New Kerry Letter Re: Voting Rights

[smartvoter]

Sorry if a dupe -- didn't see it (also posted this in GD threads):
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Dear ,

If you were a young voter or an African American voter in Ohio last year, chances are, you were mistreated when you went to the polls.

That's the striking and inescapable conclusion of a very important report released this week by the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute.

I am writing to urge you to act on this report's disturbing findings -- and to support crucial initiatives to make sure there is no repeat of these electoral abuses in 2005 and 2006. Support electoral reform now:

http://www.johnkerry.com/features/votingrights/

The Voting Rights Institute report is called Democracy At Risk -- The Ohio Election. Here's what it reveals:

More than 1 in 4 Ohio voters reported problems with voting, including ballot issues and intimidation at polling places.

Illegal identification requirements were improperly imposed. Two out of every three (67%) young persons reported they were asked for ID. Six out of ten African American men reported being asked to show ID.

African Americans reported waiting an average of 52 minutes before voting. That's two and a half times longer than the average 18 minutes reported by voters overall.

But, here's the most troubling finding of all. Nearly one in four Ohio voters indicated that their 2004 voting experiences made them less confident about the reliability of elections in Ohio.

I urge you to act now to restore confidence in the democratic process in Ohio and all across America:

http://www.johnkerry.com/features/votingrights/

Barriers to voting are always an insult to the freest, greatest nation in the world. But, they are especially troubling when American soldiers are fighting and dying for freedom half a world away. Our democracy is only as strong as our citizens' faith in it. It is unacceptable that in 2005, Americans are still being denied their most fundamental rights as American citizens.

You and I can't stand by and let what happened in Ohio happen again. Not in Ohio. Not anywhere. Not in 2005 or 2006. Not in any election.

There are three things you can do right now.

Support the Count Every Vote Act

Help put pressure on Congress to pass the Count Every Vote Act. Spread the word that Washington is failing to act on this threat to democracy.

Four months ago, I joined with Senators Boxer, Clinton and Lautenberg to introduce this critical legislation. The Act will not only strengthen voting rights, it will prevent many of the problems that happened in Ohio by giving communities the resources they need to provide enough reliable, verifiable voting machines.

We need your help to wake Washington up to the problems our democracy is facing across the country. In January, I was so proud when 35,000 members of johnkerry.com called Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert to put electoral reform on Congress' radar screen. We need your voices again.

http://www.johnkerry.com/features/votingrights/

Join Our Promote and Protect the Vote Team

Let's start organizing at the community level to push for reform of our voting laws and increased voter education. The johnkerry.com community will actively be working over the next months to promote voter education in the 2005 and 2006 elections and to identify important ways in your community to pass legislation and hold local elected officials accountable for protecting and preserving voting rights.

Sign up here if you want to be part of our johnkerry.com Promote and Protect the Vote team.

http://www.johnkerry.com/features/votingrights/

We will send you more information in coming weeks about specific ways you can help -- especially as we prepare for the 2005 elections.

Help Spread the Word

Enlist your friends and neighbors to help us make American democracy stronger. Send them a copy of this email. Send them a copy of this groundbreaking report.

Sign them up to help us spread the word that we won't rest quietly while rights and freedoms are being denied to American citizens.

Forty years ago, in August 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson. It was a landmark, bi-partisan bill that allowed millions of Americans a true voice in our democracy.

Forty years later, American troops are putting their lives on the line every day in the name of democracy. We owe it to them -- and we owe it to ourselves -- to grow and strengthen democracy and voting rights for all Americans.

Thank you for your commitment and dedication to making America stronger. Let's make every vote count in 2005.

John Kerry

[stellanoir]

1. Well gee

this is great. But I can't help but wonder. . .so he finally noticed. . .?

[Mass]

3. He made his first speech on this subject in January

cosposnsored Clinton-Boxer bill on voting rights, and talk about that a number of times since.

[glitch]

2. Signed up, because I want to make sure the machine rigging gets the

attention it deserves.

[GuvWurld]

4. what a pathetic joke

not funny

[TayTay]

5. Interesting news in Akron Free Press: Ballot Initiatives

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/11984307.htm
Free Registration required for access

'04 loss motivates local Democrats
Kerry volunteers found nonprofit, campaign for election reforms
By Carl Chancellor
Beacon Journal staff writer

The results of the 2004 presidential election left a lot of Democrats in Summit County devastated, probably none more so than Ingrid Kunstel.

But rather than licking her wounds in seclusion, the Akron psychologist, who worked tirelessly on the Kerry campaign, decided the best recuperative therapy would be to get right back into the political fray by helping found the Summit County Progressive Democrats.

SNIP

One of SCPD's first major pushes is a petition drive that aims to place three amendments to the Ohio Constitution on the November ballot, Kunstel said. The proposals would lower the campaign contribution limits, establish a nonpartisan commission to handle redistricting and create an independent board to oversee Ohio's elections.

Working with the Reform Ohio Now coalition, SCPD hopes to gather at least 8,000 valid signatures to be included in the 320,000 signatures needed by early August to get the initiatives on the fall ballot.

