January 05, 2005

House Judiciary Democrats Issue Preliminary Report

The House Judiciary Democrats, led by Congressman Conyers, have issued their preliminary report on the Ohio 2004 Presidential Election :
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohiostatusrept1505.pdf

In it they found "numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential
election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these
irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave
doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were
chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and
constitutional standards."

In it they made three recommendations:

"(1) consistent with the
requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting of electoral votes by
Congress and Federal law implementing these requirements, there are ample grounds for
challenging the electors from the State of Ohio; (2) Congress should engage in further
hearings into the widespread irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are
serious enough to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the House and
Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3) Congress needs to enact
election reform to restore our people’s trust in our democracy."



" These changes should include
putting in place more specific federal protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas
of audit capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of provisional
ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state election laws.
With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and
unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities
were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of
State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio."

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