Let's get real about our rigged voting system

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_589.shtml

<snip>

In a Feb. 3, 2005, Free Press article, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman wrote, "In documents filed with the Ohio Supreme Court, Petro’s office charges that the citizen contestors -- Ohio voters -- and their attorneys lacked evidence and proceeded in bad faith to file the challenge. Petro says the election challenge was a 'political nuisance' lawsuit, and as such, the legal team should be fined -- personally -- many thousands of dollars."

That ploy backfired on Petro, when more documents were entered into evidence, including the 102-page Status Report of the House Judiciary Democratic Staff entitled "What Went Wrong in Ohio?", further exposing the 2004 skullduggery. While Petro's sanction motion was denied by the Ohio Supreme Court, the voters lost again when the case was dismissed.

But instead of remedying the situation, the legislature passed and Gov. Robert Taft, the only sitting Ohio governor ever convicted of a crime, signed into law on Jan. 31 a draconian bill (HB 3), which Fitakris noted in a Dec. 7 article, "HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box, democracy in Ohio could be all but over."

[AndyTiedye]

1. Added to the Crushing "Defeat" of All of the Referenda Last Fall

Simultaneously stopping all efforts at fair elections cold,
and demostrating to all just how many votes they can steal when they want to
(30% of the entire tally!!!!). That even puts Jeb Bush's people in Florida to shame!

We gave it our best shot in Ohio, but the very fraud we are fighting is so pervasive that
the electoral process in the state is hopelessly compromised.
When they can steal 30% of the vote, there is no hope of winning.

We need to find enough votes elsewhere to make up for what will be stolen from us in Ohio,
and not pour scarce resources into a state where our votes simply won't be counted.

Come 2008, the Democratic Presidential campaigns should skip Ohio completely.
So should everybody else. Boycott the entire state.

If we can boycott South Dakota for an abortion ban, we can boycott Ohio for disenfranchising our entire party.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. "If we can boycott...

...South Dakota for an abortion ban, we can boycott Ohio for disenfranchising our entire party."

Sure can, and should. We should have DU "Think Tank" forums for this very sort of thing.

[dweller]

3. you do what you can do

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x27250

dp