Nine Democratic House Judiciary Committee members (Conyers, Nadler, Scott, Lofgren, Jackson Lee, Meehan, Waters, Wexler, Schiff) have just requested that the committee “hold hearings and investigate the vital issue of protecting our citizens right to vote”.
The text of their letter (without footnotes) to the Republican chair of the committee is as follows…
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 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.
What TOTAL crock.
How about Wisconsin where tens of thousands of unregistered people voted on election day and subsequent checks found the majority of them were fraudulant?
Sounds to me like Bush won Wisconsin, Minnesota, and PA if it was not for the cheating (routine) by Democrats.
Just in case you missed my last post…go fuck yourself…better yet, jimboy…go fuck Paul…
The letter mentions "the constitutional right to vote".
Lets remember that since Bush v Gore in 2000 "the constitutional right to vote" does not include the federal constitutional right to vote for president.
There simply is no such right.
So the action mentioned in this thread can only apply to non-presidential elections.
We are moving toward a constitutional amendment to make "the right to vote" a federal concept which applies to the election of presidents.
There is federal law that has to do with racial matters in voting. A lot of the things raised will apply to that. It does apply to voting for president, but HAVA is a statute, not a federal constitutional concept.
The difficulty in these HAVA matters is that a racial or similar animus must be shown. In other words, for there to be a good grip a litigant would have to show that the Diebold et. al. voting machine fraud had a racial stigma attached … not just plain old political bias.
It blows my mind that election officials and congress have the notion that they are a modern democracy to the extent they want to use violence to force this system on others … when in all reality their voting laws are antiquated garbage.
Bush won.
Your guy lost.
Get over it.
Pick a better candidate in 2008, maybe one that is not so liberal. At least you would have a CHANCE then.
Bush didn’t have a chance this time, so he just cheated. Kerry lost because he didn’t cheat. When that’s how we decide who leads this country, it’s time for a revolution.
~A!
And the countdown begins for Iraq’s "open and free" elections….
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblo...00175.php#more
re #6:
Thanks, Cheryl. It’s nice to know that we’re on the right track.
re: #6 "Open and Free Elections" Sounds like something we should try here in the old US. Tommorrow we will hear Geedumya repeat it in his speech, and "Freedom is on the March" in Iraq. We’ve already heard him repeat it adnaseum. Meanwhile todays news. Five car bombs, twenty six dead, including three Iraqi canidates for election. Yep freedom is on the march alright.
I agree with you ~A! ..George Bush wasn’t capable of an honest win, that’s why he stole it! He wasn’t capable of an honest win in 2000 either, and that explains why he stole that one also. He really is pathetic! He gives us rigged elections..and calls them free elections. All we can do at this point, is just keep applying pressure for investigations, and we must not let up in our demands of accountability! He better enjoy his inauguration tomorrow, because maybe 6 months from now there will be plans of his impeachment. Can you picture George Bush hiding in the same sort of hole that we found Sadaam in? Wouldn’t that be sweet? O.K. maybe that fantasy is a bit much. I guess that I would be willing to settle for impeachment. It’s too bad that more American’s were not more willing to take to the streets. I hope that as more information surfaces through investigation, that more people will become angered, and will be moved towards taking a REAL STAND against election corruption. We simply cannot give up on this.
jimboy…what exactly is YOUR definition of liberal….I would be curious to know..there seems to be 2 definitions…please tell us yours?
re: 9 One can only HOPE.
testing, testing, 123
What are you right-wing nuts so afraid of? That your lying cheating candidate might have actually lost, or that you might not get your chance to kill democracy. I suggest if you have a problem with fair elections from either side..go to Iraq, volunteer, get involved in their elections or maybe Russia..oh never mind, don’t have to go any where its right here!
Jimmo has no definitive definitions. That would be too restrictive to allow the implementation of his montagues of prosaic propaganda.
re: #10
T-Rod: Please don’t bait the troll. Oh what the heck — it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t answer questions anyway.
re: #12
That’s a kickin’ post, Becky. I think I saw a rock band start a show that way once. OK maybe more than once. 😉
re: #13
Chabuka: no matter how bad it may seem here, it is WAY worse in Iraq. Have you read this blog yet? It’s even scarier than this one!
George Bush won again which must mean he lost.
