Warren's Journal - December 3rd and 4th

12/04/04 Great rally today at the State Capitol. At the peak of the rally there were 1100 people here on a sunny, but cold windswept day standing, chanting and clapping for the democracy that the founders started in this country. We were compared to the patriots that dumped tea into the Boston Harbor. The lawyers for Cobb/Badnarik and various other lawsuits gave a hopeful report that our effort is on the side of law and orderand we will prevail. But for the recount, Ken Blackwell is the key to a fair election. I spoke about how the pressure must be put on him over the next week. When I asked the crowd, “do you want to picket Blackwell’s office next week they roared, Yes!!!!”





At the evening event, Rep Sheila Lee Jackson (D-TX) flew in from Wash. D.C. and told us that what happened in Ohio and around the country was voter suppression, intimidation and premeditated fraud that is illegal under the US constitution 14th amendment's equal protection clause. She said that the House Judiciary committee will hold a hearing on Wed Dec. 8 in D.C. asking Ken Blackwell to explain the irregularities of the election.





Harvey Wasserman, (truth@freepress.org) one of the people filing FOI requests, rec'd their first reply. Selby County sent back an answer to supplying their tabulation records by saying they threw them away in an effort "to reduce paperwork and confusion." At that the crowd roared “Revote, Revote, Revote!!!” After hearing this and other numerous examples of fraud in other counties (Warren County had a lockdown to count the votes) I now believe that the only way to have a fair election in Ohio is to have a revote. In Ukraine, the Supreme Court ruled that there must be a revote since after hearing all the evidence, they could not determine a winner. We have the same situation here with overwhelming evidence of fraud and manipulation, with almost every case helping to swing the election to Bush.





12/3/04 After a long journey by wagon train I have arrived in the freezing vacation destination of Columbus, Ohio (where the great explorer discovered America?) I’ve come to rediscover what it takes to have a fair election. I have had an amazing day. The first three people I met had horror stories about trying to vote, so I had them write signed statements as follows:





-The man next to me on the plane (I mean wagon train), John Horst said he arrived at the Dublin, Ohio Riverside Green Elementary School polling place at 645 am and waited 3 hours in a winding line. He personally saw 5 people leave the line without voting. Since he could only see a small section of line, he thinks there could have been hundreds leaving without voting that morning. Later in the day his wife, Sara, waited for two and a half hours.




-Diane Canty shuttled me to my hotel and said she waited 2 hours and 45 minutes at the Independence High School (ironic name) to vote in Columbus. Her mom waited 5 hours at the same precinct.




-Staci Green (who works the front desk at the Ramada Inn where I am staying) arrived at 1045am and waited for 2 hours 45 minutes in the freezing rain to vote. An old woman in front of her almost collapsed and was taken inside to sit down and warm up. After Staci made it into the voting room, there were only 4 machines for a line that went around the block. Next door was a more republican precinct with very few voters, 3 machines and no line. She said many of her friends encountered similar situations. I asked her if she thinks people left the line without voting. She said, "I know they did, because I was almost one of them that couldn’t wait any longer.”








-Our waitress voted for Bush, but hates the Ohio Sec of State Blackwell because he is a liar and cheater. Her mother was denied registering 2 months ago because her registration application that she obtained in front of a Wal-Mart was on lightweight paper. Her mother was even denied casting a provisional ballot, let alone having one accepted because she lived with her daughter and doesn’t have a phone or utility bill in her name. The waitress Blackwell is generally despised and there were calls from Republicans and Demos for him to resign before the election. Blackwell has said he will not recuse himself from the recount.








-Former Congressman Dan Hamburg and his wife Carrie just arrived and we had dinner and a strategy meeting. Since 9 congress members have sent Sec of State Ken Blackwell questions about the irregularities (below) in the election, we are going to try to meet with him on Monday to see when the questions will be answered. We may decide to sit in his office or set up our tents and picket lines outside his office until they are answered and he has recused himself and started the recount. Dan is going to call his friends in the Ohio congress delegation to see if they will join in the investigation and recount.








-I would like to see if can get thousands of people to sign a petition saying that they would have voted for Kerry if the lines were not so long. This could funnel into Jesse Jackson’s suit asking Ohio to overturn the whole election and hold it again.








-From my reading and talking to people here, there seemed to be mass confusion and chaos and long lines on Election Day. This is unfair. It was also premeditated fraud because the election officials knew months in advance about how many people were registered in each precinct and could have planned to have the standard of one machine for about every 100 voters. Instead, there was one machine per 500 to over 1000 voters in the heavily democratic precincts. Blackwell must be exposed. That is what the questions and court cases are about. Americans do not wait for anything in multi hour lines and so I salute the brave and pissed off people here. Staci said, “Don’t even get me started,” when I asked her if she had waited to vote. I told her that’s what I came to Columbus for, to listen and witness.








We can honor the sacrifice of the Ohioans (and their torture of watching continuous political ads before the election) by flooding Blackwell’s office with calls this weekend (leave him a message) and next week. We will prevail.




Keep the liberty fires lit,




Warren




707-322-3886