[kj] ot - vote scam

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Chicago Sun Times - November 30, 2004

http://www.suntimes.com/output/jesse/cst-edt-jesse30.html

In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting
what they charge is a fixed election. U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell expresses this nation's concern
about apparent voting irregularities. The media give
the dispute around-the-clock coverage. But in the
United States, massive and systemic voter
irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.

Ohio is this election year's Florida. The vote in Ohio
decided the presidential race, but it was marred by
intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and
discrepancies. U.S. citizens have as much reason as
those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in.
Consider:

In Ohio, a court just ruled there can't be a recount
yet, because the vote is not yet counted. It's three
weeks after the election, and Ohio still hasn't counted
the votes and certified the election. Some 93,000
overvotes and undervotes are not counted; 155,000
provisional ballots are only now being counted.
Absentee ballots cast in the two days prior to the
election haven't been counted.

Ohio determines the election, but the state has not yet
counted the vote. That outrage is made intolerable by
the fact that the secretary of state in charge of this
operation, Ken Blackwell, holds -- like Katherine
Harris of Florida's fiasco in 2000 -- a dual role:
secretary of state with control over voting procedures
and co-chair of George Bush's Ohio campaign. Blackwell
should recuse himself so that a thorough investigation,
count and recount of Ohio's vote can be made.

Blackwell reversed rules on provisional ballots in
place in the spring primaries. These allowed voters to
cast provisional ballots anywhere in their county, even
if they were in the wrong precinct, reflecting the
chief rationale for provisional ballots: to ensure that
those who went to the wrong place by mistake could have
their votes counted. The result of this decision -- why
does this not surprise? -- was to disqualify
disproportionately ballots cast in heavily Democratic
Cuyahoga County.

Blackwell also permitted the use of electronic machines
that provided no paper record. The maker of many of
these machines, the head of Diebold Co., promised to
deliver Ohio for Bush. In one precinct in Franklin
County, an electric voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra
votes out of a total of 638 votes cast.

Blackwell also presided over a voting system that
resulted in quick, short lines in the dominantly
Republican suburbs, and four-hour and longer waiting
lines in the inner cities. Wealthy precincts received
ample numbers of voting machines and numerous voting
places. Democratic precincts received inadequate
numbers of machines in too few polling places that were
often hard to locate; this caused daylong waits for the
very working people who could least afford the time.

In Ohio, as in Florida and Pennsylvania, there was a
stark disconnect between the exit polls and the
tabulated results, with the former favoring John Kerry
and the latter George Bush. The chance of this
occurring in these three states, according to Professor
Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania, is
about 250 million to 1.

In one of dozens of examples, Ellen Connally, an
African-American Supreme Court candidate running an
underfunded race at the bottom of the ticket, received
over 257,000 more votes than Kerry in 37 counties. She
ran better than Kerry in the areas of the state where
she wasn't known and didn't campaign than she did where
she was known and did campaign.

There should be a federal investigation of the vote
count in Ohio, with the partisan secretary of state
removing himself from the scene.

In Cleveland, as in Kiev, Ukraine, citizens have the
right to know that the election is run fairly and every
vote counted honestly. Citizens have the right to
nonpartisan election officials. Citizens have the right
to voting machines that keep a paper record and allow
for an independent audit and recount.

This country needs no more Floridas and Ohios. This
shouldn't be a partisan issue. We call for a
constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote
for all U.S. citizens and to empower Congress to
establish federal standards and nonpartisan
administration of elections. Harris and Blackwell are
insults to the people they represent, and stains upon
the president whose election they sought to ensure.
Democracy should not be for export only.

© 2004 Chicago Sun Times