This time he’s gonna get caught though. I for one am not going to let the voting irregularities go. There are informal investigations right and left and when the 56,000,000 people who voted for John Kerry start sending letters to all the Republican Committee chairs and the media demanding formal investigations it’ll be just a matter of time.
The noise level will not recede this time. The Republicans shout louder when they want the Dems to shut up but I don’t think the Dems are really afraid anymore. They finally see that they have to play just as dirty as the Republicans if they are going to put this country back on the right path again.
I’m tired of war, tired of people dying so we can get some good oil deals for Cheney and Halliburton. O’Neill said they were dividing the oil fields of Iraq in January of 2001.
Wonder why the Arabs and Venezuelans are so angry! Could it be because we’re killing so many of the Arabs and we tried to initiate a coup in Venezuela for their natural resources. Since Chavez won his election he’s feeling pretty good and the Administration is calling him a dictator now. They better look out I’m sure we’ve got a guy ready to go take over.
Hi Winter,
Isn’t that Dahr Jamail blog horrible? Those poor people. I don’t get how everyone can’t see this Administration for what they are-thugs and criminals! How can they cause this to happen???
Oil! my dear Oil!, and huge refineries and natural gas. Oil comes before lives with this bunch of criminals
Bush won.
We all lost.
It’s just that some don’t see it.
Re.#19,Yep, we "all" lost. The whole world lost. But there are over 30% of us who do see "it". This election was flat out stolen. Call me a whiner, soreloser, conspiracy theorist, whatever. I think I stand in good company.
Supersoling-there may only be 30% in the States who see it, but rest assured the vast majority of the world does too and supports you in your fight.
Oops. Hit submit too soon. I meant to include this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/s...394393,00.html
Sorry.
It’d take an incredibly strong constitution to pull it off, but why can’t we get a few good operatives in the GOP now so we can have advance warning of the next Bushie scum frauds? You just have to mutter stuff like ‘America uber alles’ and ‘Bush is my co-pilot’ and they let you right in. 😀
-weez
Hey folks,
Take off the tin foil hats and face the music. Your war criminal lost and Bush won. If you want to investigate voter fraud don’t stop in Ohio. Check out Philly where more people voted (mostly for Kerry) than are registered. Check out the crackheads who were signing fraudulent names to register for absentee ballots in Toledo, because they were getting paid by the Democrat party to do so.
As for oil, why is it oil man Bush is a bad guy (criminal, theif, etc.) but oil man Gore is just a sweet old bearded teddy bear?
Kerry and tehreza couldn’t be a part of the global military/industrial machine ’cause they’re Democrats!
Puhleaze!
Yes, Weezil – Our spies can just copy all the comments made on this site by the blips (the ones I blip by) and repeat the words ad nauseum(sp?)
Mike, I’d love to see the figures. Please state your sources. And don’t say Rush Limbow. Rush Limbow can get away with lies because he is an entertainer, not a journalist. Got that? ENTERTAINER. He never quotes his sources because he has no sources.
Sometimes there are more voters than registered voters because of late registrants. And guess what? crackheads are allowed to vote by law if they wish to do so, just as rural alcoholic wife beating Bush voters are allowed to do so under the law.
And please, Gore never sent our soldiers to Iraq to gun down civilians so that his oil profits could skyrocket.
Your lies do not work here. Stop listening Rush Limbow. If he were to have a real debate versus educated liberals, he would have a heart attack. The Limbows, O’Reillys, and Hannitys of the world hide behind their shows so they can look good. You will never see them in a fair and factual debate and you will never learn how to be a good debater by watching them.
MeThinks Mike watches too much Fox TV. He has nothing factual to add.
There is a good election issue manual, dealing with voting machines and problems, which can be downloaded.
Download it here and give copies to friends …
AND election officials …
AND relevant congress members in your area.
Education … its another antidote.
Brad please don’t give up. I personally look on both sides of the election fraud numerous times daily.
I believe most Americans , no matter what party , including those who are un-aware of what is going on, want to know their vote counts.
We just want the truth, if Bush won fairly , I won’t like it but, ok will deal with.
But whether Bush or whom-ever won I want the peoples votes to count.
We need to know for sure All Voters votes counted.
Thank you,
Elizabeth