Congress Ratifies Bush Victory After Challenge (Media non reporting)

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/politics/07elect.html
Congress Ratifies Bush Victory After Challenge
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JAMES DAO

ASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - Congress officially ratified President Bush's election victory on Thursday, but not before Democrats lodged a formal challenge to the electoral votes from Ohio, forcing an extraordinary two-hour debate that began the 109th Congress on a sharp note of partisan acrimony.

It was only the second such challenge to a presidential race since 1877. Even the bitter contest in 2000 between President Bush and Al Gore did not produce a formal challenge to the results from Florida, the site of a 36-day standoff. Although House members objected, no senator joined in, as is required under federal law.

But on Thursday, a single senator - Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who was sworn in Tuesday for a third term - joined Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Democrat of Ohio, in objecting to Ohio's 20 electoral votes for Mr. Bush, citing voting irregularities in the state.

The move turned what would have otherwise been a polite ceremony into a political and historical drama. Mrs. Boxer said she had acted "to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now."

Instead of holding a courteous joint session to certify the election, lawmakers were forced to retreat to their separate chambers for two hours of debate and a vote on the challenge. Democrats, nearly all of whom conceded that Mr. Bush was the rightful winner, said the move cast a needed spotlight on voting rights. Republicans called it waste of time.<snip>

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1. Congress Makes Reelection Official (Election Fraud again not mentioned)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54512-2005Jan6.html
washingtonpost.com
Congress Makes Reelection Official
Two Lawmakers Raise Objection To Ohio Balloting
By Charles Babington and Brian Faler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 7, 2005; Page A04


Invoking rules that sometimes seem as quaint as quill pens, the House and Senate yesterday certified President Bush's reelection despite a rare objection, which was intended to spotlight voting irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) interrupted the ritual roll call of each state's "certificate of electoral votes" in a joint session of Congress, contending that Ohio's results were not "regularly given." The presiding officer, Vice President Cheney, followed constitutional guidelines and sent lawmakers to their respective chambers so that each house could debate the matter for two hours.

The outcome was never in doubt. With Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) having long ago conceded Ohio and the Nov. 2 election, Boxer and Tubbs Jones said their only goal was to highlight Ohio's Election Day problems, which included long voting lines in several minority neighborhoods compared with short lines in affluent areas.

Boxer told colleagues that Americans have fought for social, economic and criminal justice, and she said, "Now we must . . . fight for electoral justice." On the House floor, Tubbs Jones said the objection was "the only immediate avenue to bring these causes to light."

The Senate eventually voted 74 to 1 to overrule Boxer's objection, even though many Democrats defended her in floor speeches. The House voted 267 to 31 to override the objection, with no Republicans siding with Tubbs Jones. Many lawmakers were at the funeral of Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.) or on trips because they had not expected a roll-call vote.<snip>

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2. duplicate topic, please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1129663