Ohio revote
Please urge your U.S. Senators to stand up Thursday and object to the election results in Ohio. As I understand it, the Ohio Secretary of State certified the election results before a recount could be completed. A recount was in order because a number of problems were reported with the vote count. The problems surfaced as people were trying to find out why the results differed from exit polls, which are usually pretty accurate in predicting how people voted.
The paper ballots were counted using electronic methods, and the Secretary of State could easily change the totals, so the proper thing to do next would be to review the paper ballots. However, now that some of the ballots needed for a recount were left in an unsecured location, a revote is in order, similar to what they had recently in Ukraine.
posted by Tom Cleland @ 1/04/2005 06:14:00 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
It's about time you came back; happy new year!
Maybe you should just join Sheryl in her protest trip to the inauguration. I don't see another recount happening in Ohio. Besides (and you have to be outside looking in) too much time has passed to allow shenanigans to occur with the ballots/vote count.
I refer to the Washington State gubernatorial race as a case in point. Go King County!!
Like Saxby Chambliss, or Johnny Isakson are ever going to do something like that.
The last time I contacted one of my senators down here in Georgia I was soundly informed that they didn't represent me.
No, I'm not kidding they used those exact words - I think it was Sam Nunn's office I contacted last time it happened.
That's right - gave up contacting the pinheads in 1996.
I take that back - I find I get more mileage from contacting SMART Senators from other states, like a very helpful one from New York.
Yes, I wrote Dayton but didn’t bother with Coleman.
I’m confused. Republicans said the Ohio recount was conducted and was not enough to change the outcome. Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb called for a revote. Democrats took what appears, at least on the surface, to be a more timid stance, saying there were problems with the voting, but not challenging the Bush victory.
CobbMooreHouseGecko, didn't the Democrat win in Washington State? What's in King County?
Answer to first question: yes, after three re-counts, with more and more ballots appearing in King County (I'm sure there is more to it than that). It's being contensted by Republicans.
Answer to second question: why, Democrats of course!
Dayton's speech during objection:
"Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I have the greatest respect and personal regard for my friend from the State of California. It is not often I find myself rising in disagreement, but I emphatically disagree and say respectfully that I believe those involved, citizens from around the country, with all their good intentions, are seriously misguided and are leading us into a very unfortunate precedent that was not in any way contemplated by the Constitution, by the law, or by historical precedent.
Obviously, the law, which was established in 1887, did not envision that our role would be to adjudicate in any State the results of an election for President. If it were the intent, it clearly would not have designed this kind of forum where an objection is raised, we each express our opinion for up to 5 minutes, and then vote on a whole array of facts and allegations and statements and contradictions that we could not possibly in this setting determine fairly and accurately.
If we were to do so, if we were to hypothetically object on an inevitably partisan basis to the actions taken by the electorate of a certain State, certified by the election officers of that State and then brought to us today, if we were to overturn that process and in this instance throw the election into the House of Representatives, the damage it would do to our democracy, to the integrity of our system, would be incalculable. If it were to result hypothetically in an alteration of the publicly expressed electoral will in an election for President, the entire credibility of our system would possibly be destroyed.
I am not the complete authority, but as I have read some of the assertions made about the conduct of the election in Ohio, I find serious imperfections. If we shed that spotlight on most States in this country, including my own State of Minnesota, we would find other imperfections.
Democracy is not a perfect process, but it is a process that we have a responsibility, not in hindsight but with foresight, to try to structure and to continue to perfect so it is as close to perfect as is humanly possible. I share entirely the concerns expressed by my colleague from California and others who said despite our best efforts--and I was part of that collaborative effort in this body and under the Rules Committee in the last couple of years--we made some progress but we still fell short.
I respectfully ask the chairman of the Rules Committee, Senator Lott, who is here today, if he would be willing to convene hearings in the very near future and look not just at Ohio but at the experience from this election and how it can instruct us to improve that process for the future.
The Senator from California is absolutely right; every American should know he or she has a right to vote, that they can vote expeditiously, that their vote will be counted and it will be tabulated accurately, whether under Republican or Democratic election officials, whether it is for President from one party or another.
Whether I agree or disagree with the judgment of the American people, I respect and agree more than anything else with that process and the integrity of the process that produces whatever result they determine. It is that which we must guard today. I regret we are in a position of possibly compromising it. It would be a fatal mistake to overturn it in the way suggested. "
2/15/2005
From my cousin John:
> Hi Noguns:
> The Stolen Elect
> In harmony with the large number of prominent
> mathematicians calling for an investigation into
> massive electronic stealing of the last election at
> uscountvotes.org, we are forming the 250 Million To
> One Club. It is like the 700 Club in requiring a
> direct, personal relationship with the truth--only we
> are not waiting for the Rapture, but the
> rupture--which is the miraculous appearance of John
> Kerry before before a microphone in the electronic sky
> to admit that he thinks he may have won the last
> election.
> In the meantime, club members are practicing the
> Laying On Of Math. (God hath no wrath like that of
> math.) A hand is place on the forehead of all those
> afflicted with the mass delusion that Kerry lost the
> election. The intonation begins: "In the name of Gore
> who created the internet and would save us from global
> warming, do you believe with Steven Freeman,
> University of Pennsylvania, that the bush bump in PA
> was 1 in a 1000, in OH was 2 in 1000, in FL was 3 in
> 1000; that chances of any two was 1 in a million; that
> the chance of all three happening was 1 chance in 250
> million? Do you confess with your whole tongue that
> John F Kerry is Gore'd by the power of the wholly,
> un-tampered with exit polls?" Response: "I see the
> blight! I see the blight!" You are in! That will be
> a dollar for the button.
> All we need is a Moses to lead us out from the
> fleshpots, boob-tubes, and black-box voting of Egypt
> into the wilderness of democracy. Too bad all the
> prophets, priests, tax collectors, centurians, and
> scribes are too busy protecting their political
> viability and media credibility in the home of the
> free and land of the brave to hold nightly tent
> revival meetings pointing us to the promised land
> flowing with the milk and honey of truth and
> integrity. However, it does not take pillars or blogs
> of fire by night or ufo's by day to begin the
> journey---just a step by step focus on paper ballots,
> manual counting, mechanical tabulation, mandatory
> paper audits (It seems to work pretty good for Iraq),
> and a clarion call to repent, turn around, and journey
> towards the promised land of every person with their
> own vine, fig tree, and right to have their voted
> counted.
> Some might call us fun mentalists because we like
> to think...or the remnant because there are so few of
> us...or the elect because we have no one to elect but
> ourselves. But, at least, we have nothing to lose
> until everyone wins in a theological concept called
> 'real democracy'--where on that last, or electoral
> day--all are raised up to cast their ballots and to
> sing "We have no King--Hosannah!--except the spirit of
> the whole, which is the holy spirit moving through all
> creation and the people, which has ruptured us from
> the slavery of Egypt and raptured us to joyously sup
> together in the bosom of Abraham's rainbow-colored
> family living from sea to shining sea in the land of
> the free and the home of the brave.
>
> John Munter
> Warba, MN
Post a Comment
<< Home