Letter-writer contends election was fraudulent
timesargus.com
January 2, 2005
This is an open letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. James Jeffords:
Thomas Paine said that the right of voting is the primary right by which all other rights are protected, and that to take away this right is to reduce a people to slavery.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced voter fraud in the recent November elections the biggest issue since Selma, Ala., where rampant voting suppression of blacks generated a civil rights march 25,000 people strong.
U.S. Representative John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, recently conducted hearings on voter fraud in the critically important swing state of Ohio. His hearing and other public hearings in Ohio have received sworn testimonies that document "thousands of complaints of voting irregularities" favoring George Bush. Election observers have testified under oath that more than a dozen voting machines switched Kerry votes to Bush votes while voters watched in amazement.
In many Ohio counties there were voting machine shortages in largely Democratic precincts, leading to waits of over 10 hours to vote. There was also a Watergate-type burglary in the Lucas County Democratic campaign headquarters in Toledo, Ohio, in October, and voter turnout rates of an improbable 98.55 percent reported in parts of Miami County that voted heavily in favor of Bush.
The November vote, said one observer, was "the crime of the century."
A lawsuit has been filed at the Ohio Supreme Court charging that a fair vote count would give the state and the presidency to John Kerry rather than George Bush. On Dec. 21, notice of depositions were sent to President George Bush, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and others to appear and give testimony regarding the legal challenge of Ohio's election results in the case Moss v. Bush et. al.
On Dec. 20, subpoenas were issued to top election officials in 10 Ohio counties where vote-count fraud is suspected. The challengers are trying to get a meaningful vote recount, but Ohio Attorney General Kenneth Blackwell, who also acted as chairman of Bush's Ohio re-election committee, does not seem to be cooperating very well. Jan. 6 is the date Congress accepts the Electoral College vote and the Republican strategy appears to be to make the Ohio recount drag on as long as possible.
Voting problems in November were not limited to Ohio. Across the country over 57,000 complaints of voting violations have been reported to the House Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Government Accounting Office.
Reports include voting machines in Florida and Oklahoma that were actually shown to be counting votes backwards. Most "touch screen" voting machines leave no paper trail, are relatively easy to tamper with, and hide the vote tabulating process from traditional citizen oversight. New York and California have refused to permit this technology.
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 allows the presidential election to be contested on Jan. 6 if one U.S. Representative and one U.S. Senator step forward. A number of representatives are ready to do so.
Sens. Leahy and Jeffords, I ask you to be the guardians of democracy.
I call on you to review the evidence. This moment may be crucial for the future of our country. I urge you to be courageous and exhibit moral leadership by refusing to certify the results of the presidential election of 2004 until all of the serious allegations of fraud have been fully investigated by independent parties, especially in the states of Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico.
For more information go to: freepress.org or contestthevote.org.
Tad Montgomery
Brattleboro |
