Jesse Jackson reminds us to stay focused over the holidays, because
critical developments are taking place, now, in Ohio.
A lawsuit challenging Ohio’s election result has been filed successfully
(Moss v. Bush).
Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Blackwell have all been subpoenaed.
Blackwell’s attorney considers it harassment, and has already stated that Blackwell has no intention of testifying under oath.
Remember in Farenheight 911, when several members of the house filed a challenge to the election results, but they couldn’t get ONE senator to sign on to it? Well Conyers is getting ready to file one of those, but this time I would hope that we could at least get one senator to sign it.
Anyway, there’s a lot going on and this article does a good job of explaining it.
I’ll be putting up the week’s Keith Olbermann probably thursday or friday night.

Ohio electoral fight becomes ‘biggest deal since Selma’ as GOP stonewalls
By Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman for the Free Press.

As Republican officials stonewall subpoenas and subvert the recount process, Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio’s vote fraud fiasco “the biggest deal since Selma” and has called for a national rally at “the scene of the crime” in Columbus January 3.
Another major national demonstration will follow in Washington on January 6, as Congress evaluates the Electoral College. Should at least one US Representative and one Senator challenge the electors’ votes, a Constitutional crisis could ensue.
Meanwhile, volunteer attorneys have poured into Columbus from around the US to help investigate the bitterly contested presidential vote that has allegedly given George W. Bush Ohio’s electoral votes and thus a second term. A lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court charges that a fair vote count would give the state and the presidency to John Kerry rather than Bush.
On December 21, notice of depositions were sent to President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to appear and give testimony regarding the legal challenge of Ohio’s elections results in the case Moss v Bush et al.
But Republican Blackwell’s attorney at the Secretary of State’s office told the attorneys issuing the notice of deposition and subpoena that Blackwell will not testify under oath. The Republican-controlled Attorney General’s office has labeled any attempt to put Blackwell under oath, “harassment.” Blackwell supervised the November 2 vote in Ohio at the same time he served as co-chair of the state’s Bush-Cheney campaign….
In a December 21 conference call with activists from the around the US, Jackson said he has urged Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to stand with US Representatives who intend to challenge the Electoral College’s expected approval of George W. Bush for a second term. A challenge by US Representatives in 2000 failed because no Senators would join their motion.
Jackson says this year will be different, urging election protection activists to stay focused over the holiday season. “We can’t let [the Republicans] get away with this, he told the conference call. “Do not underestimate the outrage of the people. We are a legitimate force for democracy, here and around the world.”
“We will count every vote,” he said, and make sure “every vote counts.”…
The election challenge suit was filed Dec. 17. Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney campaign, and Ohio�s Republican electors have 10 days to respond. Then, according to court procedural rules, each side has 20 days to do discovery � or additional evidence gathering, with those bringing the suit going first. With January 6 being the date Congress accepts the Electoral College vote, and January 20 being the inauguration, the GOP seems determined to make the recount drag on as long as possible.

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Yet another reason to send the House Judiciary Committee an email telling them to investigate the election in Ohio.
If nothing else, it demonstrates how these machines weren’t treated very securely.

Ohio Recount Stirs Trouble
By Kim Zetter for Wired News.

As a statewide election recount got underway in Ohio last week, a Democratic congressman called on the FBI to impound vote-tabulating computers in at least one county and investigate suspicions of election tampering in the state.
Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), ranking Democrat of the House Judiciary Committee, sought the investigation after an Ohio election official disclosed in an affidavit (.pdf) that an employee of Triad Governmental Systems, the company that wrote voting software used with punch-card machines in 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties, dismantled Hocking County’s tabulation computer days before the recount and “put a patch on it.”
Conyers called the action “inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering.” A spokesman for the Green Party, one of the parties requesting the recount, called it “compelling evidence” of deliberate tampering. A public hearing in Ohio on Monday will determine if there is cause for an investigation.
But Sherole Eaton, a Democrat and the deputy director of elections for Hocking County who wrote the affidavit, said her words have been blown out of proportion. She doesn’t think Triad tampered with the votes and is a little angry that the Green Party and others have spun her words to imply that they did.

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It’s late, and I’m taking off in the morning for a couple days to go see my sister’s play in Los Angeles, so I want to make sure to let you guys know that in an hour or so I’ll have uploaded this week’s clips on the Ohio Recount/Voting Fraud situation from our new buddy, a friend to you, me, and democracy…
My man Keith Olbermann.
Keith has continued to be impressive with his coverage of the Ohio situation.
Not to mention that he’s the only journalist in America covering this story on a national news channel. It’s really astounding. But there he is and we’re all just lucky to have him.
He’s got a blog too.
With that in mind, here are quicktimes and mp3s from the 13, 14, 16, and 17th:

What The Hell Is Going On In Ohio? (just fixed this link. sorry guys)
(Mirror)

But really guys, after taking so long to file the damn thing, couldn’t you at least get the rules right?
Anyway, it looks like it will be refiled, but it is a bit disheartening.

Ohio Justice Throws Out Election Challenge
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins for the Associated Press.

The Ohio Supreme Court’s chief justice on Thursday threw out a challenge to the state’s presidential election results. The 40 voters who brought the case will likely be able to refile the challenge.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled that the request improperly challenged two separate election results. Ohio law only allows one race to be challenged in a single complaint, he said.
The challenge was backed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Cliff Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney for the Massachusetts-based Alliance for Democracy, who accused Bush’s campaign of “high-tech vote stealing.”
Claiming fraud, the voters cited reports of voting-machine errors, double-counting of ballots and a shortage of voting machines in predominantly minority precincts as reasons to throw out the results…
Without listing specific evidence, the complaint alleges that 130,656 votes for Kerry and John Edwards in 36 counties were somehow switched to count for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
The allegations are based on an analysis comparing the presidential race to Moyer’s Supreme Court race against a Cleveland municipal judge.
But nothing in state law or any previous court decision allows challenges to be combined, Moyer said.
“Were this court to sanction consolidation here it would establish a precedent whereby twenty-five voters could challenge, in a single case, the election results of every statewide race and issue on the ballot in any given election,” Moyer wrote.

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Startling new revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman of the Free Press

Startling new revelations about Ohio’s presidential vote have been uncovered as Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee join Rev. Jesse Jackson in Columbus, the state capital, on Monday, Dec. 13, to hold a rare field hearing into election malfeasance and manipulation in the 2004 vote. The Congressional delegation will include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and others.
Taken together, the revelations show Republicans

My peeps are sending me great links and lots of them. I’ll be trying to catch up tonight and tomorrow so just keep em coming as events progress.
Basically:
1) It’s time for the electoral college to officially cast their votes in Ohio
even though
2) the recount has just started
and
3) Rep. Conyers held a congressional hearing last week on the matter and
4) He just held another on in Ohio State today
meanwhile
5) The vote switching software allegations are being investigated. The programmer has testified to Conyers and the Judiciary Committee Democrats holding hearings this morning in Columbus, Ohio on Election 2004 Voting Irregularities.

Protesters Urge Delay for Ohio Electors
By John McCarthy for the Associated Press.

As it has done for 200 years, Ohio’s delegation to the Electoral College is to meet Monday to cast ballots for president and vice president – but this time, there are demands that the electors wait until after a recount. A demonstration was held Sunday as about 100 people gathered outside the Ohio Statehouse to protest the delegation’s vote.
The Electoral College’s vote in the Ohio Senate chamber is expected to be accompanied by demonstrations outside the Capitol sponsored by groups who don’t accept that President Bush won the key swing state by 119,000 votes, guaranteeing his victory over Democrat John Kerry.

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