Dear Senator:
I am crossing my fingers today that at least one Senator will stand up for democracy and contest the election. I am sure you have received many phone calls from pronin2 and company, read the excellent diary's here at kos covering the election irregularities and have read Conyers Report Preserving Democracy - What Went Wrong in Ohio
Here are some handy reasons to take a stand.
Why Congress must investigate rather than ratify the Electoral College
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
Republican-majority districts did not have voting problems
- No waiting, plenty of voting machines in GOP strongholds.
- Plenty of voting machines at GOP-leaning university, but not nearby liberal school.
Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Snafus
- New registrations not properly processed, voters told not on rolls at poll.
- Voters with multi-year residences told not on rolls, given provisional ballot.
- College student vote suppressed, 2004 voter registrations not processed.
- Absentee ballot requests not properly processed in timely manner.
- Voters bringing absentee ballots to polls told to go to county offices.
- Longtime voters not receiving absentee ballots, given provisional ballots.
Voting Machines Shorted In Minority Districts.
- Polls in urban precincts assigned too few machines.
- Voters recall more voting machines at same polling place in past elections.
- Too few machines assigned to liberal college campuses, suppressing vote.
- Broken machines delivered to democratic precincts.
- Voters turned away because of broken machines.
- Calls by poll workers to get more machines mostly unanswered.
- Poll workers improvise solution, but votes may not be counted.
- Polls opened late, overwhelmed poll workers.
- Long lines, people waiting for three-to-five hours, at times outside in rain.
- Elderly and handicapped people not accommodated.
- Once inside polls, people not told they were waiting in wrong lines.
- Poll workers did not send people to proper polling place.
- Voters were not adequately instructed how to use machines.
- Cops ticket illegally parked cars at poll, because of long wait.
Long lines, People Waiting, People Leaving
- People waiting in the rain for long time.
- People left without voting, citing long wait.
- People returning to polls several times to try to vote.
- Time taken to vote took undue personal toll.
Voters Challenged; Given Provisional Ballots; Provisionals Not Handled Properly
- College students challenged, given high number of provisional ballots.
- Minorities, youth in urban areas targeted, challenged, some given provisional ballots.
- Minority youth incorrectly challenged by alleging they had felony record.
- Ex-felons targeted by disinformation campaign saying they cannot vote.
- Longtime voters challenged, poll workers incorrectly cite address changes.
- Longtime voters incorrectly were given provisional ballots.
- Poll workers not familiar with provisional ballots, improperly recorded.
- Precinct judges not familiar with provisional ballots, ballots not offered to voters.
- Ballot layout and design confusing, leading to mistaken votes.
- Voters given punch card ballots with presidential choices already punched.
- Punch-card machine not working properly.
- Electronic machine malfunction, no flashing lights for presidential vote choice.
- Electronic machine malfunction, voters chooses Kerry; machine selects Bush.
- Electronic machine malfunction, screen goes black or registers no vote.
- Homeland Security Threat, banning press from observing Warren County count.
- Secretary of State orders Election records sealed until after vote is certified.
- Secretary of State's last-minute provisional rule change disenfranchises voters.
- Reports of spoiled ballots - or no votes for president - don't make sense.
- Reported turnout numbers did not match what people at polls saw.
Seven key reasons why the vote must be challenged at the electoral college
by Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
- Exit Polls Did Not Match Actual Vote in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida
- Voting machines owned by private, partisan companies subject to manipulation
- Uncounted and Provisional Ballots disproportionately affected African American voters
- Inexplicable Vote disparities
- Voting Rights Act Violations
- The Recount did not Recount the Votes
- Challenge at January 6 Joint Session of Congress
As highlited in georgia10's must read
The Informed Citizen's Guide To The 2004 Election
Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
- More than 106,000 Ohio ballots remain uncounted.
- Most uncounted ballots come from regions and precincts where Kerry was strongest.
- Of the 147,000 combined provisional and absentee ballots counted by hand after Election Day, Kerry received 54.46 percent of the vote.
- Turnout inconsistencies reveal tens of thousands of Kerry votes were not simply recorded.
- Many certified turnout results in key regions throughout the state are simply not plausible, and all work to the advantage of Bush.
- Due to computer flaws and vote shifting, there were numerous reports across Ohio of extremely troublesome electronic errors during the voting process and in the counting.
- In Miami County, two sets of results were submitted to state officials.
- Democratic voters were apparently targeted with provisional ballots.
- Ohio's Election Day exit poll was more credible than the certified result, according to intense statistical analysis.
- The Ohio recount wasn't random or comprehensive and may have involved serious illegalities.
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's actions by pointsoflight then
Hunter
1. Blackwell also issued an order that anyone who did not receive their absentee ballot could not vote by provisional ballot on election day, contrary to the Help
American Vote Act (HAVA).
- Blackwell also issued an order that provisional ballots would only be counted only if they are cast at the correct precinct.
- Blackwell has ordered that polling books, absentee ballots, and provisional ballots be "locked down" and they've continued to be locked down even after completion of the counts and recounts.
- Blackwell [...] effectively ran out the clock on potential investigations into irregularities before the casting and counting of the states electoral votes.
- Blackwell also failed to enforce his own office's rules for conducting a recount.
- Blackwell also failed to enforce Ohio law that prohibits election machinery from being serviced, modified, or altered in any way subsequent to an election, unless it is done so in the presence of the full board of elections and other observers.
ELSE
Notice to Senate Democrats
There will not be another chance, I can assure every Senator who reads this. Please remember that political parties are merely human contstructs and as such, they rise and fall according to the human conditions that engender them. It is your turn, Senators, to stand in the breach; if you fail to add your voices to those heroic House members as they demand an investigation into the desecration of our democracy that occurred in Ohio (not to mention all the outrages that preceeded it, as well as those we are surely yet to witness), you will have failed your country, your supposed "ideals" and your Party; you will also have failed your children and yourselves. (The excuses you are hearing whispered in your inner ear - that even if you do make this courageous stand, it will not change the outcome - is a devious one. Prinicipal demands action at the most critical moments in history, even when it seems futile.) To fail to act at such an historical juncture as this, is to fail historically.