March 16, 2005

Franklin County Board of Elections Launches Investigation into 2004 Election

The Franklin County Board of Elections announced today that it was launching an independent examination into the election process used in last November’s presidential election.
http://ohioelection2004.com/WordHost/franklincountymarch16thpressrelease.doc

March 09, 2005

"Gathering to Save Our Democracy" -- National Conference on 2004 Election & Need for Election Reform - Nashville, TN - April 8-10, 2005



Gathering To Save Our Democracy

National Conference on the 2004 Election

and the Need for Election Reform

Nashville, Tennessee, April 8-10, 2005


CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE TODAY!

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION


Featuring

Bernie Ellis, Tennessee, Gathering To Save Our Democracy (and other members)

Civil rights leaders (Tennessee): Tex Thomas, Sonnye Dixon, Charles Kimbrough

Michael Grant, TN NAACP Statewide coordinator, Voting Rights Act celebrations

Cliff Arnebeck, Ohio, Moss v. Bush

Bob Fitrakis, Ohio, Moss v. Bush, www.freepress.org

R.H. Phillips, Ohio election fraud researcher

Joanne Roush, Wisconsin, Ohio recount volunteer

Bernard Windham, Florida, national election datasets analyst (including EIRS)

Warren Stewart, California, National Ballot Integrity Project

Judith Alter, California, Recount New Mexico

Paul Lehto, Washington state election/fraud attorney

Andrew Silver, North Carolina

David Griscom, Arizona

Roxanne Jekot, Georgia, Voter Choice Coalition

Mary Beth Kuznik, Pennsylvania

Sharona Merel, New Hampshire, National Ballot Integrity Project

Kathy Dopp, Utah, US Count Votes

Jonathan Simon, Massachusetts, exit poll researcher, We Do Not Concede

Josh Mitteldorf, Pennsylvania, exit poll researcher, US Count Votes

Robert Koehler, Illinois, syndicated columnist, (Chicago) Tribune Media Services

Brad Friedman, California, BradBlog/Velvet Revolution

R. Lee Wrights, North Carolina, Vice-Chair, Libertarian National Committee

David Cobb, California, 2004 Green Party Presidential candidate

Barbara Burt, Maine, Common Cause

Lara Shaffer, California, Open Voting Consortium

Ruth Martin, District of Columbia, People For the American Way

Phil Fry, Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections-Ohio

Larry Quick, Illinois, National Ballot Integrity Project

Teresa Hommel, New York, Where’s The Paper

Larry English, Tennessee, Information Impact International

Lowell Finley, California, Help America Recount

David Lytel, District of Columbia, Left.org

Susan Truitt, Ohio, Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE)-America

Clinton Curtis, Florida, election fraud whistle-blower

Phyllis Huster, Georgia

(and others to come)



CLICK HERE FOR AGENDA AND SPEAKER LIST



BACKGROUND

Since November 3, 2004, there has been a groundswell of concern, and a plethora of evidence, that the conduct of the 2004 Presidential election in the United States was highly problematic. These concerns have been belittled by many and ignored by the corporate media in this country. However, the weight of the evidence is overwhelming that a multi-faceted strategy of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, potential manipulation of electronically cast votes in many states, and other instances of election fraud and theft improperly influenced the will of the American people and may have subverted the "consent of the governed". This evidence was sufficient to have stimulated the Government Accountability Office and U.S. Representative John Conyers and other national leaders to investigate the evidence of wrong-doing. This evidence also caused the U.S. Congress to suspend their routine business and to debate the merits of accepting Ohio's electoral votes on January 6, 2005, a historic occasion that highlighted the many problems in Ohio and also served to shed light on similar problems in other states. With this Congressional debate, the American people's responsibility to win back our democratic process was enumerated and enjoined.

