Elections
Fraud Report from House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff
Dear friends,
First
and foremost, I want to be clear that I support neither the Democratic
nor Republican party. I am registered non-partisan. It is very clear
to me that the problems we are facing have nothing to do with Republican
vs. Democrat or Conservative vs. Liberal. Elections fraud an
issue is of concern to anyone who cares about representative democracy.
I am clear that these polarizations are to some degree contrived
and enhanced by the power elite to divert our attention from
where the real problem is, which is between the power elite and the
rest of us. Too many within the power elite want to keep us subservient.
Thankfully, there is also an increasing number of wonderful
people even within the power elite who join us in wanting what is
best for all people. They, too, are working behind the scenes to expose
all that is happening.
It
is critical to the survival of a healthy democracy that the electoral
process be clean and fair. If you read our summaries at http://www.WantToKnow.info/medianewsarticles#elections
you will see that our current electoral system is in need of serious
repair. Below is a summary of elections improprieties written by the
Democratic Staff of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
Though this is a partisan report, it demonstrates well the
deep problems which must be dealt with if our government is to truly
represent the will of the people. You can download the entire report
(over 100 pages) at the link at the bottom of the article.
Please help to spread the news on this most vital topic by sharing
this message widely. Take care and have a wonderful new year!
With best wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info
team
P.S. Our website at http://www.WantToKnow.info
has a brand new look which I'm very excited about. I invite you to
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http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010605Y.shtml
Preserving Democracy:
What Went Wrong in Ohio
Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic
Staff
Wednesday
05 January 2005
Executive
Summary
Representative
John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee,
asked the Democratic staff to conduct an investigation into irregularities
reported in the Ohio presidential election and to prepare a Status Report
concerning the same prior to the Joint Meeting of Congress scheduled for
January 6, 2005, to receive and consider the votes of the electoral college
for president. The following Report includes a brief chronology of the
events; summarizes the relevant background law; provides detailed findings
(including factual findings and legal analysis); and describes various
recommendations for acting on this Report going forward.
We
have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential
election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters.
Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of
votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said
the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that
conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional
standards.
This
report, therefore, makes three recommendations: (1) consistent with the
requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting of
electoral votes by Congress and Federal law implementing these requirements,
there are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the State of Ohio;
(2) Congress should engage in further hearings into the widespread
irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are serious enough
to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the House and
Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3) Congress needs
to enact election reform to restore our people's trust in our democracy.
These changes should include putting in place more specific federal
protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas of audit
capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of
provisional ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state
election laws.
With
regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and
unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these
irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior,
much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of
the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.
First,
in the run up to election day, the following actions by Mr. Blackwell, the
Republican Party and election officials disenfranchised hundreds of thousands
of Ohio citizens, predominantly minority and Democratic voters:
- The misallocation of voting machines led to
unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of
thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters. This was illustrated by the fact that the
Washington Post reported that in Franklin County, "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." (See Powell
and Slevin, supra). Among other things, the conscious failure to
provide sufficient voting machinery violates the Ohio Revised Code which
requires the Boards of Elections to "provide adequate facilities at
each polling place for conducting the election."
- Mr. Blackwell's decision to restrict
provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not
hundreds, of thousands of voters, again predominantly minority and
Democratic voters.
Mr. Blackwell's decision departed from past Ohio law on provisional
ballots, and there is no evidence that a broader construction would have
led to any significant disruption at the polling places, and did not do
so in other states.
- Mr. Blackwell's widely reviled decision to
reject voter registration applications based on paper weight may have
resulted in thousands of new voters not being registered in time for the
2004 election.
- 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 Republican Party from targeting minority
voters for poll challenges.
- The Ohio Republican Party's decision to
utilize thousands of partisan challengers concentrated in minority and
Democratic areas likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of legal
voters, who were not only intimidated, but became discouraged by the
long lines. Shockingly,
these disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged 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."
- Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who
requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on a timely basis
from being able to receive provisional ballots 6 likely disenfranchised
thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters, particularly seniors. A federal court found Mr. Blackwell's order
to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.
Second,
on election day, there were numerous unexplained anomalies and irregularities
involving hundreds of thousands of votes that have yet to be
accounted for:
- There were widespread instances of
intimidation and misinformation in violation of the Voting Rights Act,
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Equal Protection, Due Process and the Ohio
right to vote. Mr.
Blackwell's apparent failure to institute a single investigation into
these many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory
duty under Ohio law to investigate election irregularities.
- We learned of improper purging and other
registration errors by election officials that likely disenfranchised
tens of thousands of voters statewide. The Greater Cleveland Voter Registration
Coalition projects that in Cuyahoga County alone over 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. The problem
was particularly acute in two precincts in Montgomery County which had
an undervote rate of over 25% each - accounting for nearly 6,000 voters
who stood in line to vote, but purportedly declined to vote for
president.
- There were numerous, significant unexplained
irregularities in other counties throughout the state: (i) in Mahoning county at least 25 electronic
machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush
column; (ii) 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; (iii) 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; (iv) in Butler county a down ballot
and underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court candidate implausibly
received more votes than the best funded Democratic Presidential
candidate in history; (v) in Cuyahoga county, poll worker error may have
led to little known thirdparty candidates receiving twenty times more
votes than such candidates had ever received in otherwise reliably
Democratic leaning areas; (vi) 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.
Third,
in the post-election period we learned of numerous irregularities in tallying
provisional ballots and conducting and completing the recount that
disenfanchised thousands of voters and call the entire recount procedure into
question (as of this date the recount is still not complete):
- Mr. Blackwell's failure to articulate clear
and consistent standards for the counting of provisional ballots
resulted in the loss of thousands of predominantly minority votes. In Cuyahoga County alone, the lack of
guidance and the ultimate narrow and arbitrary review standards
significantly contributed to the fact that 8,099 out of 24,472
provisional ballots were ruled invalid, the highest proportion in the
state.
- Mr. Blackwell's failure to issue specific
standards for the recount contributed to a lack of uniformity in
violation of both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection
Clauses. We found
innumerable irregularities in the recount in violation of Ohio law,
including (i) counties which did not randomly select the precinct
samples; (ii) counties which did not conduct a full hand court after the
3% hand and machine counts did not match; (iii) counties which allowed
for irregular marking of ballots and failed to secure and store ballots
and machinery; and (iv) counties which prevented witnesses for
candidates from observing the various aspects of the recount.
- The voting computer company Triad has
essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the
recount in numerous counties to provide "cheat sheets" to
those counting the ballots.
The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should
find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should
calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid
doing a full county-wide hand recount mandated by state law.
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