[Bread and Circus]

6. FYJK

[Peace Patriot]

7. Well, it would be easy to mock this letter, but I'm going to resist that

nearly overwhelming temptation, and just point out a couple of things:

1. "In January, I was so proud when 35,000 members of johnkerry.com called Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert to put electoral reform on Congress' radar screen." --JK

Nope. Don't want "electoral reform" anywhere near Frist's and Hastert's "radar screen." Thank you very much.

2. "Let's start organizing at the community level to push for reform of our voting laws..." --JK

We're way ahead of you, John. Welcome aboard! And we're going after Dem as well as Repub corruption on electronic voting systems. Hope you agree, but it's not really up to you. The People own this ship and are learning how to command. Man the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Throw Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and other Bush Cartel operatives OUT OF OUR ELECTIONS NOW!

3. "More than 1 in 4 Ohio voters reported problems with voting, including ballot issues and intimidation at polling places." --JK

He leaves out that 3% of Ohio voters were PREVENTED from voting, by the long lines--mostly African-Americans. 3%. (You're known as an intelligent guy, President Kerry. It's simple arithmetic.)

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Item #2 has my total and enthusiastic endorsement! Community organizing now, for state/local election reform! That's the only way it's going to get done, and the only avenue toward democracy still open to us. Maybe this letter will help motivate Dem leaders who have been a severe drag on this movement. But the Dem Party really needs to start by purging ITSELF of CORRUPT county and state officials who are in thrall to--and have been corrupted by--electronic voting companies.

--and should then go on to purge itself of corrupt and collusive Democratic officials who are in thrall to--and corrupted by--the military-corporate complex, and who support Bush's war.

[Cookie wookie]

8. Verified Voting Recommends Holt 550 over S450

Calls 550 the "gold standard" whereas their opinion of S 450 is that it "also creates new requirements for audio and pictorial-based methods for verifying the VVPBs. Those requirements will be difficult to meet by the specified deadlines and they have unintended consequences for the continued use of precinct-count optical scan systems and ballot marking devices (those devices make optical scan ballots accessible to voters with disabilities).

As a result, these new requirements would limit the options available for meeting the needs of voters with disabilities. One of our priorities is that optical scan voting systems and ballot marking devices remain viable options, since they provide a more verifiable solution than direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines with VVPB printers attached." http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?list=type&type=13

Edited to provide link.

[ohtransplant]

9. Good to see Kerry's involvement and support

I just don't see what's accomplished by slashing his tires as he goes by.

[Peace Patriot]

11. ohtransplant, I very deliberately did NOT "slash his tires" as he went by.

I think it IS a mistake--and a very big one--to dwell on this individual and to get caught up in the fantasy of "white knights" saving our democracy for us. That does NOT mean that we should NOT be clear-eyed in our present circumstance, and understand that,

a) Congress is the greatest menace to transparent elections, and WILL do much more harm before they are finished. (Prepare yourself for federalized elections under Bush Cartel control--because that's next.)

b) Local/state control over election systems is our ONLY hope for restoring democracy.

c) The Democrats LIED TO US. They said, "Every vote would be counted." Then threw in the towel on 11/3.

d) The Democrats FAILED US long before the election, by failing to cry foul on this blatantly, obviously fraudulent election SYSTEM (with Bush "Pioneers" controlling the vote count with secret, proprietary software. I mean, come on...)

e) The Democrats are one of the major obstacles to election reform.

Go here and understand the utter corruption of our election system that you are reading about:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

I don't think it's at all useful to dwell on John Kerry regarding these facts. Much better to dwell on, say, Connie McCormack, head of Los Angeles elections, a Democrat, an advocate for Diebold, ES&S and paperless voting, and best friends with the former chief salesperson for Diebold in California. Community organizing NOW. Kerry is right on that point. Because obviously neither he nor any of the top Democrats is going to take care of this problem--the corruption WITHIN the Democratic Party on electronic voting systems. WE have to do it. We have to drive these people from office and get HONEST election officials--not shills for Diebold.

[ohtransplant]

12. I don't believe I referred to a particular post.

In addition, I'm not focusing on Kerry and don't see any white knight on the horizon. That said, I'm not willing to throw him to the trash heap of history when he keeps swinging. No one has been coronated for 2008.

It's just that he's the one raising (or re-raising)the issue at this point. These things will never change if we here at DU and those like us are the only ones who know about the issue. Kerry has his Senatorial pulpit to work an issue from and he's not sitting on his hands. More Senators should be raising the issue in fact.

No doubt election fraud is (and should be) crucial to our democracy but it didn't break overnight and won't be fixed overnight.

Thanks for the references. I learned some things I didn't know.

Peace

[LightningFlash]

10. There's a problem here with John Kerry's statements...

They are nothing new. But let's not all crucify him for it. He's only JUST waking up to the fact that these thugs play dirty.... :eyes:

No honestly, where was Kerry on November 3rd when the fraud was being instigated? Why did he give up so easily and hire corrupt republicans to look into the mess?

I think he genuinely had good intentions, but put his career before everyone else. Plus John was not educated like all of us on how easy it was to rig the machines....He didn't figure that out until we bogged him down with over 1 million emails.


