Vermont Electors Request Senators and Congressperson to Refuse to Certify Ohio Electors

Dec. 15 (EIRNS)--VERMONT ELECTORS DENOUNCE UNCONSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTION
OF RIGHT TO VOTE; CALL FOR CONGRESS TO TAKE UP VALIDITY OF OHIO VOTE.
The following resolution is in the process of adoption by the three
certified electors of the state of Vermont. It is expected to be
released to the public on Monday.
The full text follows:

- Resolution -
WHEREAS our democracy depends on fair elections; and
WHEREAS troubling questions have been raised about the integrity
of Ohio's 2004 presidential election by many members of Congress; and
WHEREAS the Ohio vote was marred by significant irregularities,
discrepancies, anomalies and other problems as disclosed by US
Representative John Conyers, and a number of members of the House
Judiciary Committee and elsewhere in the Congress, and
WHEREAS the Government Accounting Office is undertaking a
systematic and comprehensive review of election irregularities in Ohio,
Florida, New Mexico and certain other states, the Congress having
received about 57,000 complaints about voting machine breakdowns,
inaccuracies, intimidation, suppression and other and similar violations
of voter rights, and
WHEREAS unequal and discriminatory voter access and treatment,
as may have occurred in Ohio and elsewhere, violate the Equal Protection
guarantee of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment and would call into
question the validity of Elector certification from Ohio and certain
other states under the Electoral Count Act (3 USC S5) and the teachings
of Bush v. Gore, and as a result the Congress could decide that Elector
votes from Ohio and certain other states were not "regularly given" by
properly certified Electors under the Act (3 USC S15), and
WHEREAS the Congress could determine the validity of Electoral
college votes from Ohio and certain other states following receipt by
the Senate President of Objections from at least one member of the house
and one member of the Senate, and
WHEREAS as citizens and Electors, we are committed to fair
elections and equal voting rights for all,

THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED that that Senators Jeffords and Leahy
and Representative Sanders (1) give due and sufficient consideration to
the results of the ongoing investigation of voting irregularities in
Ohio's 2004 presidential election; (2) support the GAO's inquiry into
and review of thousands of reports of systemic and other 2004 voting and
election deficiencies; (3) sponsor or otherwise support legislation (a)
mandating paper records, trails, or backups for all absentee ballots
under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), (b) uniform rules for the
issuance and tabulation of provisional and absentee ballots under the
Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and (c) sufficient funding for full and
fair implementation of HAVA; and (4) if warranted by evidence of
widespread violations of voter constitutional rights in the 2004
election in Ohio and certain other states, as now appears, under
3 U.S.C S15 on the ground that such Electoral certifications are invalid
and that, as a result, these Electoral votes were not regularly given by
qualified, legal elections.''