http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/o...lowup121404.pdf

also here

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/conyers_letter_1214.php

Tuesday, December 14, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The following is the letter from minority chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich) to Ohio Republican Secretary of State and Bush Cheney '04 campaign chairman Kenneth Blackwell in response to Blackwell's letter earlier Tuesday. Conyers to led the Ohio voting hearings held in Columbus Monday. Conyer's statement was issued Tuesday afternoon to RAW STORY by Rep. Conyers.

WTG Conyers. It is a wonder he could be so polite to such a piece of walking talking garbage.

posted at democratic underground

Blackwell responds to Conyers and the GAO Letter!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...ress=203x158522

As you know www.pdamerica.org has been working close on this issue!

We JUST got word and a copy of the letter sent back in response to the GAO letter from Blackwell.

Here are that scanned version via PDF:
http://www.pdamerica.org/downloads/2004VotingIssues /

Sorry that is the only version we have. We wanted to make sure the DU'ers have it!

Okay, so this is heating up. Conyers really put it bluntly, if politely, no response at all to 36 different questions!

Looks like Blackwell is going down...

How do we get all of the people in Ohio to see this? Any ideas??

I renew my call. Do we have any Wisconsin members from Rep. Sensenbrenner's district (5th?).

Please go to the local office in person with copies of these letters, bring a reporter in tow, and ask for his support. If if none, why not.

MoveOn.org should do a TV ad

Kerry should pay for a Ohio ad tonight! :D

Does anyone have Blackwell's response letter that they are referring to, or did I miss it? That would be a nice addition to this thread.

Hear, hear!! A pac could probably get away with it, couldn't they?

Where is Michael Moore? He could do something cool, too.

Here is Blackwell's letter:

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/12/imag...lresp121404.pdf

target='_blank'>


http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...showtopic=10051

We should possibly address the illegal activities and possible cover ups of Blackwell to Conyers to see if it would heat things up more/. ????? :o

Not out of his pocket, but with the left over election money....with Blackwell down the others will scare a little, the media will focus a little more and the people in the US may realize that something fishy is going on.

What are some local channels that reach a large Ohio audience?

Sorry. Puke Green is my Repugnat Rep.

Conyers rocks.

Smart, well-spoken and to the point.

This is the type of person this country needs for its "leaders".

Not a mental midget in a flight suit costume. <_<

Snappy statement! I agree!

Speaking of which... From the Akron Beacon Journal, December 14, 2004
(Flagship paper of the Knight-Ridder Newspapers, founded 1839) www.Ohio.com
On the letters page (Voice of the People):

Something about a man in uniform
When President Bush stood before thousands of Marines last Tuesday at
Camp Pendleton (where the uniform of the day was caouflage fatigues), he
sported a newly tailored field jacket with epaulets, the presidential seal on
his right chest and an embroidered identification tag in the left breast
pocket position - one that read, "George W. Bush, Commander in Chief."
None of our previous U.S. Presidents - including former generals
George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant and
Dwight D. Eisenhower - ever affected a military uniform while in office.
Such posturing is in the tradition, however, of Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat,
Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin and yes, Saddam Hussein.
One would think our president would be embarrassed to wear such a
get-up - especially considering his own military record.
Jack Gleck,
Akron (Ohio)

Same page, same paper, same date, in the "Our Opinion" section (editorials):

Punished at the polls
A reduced number of precincts in Summit County made
Election Day most frustrating for too many voters

On Election Day, Summit County hardly experienced the delays that afflicted Knox County. At Kenyon College, some students waited 10 hours to vote. In Columbus, delays at polling places extended to seven hours. In these parts, especially in Akron, watchdog groups reported voters waiting as long as three hours to cast their ballots. Bryan Williams, the director of the Summit board of elections, cited 95 minutes as the longest wait reported to his office.

By comparison, that amounts to a dash into McDonald's. Still, even 95 minutes is too long. Perhaps the rule should be that no voter should wait longer than the average time to deliver a pizza.

Part of the trouble in Summit, as explained by Akron Beacon Journal staff writers David Knox, Carl Chancellor and Kyberli Hagelberg, was the reduction in the number of precincts orchestrated in recent years by members of the elections board. In 2000, the county had 624 precincts. Four years later, the number dropped to 475, translating into ore voters converging on each polling place. Akron lost 81 of 234 precincts, a reduction of roughly one-third.

Why the reduced number? The two Democratic members, Wayne Jones and Russell Pry, pointed to a state mandate. Yet no mandate exists, Summit taking a unique course. Alex Arshinkoff, a Republican member, explained that the objective was to save money (a relatively small sum), fewer precincts leading to lower overhead, in particular, fewer poll workers. The board had in mind taking advantage of electronic voting. Arshinkoff noted the reduced number of voters in primary and off-year elections.