Let's not all ignore John like we ignored Bev Harris...Believe it or not, his visibility can bring strong attention to this issue. But lets continue to push him to drop these republican aides of his like Bill Richardson because the last thing they want is verifiable machines in their little elections......

[Peace Patriot]

13. "...John was not educated like all of us on how easy it was to rig the...

...machines."

My dear, John Kerry has been an ELECTED public official for how many years? 25? 30? And he's not interested in how votes are counted? Or, that Wally O'Dell and the Ahmanson's had control over the vote count with secret, proprietary software?

What college was that he went to?

Come on, LightningFlash! I'm willing to give him some benefits of the doubt. I really am. He was up against the most ruthless gang of murderers and thieves that has ever gained power in this land--or any land, for that matter. I cannot judge his decision to concede, on a personal basis. I do not agree with those who call him a coward or a shirker. And I don't think he is personally corrupt. But who owned and controlled the voting system, and how that was all set up--with no controls and no verification measures--by Bush's "pod people" in Congress, was plenty well known by people WHOSE JOB IT IS TO GET VOTES.

Their blank stares and their silence now are telling us about their guilt, their complicity and their elitism, not about their ignorance.

We need to determine levels of guilt, complicity and elitism--before we can judge anyone. And someone in Kerry's spot, on 11/3, is not easy to judge. But the people around him, and other Democrats--for instance, Democratic election officials in Georgia, in California, and in all places where Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia have struck pay dirt among Democrats, need to be investigated and driven from office. These people have SOLD US OUT--for money, for power, for lavish lobbying junkets to the Beverly Hilton, and for future job offers.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy the defense of ignorance in Democratic politicians any more. Kerry may not have thought that the Bush Cartel would have the audacity to do what they did. I'll give him that. But that they had the capability? IF he had been ignorant of that, he would be guilty of the worst malfeasance and stupidity, and I don't believe that of him. More likely, he was poorly advised (and also had an array of forces against him--a Congressional blockade against any investigation of the election (no hope of justice there), a news media ready and more than willing to tear him to shreds like a pack of sharks, a Bush packed Supreme Court, corrupt courts in Ohio, and people in his own party, and among his own advisers, who wouldn't back a challenge.)

But as for our fraudulent election SYSTEM, they are all guilty, as far as I'm concerned--anyone in elected office today who isn't vigorously fighting, in every way possible, for RESTORATION OF OUR RIGHT TO VOTE. Kerry has been about as limp on this matter as all the rest, and I DO blame him for THAT, rather than for having a Bush Cartel target on his back on 11/3. I don't know what I would have done, had I been him in that circumstance--and I don't know the full circumstances. So I cannot judge. But he could be much stronger on the principle of our right to vote, and much more active in restoring that right. And I think it's a form of elitism that he is not.

-------

P.S. Yes, I'm glad for his statements supporting election reform--when I'm not raging with tears and laughing like a hyena at these pampered clowns who claim to be our representatives. Sorry. I'm in a snit today. Yes, okay, he's said a couple of things. That's great! When is he going to point the finger at Diebold and ES&S and tell them, "Begone, Satan!"? That's what I want to see.

[LightningFlash]

14. On the contrary, I didn't say he was willfully ignorant...

I was speaking on the account of bad advice from his corrupt lobbyists....

Kerry may very well have known how bad the machines were, but never dreamed that democrats and republicans both would allow them to steal votes. He may have truthfully, as Madsen and other investigators charge, been woefully unprepared for what was about to happen.

That's not to say that all the other corrupt democrats needn't be held accountable. They in fact do need to be held accountable more than ever, especially Bill Richardson, who's a shill for Ahmanson.

But efforts should be focused on ousting, getting rid of those people. Republican & Democrat both. And not focused on demonizing Kerry or anyone else where that effort is proven frivilous now, since what's done is done and Howard Dean is leading the fight and we must get this into the visible spotlight to stop the corrupt BOE workers and lay out indictments.

[Bill Bored]

15. PP, they are silent because they were bamboozled!

It's damn embarrassing for the Dems who voted for HAVA without the voter-verified paper audit trail to have to admit that they screwed up, but that's how it was. The words "voter verified" weren't in the bill and at least some Dems thought they were. They didn't read the bill, or they just didn't get it. I have heard this from people who know some of the players involved who say they would NOT have voted for it had they known what they were doing.

I'm not saying VVPATs alone are the answer, but they are essential as a foundation on which to check that secret software and a host of errors that can be programmed into every DRE in a jurisdiction with the click of a mouse. Yet this basic safeguard was not in the bill.

What the Dems need to do now is to speak up, come forward, admit they screwed up and move on in some way to fix this thing. Until then they will appear to be as corrupt as the Republicans. It may not be so. It may be they are just too trusting. It may be they were simply bamboozled. I'd respect them more if they'd admit it.

McCormack and Cathy Cox may be the exceptions rather than the rule. The rest of the party should be up in arms about them, but they can't be because they voted for HAVA, which made it all possible. The truth will set them free.

Perhaps this is the germ of an idea to get the Dems to come clean. What do you think?