To date, most of the discussion and information sharing on the problems with the 2004 election have occurred in the virtual world of the Internet. While there have been some local gatherings and regional and national protests focused on this issue, there has been no opportunity for concerned citizens, researchers, activists and elected officials to meet under one roof to review the wealth of evidence for the many threats to our democratic processes which the 2004 election revealed and to discuss the urgent need for election reform. While some panels on this topic have been added to several national meetings, these panels are not nearly sufficient to present all of the evidence for the 2004 election problems. It is also insufficient to fully inform the American people enough to motivate them to seek redress for the violations of our voting rights which occurred with this past election and to coalesce sentiment around an election reform agenda.

For these reasons, this three day Gathering To Save Our Democracy - A National Conference will provide the appropriate forum for expanding public awareness, for congregating the accumulated knowledge under one roof and for providing a platform for mobilizing support for election reform and justice.

Nashville, Tennessee is the setting of this conference. Nashville has a proud history of early successes in the 1960s civil rights movement, we are in a Southern and supposedly "red" state (we prefer to consider ourselves an Orange State, in deference to the Ukrainian example), we are centrally located within a day's drive of 60% of the U.S. population, we have an international airport serviced by a dozen major airlines, and we have several locations tentatively identified as appropriate and historic venues for hosting the conference. But most importantly, we have an energetic (and growing) band of citizen-activists for election reform in Tennessee who would insure the successful implementation of this conference.

This conference will be a comprehensive and historic event that will bring together the "major players" who have surfaced in the dialogue over the problems with the 2004 election and the need for election reform. We also anticipate that the conference will be a gathering place for the many concerned citizens throughout the nation and the world who are intent on preserving democracies. We hope that this conference will help break the media silence about the problems with the 2004 election within our country and provide a forum for increasing the world's attention to our threatened democratic principles. In addition, we will hold discussion sessions before and after the conference to exchange ideas and build coalitions to pursue the necessary elements of election reform and to redress our concerns with the 2004 election.

The conference registration fee is $30 (with exceptions for hardships), and will cover all conference-related activities. Please review the tentative conference agenda, complete the conference registration form and register using PayPal. (People who cannot attend the conference but who would like to support the conference by making a donation can do so using PayPal also.) We will send you the final conference agenda and other details one week prior to the conference. Please contact Bernard Ellis, Jr., MA, MPH (931/682-2864; tracevu@bellsouth.net ) for more information on the conference.

Thank you for supporting the conference and for promoting the preservation of democracy in America.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE TODAY!

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION

CLICK HERE FOR TENTATIVE AGENDA AND SPEAKER LIST

March 03, 2005

Database of Columbus Ohio Voter Protection Hotline November 2nd Complaints

The voter protection hotline of which I was a member on November 2nd, hosted by the Ohio Democratic Party, in Columbus, Ohio, maintained a database of complaints registered November 2, 2004. A copy of that list, with the identities and contact information of complainants redacted, is available at http://ohioelection2004.com/DatabaseHost/november2database.xls

This is distinct from the much larger hotline operated by a consortium of organizations spearheaded by People for the American Way (PFAW), using the number 1-866-OURVOTE, whose database of Ohio incident reports is reported at https://voteprotect.org/epc/index.php?display
=EIRMapState&state=Ohio&cat=ALL&tab=ALL
, or the hotlines operated by Common Cause, the AFL CIO, NAACP, and others, whose databases are not yet publicly available.

March 02, 2005

Blackwell Requests Dismissal or Change of Venue of Recount Case, and Opposes Hearing Unless He Can Take Depositions of Kerry and Edwards

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has asked the Columbus federal court to dismiss, or to transfer venue, in the recount case, and has expressed opposition to the court's conducting a hearing unless he can take the depositions of John Kerry and John Edwards.

http://truthout.org/pdf/blackwelltransferstatement3205.pdf


March 01, 2005

Outline of Incidents of Vote Suppression, Vote Machine Fraud, Dirty Tricks in 22 states, prepared by Florida League of Conservation Voters

The Florida League of Conservation Voters has prepared a very useful outline. organized by state and subject matter, detailing incident reports in 22 states, including Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico, relating to vote machine fraud, "dirty tricks", and minority voter suppression, at:


http://www.flcv.com/ussumall.html