Practically speaking, an elections board must operate like a power company. FirstEnergy cannot afford to supply just enough power to eet the average day of electricity use. It must be ready for those sweltering summer days. In the same way, an elections board must be ready for a 2004, when turnout soars.

Originally, in its reshaping effort, the Summit elections board aied for 650 voters per precinct. (Ohio permits up to 1,400.) Then, the target increased to 800. The trouble is, in Akron, the average is now closer to 850, with some precincts topping 1,000. That would be fine, if the county had the resources to handle the arriving voters. In too many instances, polling places were overwhelmed. Too many voters likely became discouraged, especially those eying the clock and their jobs.

Such delays truly have the effect of a poll tax. Voters are penalized. That shouldn't be the case when a democracy is conducting its most important business. No voter should have to wait even 30 minutes. The Summit County Board of Elections should fix its precinct problem one way or another.
----

December 14, 2004, The Plain Dealer www.Cleveland.com
page A12 quoted from the Washington Post
Democrats plan to probe Bush policies
Senate Democrats announced plans Monday for wide-ranging hearings to examine Bush administration policies and conduct, saying the Republicans who control both houses of Congress have abdicated responsibility for oversight of the GOP administration. "The congressional watchdog remains fast asleep, and we intend to wake him up," said Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who announced the party's plan at a news conference. Dorgan said the hearings will begin in January, with the subject of the first couple of sessions to be announced later this month. Democrats listed a number of possible targets for hearings, including contract abuses in Iraq and the administration's use of prewar intelligence.

(They also quote a story from the Associated Press stating in Seattle Washington, Absentee ballots were not counted.)

Ohio's electors officially back Bush; group sues
page A15, December 14, 2004, by T.C. Brown, Plain Dealer Bureau www.cleveland.com/election
tcbrown@plaind.com

COLUMBUS - The 51st Ohio Electoral College certified the re-election of President George Bush Monday even as protesters asked the Ohio Supreme Court to halt the process.

In an hourlong noon ceremony in the Senate chamber, Ohio's 20 electors unanimously cast ballots for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Those electoral votes put Bush over the top after John Kerry conceded on Nov. 3.

The official certifications will be transmitted to the president of the U.S. Senate, the archivist of the United States and to U.S. District Court here. Bush ws expected to gain 286 of the 538 electoral votes nationally after winning a majority of the popular vote in 31 states.

Just before electors met, a group of citizens contesting the election results asked the Supreme Court to prevent the meeting and transmission of electoral votes becaue of widespread irregularities in the voting process.

The lawsuit also asked justices to declare Kerry and John Edwards the winners in Ohio because of the voting problems reported in Ohio counties, or to order a new election. As an aside, the suit asks that Chief Justice Thomas Moyer's re-election be declared invalid and that Ellen Connally, a retired Cleveland Municipal judge who ran against Moyer, be declared the winner of that contest.

The 40 grass-roots plaintiffs cited numerous instances of voting machine errors, improper registrations, and counting mistakes that favored the Bush-Cheney ticket and that they said suggested intentional fraud. The suit was not filed until Monday because it was difficult to pull everything together, said co-counsel Clifford Arnebeck.

"It appears to be an element of hacking of votes and it is not easy to get your arms around it and describe it and get it befor eht ecourt in a commpressed time frame," Arnebeck said. The court did not act on the suit but could consider it later.

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, accused in the legal documents of covering up election fraud, said after the electoral vote that soe error is to be expected. Blackwell certified the 119,000-vote margin that gave Bush Ohio.

"Elections are human endeavors and they are never error-free," Blackwell said. "We will defend the integrity of the system and the cleanness and purity of this result in any court in the land."

Ohio's county boards of elections began re-counting presidential votes this week, triggered by requests from a group supporting two minor-party candidates.

Gov. Bob Taft said Monday he does not understand the continued litigation. "No one who understands elections believes there will be any change in the election becaue of the recount that is ongoing," Taft said.

Loud applause and a "hey, hey" followed the electors' vote for Bush.


[Note: Ohio managed to "consider it later" for the Ohio school funding issue that had been decided by the Ohio Supreme Court... they might wait four or ten years to "consider it later," and never get around to considering this lawsuit. We must push for Ohio to "consider it now, not later." Gov. Taft and his Repub. cronies never can "understand the continued litigation," and instead ignores mandates from the Ohio Supreme Court. We might be fighting Blackwell today, but Taft is behind this too, which is why he made this comment. However, although they are used to ignoring the Ohio Supreme Court, the Repubs might find it a bit harder to ignore a national probe into their activities... yes, Conyers rocks!]