January 03, 2005
January 2, 2005 CLEVELAND: PRESS CONFERENCE ON PRO DEMOCRACY - COUNT EVERY VOTE - VOTER IRREGULARITIES IN CLEVELAND, OHIO, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
The meeting started a little after 2 PM with about a hundred in attendence. Rev. Jesse Jackson came past the front row to shake hands, so I got to shake his hand, too. Reverand Otis Moss welcomed us all to his church for this very important meeting. WOIO CBS Ch. 19 was there with a camera and several print reporters/photographers were also in attendence, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Rev. Moss introduced U.S. House Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH CD 11) as the first speaker.
Rep. Tubbs Jones reminded us that much of the HAVA Act had not been implemented for this election and serious voting irregularities plagued Cuyahoga County and all of Ohio. She cited more numbers like >30% of provisional ballots were rejected ( >50% in some African-American neighborhoods), 600+ registered voters' ballots were discarded, yet still the vote was certified. She also reminded us of the rally on Monday at the Vernon Rife Center in Columbus, OH, the same site where SOS Blackwell had issued his various "directives" like the 80 lb. paper for registration, etc. Rev. Jesse Jackson was introduced to a standing ovation.
Rev. Jackson recalled that it was here, in this very church, that he visited in 1965 with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (immediately after Selma and Chicago) to begin an unprecedented voter registration drive, culminating with the election of Carl B. Stokes as Mayor of Cleveland (Mayor Stokes was the first African-American to lead a major U.S. city). He explained that the same people who were against the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have only changed parties, but not stripes. He described the November 2, 2004 election as a "train wreck of the Underground Railroad", with even more irregularities in Ohio this time than in Florida 2000. He said over 30,000 names have been removed from the voter rolls. Blackwell, as chair of B/C in Ohio is the Katherine Harris of 2004. He wants us all to email or call our senators now, before this Thursday, starting with John Kerry! He listed Sen. Clinton, Sen. Boxer and Sen. Reid as well. He is demanding a thorough investigation of the machinery and wondered aloud how we, as a society, could have possibly allowed our voting machines to be from highly partisan companies like Diebold, ES&S and Triad.
Rev. Jackson questioned how it could be that the highly accurate InstaPoll exit polling caused a new election in Ukraine, when the exit poll gap in OH, PA & MI was, in fact, much larger than in Ukraine, yet hardly a word pointing this out from the media. He reiterated yet more numbers: 77 machines broke down in Franklin County alone, yet none in GOP areas; 92,000 ballots thrown out as overvotes because the ballots were previously marked for b/c; 65 precincts with 12,900 ballots remain uncounted; turnout in 30 precincts here was 40% while the rest of the state was around 70%. "Cleveland was a target market for voter irregularity schemes," he said.
About the recount, Rev. Jackson said this was a political recount, not a scientific one. He called for SOS Kenneth Blackwell to testify before this Thursday's EV count and strongly believes John Kerry should lead the drive for the challenge, to "end the theivery" and "stop it from happening again". He called for a federal election standard as a Constitutional Amendment that guarantees one voter, one vote and that it is time to abandon the Electoral College altogether. We should all remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s protest in Selma 40 years ago this March. And we should rekindle this spirit. Rev. Jackson fully expects The Congressional Black Caucus to contest the vote on Thursday. Next came Bob Fritakis and Cliff Arnebeck.
Fritakis began with his disbelief that the vote was certified in Perry County with 124% voter turnout! He went into detail how our elections became privatized and slammed Wally O'Dell (CEO of Diebold and b/c ranger/pioneer). He presented more evidence of remarkable election-day errors, all happening in strong Dem areas, like 42 machines missing on orders from Blackwell and Diebold machines "freezing up". In one district of 566 registered voters, a better than 98% turnout was reported, meaning only TEN people did NOT vote. Their canvass in just ONE afternoon turned up 25 people who did not vote!
Attorney Arnebeck asked the audience, "What's new about this election?". Is it Bush, Rove & Co. stealing the election? No - that happened in 2000. Is it about election officials ignoring the law? No - 2000 again. Were facts ignored? No - 2000 yet again. What was different then? This time they made it "not close". They are continuing their lawsuits and pressure and concluded that, unless these issues are addressed and rectified, we will no longer live in the democracy the whole world looks to as a fair, just, open, lawful society.
Gregory Moore of the NAACP Voter Fund told us about the 80,000 new voters they got registered for this election, about 1/7 of all in Ohio. There were 92,000 spoiled ballots and 157,000 provisional ballots not recounted. When John Kerry spoke at the NAACP back in July 2004, he got ONE standing ovation when he promised "All votes will be counted".
Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell implored us to be with Rep. Tubbs Jones on this. She told us of her election-day experiences, identifying Woodbury School as Ground Zero. When her police detective escort went to vote, he waited two hours only to find they had his SON's name on the voter rolls (same name, different birthday) and was given a provisional ballot, which he doesn't think has ever been counted. In every white neighborhood she visited that day, lines weren't longer than about 30 minutes, but in minority precincts, the lines were astoundingly long.
Mark Namet (sp?) of the PD asked if there is a pattern that they can show. Fritakis answered by explaining how virtually ALL irregularities happening in minority areas across Ohio AND at the same time favored b/c, a 135 million to one improbablity. "This was NOT an accident!" Bob argued. He referred to a Popular Mechanics/Popular Science Nov. 04 issue that discusses the "private software". He also cited "deliberate, calculated actions by SOS Blackwell" as another reason.
Another questioner asked about what the local, county & OH Dem party was doing about this. Tomorrow's rally in Columbus will be after all the state legislators are sworn in. They hope to have several Dem members of the OH House & Senate take part. But mostly, everybody was wondering where the Dems were in all of this. Rev. Jackson said this story has to reach a critical mass before the MSM will pick it up. He expects this to happen when the contest happens this Thursday. The election is not over nor is this story. It will take a lot of effort by everybody to make this issue mainstream and it is a long-term project. We must stay focused and comitted.
After a few more questions, Rev. Jackson took the podium again to lead us in prayer. He reminded us that this issue is one that crosses all lines, that we need to email and call all 100 senators (202-224-3121) before this Thursday, beginning with John Kerry. He likened this struggle to the Confederacy against the Union, where whites crossed the racial lines to help fleeing slaves with the Underground Railroad, to fight back slavery. We said a prayer for Robert T. Matsui (D-CA-05) who passed away today and Rev. Jackson asked the Good Lord for strength in our struggle.
REMINDERS:The bus for Columbus leaves from CLE OH Monday at 10 AM from 3250 Euclid Ave. UAW Hall. Those interested in going can ride the bus or caravan behind.
Call those US Senators: 202-224-3121, John Kerry FIRST!
Expect more than one Senator to stand up this time. This will only happen if we do our part to express our concerns.
Link:
http://nostolendemocracy.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/january_2_2005_.html