.