Reply #3: Letters to the editor: Challenging Ohio vote was patriotic

[MelissaB]

Letters to the editor: Challenging Ohio vote was patriotic

January 29, 2005

When Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones made history in Congress on Jan. 6, barely a ripple was felt in the mainstream media. By their official objection to the results of the U.S. presidential election in the state of Ohio, both Boxer and Jones, along with supporters in the House and Senate, were engaged in an increasingly rare form of patriotism: political courage.

Their actions were prompted in large part by the findings in a report released the day before by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by John Conyers, D-Mich., titled "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio." I would urge all voters to read Conyers' statement, which alludes to many of the irregularities and eyewitness accounts of voting problems detailed in the report itself. Then decide whether these concerns, which specifically did not seek to overturn the outcome of the election, justify a closer look, or whether they deserve to be thrown on the Great American Conspiracy Theory Trash Heap, where so many challenges to the Bush machine go to die.

It will be a great day for this country when the courage to expose electoral injustice within our borders gets as much respect as fighting it abroad. Thank you to Boxer, Tubbs Jones, Conyers and other patriots who believe that democracy begins at home.

Elizabeth Wilkins
Yorktown

Link: http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-54966sy0jan29,0,4426470.story?coll=dp-opinion-editorials