Four Year Later, Electoral Reform is Not Complete

The web development team here at IWantMyVote.com was deeply involved in the recount of the stolen Ohio election in 2004. After the election was over, we decided to maintain this site so that those seeking information about the many ways that voters were disenfranchised could find the 2004 information and make sure that the same disenfranchisement did not happen again in 2008.

"In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action."

Rev. Martin Luther King
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
April 16, 1963

This website is a contemporaneous snapshot of the energy that went into the recount effort. Greens, Libertarians, Democrats, and independents spent over two months gathering evidence, raising money, holding public hearings, interfacing with Congress, filing lawsuits, and ultimately prevailing, when Congress refused to accept the tainted Ohio Electoral College votes without a formal challenge on January 6, 2005. Our efforts were the first push-back against the second term of the illegal Bush Regime, and gave hope to the many who were dumbfounded and depressed that Bush could steal it again after the Supreme Court annointed him in 2000.

Once you have reviewed the material here, you also may want to check out the websites mentioned below. And, if it should come to pass that the election is stolen again in 2008, you can be sure that we will be in the middle of the recount challenge that ensues.

Visit FreePress.org

What started as allegations of improprieties in the aftermath of the 2004 election have now been shown to be patterns of election fraud and abuse that unfortunately re-appeared in the 2006 Ohio election as well. To read more about this, please visit the Free Press website.

What Happened in Ohio?  A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election

For anyone suspicious of the Ohio 2004 vote, here's the evidence you've been waiting for. This website, the documentary backup to the What Happened in Ohio? book, includes trucking receipts that show voting machines were pulled back from minority districts; ballots that contain evidence of tampering; mathematical analysis demonstrating the statistical impossibility of voting totals; testimonials from hundreds of voters, campaign workers, and poll workers about conditions that effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters; and much, much more.

Brad Blog Has the National Picture

Brad Friedman has done a great job of following the election protection movement in Congress, in the courtroom, and all across the United States. Read about the downfall of Diebold, the Florida fiascos, and so much more.

Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

David Cobb, Ben Manski and others who were active in the VoteCobb election campaign and 2004 Ohio Recount are now active in The Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, a nonprofit organization whose organizers, lawyers, and scholars provide support to pro-democracy campaigns in the form of policy research, publications, legal assistance, consultative services, and the convening of pro-democracy organizers.

Archive of Daily Updates

Recount Ends; VoteCobb Archived

VoteCobb Archived

The November 2004 election is over, but the Electoral Justice movement that was galvanized by the leadership of the Green Party and other principled Americans is gaining momentum. The Green Party is committed to preserving a permanent public record of the news and resource materials from the historic 2004 Recount efforts in Ohio and in other states across our nation. After April 30, 2004, you can visit the archived VoteCobb.org website at the Green Party's main website at www.gp.org.

Nashville Conference in Phila. Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer featured a piece by Temple University professor Josh Mitteldorf on the Nashville Conference and the ongoing movement to address the irregularities of the November 2004 election. David Cobb spoke, and the Tennessee Greens co-sponsored, that important gathering of electoral justice activists, which took place the weekend of April 8-10. This conference was a comprehensive and historic event that brought together the "major players" who have surfaced in the dialogue over the problems with the 2004 election and the need for election reform. The conference was a gathering place for the many concerned citizens throughout the nation and the world who are intent on preserving democracies, and helped to 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, the conference included discussion sessions before and after the conference to exchange ideas and build coalitions to pursue the necessary elements of election reform and to redress concerns with the 2004 election.  more

Voter Confidence Resolution

A resolution is being circulated on the internet for local groups and communities to use as a template for resultions they can endorse comparable to the ant-war and anti-PATRIOT Act resolutions that have been passed in the last few years. The resolution says in part: When elections are conducted under conditions that prevent conclusive outcomes, the Consent of the Governed is not being sought. Absent this self-evident source of legitimacy, such Consent is not to be assumed or taken for granted.  more

Congress Members Denounce GA ID Law

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill that makes it harder to vote, by requiring a photo identification in Georgia elections. The bill would have an obvious discriminatory impact on the poor, seniors, and minorities, who are less likely to have drivers licenses and less able to have access to the new ID cards. When Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) first learned the bill had passed the legislature, he organized a sign-on letter among his colleagues. The result was that Sen. Russ Feingold and 21 Members of Congress signed onto a letter to the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, asking them to throw this law out as being violative of the Voting Rights Act. As Rep. Conyers said, "Since Georgia is subject to pre-clearance requirements under Section 5 of the Voting Acts, the Justice Department can still block its implementation, if they can steer clear of politics and do the right and legally appropriate thing. This is a true outrage."  more

Baker Commission "Outrageous and Tainted"

Rep. John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan said it all in his blog: "The first meeting of the Baker-Carter election commission was disappointing and, at times, outrageous and tainted with racially-charged innuendo. Let me make absolutely clear that I greatly admire former President Jimmy Carter and believe he was insightful and on-target throughout the hearing. However, given the incredible lack of balance and profound lack of good faith demonstrated by some of Carter's fellow commissioners and many of the witnesses at this hearing, at times he seemed to be a very lonely voice of sanity." Meanwhile, online researchers have found that political donations from voting machine company executives go overwhelmingly to Republicans, and Velvet Revolution, a coalition of nearly 100 true Voting Rights and Election Reform organizations, continues to push for Baker's removal from the commission. This action to stop James A. Baker — the architect of the Bush/Cheney strategy to ensure that America's votes would not be counted in 2000 — has led angry outbursts by the commission's executive director.

