Debates & Congressional Objections to Ohio Electoral vote

While America as we knew it hung in the balance, all but for C-SPAN failed to chronicle the events of the stopping of the Electoral vote count. That it was the first time since 1877 that has occurred might have caused the media to pause and invest as much graphics shmaltz as , let's say, Brad Pitt's marriage break-up. But alas, a complicit corporate media never fails to go with the flow.

Here's where to download & save the only coverage of any merit on what actually happens in our 3 Branches of government: C-SPAN

House of Representatives Debate on Objection to Ohio Electoral Votes

U.S. Senate on Objection to Ohio Electoral Votes



EXCERPTS:



This is not about sour grapes. This is about the central act of democracy. I would like to enumerate numerous other discrepancies that were contained in a Judiciary Committee report entitled Preserving Democracy, What Went Wrong in Ohio:

# The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters.
# Mr. Blackwell's decision to restrict provisional ballots resulted in the disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters.
# Mr. Blackwell's decision to reject voter registration applications based on paper weight may have resulted in thousands of new voters not being registered in time.
# The Ohio Republican Party's preelection "caging" tactics targeting minority voters had a negative impact on voter turnout.
# The Ohio Republican Party's decision to utilize thousands of partisan challengers in minority and Democratic areas, disenfranchising tens of thousands of legal voters. These disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged by Republican officials.
# Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them from being able to receive provisional ballots likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters.
# A federal court found Mr. Blackwell's order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.
# Mr. Blackwell's apparent failure to institute a single investigation into many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty to investigate election irregularities.
# Improper purging and other registration errors by election officials likely disenfranchised tens of thousands.
# 10,000 Ohio citizens lost their right to vote as a result of official registration errors.
# There were 93,000 spoiled ballots where no vote was cast for president, the vast majority of which have yet to be inspected.
# Montgomery County had an undervote rate of over 25 percent. Nearly 6,000 voters supposedly stood in line to vote, but declined to vote for president.
# In Mahoning county at least 25 electronic machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush column.
# Warren County locked out public observers from vote counting citing an FBI warning about a potential terrorist threat, yet the FBI states that it issued no such warning.
# The voting records of Perry county show significantly more votes than voters in some precincts, significantly less ballots than voters in other precincts, and voters casting more than one ballot.
# In Miami county, voter turnout was an improbable and highly suspect 98.55 percent, and after 100 percent of the precincts were reported, an additional 19,000 extra votes were recorded for President Bush.
# The voting computer company Triad has admitted that it provided cheat sheets to those counting the ballots during the recount.


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It is a crime against the dignity of American democracy. This is not a normal debate. This is a direct attack to undermine our democracy by using a procedure to undermine the constitutional election that was just held. Democrats must find a way to rise above this destructive theory of politics for its own sake. A dangerous precedent is being set here today. It needs to be curbed. The American people, and their ancestors who invented our miraculous system of government, deserve better than this.

Several members have mentioned the inconvenience that many voters experienced on voting day by having to stand in line. My dad is 87 years old. He is blind. He is proud to wait 3 hours to vote. Last year the Afghan people got up early one morning and set out to vote for the first time. They were threatened with being shot and killed or maimed by bombs. Many stood in line all day to vote. I believe we should look to the Afghan people for an example of how to fulfill our responsibility to vote.