U.S. National

Hello to all

I am Dr. Lora Chamberlain in Chicago of the Illinois Progressive Democrats. I am helping the League of Pissed Off Voters, CASE and other citizens groups in Ohio with their public hearings about election fraud and a rally for a full criminal investigation into any and all election fraud during this past election on Nov.2nd.

Reach Out, a citizen action group in Ohio is sponsoring the rally on Sat. 11/13th at the Capitol Square in downtown Columbus, OH,  180 E. Broadway, beginning at 10:30am and going until 12:30pm, then they will march to the public hearings that will begin at 1pm and go until 4pm at the New Faith Baptist Church, 955 Oak St., on the near east side of Columbus, OH. Additional public hearings will occur on Mon, 11/15, 6-9pm at the Franklin County Courthouse, room A, 373 S. High St in downtown Columbus. All interested citizens are encouraged to attend. This rally and the hearings will be posted at www.indyvoter.org in the calendar and at www.michiganIMC.org .

Following the president's re-election by the electoral synod last week, the sentimental apoplectic in me couldn't help picturing the last scene in "The Day After," the movie about a nuclear holocaust. Shredded and shrunken, Jason Robards' doctor-character sits on the rubble of his house as the camera pans out to reveal a flattened Lawrence, Kan.

What hydrogen bombs couldn't do to the Democratic Party, Karl Rove and George W. Bush finally did, with a little help from a ringer. Five votes swung the election Bush's way four years ago. It took just one vote this time -- Osama bin Laden's, cast with impeccable timing over the last three years to keep fear the value-added commodity it's been for the Bush administration. Without fear, there could be no crusade (against heathens abroad and at home, but mostly at home), and, without crusade, there could be no appeal to the deciding factor in American politics: the religious bloc. So, the 2004 election panned out as a choice between committed evangelicals and committed secularists. Evangelicals won.

David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties, today announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a recount of the presidential ballots cast in Ohio.

"Due to widespread reports of irregularities in the Ohio voting process, we are compelled to demand a recount of the Ohio presidential vote. Voting is the heart of the democratic process in which we as a nation put our faith. When people stand in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, they need to know that all votes will be counted fairly and accurately. We must protect the rights of the people of Ohio, as well as all Americans, and stand up for the right to vote and the right for people's votes to be counted. The integrity of the democratic process is at stake," the two candidates said in a joint statement.

The candidates also demanded that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired the Ohio Bush campaign, recuse himself from the recount process.

It was 8:30 pm, and the polls had closed an hour ago. The basement of the Centenary United Methodist Church just outside Columbus was steamy and dank, filled with a line of voters that snaked through several hallways. There were so many loops that the beginning and the end of the line were indistinguishable, but no one fought about it. Several hundred people stood or sat on the floor or on stools they had brought, waiting. At the rate the line was moving, it would take hours more for them all to finish. They had already been waiting for up to eight hours, and they were ready to wait hours more. To vote.

Ten minutes and a world away, TV sets at the America Coming Together Victory Party blared, “It’s all coming down to Ohio.” Those of us volunteers who had gone out in vans in the pouring rain to help at the polls watched it slip away. In this church basement, like so many polling places in predominantly poor, Democratic precincts, our little outpost of hope and grit stood solid, and I watched it refuse to flinch, and I watched it lose.

Nov 3- The Central Ohio Peace Network and the Toledo League of Pissed Off Voters organized an anti-war protest for today at 5:00 PM to send out the message that whoever the next president is, we need to end our occupation of Iraq. After hearing about Kerry's concession earlier in the day, the focus of the event at the Federal Building turned heavily towards expressing dissatisfaction with questionable election procedures.

One sign read, "Hundreds of thousands of voters suppressed- democracy failed." Written on another was, "Blackwell sucks," accompanied by a picture of ballots being sucked into a well.

A man who identified himself as David claimed that votes were lost because of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's decision to only count provisional ballots that were cast at the correct precinct, and also because Republican workers "cleansed the voting lists," taking off people who had not voted in recent elections.

Nov. 3, 2004 | COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The real scandal of this election became clear to me at 6.30 p.m. on Election Day as I drove a young African- American voter, a charming business student, seven months pregnant, to her polling place at Finland Elementary School in south Columbus. We arrived in a squalling rain to find voters lined up outside for about a hundred yards. Later the line moved indoors. We were told that the wait had averaged two hours for the entire day. By the time the doors closed at 7:30 p.m., it was considerably longer.

Why such a line? Yes, turnout was a factor. But the real problem was a grotesque shortage of voting machines. Finland Elementary serves three precincts: Ward 37, A, B and C. The election officer at the door told me that the smallest of these precincts has some 400 registered voters, the middle-sized one has more than 800 and the largest "thousands." Because of the length and complexity of the ballot, voters were being limited to five minutes to finish their ballot, and most were using all that time.

I worked for 3 days, including Election Day, on the statewide voter protection hotline run by the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus, Ohio.

I am writing this because the media is inexplicably whitewashing what happened in Ohio, and Kerry's concession was likewise inexplicable.

Hundreds of thousands of people were disenfranchised in Ohio. People waited on line for as long as 10 hours. It appears to have only happened in Democratic-leaning precincts, principally (a) precincts where many African Americans lived, and (b) precincts near colleges.

Before the election I went on a date with a young lady and the topic of politics reared its ugly head. The woman, who I will call Nikki, said she was voting for George W Bush. This was one week from Election Day and emotions in America were riding high. I was not only backing Kerry but was also very enamored with him as my generation’s answer to George McGovern. Many times this past election I compared this election to McGovern versus Nixon. Unfortunately, I was given the displeasure of suffering the same crushing blow as McGovern supporters had to endure. When I heard her profess her devotion for President Bush I knew there would not be another date. I am no James Carville and cannot fathom seriously dating someone from across the aisle especially during these divisive political times. I can share a friendship with a right winger but not a romance. After almost gagging on my Filet Mignon while she spoke of her admiration for President Bush the dreaded question I was waiting for finally came; who are you voting for? I lied and told her that I was voting for President Bush.

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurane of those whom they oppress."~~Frederick Douglass, former slave and one of the most prominent African-American lecturers and authors in American history.

So that's it, then. Like John Kerry says, it's time to get over it. Move on. Get on with our lives and our jobs -- let the healing begin.

Sounds good, John. But I don't intend to budge until all the votes are counted, because when I started this journey I committed for the long haul. Jumping ship to avoid putting the country through the "agony" of investigating and challenging another sordid election coup de`etat would never occur to me -- especially if I had 17,000 lawyers fired up and ready to do battle. If, as you said, this was the single most important election in our lifetime -- our one last shot at salvaging democracy -- it looks like you could have, as a minimum, hung around until the results were in.

As a point of reference and for disclosure purposes let me say that I am a registered Independent. I do not like to pledge allegiances to any group. All too often a party’s platform will change over time and I do not want my image tied to any party which does not reflect my views fully. As an Independent I can study and develop my views and I currently my views consist of a range from all over the politic spectrum with most being considered leftist, some moderate, and some conservative. I do not have the chore of squaring my views with committee heads of a political party that I will never meet. These views are mine and I really like the thought that I have the power to form and even change the views of my party- which is a party of one. The platform of my Independent party is my wholly my responsibility.