Recount Probe in Cuyahoga County

Erie County Prosecutor Kevin J. Baxter is investigating whether the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections broke the law in its recount of ballots from the November presidential election. The complaints allege that the board violated state law because the precincts it recounted were neither randomly selected nor was the opening of ballots properly witnessed. In addition, David Cobb and Michael Badnarik allege that there were problems with the board's ballot-transfer cases, which can reveal whether the precinct used the ballots assigned to it or whether ballots from other precincts were used.  more

FAIR Sees Broken Electoral System

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has found that "[u]naddressed electoral system problems will continue to plague us, regardless of who won the White House last year, and the press would do well not to wait until 2008 to notice them again."  more

Voting Software Developers Endorse Divestiture

The Open Voting Consortium (OVC), a non-partisan group with Republican, Democratic, Green Party and Libertarian Party support, is the first Election Software Developer to publicly endorse Velvet Revolution's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign! In an open letter sent today to VR by OVC President, Alan Dechert, the group announces their intentions of adopting the standards set forth in VR's February 21st letter to America's Voting Machine companies, calling on them to do the right thing for their country by ? amongst other things ? voluntarily opening hardware and software for inspection and certification to ensure transparency in our electoral system.  more

Voting Rights Threatened

The sanctity of the vote has been under attack again, as Bush operative and former Bush I official James Baker has been named to co-chair the blue-ribbon panel looking into voting issues. Some have analogized this to letting the fox investigate the hen house.  more

Voting Rights Amendment Needed Now

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. again reminds us about the importance of making voting a national right, as opposed to a local right that can be controlled by the whims of local and state administrators: "The right to vote is the fundamental citizenship right that protects all other rights. Maybe that explains the shape we're in. The Bible says that if you build a house on sand, when it rains, the winds blow and the storms come it will not stand. The last two presidential elections have demonstrated that our voting system is built on sand....Instead of a house on sand, we need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock, the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that applies to all states and all citizens. That's why I and 56 colleagues in the House of Representatives have joined to support House Joint Resolution 28 — which in the cause of electoral justice should be the 28th amendment to the Constitution.  more

Recount Probe in Cuyahoga County

Erie County Prosecutor Kevin J. Baxter is investigating whether the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections broke the law in its recount of ballots from the November presidential election. The complaints allege that the board violated state law because the precincts it recounted were neither randomly selected nor was the opening of ballots properly witnessed. In addition, David Cobb and Michael Badnarik allege that there were problems with the board's ballot-transfer cases, which can reveal whether the precinct used the ballots assigned to it or whether ballots from other precincts were used.  more

Greens Among Those Honoring Tubbs-Jones

Among those community leaders in Cleveland who honored Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) on February 24th with a Backbone Award were Leatrice Tolls, the Portage County Green Recount Coordinator, representing the Green Recount team. The Freedom Winter Bus riders and Ohio Vigilance also honored the former judge, who now represents the Cleveland area in Congress. She received the Backbone Award for being the lone House signatory to the challenge to the certification of Ohio's presidential electors on January 6th. "Stephanie Tubbs Jones represents a group of Congresspeople who have recognized that our elections do not belong to the candidates — they belong to the people," said Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign.  more

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The quest for Electoral Justice galvanized by the Ohio recount and the numerous voting problems discovered there has fueled a massive nationwide effort to remind the American public that Bush's so-called "mandate" is tainted:

• Building Coalitions
  A Progressive Summit was convened by the Progressive Democrats of America in Washington recently. It was notable for its open call to Greens, independents, and others who worked for Electoral Justice in Ohio. David Cobb, Pat LaMarche, Medea Benjamin, and other Greens were featured speakers. An Electoral Reform Panel raised the issue of how to build a unified movement to support progressive changes in our electoral system.
• Ongoing Grassroots Commitment
  Dozens of electoral justice groups have committed themselves to legal action, voting rights legislation, and voter mobilization in the coming year
• Running for Electoral Office
  

  Green Party VP candidate Pat LaMarche tells progressives to run for office, not run away from the electoral system: "There is only one thing left for progressives of all political affiliations to do: Run! Don't run to Canada. Don't run for cover. Don't even run for momma. Run for office!"