F R O M  T H E  F O R E I G N  P R E S S

Havana. December 29, 2004

Evidence of fraud in Ohio
• Litigation over who won the elections in that state • National demonstration called for January 3

BY DAVID BROOKS AND JIM CASON
La Jornada correspondents

NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON. - A broad coalition of civil rights leaders, voting organizations and legislators are charging that all the votes in the presidential election have been counted and that not all the votes count, noting that a fundamental principle of democracy – the expression of people’s electoral will – is in question.

The center of the dispute is in Ohio - where, as was the case in Florida in the 2000 presidential elections - a series of lawsuits and protests are challenging the integrity of the US electoral system after the discovery of evidence of irregularities and fraud in the state that largely determined the final result of the country’s presidential elections.

In response to a question from La Jornada, Reverend Jesse Jackson said that if this had occurred in any other country - South Africa, Haiti, and Mexico or in Iraq - it would be described as a total farce.

He added that what has been observed in Ohio, as in other states, “suggests a pattern of fraud (…) we do not know what the real vote is.” In a press teleconference, Jackson claimed that the plan ( Republican party) plan to deprive citizens of the right to vote was much larger and better planned than in Florida in 2000.”

He indicated that his organization, the Rainbow Coalition-Push, in coalition with the United for Peace and Justice group, as well as other organizations and several federal legislators are carrying out an in-depth investigation in Ohio, where an array of electoral irregularities were recorded.

These included tactics to discourage voting in districts whose constituents vote Democratic, electronic polls that seemingly changed the votes in certain districts, suspicious spoiled votes in anti-Republican districts, and manipulation of the ballot count in some districts.

The software used with the electronic voting machines is also considered dubious. It was purchased from a company whose executive director was openly supportive of and a contributor to the Republican president, George W. Bush.

Pointing out that Democratic Candidate John Kerry’s concession of defeat was premature and announced before the votes were counted, Jackson affirmed that this caused “the lights to go out and the media to stop examining the electoral process. “

But now, accompanied by representatives from other civil and peace movements, together with lawyers who investigated and then filed lawsuits to dispute the Ohio results, Reverend Jackson affirmed: “Here a new movement is being born in favor of democracy to demand that each vote be counted and that each vote counts,” in the United States.

“As a major democracy, we must not have questionable elections (…) the process must be impartial and transparent,” he asserted.

Lawyers in Ohio have filed a lawsuit to investigate widespread irregularities in different localities of the state and are accusing the Ohio authorities of not only failing to cooperate in this investigation, but also of active involvement in planning an election that in reality would not reflect the popular will.

Today, one of the lawyers commented that all the evidence of irregularities favors the Republicans and their candidate Bush, which ”suggests that it was intentional and formed part of something that only could be referred to as fraud.”

Lawyers have made a formal request to question Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, the President’s political strategist Karl Rove and Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell on the electoral process in Ohio.

They reported that the first three secured legal representation in Ohio this Thursday while Blackwell stated that he would not be appearing at the requested inquiry.

The lawsuit claims that a just and impartial count would have resulted in a victory for Kerry in Ohio, and as such would have granted the presidency to the Democratic candidate rather than to Bush.

A national demonstration in the state capital of Ohio has been organized for January 3, followed by another one in Washington on the 6 of the same month, to demand a recount of the votes, to reject the official result and to call for an investigation into the electoral process in that state.

The Electoral College will deliver the official results to Congress on January 6 in what on previous occasions has been an almost-always symbolic ritual. But on this occasion they are attempting to get Congress, at least, to allow a debate on the matter.

According to the sponsors of this initiative, if one representative and one senator formally question the electoral result, this could halt the process and a constitutional crisis could erupt.

In 2000, this strategy failed because not one senator dared to add her or his name to the list of federal representatives questioning the official result.

In addition, lawyers are trying to get the Ohio courts to rule in favor of a recount before Congress passes the official results.

Several political analysts and some journalists have reported several examples of tainted electoral processes.

Journalist Greg Palast reported that there are more than 250,000 uncounted votes in Ohio, designated as “spoilt” or “provisional,” that an overwhelming percentage are from mainly black districts and as such, pro-Democrat, and is thus arguing that there are sufficient potential votes to revert Bush’s leading margin of 136,000 votes.

Many analysts and experts, as well as some journalists, continue to doubt how the “exit opinion polls” in three key states in this election, to date a very reliable predictor of the vote, and which registered margins in favor of Kerry on election day, could turn out to be so wrong on this occasion. 

Another series of doubts concerns the possible manipulation of the new electronic voting machines.

Some are insisting that it has been demonstrated that the votes can be changed when the above machines transmit the results to the computers used for the count.

Although there is a sea of statistics and an ocean full of interpretations of these statistics, until now it has not been possible to confirm that the final result in Ohio - with all that and a recount - would change the result sufficiently so as to reverse Bush’s triumph.

This dispute, that the Republicans hoped were hoping they could put behind them when Kerry decided not to question the results, could intensify, but with the Republicans firmly in control of the three branches of power in Washington it is unlikely that Bush will not be installed as president on January 20, as planned.

What is more than proven and what Jackson, federal representatives - particularly the Black Caucus - and other organizations are exposing, is the previously never questioned idea that US democracy functions on the principle of one person, one vote, now shown to be a fiction.

As was reported, first in Florida in 2000 and now in Ohio 2004, not all the votes are counted, not all the votes count in this country.

In addition, people like Jackson are saying that this is part of a broader struggle in the United States; the same one that Martin Luther King initiated just 40 years ago, that of making it a reality that each and every person has the right to free expression and to participate in this US democracy – at a very minimum – by casting their vote.

“In the United States, there is no right to vote guaranteed by the Federal Constitution,” declared US Representative Jesse Jackson, son of the reverend.

He added that according to the Supreme Court decision in 2000 over the electoral controversy of that year, it is the state authorities that determine how, who and where a citizen can vote.

If this is not changed and replaced by a unitary and national electoral system, ” in four years we will be discussing the irregularities and electoral fraud in another state during the presidential elections,” he warned.

Critics and analysts are saying that, because of this, while the US government is declaring itself to be the judge, champion and driving force of democracy in the world, in the United States itself, citizens do not fully enjoy the supposed fundamentals of such a concept, for now they are being obliged to organize a movement for democracy here at home.

Reverend Jackson indicated that, in this new struggle, “the integrity and credibility of our democracy is at stake. ”