Very glad to see democracy at work. Living in, and experiencing the mess in Washington state, I can understand why voting irregularities are a big issue.........they should be.
M
Lawmakers Object to Electoral College Results
Thursday, January 06, 2005
STORIES
•Raw Data: Boxer Letter•Raw Data: Kerry Letter•Presidential Vote Certification Faces Objection•Conyers: Investigate Ohio Votes•Bush, Congress Face Heavy Schedule•Inauguration Committee Collects $8M •Protests Planned for Bush Inauguration
WASHINGTON — Sen. Barbara Boxer (search), D-Calif., and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (search), D-Ohio, on Thursday contested the results of the Electoral College that would give President Bush a second term.
A joint session of Congress met to certify the election on Thursday but quickly recessed per congressional rules to go to their respective chambers to debate certification for up to two hours.
"I raise this objection neither to put the nation in a turmoil of proposed overturn election," Jones said afterward in the House. "I raised this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal" debate and "protect the integrity of the true will of the people."
Thursday's action was the first of its kind in 36 years, but probably will amount to no more than a procedural delay of the inevitable.
After the two-hour debate in each chamber, the House and Senate are to vote separately on whether to uphold the objection or go back and certify the president. The two bodies are expected to reconvene later in the day in a joint session to report their respective actions.
Boxer decided late Wednesday that she would challenge the results of Ohio's 20 Electoral College votes for Bush. She sent a letter to Jones saying she was "moved" by Jones' concerns about reported election irregularities in the decisive swing state.
"I have concluded that objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate way to bring these issues to light by allowing you to have a two-hour debate to let the American people know the facts surrounding Ohio's election," Boxer said in the letter.
Read the letter by clicking here.
Boxer and Jones held a news conference at noon and acknowledged they are not expecting to overturn the November election results. But they stressed the need to have a debate on voting irregularities, which they suggested would not happen if it weren't for this formal challenge. Boxer characterized the objection as "the first round in the battle for electoral justice."
Boxer also said she regrets that she didn't object to the certification four years ago when the controversial election put Bush over Al Gore.
"Yes, I think there are people who wish we didn't do it, but we're doing it for the right reasons," she said, adding that she was also going to introduce with her House colleagues legislation to standardize elections nationally.
Jones added that she couldn't let the election go without assuring democracy applies to everyone in the United Statse.
"I can't let it go because there are people in my congressional district, there are people in this country who said, 'Stephanie, I did not get my vote counted. My vote did not count. I was denied the opportunity to vote.'"
Vice President Dick Cheney (search) led the effort to read off electoral votes won by both Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search).
The "certificates of vote" from each state were called out and the number of votes designated for president and vice president were reported on four separate paper tallies.
At the end of the reading of all 50 states and the District of Columbia's votes, the four tellers responsible for recording the tallies are expected to compare results and sign off on them. Cheney then is supposed to announce the totals and order them into the record.
This is not the first objection to certification. In 2001, more than two dozen Democrats objected to the certification of Florida's disputed election, but because no senator objected, as is required to trigger a recess of the joint session, the objection was ignored.
Republicans from Ohio were not pleased by the Democrats' objection. Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, called the challenge an effort by "certain extreme elements of Senator Kerry's own party" to mock an election that Kerry himself conceded.
"Their intention in this whole process is merely … to undermine public confidence in the electoral system itself," Pryce said. Challenges are "no more than another exercise in their party's primary goal to obstruct, to divide and destroy."
Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said charges made about Ohio’s election are “wild, incoherent and completely unsubstantiated. He had prepared a statement to deliver on the Senate floor in case of an objection.
“If Ohio’s electors are challenged, I think it will be a sad day for the United States Congress. I can hardly believe that this could happen on the floor of the United States Senate. All objective observers in Ohio know that President Bush carried the state of Ohio," he said.
Boxer and several other senators had been approached by House Democrats to launch the corresponding objection from the Senate that would force the recess of the joint session.
According to informed sources, House Democrats also approached newly-elected Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (search) to join the objection. Those sources said Obama has no plans to do so.
Kerry, who lost the election to Bush and is currently overseas, said in a letter sent to supporters Wednesday he would not take part in a formal protest of the Ohio Electors because, despite widespread reports of voting irregularities, his legal team had "found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election."
Kerry said he planned to introduce election-reform legislation and push for congressional hearings on the voting irregularities.
Read Kerry's letter by clicking here.
Asked about the political wisdom of deciding to join House members in contesting the results, an aide to Boxer aide told FOX News, "These are credible folks in the House who say there are real problems out there. They need to shine the light on this. So they made an appeal to the senator for the right to shine the light on it.
"There are folks who think this is a not a fruitful exercise, because even [if] the results are challenged, it still may not change the outcome," the aide added, "but for two hours, this might at least be worth discussing."
Republicans say Boxer and a handful of House left-wingers are grand-standing. One Democratic leadership source also criticized Boxer, suggesting, "It would not be preferable for her to object."
FOX News' Carl Cameron, Julie Asher and Jim Mills and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
foxnews.com |
